How to Copy a VHS Tape to DVD Using Your Media Center PC

So often when I want to do something with my computer, I start out in the Help files and end up searching Google for more information. In this case, I have some VHS tapes that I wish to transfer to DVD. I want to do this by using a component cable hookup to the front inputs on my HP Media Center PC. I started out by searching the onboard/online help on the PC and found that only digital inputs were supported on the front panel inputs. The documentation for the PC agreed, and HP's website showed a way to use a digital camcorder to convert an analog source input into a digital input.

OK so far, but I don’t have a digital camcorder. Furthermore, my previous two Media Center PCs had front panel inputs that were capable of recording analog signals from a conventional VHS camcorder. Since this involves hardware-level encoding provided by the TV tuner/capture card, it made no sense to me that Vista would prohibit this.

Here are some specifics about my setup: I have an HP m8124n Vista Ultimate Media Center PC with a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC (analog TV/digital TV/FM radio) combo card. This PC is hooked up via S-Video cable to a set-top Dish Network receiver. This PC functions as the primary work and entertainment device in my home office.

So I went to Google. I searched for

hp media center front inputs analog

and the very first hit was promising. It was a CNET forums posting by an owner of an HP Multimedia PC with the same tuner as mine, and he actually wanted to capture a few VHS tapes and convert them to DVD. Perfect!

I began to read . . .

“I realized I could run the vcr into the coax and use windows media [Center] in live tv mode and just hit play on the vcr and record in windows media center but it creates those funky dvr-ms files . . . My TV card came with its own recording software [but this guy has an ATI tuner card] . . . Spent about 25 mins on the phone the other day, only to get a tech who was flipping thru pages reading me word for word what I already read in the help portions of the HP online sections . . . They just replied the inputs were for digital content not analog, and the card manufacturer . . . is the only one that could tell me if it could support analog thru possibly some other software program etc.”

Another fellow suggested that Vista Media Center could find the analog inputs. I found that was true, but it was a minor pain to implement. It involved going into Media Center’s settings and switching away from the normal input by finding a signal at video input #2. I tried starting a recording by playing a VHS tape, and Media Center stupidly thought it was recording on the last channel I had selected. At the end of the hour, it promptly stopped recording. This is more hassle than it's worth. Not only would I have to choose a manual recording, but I’d have to start the recording at a time that jibed with the last channel I viewed with a program that ran long enough.

I clearly needed something better than this.

Back in that CNET thread, another fellow who had no luck getting help from HP support had found happiness using Roxio’s MyDVD application. Well, that didn’t come on my PC, and I found that it cost about $50. I'm on a budget, and I like free.

Then I visited Hauppauge’s website and looked up the documentation for my card. It said that the card had an analog-to-digital encoder. In other words, it’s still a real TV capture card as well as a tuner, just as I thought.

Now I was getting somewhere. I decided to download Hauppauge’s WinTV application, which I had some experience with a few years before with a USB “stick” TV tuner for a laptop. It worked, but it was a bit clunky. I hoped it had improved.

The website advised, “Note: This is a single file which includes the driver, the driver update, middleware, video decoder, and WinTV v6 applications. This package is for Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center Edition, and Windows Vista.” That told me not to expect an Aero appearance, but it was nice that it also worked with Media Center 2005 in XP.

After installing the application (and rebooting my PC, which was necessary a couple of times to get the driver to work), I hooked a VCR up to the front panel inputs and started a movie. The next step was to find the inputs.

I clicked on Menu, then Suite Manager. This brought up the “WinTV Channel Manager” dialog. I clicked the “Sources” tab, and, with the movie still playing, I selected “Composite Source (1) and clicked “Preview.”

Bingo! There’s my movie, so I know that I can at least watch a VHS tape on my PC.

For name, I entered “Front Panel Composite Inputs” and for description, I put “Media Center PC Front Composite Analog Inputs.”

For MPEG settings (the analog to digital conversion done by the tuner card), I selected “DVD Standard Play” for the quality setting. If you’re curious about the output settings, click the “Advanced” button. You’ll see that the video resolution for DVD is set to 720 x 480 pixels with a variable bit rate of from 6400 to 8000 Kbit/Sec.

So here’s the plan. I’ll use WinTV 6 to record “The Dalek Invasion of Earth – Tape 1” to a DVD-quality MPEG file. Then I’ll convert the movie to DVD format using DVD Flick. Finally, I’ll burn it to DVD using ImgBurn.

That’s the technique. The tape says that it’s approximately 76 minutes. So there you have the basics of how to use the front panel inputs and WinTV 6 to record a VHS tape from an external player. You can stop here if you wish, but you are welcome to come along with me as I step through making an actual copy of a VHS tape, convert it to DVD format, and then burn it to a DVD.