Transfer VHS/DVD Media or Video8/Hi8 Tapes into CINELERRA-GG

If you want to transfer the data on a VHS tape, DVD disc, or Video8/Hi8 Tapes into CINELERRA-GG, you can do so by playing the media and recording while playing. This captures the media, which you are able to view as it plays, and writes it to a file so it can be played directly or edited. Because there is so much variation in hardware on both the Computer side and the Media Player side, these how to directions are only a guideline. You will most likely still have to do some experimentation and testing to see what works for you.

The basic strategy consists of 3 operations: connect the relevant outputs to representative inputs, configure the capture card to match the video, and start the Record monitor. Each of these may have to be experimented with to get them correct for your hardware setup.

Step 1: Connect both audio and video from your player hardware to the sound board and/or the capture card of your computer. Sometimes the capture card handles both audio and video but oftentimes audio and video are hooked up separately.

For example in a test case using the CX23418 capture card (an older/unusual single chip MPEG-2 encoder with integrated analog video/broadcast audio decoder), one end of an S-Video cable was plugged into the back of a DVD player and the other end plugged into this computer’s Capture card; the audio was plugged into the line in on the computer sound card.

Step 2: Setup CINELERRA-GG and it might be best the first time if you start with a default .bcast5 file by using a command line from a window of
CIN_CONFIG=$HOME/bcast6 cinelerra_path/bin/cin

Figure 13.17: Example of the Preferences menu with the Recording tab highlighted

• Choose Settings → Preferences → Recording tab in the Preferences menu (figure 13.17).
• Choose a File Format – a common suggestion is ffmpeg with a file type of mp4. In some cases depending on your capture card, the File Format will be set to MPEG stream capture. Some formats support MPEG stream capture technique, otherwise the data has to be decoded first and then encoded.
• Check that the Audio In section has the Record Driver set to Alsa with Device set to default as the Capture Source. If you are using something besides Alsa, change that selection accordingly. This may not always be default and you may have to change to something else based on your specific hardware. It has to match up what you see in our Control Panel on your computer. So for example, if your device is HDMI, than the default could be HDMI...instead.
• In the Video In section, change the Record Driver to whatever makes sense for your capture card. The test case for the CX23418 would use Video4Linux2 MPEG. A test case for an EasyCap Model #DC60 would use Video4Linux2 JPEG. If unknown what your card uses, you should experiment with Video4Linux2 or Screencapture as good possibilities.
• Also, Device path should be verified to be correct in case you have more than 1 device. In the 2 previously mentioned devices, it should proabably be set to /dev/video0.

Step 3: Next use the File pulldown to choose Record and then the Recording menu will popup (figure 13.18).

Figure 13.18: Example of the Recording, Video In, and Channels, along with the Add option, menus.

• Click on the Antenna icon (3^rd icon from the left on the left side of the right hand screen window).
• In the popup Channels menu, click on Add which brings up the Edit Channel menu.
• Use the down arrow in the Input box to display the available options. In the test case, and very likely your case too, S-Video 1 should be picked.
• In the Recording menu, be sure to designate a complete path and filename in the Path: textbox which will be used to record/write the playing media. Remember you must have the media on a file in order for CINELERRA-GG to load it on the timeline for editing purposes.
• Then highlight S-Video in the Channels Menu. Again, the choice in the Channels Menu might not be S-Video – choices could vary widely. Start recording in your Recording menu by clicking on the second icon from the left, next to the Transport label (it is usually a round red colored button).
• Next press play on your media hardware device. If on the Video In side window you see only noise, then S-Video or something else was an incorrect choice and you will have to perform some tests to find correct choices.

There are many more parameters that you may want to vary in the Recording menu or for more details on various items, please refer to the section Record Web Media in real-time. The Transport buttons are well defined there also.

Step 4: When the media has finished playing, use the Stop icon on the Recording menu – the fourth icon next to the Transport label - to stop the recording (figure 13.19).

Figure 13.19: Recording menu and Video In screen while capturing media. Note the Transport stop option.

Now you can Load the file that you played and recorded via the Insertion strategy choices on the bottom of the Recording menu and edit the file as usual. Note, that the audio and video may have started at slightly different times so you might have to initially line them up at the beginning using nudge. Generally once they are correctly aligned they will stay that way. Nudge is in the expanded patchbay. The nudge value is the amount the track is shifted left or right during playback. The track is not displayed shifted on the timeline, but it is shifted when it is played back.