Original subtitles

you probably have

two of old VHS tapes gathering

dust in your closet this how-to I'm

going to show you how to archive those

videos onto your computer here's what

you'll need you'll need a VCR with an

audio and video output on the back video

is that yellow connection for audio

you'll see either a white connector for

mono or white and red for stereo a lot

of Cheaper VCRs only have mono but if

we're talking about home movies here it

really shouldn't be a big deal speaking

of which you'll need a VHS tape to

record from and let me be clear that

we're talking about transferring home

videos and not copyrighted content like

movies or TV shows it's against the law

and it really doesn't make any sense

you can probably pick up the DVD use for

a few bucks at this point so don't break

the law or waste your time you also need

a computer it doesn't matter if it's a

Mac or PC just make sure you have some

room on your hard drive an our video

takes up about 750 megabytes of storage

if you want to grab an external hard

drive to offload this stuff it might be

a good idea finally the most critical

component that you're going to need is

an adapter that will connect between

your computer and the VCR this one here

is the elgato video capture runs about

$80 and I chose it because it's both Mac

and PC compatible you just connect these

bits right here to your VCR and you

connect the other end to your computer

install the software and you're ready to

go

the software will walk you through the

process you can name the file you'll

make sure you're connected seeing a

picture and hearing audio and when

you're all set you hit the big red

button start recording then hit play

on your VCR you're now recording in real

time so if you've got an hour long dance

recital or your garage bands first gig

you'll have to wade through the whole

thing to play through when you're all

done hit the same button to stop

recording and you'll get a chance to

trim off any of the unwanted parts from

the beginning or the end on the last

step you'll see a file path to the

location of the file you just created

along with some extra options for

watching uploading or further editing

that video chances are you're going to

be going through a bunch of these back

to back so hit the again button to start

the process all over with a new tape

that's really all there is to it if

you're feeling fancy you can burn these

files to a DVD or load them onto your

iPad but the main point is that you've

rescued these home movies from a dead

format so that a whole new generation

can be tortured with them check out my

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for more in-depth look at transferring

your VHS tapes to your computer check

out my full write-up on how to cnet.com

I'm Donnell Bell thanks for watching