[Paul Stenning]

My approach is to capture to PC first. The videos can then be edited if required to tidy up bad transitions, cut out any pointless bits and trim the ends etc. I keep them as MP4 files but they could be authored to DVD if required. Many newer DVD and Blu-Ray players will play video files on a DVD-R disk or USB directly without needing to be in video DVD format.

I am now using a "Hauppauge HD PVR" box for video capture. Despite the "HD" name this also does SD. It has analogue component HD sockets on the back and SD composite, s-video and audio sockets on the front. It connects to a PC by USB2 and has a separate 5V power supply. It contains a decent MP4 hardware encoder and there is a lag of about a second between the video being played and the capture preview on the PC due to the encoding.

They are available on eBay second hand for around £20-£30, but try to get one with the original software/driver disk if possible. There is a normal version and a gaming version but they are the same hardware - the only difference is the latter has leads to connects to three types of games console and doesn't have the schedule recording software, so no important differences for us. Don't get the "Hauppauge HD PVR 2" as this doesn't have the SD inputs.

The software is the usual Arcsoft Showbiz which seems to be bundled with many capture devices, plus a driver package which adds the relevant controls to the capture section of the software. If you have a copy of Showbiz from another device then the drivers from the Hauppauge website should work (if not PM me and I'll send you the drivers from my disk).

I use it with an old Windows 7 laptop (Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, SSD) which works reasonably well. Occasionally it locks up part way through a capture or the capture won't start properly, requiring a power-cycle of the HD PVR and restart of Windows to sort out. I don't know whether it's the capture box, software, Windows or laptop but it's not really an issue. It will probably work on Windows 10 but I haven't tried it, and would probably be happier with a better spec PC.

One useful point is that it captures commercial pre-recorded videos fine, so any copy protection on the tapes doesn't affect capture. This is useful for making copies of these tapes to reduce wear on the tapes and player (I obviously keep the original tapes too).

I have used a couple of those little USB capture devices that use MPG compression previously, and had various problems with them, especially with sound either not capturing properly or getting out of sync etc. The Hauppauge HD PVR does a better job, the picture quality is better, the sound quality is excellent and stays in sync, and it doesn't seem to be upset by poor quality tapes.