Best Video Editor for VHS?

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Alan Stafford

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.