How do I connect an ANALOG camcorder to the Media Center PC?
January 1st, 2009 | 
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Mike_In_Green_Bay asked:
Hey guys and gals. I have an old Hi8 video camcorder, it only has s-video out and rca out. I have an HP Media Center PC which has an s-video in, so I simply connected the camcorder to the s-video in. How do I see or record the video onto the PC? I cant figure this out for the life of me. I dont have a “tv card” area where I can change which input to get video from. Please help.
Hey guys and gals. I have an old Hi8 video camcorder, it only has s-video out and rca out. I have an HP Media Center PC which has an s-video in, so I simply connected the camcorder to the s-video in. How do I see or record the video onto the PC? I cant figure this out for the life of me. I dont have a “tv card” area where I can change which input to get video from. Please help.
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best product for this is a USB device and software which you could buy new or used at retailers or on EBay called Dazzle Video creator it lets you convert any analog camera or VCR to digital. If you have old VCR tapes or camera tapes this is what to go with. No other software or hardware is needed.
Obviously you have no digital means of transfer, from the camcorder to a PC. USB and Firewire are NOT an option.
What you need is simple. It is a TV Tuner Capture card.
Visit here to get an idea of what they are, look like and cost…
The average price is about $30.00 and you want one that has “S-video input” and/or AV inputs.
This one is perfect for you, it even has Cable-TV inputs, to record your favorite TV shows….
**Hey, use your PC to record hundreds of hours of TV!!**
AVOID all ATI brands of TV capture cards. Seriously, I have had 2 different ones from them and they use too many drivers and software to fuss over and use too much CPU resources.
Oh, and as a bonus with a capture card, your nice camcorder becomes a fancy High Quality web cam!
Programs like Adobe Premiere, Ulead MediaStudio and VirtualDub, all recognize TV tuner cards (Except ATI), so you can use those to capture your video, even at 720×480! That is great for making a DVD.
I’m surpised that computer has an S-Video input.
Your running XP. Try running Windows Movie MAker and see if it will see the video stream.
YOu’re positive it’s an S-video IN (not an out or some other plug).
HP / Hewlett-Packard M1160N I checked out has AV in (RCA) and out, but no mention of S-Video.
Hardware wise you should have it set up except you’ll need to connect the audio to your tuner card. Use Windows Movie Maker to capture your video and audio.