Convert your VHS tapes with Windows Movie Maker and your Digital Camcorder

Its been a few years since I purchased a firewire-equipped, "mini-DV" Sony digital camcorder. I think I paid about $500 in the Summer of 2003 for my TRV-22, but comparable models are widely available today for $300 or less.

While comparing models, I noticed that Sony camcorders included a feature that made it possible to use the camcorder as an Analog to Digital converter. In simpler terms, this meant the camera could do double duty, converting VHS tapes (and in fact, any Analog video source) to digital format in addition to "shooting" video.

For some reason, I never took that feature seriously enough to try it, and instead invested hundreds of dollars in a capture card from Pinnacle and capture devices from companies like Canopus, ADS and Plextor. The idea was to test and recommend a few devices that offered an attractive combination of functionality, simplicity and affordability, and its no secret to readers of The Coachs Advisor that I like and have recommended the ADS and Plextor products.

Until Windows Vista came along, the Plextor 402U was my favorite device, and I still use it when I want to convert video to the DIVX format. But, the Plextor connects through USB ONLY and is difficult to get working with Windows Vista. Last year it was discontinued by the manufacturer. The story is the same for many, many other Analog to Digital video conversion devices.

For this reason, I took great interest in an article entitled Import video from an analog video camera or VCR through a DV camera that appeared in my inbox this weekend from Microsoft. While the article is geared toward users of Windows Vista, nothing in the article indicated that the "trick" would not also work on Windows XP. Since Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker is included free in all versions of Windows XP, is easy to use, and most importantly ALWAYS has worked for me, it was time to hit the "test lab".

Following the steps in the article, I proceeded to configure my Sony digital camcorder to convert VHS tapes. To do this, I:

1. Plugged in a VCR to the camera's "analog" jack
2. Used the Sony menu to set the camcorder to work as a "Pass through" VCR
3. Connected the Sony camcorder to the PC as I always do - using a Firewire cable
4. Started Windows Movie Maker and selected Capture Video

Magically, the video from tape in the VCR appeared in the Movie Maker capture window and the quality was PERFECT! I was able to perform a "real time" capture - meaning that as the VCR played, the video would be converted to digital format and written to the computer's hard drive.

For those new to Movie Maker, or to Windows Vista’s built-in video-capture wizard, once a firewire connection is made, the capture procedure is quite similar to that used when capturing video directly from the camera's "mini-dv" tape. Both Movie Maker  and the Vista Capture Wizard provided the usual options to capture in a variety of video formats including DV-AVI and high quality Windows Media - two of the three formats we recommend for use with our video editing software applications. Since the camera was not playing its own "tape", but rather acting as a "pass through" device for the VCR however, I could not use the Movie Maker controls to Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind the VHS tape.

I could say much more about the advantages of using this procedure with Windows Movie Maker rather than purchasing using a capture card, or "box", but I will save that for another day.

Like many Coach's Advisor readers, I stumbled my way through understanding digital video and made a number of mistakes along the way. The fact is, this is one of those kind of things that just takes time - to wade through all the geek speak, misinformation and sales pitches.

Suffice it to say that I wish I had simply RTFM (read the "friggin" manual) for my camcorder, and I would have discovered this great "feature" of my camera 5 years ago!