Last night I figured out how to hook my VCR up to my computer so I could import a bunch of old home movies and put them on DVD. It took me awhile to figure it out so I’m going to post the instuctions here for anyone interested. Apparently I’m not as web savvy as I thought because it took my forever to find proper instructions. *sigh*

Click the little link below to read about the equipment I used and the process.

The following equipment was used:

Your basic VCR with AV outputs

Panasonic PV-GS120 3CCD Ultra-Compact™ Digital Palmcorder® MultiCam™ Camcorder with Leica Dicomar Lens

iBook 1.42GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache @1.42GHz
512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
14.1-inch TFT Display
1024×768 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
32MB DDR video memory
60GB Ultra ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme

iMovie 4.0.1

To import movies from old videotapes, you’ll need a MiniDV camcorder with pass-through features or an analog-to-digital converter. In my case, I used my camcorder.

Connect your VCR’s video output to the video input of your camcorder. If an S-Video connection is available, use that instead.

Next, run audio cables from your VCR’s audio outputs to the audio inputs of your camcorder. Next, connect the camcorder’s FireWire jack to the FireWire jack on your Mac . Using my camcorder’s manual, I accessed the proper menu to set the pass through feature. Once everything is connected, turn on each device, open a new iMovie project, and import your video. Further instructions may be found here: http://www.macworld.com/2004/05/features/fromvhstodvd/index.php?pf=1

The rest is all up to you.