# How to put a video on your computer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-put-a-video-on-your-computer/338204>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 3, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-put-a-video-on-your-computer/338204 "2006-01-03T07:17:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-put-a-video-on-your-computer/338204/1 "2006-01-03T07:17:57Z")

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I need to make a short video and be able to save it on my computer in either an avi, mov, wmv, mpeg or mpg format. Any clues on how I might go about doing that? I only have an old VHS camcorder, and the video has to include stuff away from my computer, so one of those little computer cameras won’t really do it. Can digital camcorders save in these formats?

(I realize that this is pretty much a GQ thing, but it’s so less-than-cosmic that I thought I might suffer less abuse by posting it here first.)

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**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-put-a-video-on-your-computer/338204/2 "2006-01-03T08:56:09Z")

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You need a video capture card. [Here](http://stores.tomshardware.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=336/form_keyword=video+tuner+card) is a page from Tom’s Hardware that has a variety for you to choose from.

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**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-put-a-video-on-your-computer/338204/3 "2006-01-03T19:08:17Z")

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Great, thanks for the help, Mad Hermit! 🙂

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**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-put-a-video-on-your-computer/338204/4 "2006-01-03T19:18:26Z")

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> [@Rodgers01](#):
>
> How to put a video on your computer?

Before you go off and spend $$$, I’d suggest you spend a little time educating yourself about the whole process of capturing and converting your VHS video to the various computer formats. It’s not that hard, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. There are software and hardware considerations beyond getting a video capture card. [This](http://www.videohelp.com/) is a good place to start.