All right. It’s time, long past to get rid of the ol’ VCR once and for all. We’ve been in the 21st century for a few years, yet I still have shelves of magnetic media gathering dust. Yes, I have been investing in digital copies of my favorite films, but I don’t think a major studio is about to release my home movies on DVD.

Here’s how I’m doing it.

Using the composite connectors (those cables with the red, white, and yellow connectors), I connected my computer (with the help of the Dazzle DVD-100 included with Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 Deluxe Suite) to the video-out jacks on my VCR. Yeah, this does mean moving the VCR into my office, but it’s the final stage before getting rid of the VCR altogether.

Under the Video Tab in EMC 10, I selected “Capture Video.” (I could have also used “Plug & Burn,” but I want to edit my videos before authoring the perfect DVD.)

There are a few things I found out when capturing video from my VCR. Under “Capture Settings,” using the default quality of “DV,” chews up a LOT of hard drive space. Yes, it is the highest quality setting. When editing video you typically want to go with the highest quality setting to minimize the flaws that can crop up when re-encoding video after editing. (It’s the analogy of making a photocopy of a photocopy.)

But there’s a limit to how high you need to go with the quality. A single layer DVD holds less than 5 GB of data. Capturing an hour of video at DVD quality takes over 12 GB of space. Also, consider the quality of the original source tape.

I’ve achieved good results using the “DVD HQ” setting (mpeg-2 at 8 Mbps) which uses up less than 3.5 GB per hour. This is still higher quality than VHS, which means I won’t lose any quality when editing the video.

For a more in depth discussion on quality selection and capturing from VHS tapes, check out this forum thread on VideoHelp.com.

All right. I’ve got everything hooked up, and I’ve selected the quality setting. After clicking on the capture button, I start playing the tape. This way I make sure that I don’t miss the first couple of seconds. (I can always trim it afterwards.)

There I am, in the top hat and tails, not to mention a beard that could provide shelter for a small village. How things have changed. I haven’t seen that beard in ages. (Last I heard, it was heading on a trek toward Alaska.)

Once the preset capture length is reached, the video is saved to the hard drive, ready for editing. That however, it a topic for another time.

What have been your experiences in capturing video from a VCR? Do you have any preferences on the quality setting?

I look forward to hearing from you.