Basically, I use WinTV and Windows Media Recorder... but there is more to it than that. There are some helpful guides on the web but it is best to try and work it out for yourself. It is frustrating at first but ultimately rewarding.

I started out with the Hauppage WinTV which is fairly cheap, around fifty quid and simply plugs into the USB socket so it is self-powered. The RF coax wire comes from the VCR / TV downlead. The audio goes into the PC via my hi-fi stereo amp (but can go direct, note I think the WinTV is mono ). So I can record live TV programmes such as BBC etc., or make video files of videotapes. Then if you plug the camcorder into the VCR you can make movie clips of the kind you see here on this site. Alternatively it has separate s-video and audio sockets but you have to have a Scart adaptor of the right sort on the back of your VCR. Today I use a Hauppage video card which I fitted in the back of my other PC. More on that another time but suffice to say I got it for just over a hundred quid and it gives somewhat better quality depending on how you use - basically it makes mpeg files rather than avi's so you will take much longer to fill up your hard drive!

I started out making avi files using WinTV but these are huge... 10 megs a minute or so just for a few seconds. Plus the sound goes out of synch with the video after ten minutes. You don't want to put avi files on the web because they are huge but you can burn these onto a VCD via a program such as Nero. But you can convert the avi files to mpg files which are sometimes a good compromise of file size over quality. TMPGEnc is a free download to convert your avis into mpegs. But maybe the breakthrough was Windows Media Encoder (one of the few first class MS products and it is free). I figure out you could either convert mpg or avi to wmv or record wmv's of live TV programmes etc.

I should hasten to add that this was all stumbled on by trial and error and a little luck. I don't yet know of anywhere on the web where you can go to get advice on the subject but I am sure there are if you look hard enough.

I am continually refining the process so expect some updates on improvements. For now though I think that this route is pretty much the easiest and cheapest route to put your home videos on the web, if you know better then I am very eager to hear how.