Video Capture

Copyright: When planning a digital capture project, begin by requesting permissions for materials not in the public domain. If there are digital photographs, video, or sounds for which permission to copy cannot be obtained, the Freedman Center will not support the capture of the materials.

Please Note:

1. Capturing Video is a 3 step Process.
2.  Capturing Video is a Real Time Process: If your video is one hour long, it will take one hour to capture your video, and an additional 20-30 minutes to process it. There is no way to speed this process up. It is a good idea to bring along something to read, or something else to do while waiting at your station.
3.  Close all other programs open on the machine. Having other programs open may interfere with the capture software.

This guide demonstrates video capture on the Toshiba VCR/DVD Player. These steps can also be used to capture video from any of the other devices in the Freedman Center.

• Before beginning your project, ask a Freedman Center staff member if there is enough space on the hard drive to capture all of your video.
• Create a folder in the D-User Storage folder and label it with your network ID. This is where you will save all of your files.

• Headphones can be checked out from the Main Service Center on the 1st floor of the library. You will be given headphones that have a 3.5mm adapter on them. Use these headphones and the adapter in the audio box as shown in the next section. If you only need the adapter, that can be checked out from the Main Service Center as well.

• Pictured below are the headphones that can be checked out from the Main Service Center along with the 3.5 mm adapter. The adapter and headphones can be plugged into the Audio Box next to the station, as pictured below.
  • NOTE: You are now able to use the headphones without the adapter at the viewing stations. 
• Insert the adapter and headphones into the audio jack port that is next to the monitor. The the slider indicated in the red box controls the volume of the corresponding audio port. In this case, it one indicated in the red box corresponds to the two audio ports indicated by red arrows.

• Turn on the Toshiba VCR/DVD Player in the stack that will be used to capture your video. Load your media source (i.e. DVD, VHS tape) into that machine.
  • *NOTE You need to use the other VCR players if working with international tapes. These other VCRs can capture U.S. tapes as well, but not at as high of a quality!
  • If you plan to capture directly from a video camera, ask a FC staff member for assistance.
• Be sure to select whether your media source is a DVD or VHS.

• There are four Shinybow Signal Router machines: two on the left hand side, and two on the right hand side. Be sure to first power on the bottom machine used for video. Then select what player you are using to capture video.To select a machine, press the button to the left of the x in order to get the correct player. This tutorial uses the Toshiba VHS and DVD player, but they all work the same way. You will not be able to capture video unless the correct machine is selected.

• Open the VIDEO folder, located on the desktop and select the program CaptureFlux.

• To set the save folder, click on the icon that looks like a folder with binoculars.
• Click the Open Folder button to find the folder you created earlier. The video you are about to capture will automatically save into this folder.

• *NOTE: If you attempted capturing your DV using our JVC DV players unsuccessfully, it could be that your tape is a PAL or HD. A simple way to tell this is by seeing on your camcorder the type of DV it takes. However, if you don't have your camcorder with you and attempted playing through the JVC DV player, you would have had a blue screen when the film should have been playing but been able to see recorded picture while rewinding/fast-forwarding.
• Click the Play button in the DV Source window under the capture window to activate the back end equipment to begin your capture session. This must be done in order to see your video on the screen.

• Find the point at which you wish to begin recording in your video by rewinding or fast forwarding on the VCR or using the attached remote.
• Rewind the video another 10 seconds to provide a buffer.
  • This extra bit can be easily deleted later during the video editing process.
  • If the video you wish to record is at the very beginning of the tape, allow a few extra seconds of blank recording in the next step.

• Note: Close any other programs you might have open besides Video Capture so that they don’t interfere with your video capturing. Do not full screen the Video Capture program.
• Press the Capture button (a red frame will appear to show that it is being captured). Press the play button on the appropriate machine where your media source is in to begin capturing.
  • At this point, if your video starts at the beginning of the tape, wait 10 seconds after you press the record button before you play your tape.

• What you see and hear is what you get! Verify that the video appears how you want it to and that the audio works. Ask a Freedman Center staff member for assistance if something needs to be corrected.
• Once you have recorded all of the desired video, wait another 10 seconds and then press the Stop Capture button to end the capturing process. Don't forget to hit the Stop button on the Toshiba Player as well. Your video is automatically saved to your folder in the D-User Storage.

• At this point all of your video has been captured. The file size is very large, which is good for editing but not for distributing. You will have to transcode (compress) the file in another step.
• For editing and transcoding, see the Editing/Transcoding guide.
• Please be courteous: Rewind the video back to the start point. Thank you.