In order to start digitizing your home analog video archive, it is not enough to buy a TV tuner and install it into your computer. It is also important to correctly connect the video capture card to the VCR or camcorder. You can make a cable for such a connection yourself.
Instructions
Step 1
If your home video archive is stored on VHS-C cassettes, you should use a VCR to dub it. This will avoid wear and tear on the camcorder heads, which have a service life of only 500 hours. To insert VHS-C cassettes into a VHS VCR, use the special adapter supplied with the camera. Do not forget to install a fresh battery in it.
Step 2
The easiest way is to connect the VCR to a TV tuner at a high frequency. To do this, take a plug and socket type F and a piece of coaxial cable with a characteristic impedance of 75 ohms. Connect them so that the ring contacts on both connectors are connected to the braid and the pins to the center conductor. Connect the socket to the RF output of the VCR and the plug to the antenna input of the tuner. Turn on the VCR, then tune the TV tuner to the channel on which its modulator works. Be sure to connect the sound output of the tuner to the line-in of the sound card with a special short cable supplied with the tuner. When making the connection, under no circumstances should you simultaneously touch the VCR body or computer and metal parts of any connectors. Until the devices are connected to each other, you cannot touch their bodies at the same time.
Step 3
Much better picture and sound quality is provided by a low frequency connection. To make this connection, you need two shielded cables. If your VCR has RCA output jacks, use three RCA jacks and one 3.5mm stereo headphone jack. Make one cable by placing RCA plugs at both ends. In this case, connect the ring contacts of the connectors with the braids, the pin contacts with the central cores. The second cable should have an RCA plug on one end and a headphone jack on the other. Connect the latter as follows: connect the braid to the common contact, the center conductor to the pins of the stereo channels connected together. Now connect the first cable to the video output of the VCR with the video input of the tuner, and the second to the audio output of the VCR with the line input of the sound card. Some tuners require a low-frequency type of video signal through the connector BNC, not RCA. The method of connecting it is the same (braid - to the ring contact, the central core - to the pin).
When connecting at a low frequency, you must also not simultaneously touch the bodies of the devices and the metal parts of the connectors, as well as the bodies of two devices that are not connected to each other.
Step 4
Some VCRs are equipped with 21-pin SCART sockets. In this case, you will need a plug of the correct standard. Connect the braiding of the image signal cable to pin 17 of this plug, the center conductor to pin 19. Connect the braid of the audio signal cable to pin 4, the center conductor to pin 3.
Step 5
To digitize a home video archive stored on video 8 or Hi8 cassettes, you will have to connect not a VCR, but a video camera to the tuner. To do this, use the cable included in its kit. If necessary, replace the video output plug from RCA to BNC on this cable. The sound output of such a camera is usually stereo. When replacing two RCA-type connectors with one headphone jack, which you will use to connect the camera's audio output to the line-in of the sound card, attach the braids of both cables to the common contact of the plug, the center conductor of one cable to the contact of one of the stereo channels, and the center conductor of the other to the contact be sure to keep the RCA plugs handy so you can remake the cable back to connect the camera to the TV at any time.
