I have old VHS tapes that I want to copy to DVD. Because of the age of the tapes, a lot of the video is dark. What software would you suggest to edit it?
G. June Register, via e-mail
Executive Editor Alan Stafford responds: If your PC’s graphics board has an S-Video-in or composite-in port, connect a VCR to it and then use Adobe Premiere Elements 4 or another video editor to capture and edit the footage. If the board lacks these inputs, consider upgrading to one of the models on our graphics board chart–the test reports indicate which boards have such ports–or buy a USB-based conversion box. Use Elements’ scene-detection feature to create separate clips from the footage; adjust the levels on each clip individually so that you don’t end up with uneven results. Read “Making Movies: From VHS to DVD” for a thorough how-to.