You look around and see you have a wide collection of home movies shot with a VHS camera (or other analog tape camera) and realize they are deteriorating. You decide to get your movies on DVD to slow the deterioration process down.

There are several ways you can do this:

1. Purchasing a DVD writer with VHS player built in is the simplest method to use. In most cases you put your tape in as well as the appropriate blank DVD into the writer. Ensure you purchase media compatible with your unit (i.e. DVD+R or DVD-R). It is not recommended to use DVD-RW media for this project unless you intend to only have them on DVD temporarily. Many DVD-RWs cannot be played on standard home DVD players, particularly older models.

Follow the instructions for your unit and ensure when finished you close or finalize the media, this will allow it to play on standard home DVD players.

2. Another method is to use a VHS player and a DVD writer in separate machines. This will work as well as above except you will have to manually start and stop both machines.

3. The third method is to connect your VHS player to your PC typically through a PCI TV card that supports either RCA connections or coaxial cable connections for your VHS connection.

In most cases, these cards come with some sort of software acceptable to do the job for you.

Connect your VHS machine to the PC and verify you are seeing the output of the player on your computer screen. If you cannot, verify you have the correct settings for your PCI card (i.e. input type, etc).

Setup your capture software and ensure you have plenty of room on the hard drive your end file is going to be saved to. It is also best to not use the computer for other purposes during this capture process and close any running programs except for your capture software. I would also recommend disabling any screen savers that may activate during the capture process.

Verify the format the file captured will be saved as. You can save it as mpg or other file, but that will not allow it to play on a DVD player.

Some programs such as Nero and Roxio allow you to save the captured image in compatible formats and then use those formats to "burn" the final version to a DVD. Expect to waste a few DVDs during the experimentation phase.

Another thing to consider is what you will do with the captured file once you have your disc made. Archiving them to a hard drive is good, saving them in the native format captured

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