I am wondering which is the best way to copy vhs to dvd with the actual hardware and software that I have. I am working with PAL VHS.

I have the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR150 with software WinTV2000.

Software:I have Pinnacle studio 9 and Nero 6 UltraEd.


I was thinking to proceed in the following way: Capture VHS with WinTV-PVR150 with WinTV2000, then use Pinnacle Studio to make DVD , then burn with Nero.

1,Is this the right way? Or am I reauthoring twice? Is there a better way?

2, What is the best Mpeg encoding to capture vhs. I can go up to 12 MBits/sec with mpeg-2 (full D1)or (CBR)?. But is such a high bitrate necessary for vhs, or am I just going to waste space on my DVD? I also have the following MPEG formats which I can capture: VCD, SVCD(2.5 Mbits/sec), DVD standard(8 Mbits/sec), long play(6.2 Mbits/sec) and Extra long play(2.5 Mbits/sec).

Your Capture bitrate should be Based on the Length of your Movie so it Fots perfectly on a DVD because if you use Too low of a bitrate you will have Lower Quality and Space still available on the DVD but if you use too high of a bitrate the Movie File will Not Fit on a DVD...

What I use is a bitrate Calculator called "PowerBit" which will tell you what bitrate you should use to Capture Based on the Length of the Movie File so it Fills the Full Capacity of a DVD...That way you get the Best Possible Quality for the Legth of the Movie and you don"t waste any DVD space.....

I would Suggest that you Capture useing the WinTV Software that Came with your Card and then use a DVD Authoring Program Like "DVDLab Pro" to add your Menu"s and Chapters and to author to DVD...I wouldn"t use Pinnacle Studio 9 because it has a Nasty Habbit of Re-encodeing Files to put them on to DVD , even if the Files are 100% DVD Compliant which Just Ruins the Quality and Wastes a Bunch of Time....

DVDLab Doesn"t have a Built in Encoder so there is no Chance it will re-encode your Files so you can author your Captured file to DVD in a Reasonable ammount of Time and DVDLan has Very advanced Menu features and Can Make Very Nice Looking Feature Rich DVD"s Pluss it is easy to use if you Know anything about the DVD Structure....

Cheers

Thanx for your reply, Minion.

What I forgot to say is that most of the Videos which I need to copy are 3 hours long. I presume that it will anyway not fit on a DVD.

So, what would be the best way to do it? 2 DVDs per video? Would that fit?
What Mpeg quality should I go for to keep all the details of a VHS cassette? Or should I put it this way: What is the minimum bitrate with no quality loss for a VHS video of 3 hours (180 minutes).

Hi, There are 4 Different Resolutions that you can use to Make a DVD and with these other Resolutions you Can Fit Much More on a DVD because these Lower resolutions Need a Lower bitrate to Encode so I suggest that you Try them when Trying to Fit say more than 2.5 Hours on a DVD...

These are all of the DVD Standards and Resolutions and Aproximate bitrate needed to encode to Good Quality useing these Resolutions...
The First one is the Standard Resolution used on Most retail DVD"s...

Standard.....Resolution......bitrate Needed.....Minutes per DVD...
Full D1 .... 720+480 ......3800 to 6500kbs ....90 min to 2.5 hours..
Broadcast D1. 704+480 .....The rest is the same as Full D1....
Half D1 .....352+480 ......2000kbs to 3000kbs ...3 to 4.5 Hours....
SIF/CIF .... 352+240 ......1100kbs to 2000kbs ...4.5 to 7.5 Hours....

The Half D1 Standard produces Quality about as Good as a Very Good SVCD so it is Pretty Close to Full DVD quality as Long as you use a Good Quality Encoder that is Set up Properly for the Type of File you are encodeing....

The SIF/CIF DVD Standard Uses the Same Resolution as VCD accept that you can use Mpeg-2 and a Higher bitrate so the Quality you can Get with the SIF/CIF Standard is Better than VCD Standard and Might even be Closer to SVCD if Made from a Very Good Source File and a High enought bitrate.....

To use these Other DVD Standards you will need to use a DVD Authoring Program that supports all of the DVD Standards Because Many of the Consumer oriented DVD authoring Programs only Support the Full D1 Standard and Will re-encode the File so it is Full D1 which Wastes Time and Ruins Quality....

I use the Half D1 and the SIF/CIF standards Quite Often especially when I am working With Low resolution Source Files and they produce acceptable Results....

