Let's begin! I briefly describe the preparatory steps. More information can be found in the doom9 FAQs and Forums.

First we need hardware: 1) A fast and large hard drive. Best would be 7200 rpm, with a large cache, and as many Gigs as possible. 2) A decent processor. 3) A good graphics card. Best would be a graphics board with TV-in so you can use your VCR as a tuner. If not possible you can also use a TV-tuner card. 4) The best audio quality is achieved if you connect it from the VCR directly to the Line In of your sound card. TV cards often only produce mono sound at low bitrate/quality.

More tips on hardware selection can be found here: Scubas site.

A decent operating system (OS) is also needed (Win98 SE, Win 2000, or Win XP, you can forget the rest of the M$ garbage). Which OS works best for you depends a lot on the hardware and drivers you use. If you have a fast CPU and a newer capture card you should go for Win 2000 or Win XP, and if the CPU is old you might want to choose Win98 SE. For me personally the switch to Win XP has solved quite a lot of capture and other problems, but this decision can again only be made by you. (Dual-boot may be a solution if you like stability of newer OS' and capturing that only/better works on older operating systems, but be aware of some problems that may occure.)

No matter what OS you choose it is really important that your system is perfectly configured and optimized. I would therefore suggest that you take a look at the following site:

Windows Tweaks

Other useful sites can be found by performing a Google search using "windows tweaks".

Please be careful deactivating Windows services! It can happen that suddenly either the Internet or the printer or some other device stops working.

More useful tips can be found in the Doom9.org Capture FAQ.

There is one important thing to configure in system setup: NEVER use the auto-standby or hard disk turn off options. You disable it in the "energy-management" dialog in the Control Panel.

Additional software needed

Here is the additional software you will need:

1. VirtualDub Sync VCR. Look in the download section.
2. Huffyuv

and/or
PicVideo MJPEG.
3. Divx Pro 5.02.
4. Optional additional filters from Donald Graft.
5. If you are using High Quality Sound (ogg-vorbis), get Koepi's Oggmux.
6. BeSweet, oggdsfilter, Nando's NanDub. Download these from the doom9 download section: Doom9.
7. If the 'spyware' of the DivX Pro Codec is a problem for you, there's a legal solution.

Next: capturing using VirtualDub or using VirtualVCR.

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Last edited on: 09/07/2003 | First release: n/a | Author: BaronVlad | Translator SteVe (killingspree) | Content by Doom9.org