How to Copy a Tape to a PC
If you have videos on tape, you can turn tape footage into digital video footage and store it on your PC. Unlike video tape, digital video does not degrade over time, making it a more secure storage method. In order to store the video footage on a tape on your PC, you must copy the tape to your computer. Transferring the video to the computer can done in most video-editing programs.
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Things You'll Need
- VCR or camcorder
- Video-capture device
- Computer
- Video tape
- Video-editing software
Instructions
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Connect a VCR or camcorder to the PC. Use the cable provided with the device to connect the camcorder. To connect the VCR, use a video-capture device, which plugs into the audio-video outputs on your VCR and into a USB port on your PC for pass-through, or connect your VCR to a digital video camera and the camera to the PC, using the cords provided with the unit. If you use a digital video camera for pass-through, put the camera in the "Pass-thru" or "VCR" setting.
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Open Windows Movie Maker, Windows' native video-editing software. If Movie Maker did not come preinstalled on your computer, download it online and install it to your system.
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Click "File" in Movie Maker and then click "Import from digital video camera." This opens the video-capture wizard.
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Enter a name for the video file when prompted and click the "Browse" button to select the folder where you want to save the video. Then, click "Next" until you get to the final page of the capture wizard, which has a preview screen that shows the video being imported.
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Place the tape that you want to copy to your PC into the VCR or camcorder and press play. Then click the "Start Capture" button in Movie Maker. When the tape is done capturing, click "Stop Capture," and then click the "Finish" button to save the video file into the folder under the name you entered.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit video tape image by jovica antoski from Fotolia.com
