PVR-500: recording from VCR?

[johnb41]

I'm asking this question "before" actually installing this card (still waiting for new PC to arrive). But I did read the short install guide that came with the card.

My question seems simple: From reading the install guide for the PVR-500, it mentions being able to connect to an alternative source, like VCR, DVD, camcorder, etc.

That got me thinking that I can digitize some old video that I have on tape (vcr). I can do this with this card, right?

If so, assuming I have a correct connection (s-video?) from the vcr to my PVR-500, what do I do from there? Do I need special software to do the recording? I'd imagine that a window would NOT automatically pop up with controls on recording from the VCR. So how do I go about this?

Thanks!
John

[dvd_maniac]

You could use wintv that comes with the Hauppauge card, or you could trick Sage into thinking it is something else.
Create a timed recording and hook up the vcr to the hauppauge card and hit play.

[waynedunham]

I've done that in the past with Sage 2.x and my PVR-250 to record something off my ReplayTV, or a VCR, so I'll guess it should work the same with the PVR-500.

Just hook the outputs of the VCR to the unused input on the PVR-500. Then go into Sage and add another "tuner" and pick the appropriate input and tell it there is no guide.

From there you should be able to figure out how to do it. Go to the Live TV Guide and click on the new "channel" you just added to go to it "live". Typically I'd Cue up the VCR in Live mode and pause or stop the VCR at the point I want to start recording. Then I go and prepare for the recording by setting up a manual recording set to start a minute or two from "now" and if you know the exact length of the recording you can set a proper end time. If you aren't exactly sure about the runtime of the recording, add some time to the end. Then once you see the recording time come around you hit play on the VCR.

Depending on how fussy you are about a clean start/stop so you don't see anything other than the exact material you wanted to record it shouldn't be too hard to do. Of course if you are fussy you could always edit the resulting Mpeg with an external program to clean up the beginning and end of the recording.

I've got a couple sitting in my library that I pulled off my old ReplayTV. It's not perfect and the quality will be slightly less than what you had on the VCR since it's going through a read from tape/output/input to PVR-500/record scenario. Depending on the original's quality it shouldn't be too bad, but realize that the better quality TV/Monitor you're playing it on the more you'll notice the degradation in quality.

[johnb41]

Thanks for the help!

My PVR-500 is actually PVR-500MCE (Media Center Edition). So I don't think it has the WinTV software. For recording, it requires a 3rd party software, like SageTV (if you don't have Win XP MCE.

Being that it's an MCE type of card, will I have problems?

John

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by johnb41

Thanks for the help!

My PVR-500 is actually PVR-500MCE (Media Center Edition). So I don't think it has the WinTV software. For recording, it requires a 3rd party software, like SageTV (if you don't have Win XP MCE.

Being that it's an MCE type of card, will I have problems?

John

I don't "think" so. Give it a try. The worst that will happen is it doesn't work and you have to remove the extra input you just added.

I did mine with my PVR-250 which was all I had at the time, but see no reason why the PVR-500 shouldn't work just as well.

One nice thing is if it does work you can just leave that "tuner" in Sage's setup so you can use it whenever you want to pull something from the VCR.

[blade]

MCE cards are the same as non-MCE cards.

[johnb41]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I did mine with my PVR-250 which was all I had at the time, but see no reason why the PVR-500 shouldn't work just as well.

Great! It seems like this will work for me. Too bad that my original tapes are pretty low quality as it is.

Do you know what kind of connection (cable) i'd need? S-video? Something else?

Thanks!
John

[nielm]

That depends on your VCR... Most normal VCR's (not S-VHS compatible) only generate composite video output,Also most VCRs only have RCA audo connections...

So you will probably need:
A compositive video (co-ax/RCA/phono) cable for connecting the VCR to the PVR-xxx for the video
A stereo audo cable with 2xRCA connectors on one end and a 3.5mm stereo jack plug at the other to plug into the PVR-xxx

Sometimes you can get these in an all-in one 'video capture cable':
eg:

If your VCR does support S-VHS out, then replace the composite RCA with an S-Video cable, or the equivalent all-in-one:
eg:

If you are in Europe, your VCR probably only has SCART output, so you will need a SCART -> SVHS/RCA converter...

[johnb41]

Thanks Nielm for the info! When i'm ready to try this, i'll visit my local Radio Shack store...

John