How to convert your analog recordings from Hi-8 or VHS into digital movies and save them to DVD.
My wife and I bought a Sony Handycam about a decade ago, to capture video of our kids as they grew up. It records on Hi-8 video cassettes, and I needed a way to convert these analog recordings into digital movies and save them to DVD.
The Sony Handycam (model number CCD-TRV22) has RCA outputs for video and mono audio, and I found an EasyCAP USB2.0 Video Capture VHS-to-USB Adapter that converts the analog Hi-8 recordings into digital movies.
The Easycap adapter plugs into the RCA jacks on the Sony Handycam (I used the white line for the single audio jack), and the USB jack plugs into my laptop. Also bundled with the adapter is a licensed copy of ULead Video Studio 8.0 for creating and editing movies.
I had to use an RCA patch cable between the female adapter jacks and the camcorder, just like you would between a VCR and your TV. In fact, this adapter could also be hooked up to a VHS VCR (yep, I still have one), to make digital copies of old VHS movies.
Once I hooked up the camcorder with my laptop using the EasyCap usb adapter, I ran the Ulead Movie Wizard software and selected the “Capture” menu.
I put the camcorder in Player mode, loaded the video tape and pressed play. Then I pressed “Capture Video” in the Ulead program, and received an error indicating that no input signal could be found.
The reason was the video capture options are set by default to record from Video Tuner and I was using a video camcorder with RCA (composite) outputs. I clicked “Options” and then selected “Video and Audio Capture Property Settings” to change this setting:
I changed the video input source to “Video Composite” and also checked the option to “Preview audio with USB device” (otherwise you won’t hear any sound while it’s recording).
After making these changes and rewinding the tape in the camcorder, I repeated the steps of playing the camcorder and then pressing “Capture Video” in the Ulead software.
This time it worked perfectly, capturing audio and video and saving it into AVI digital video format.
I also tried a few other video file formats, to see which one would give the best video quality and screen capture size (AVI records extremely large file sizes, as much as 6 GB for a 4 minute video clip!)
I tried the mpeg and DVD recording formats, and found that the DVD format recorded a very small window (320 pixels wide), whereas the mpeg format could be set to a larger screen size (up to 700 x 576).
I ended up using the MPEG video format, which results in much smaller files than the AVI format.
This little $14 video capture adapter works great, produces high quality video and audio recording, and the software it comes with is worth more than the purchase price alone.
Overall, this was a smart purchase and will let me backup and preserve the precious memories of our children’s births, school events, vacations, holidays, and birthdays. I have a dozen or so tapes to backup, and a week of vacation coming up next week for Christmas – couldn’t be more perfect timing.
Mac User?
Roxio has a program that’s specifically designed for the Mac, and it comes with all the USB video capture hardware just like the EasyCap.
It’s called Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac and you can get it here at NewEgg: Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac.
One advantage with the Roxio solution is that it will burn the converted video files directly to a DVD, saving you the hassle of using a separate burning program (EasyCap doesn’t have this feature).
Roxio Easy VHS to DVD works on both Mac and PC systems.
Terrific, I too have a 1o
Terrific, I too have a 1o year old CCD-TRV62 model Handycam and have some old tapes which need to be converted. How coincidence that only a week ago this info was pasted.
Thanks!
It’s been really fun
It’s been really fun watching old videos while they get converted to digital format with this adapter. You can view them on screen while they’re being converted, so I basically just left the laptop out in the kitchen where the whole family could watch them. We did about 3 tapes the first day. Loads of fun and brought back a lot of great memories!
Plus, it’s nice to know they’ll be preserved for many more years to come, by saving the digital videos to DVD.
So not to sound like a tech
So not to sound like a tech idiot….If I use this I can upload/convert/store all of my HI8 videos on my computer? I dont have a burner so I will have to buy an external one (will this enable me to burn the captured videos onto a DVD so that I can play on my TV?)….
can this product support Mac
can this product support Mac computers
I’m not sure if it would
I’m not sure if it would work on a Mac, but the installation CD it comes with only has Windows software on it.
Roxio has a program that’s specifically designed for the Mac however, and it comes with all the hardware just like EasyCap.
It’s called Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac and I found a discount link that’s worth $10 off: http://bit.ly/16fwOx, which brings the price down to $69.99 (regularly $79.95).
Hope that helps, and I’ll update the article with this information!
Sony Handycan Video8 CCD-TR76 NTSC
I have the AverMedia DVD EZMaker USB plua device but how do I go about capturing all of my children’s videos and converting them into DVD format for viewing on a big TV screen. I tried the software that came with the Hardware and it will not capture the videos from the Sony Handycam8.
I can’t seem to figure out why. I have all of the software and hardware and it just will not work for us.
Thank you for your consideration into the above.
Jonah
Converting Hi 8 to DVD
Will the Easy Cap USB 2.0 also work with the Sony Handycam model # CCD-TRV 138?
Is this feature included in
Is this feature included in ROXIO PRO which I just purchsed and installed but find no instructions
I can’t access the Video and
I can’t access the Video and Audio Capture Property Settings tab. In fact it doesn’t even show it in the options. Which version are you using?
I Hooked up a composite av
I Hooked up a composite av cable from my Ipod Touch to the easycap, but when I click on video and audio capture property settings, input source, and tv system are faded and I am unable to change the settings, so my only capture source is the webcam, any help?
Hey
Glad I could find some information about this. I was wondering if anybody could help. A lot of reviews for this I have seen are really bad and say the audio is terrible. I have a Hi8 Handycam and want to upload skate footage to my PC to make a video. Has anybody got examples of the video quality and sound or can tell me any more info please?
Thanks
I am following these
I am following these directions perfectly step by step. When I get to the point of choosing the video input source under options, the box/drop down menu is blank. I can’t choose Video Composite, there is nothing there. Any ideas??? Trying to convert from VHS.