I"m not sure if your Card Can Capture to Half D1 or SIF/CIF but it sould in which case I would give them a Try if you want to Fit as Much on a DVD as Possible Without Sacrificeing Too Much Quality....

Cheers

Thank you very much, Minion for your very clear explanation.

Am I right in saying that the resolution of a normal TV and a VHS cassette is anyway not more than 352x576 (Pal), so if there is no point to copy a VHS cassette to DVD with a higher resolution?

What Is the Best resolution to capture VHS to is an Age old debate generally I find that I get the Best Quality captureing at a Higher Resolution ....

As for What is the Resolution of VHS it is also an Age old debate But the Truth is Analogue Video isn"t Measured in Pixels But in Mhz....

You can read a Very Technical Explanation here:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34122

Cheers

Hello, Sorry to change the subject.

I have a Sony PCVRZ22G Desktop and have been having some problems transferring VHS to DVD. My PC has the hook ups for a VCR and so I tried to back up my copyrighted vhs tapes. I have been able to transfer just two movies, for the rest I keep receiving copyright error messages. I am wondering what I can use to overcome this issue?

do a search in google for removing macrovision

Thank You for your reply. However, I thought macrovision causes your picture and colors to be distorted. The picture looks perfect, it is just that the PC will not allow recording? What are your thoughts, is it still a macrovision issue?

i use virtualdub to do the capturing, you may try that. the program is free and is about the best one out there

There is Only one Type of Copy protection on VCS Tapes so if you are Getting an error about the Movie Being Copy protected then it is Because of Macrovision and the only real way to overcome the macrovision Issue is to get Video stabilizer of Some Sort Like the "Facet Clarifier" or the "DVD Red Pro" ect.....

What Is Happening is your Capture Card is Detecting the Macrovision on the Tape and when you try to Record it and it tells the Capture software that the Tape os Copy protected which prevents you from Captureing...Some Software will not Notice if the Signal is Copy protected but when you try to Capture you will get a Distorted Image Like the Image going Dark and Bright and/Or Colors Looking Bad and/Or a Rolling or Distorted Picture ...

There is No way to dissable the Macrovision Detection on your Capture Card useing Software (Unless I suppose if you had a Hacked Driver for your Card that dissabled it but that is not likely) This is because Macrovision is a Analogue Copy Protection and it is your Capture Card it"s self that is detecting the Macrovision....

There are a Few Capture devices out there that do not have Macrovision detection Built in so you can Capture useing those devices and some devices have a way to disable the Detection but overall most Cards will have this Limitation that Can only be Overcome useing some sort of Video stabilizer to remove the Macrovision.....


Cheers

Minion, Thank you very much for all your advice.
Now I'm using DVD LabPro and it's a great program.

I have 1 more question. If I want to encode from a mini DV digital video camera, so that I can put it on a DVD, do I need a seperate encoder?Which one would you advise?

Hi, I"m glad you are Likeing DVDLab... Yes when working With MiniDV AVI files captured from a MiniDV Camcorder you will have to encode the Captured DV AVI files to Mpeg-2/DVD format before authoring it to DVD with DVDLab....There are only a Small Handfull of encoders that i would Suggest Useing because most encoders are Most Optimized for speed than for Quality...

The only encoders i would recomend are :

Tmpgenc Pluss/Express
Canopus Procoder/Express
The MainConcept Encoder
CinemaCraft encoder SP/Basic

Out of these TMPGEnc is Probably the easiest to use and the least expensive...There is actually a 30 day free trial of TMPGEnc you can use to encode your Files to Mpeg-2....

Cheers

Can you give any recomendations for capture cards that do not recognize macrovision? I have two VHS tapes that are on there last legs and it is impossible to find new ones. They are 1920's old Earopean films. But the tapes have macrovision and I would really like to record them to DVD.

Well the Canopus ADVC-100/110/300 Have a way of Dissableing the Macrovision detection and they are some of the Best Capture devices you can get....

Also From what I hear the Capture devices Made by "ADS" do not have any Macrovision detection but I"m not 100% sure....

Cheers

ADS-Tech do advertise (surreptitiously) that their devices ignore macrovision, but in real life, this is true only about 50% of the time.
Hauppauge PVR cards do ignore it completely, if you're inclined to go that way instead.

As far as encoders go, tmpgenc may be the most used, and might seem simple with it's wizard, but it is tediously slow! CCE has the world's worst GUI, Canopus doesn't have a demo download, except for the Express version, which (IMHO) is crippled, and Mainconcept is the fastest, and also IMHO, the best quality.
Try the demo's, then choose.