VHS to computer

I'm completely new to this concept. I would like to know exactly how to get footage from VHS tapes directly onto my computer (not through camcorders etc).

I searched the web and the layout, with "->" meaning data flow, for transferring VHS footage to the computer seems to be as follows:

VCR -> three RCA cables -> analogue-to-digital convertor -> IEEE 1394 -> computer

Now, what I'd like to know is:

Can anyone who has done this or is experienced in doing this confirm that this is the right way of doing it?

Besides RCA cables, an ADC and a firewire cable, do I need any other hardware or software?

Would I be able to capture the VHS footage using Windows Movie Maker?

Does it take a long time to capture the footage, I.e. as long as the video lasts?

And finally, will the file size be very large? I'd like to capture a couple of hours worth of continual video but I don't want it to take up 10GB or anything like that.

Any help would be appreciated. Image file not present in the recovered backup

I use dazzle dvc 80, but I think theres a dazzle dvc 90 out now too... it will capture from hi 8 camcorders and vhs.

and yes you can capture with movie maker, yes it does take as long to capture as length of the video and no the file size shouldnt be huge

I have been useing ATI TV wonder, check out for that...

it's not that great, im getting into firewire for my final video, but ATI TV Wonder has been the shit for me, for a long time, look that up if you wanna conncet your VCR to the computer

-Ryan

I've been using a standard video card with S-Video in with a wire adapter to unload from VCRs, works good, didn't really cost much (256mb video card, 130$ on newegg when I bought it.. wire adapater I got for free from a friend, but I can't imagine it being worth more then 20$)

the setup you have will work, some of us can use a camera in place of the digitizer and just pass through it.

movie maker should work, and anything you capture is in a real time, so if its a 2 hour film it will take 2 hours to capture.

if your capturing a couple hours of video you need to have at least 10 gigs free, once the files are turned digital the filesize jumps very fast.

5 minutes of uncompressed AVI (off a MiniDV tape atleast) is just about 1GB

that should help you out to figure out file size

If you capture a couple hours worth of footage on 10 gb or less of space it's gonna be shit quality. I use uncompressed avi, huge file sizes unfortunately, but almost 100% of original video quality integrity is retained.