Recording VHS tapes to computer hard drive

Hi...

I was wondering if anyone can tell me how or if it's possible to capture video from a VCR to a Qosmio G20 laptop? The computer has a TV tuner card and S video in and out but do I need an actual capture card to do this?

Someone told me that I could connect the VCR to the computer with a coaxial cable and plug that into the TV-in on the laptop and then take the signal and record through Media player.

Someone else told me to use the S-video in but I just don't understand.

Any help is appreciated and if it's even possible to capture VHS to my laptop.

Thanks,

 

Yes it is possible with the two way described their - if you have RCA inputs that would be even better - SVideo will work, and tricking the TV in to beleive the vcr is the tv works as well
VCR>TV>PC (TV-IN) - then you have to open your software for recording, select the device you want to record from and start recording - Windows Movie Maker *may* work but I would use the software provided specifically for recording.

 

Thank you for your help, but I'm still not getting it Can I plug the VCR directly into the laptop, bypassing the signal through the TV? If I can't do this, how to I connect the TV processing the VCR signal to the laptop? I don't have RCA inputs on the laptop.

As for S-video...do I need some kind of adapter or would I just plug the male RCA ends into the video, audio out of the VCR and then the s-video plug into the port on the computer?

 

No, your VCR OR TV will need the svideo - from there you can get a svideo cable and connect the two -
If your VCR has the svideo/coax output you can connect it to your laptop that way via svideo/coax input, then use the software to obtain the signal via preferences -
Otherwise you will have to go VCR>TV (rca/coax)>pc (svideo/coax)

 

Thanks again,

Ok, neither my TV or VCR have S-video just RCA connectors. So are you saying that I have to use 2 cables then? The coax to connect from the TV to the computer AND the RCA/S-video to connect to the from the TV to the computer as well? I still don't understand how I would connect the coax from the TV to the computer though.

Can't you get a cable that has RCA male ends on one end and S-video on the other? I was thinking then all I have to do is plug the RCA end into the video/audio out on the VCR and then the other end of that same cable with the S-video into the S-video In on the laptop.

This is so hard to understand, I've tried calling circuit city and they didn't really help, I've called Toshiba tech support and they told me that I can't even capture video from a VCR to the laptop.

 

yes you can use an adapter like this - http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=102&sku=13058
If you have COAX input into your laptop then you can just go from coax out on the vcr, to coax in on the tv, and then coax out on the tv to the PC -

 

Thanks very much for all your help. I'll try to see if I can get it to work and if I don't, I let you know.

 

Hey Jpagel,

Just wanted to let you know, I got it to work!!!! I needed a RF modulator though. I ran the RCA cables from the VCR into the RF modulator, then ran a coax cable from the modulator into the cable input on my laptop.

Works Great and if anyone else ever needs a suggestion on how to record VHS to a computer/laptop with limited inputs.