Device??

[Thomas]

Does anyone know of a device in which I can copy a picture off my vcr tapes,thru my computer than email the picture.

Nothing like doing it the hard way /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif...right.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[WVBill]

Thomas:

I am struggling to do that right now.

I bought a Hauppauge WIN-TV card (it installs in a PCI card slot in your computer) from CompUSA. The theory is that you plug your VCR video output (the yellow RCA plug) into the WIN-TV card and you can play your tapes on your computer screen. The card also has an input for an antenna/cable box. The software for the card allows you to freeze and capture the images on the "TV" screen. From there you can e-mail them or whatever.

The problem I found is that the WIN-TV card is VERY "finicky" about what video cards and computer mother boards it will work on. I couldn't get to work on my old 486 "clunker" at home even though I upgraded to a compatible video card. So I've brought it to work to try on one of the PCs here.

There are other makers of video capture boards - ATI is one of them.

The WIN-TV board cost $59.95 as I recall.

I'll update the story after I try it out on one of the PCs at work.

WVBill

 

[JonE]

You need a "Snappy". Check it out @ E-Cost.com.

 

[Branch]

I have the Snappy and it's worked great. I use it with my video camera quite often. It allows you to freeze a frame of video and save it in multiple formats. The only drawback is that freezing a frame of camera movement is difficult to do in a precise manner.

 

[WVBill]

I finally got the WIN-TV card working yesterday. When I installed it in a PC at work rather than my dinosaur 496 at home, installation went quite smoothly.

Attached is an image captured from the Video my wife made while we were building our pole barn earlier this year. As you can see, the results aren't nearly as sharp as you would get with a digital camera. I think, as Branch points out that's due to the difficulting of freezing a frame of video.

WVBill

 

[RobertN]

We use the Snappy around work for quick setups, since you don't have to open up the computer to use it(installs to parralel port). It works pretty good for a product that's less than $100.

I don't know if they'll be around for long though. They just laid off half thier staff, my brother included.


There are some other really nice sub-$100 units; I'm trying to find them now; I'll let you know in a bit...

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[RobertN]

I did a little checking... There is another consumer grade device called "Dazzle" tha can use USB, pcmcia, or paralell input to your PC. Look at:
http://www.dazzlemultimedia.com/main.html
http://www.webreviews.com/9804/dazzle.html
http://www.baber.com/baber/products/dazzle.htm

This is like Snappy. They are pretty simple to use. You can capture a still picture from your video camera, or capture video even.


RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif

 

[Thomas]

Thanks Robert for the info,and when thing quite down around here I shall visit my computer store...hope this weekend.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif