Surely in many family archives boxes with video cassettes are still stored, among which there is always an old, but very valuable home video: dances, concerts, birthdays, holiday meetings, the first steps of the child, the first word and many other things that must be kept. Of course, you have not watched this video for a long time. And even if you store them very carefully, all the same time takes its toll. Insufficient humidity or high temperature causes the film to crumble over the years, which, of course, causes irreparable damage to your collection.
Therefore, the question of how to digitize a video cassette in order to stop the aging process of carriers and prevent the loss of a home collection is becoming increasingly relevant. In addition, digitization will allow you to add captions, music to your film, make editing or color grading. All this will give new life to the old records.
Digitization process
Before you begin to understand how to digitize a video cassette and begin the process, it should be borne in mind that old cassettes “suffer” the presence of drop frames or signal loss. In the process of digitization captures sound and video. There are no problems with sound, but there are difficulties with the image. If during digitization a program stumbles upon a drop frame, it glues adjacent frames, cutting out the void and getting rid of them. As a result, your video can last 60 minutes and the sound 65. The most effective way to deal with the problems of empty frames is in professional studios. However, you yourself can learn how to digitize a video cassette and learn how to cope with these difficulties.
What is required for this?
In order to digitize recordings, you need to have a computer, a VCR capable of playing tapes, and a DVD burner that will allow you to record a movie to disk.
Conventional digitization of cassettes is quite simple. You just need to know how to connect the equipment.
First of all, you need to find a VCR. If it has not been used for a long time, you should clean the tape drive mechanism. It is best to use special products, but simple cleaning cassettes will not help.
There are three main ways to digitize video tapes.
1. Capturing a movie through a computer graphics card.
To do this, you need to purchase an RCA cable, which is also called a “tulip”, or S-Video with an audio cable. At the back of the system unit, locate the video card connectors. They can be designed for any of these types of cables. In order not to make a mistake, it is best to carefully study the instructions for your video card.
This method allows you to solve the problem with TM, how to digitize VHS, however, it will be quite complicated for those who do not have experience.
2. Capturing video using a video capture card (for this you will have to purchase it). It allows you to connect a VCR to a computer. The only difficulty is that you have to disassemble the PC and insert the card into a free slot on the motherboard. To do this, you can contact the service center. The cost of a video capture card is about three thousand rubles.
3. Digitization of tapes through a USB device, the purchase of which will allow you to easily solve the problem of how to digitize a video tape. The cost of such a device starts from a thousand rubles. As a rule, a disc with special software and detailed instructions is provided in the kit.
And if you decide to do the digitization, keep in mind that the raw film will take about 10-15 GB of space. For further installation, you will need not only a special program, but also a powerful computer with a good amount of memory and a fast processor.
We hope that this article answered your basic questions about how to digitize a videotape. You just need to choose the best way and start. Over time, this process will seem very simple to you.