How to transfer VCR/VHS tapes to DVD Tutorial
(Analog to Digital Conversion)

If you are one of the people who got stuck with one, a few or just too many VCR tapes and would like to transfer them to DVDs before they go bad, then you have two choices: even do what I did to learn what I already know, which means spending countless hours, months and years reading, experimenting, failing time after time and learning from my own mistakes, or you can save yourself many headaches by reading this tutorial, which was designed in a way that it can be equally understood by newbies, intermediate or advanced users.

Even if your want to learn this for your own use, or do it as a business, you'll benefit from this tutorial. Just remember that if you plan on reproducing videos as a business you need to be cautious about not violating copyright laws. Try to educate yourself about this topic so you don't get in troubles with anybody.

Well, so let's get into business now. First of all, let me tell you what I use to transfer my own videos. There must be more than one way to achieve this, but I found the way I do it the most effective and easiest one. You'll need:

Hardware:

• A VCR that has an ANT port out

• A coaxial cable

• A computer with a TV in port

• Speakers
• DVDs

Software:

• Media Center
• Sony Vegas Pro (I use Sony Vegas Pro 8 )
• DVD Architecht Pro (I use DVD Architecht Pro 5)
• Mark's DVD bitrate Calculator Version 1.1.0 (You can download it from this link: http://www.johncline.com/bitcalc110.zip)

Step 1: Transferring Your VCR Video To Your Computer

Connect your VCR ANT out port to your computer's TV in port using a coaxial cable. Turn on your VCR and start your Media Center application. I don't know about you, but everytime I start Media Center I get a pop up message that reads "Messenger failure: Media Center was unable to open Messenger. Please make sure that Windows Messenger is installed on your system". I just ignore this and click "OK". I don't really care about Windows Messenger. I never use it. I never tried to fix this error, but there is someone who posted an article that provides instructions on how to get rid of that annoying message and you can read that article here.

Now you need to look at the menu and select "My TV / Live TV". If your VCR is on you should be able to see a blue screen. It shouldn't be grainy (if we use the Photoshop language we could describe it as an image with "noise") but a very blue and spotless screen. If your image looks like this:

then your video will look the same way on your DVD, so you need to fix the Media Center settings before starting your transfer. If, on the other hand, you have a nice blue screen with no noise, you can skip this section and jump directly to Step 2 on this tutorial.

Fixing Media Center Settings

Right click anywhere on the blue area and the "settings" green button will be displayed at the right side of the bottom of the screen, like this:

Left click on that button and you'll see a menu show up with the following options:

• General
• TV
• Pictures
• Music
• DVD
• Messenger
• Radio
• Help

You need to left click where it says "TV", the select "Set up TV signal". You'll see a message like this displayed:

Assuming you are not performing any other task with this application you should then click on "Yes". You'll see then a window like this:

Click on "Next". You'll see this screen next:

If you are in the United States, then select "Yes, use this region to configure TV services", otherwise select "No, I want to select a different region" and then make your selection according to your location. Click on "Next". Then you'll see:

Click on "I will manually configure my TV signal" and click on "Next". You'll be forwarded to this screen:

You need to select "Satelite", even if you have cable. You can test if cable works for you, but it never did for me. Don't ask me why because I don't know. Click on "Next". You'll see this new window:

Select "Next". Media Center will start scanning for a TV signal.

I should then stop in channel 3.

If it doesn't stop at channel 3, please, select it manually and click on "Next". You'll see then this message:

That's OK. We don't need any IR Hardware detected. We just needed Media Center to scan and detect our VCR signal, which at this point is done. So now, just click on "Cancel".

Click on "Finish" and then click on the left upper side of your screen, right on the Media Center green logo.

Then select "My TV / Live TV".

This time you shouldn't see a grainy blue screen anymore. It should be a very blue spotless one, like this:

Now you should get your VCR's remote control and, if it's not already on channel 3, you should set it to that channel and test if everything is working fine. Make sure your speakers are on. Insert any video tape to your VCR and play it. You should see the image and hear the sound of your video. If not, please, follow this process again, making sure you don't skip any step. If after a second try you still have problems, please, post a message on my forum so I can help you better.