VHS Tapes to DVD

After a lot of trial and error I have found the following method works for me.

Capture the VHS as AVI - I use Roxio video wave 5pro - Get a decent captuer device and dedicated fast hard disk to avoid dropped frames.

Add the AVI to a Nero 6 video express project and let the software do the rest. If the AVI is too big to fit on 1 dvd Nero will compress.

I ahve now done a couple like this and have been very pleased with the results

P3 999 512Mb
Twin Deskstar 120GP
Directors Cut Firewire Capture box

 

Yes I have used MGI Video Wav 5 Deluxe for Video Capture and it worked fairly good But I believe you would actually I know you would get Much better Quality if you used a Real Encoder to Encode your Files to Mpeg because Nero Vision Express is well Known for haveing a Very Crappy quality Encoder, probably one of the worst ones there is..And even if you were to encode your files to Mpeg useing a seperate encoder Nero vision express would still re-encode the files anyways which shows how mickey mouse the Program is...You could use a Program Like Tmpgenc to encode your Files which would produce much better quality Mpeg files then used anything other than NVE to author to DVD simply because it will re-encode the files which will ruin the quality and defeats the Purpose of useing a real mpeg encoder...Cheers

 

Well, there are a few ways you can go. I get a lot of TV based videos using the PVR350 which takes the TV-in or SVideo/RCA Video in and does the MPEG2 encoding with hardware. Just use one of the supplied software programs to capture that stream and you are good to go. The only catch is, this only works well if you don't need to do any editing. You *could* use the NanoPeg editor that comes with the board, but that has the worst UI I've ever seen and virtually impossible to use beyond trimming the video clip.

Another way, is to use Analog-Digital converter box that allows your software to connect via DV (firewire) and suck in the video as if it were a digital source. Some digital camcorders have this ability (video in source), and to my understanding, that technique works well -- especially for avoiding a/v sync issues.

 

how do you keep from getting so many dropped frames when capturing analog with roxio videowave?

 

I have minimised the number of dropped frames so that for a whole 2 hour movie I only get about 50-100 which is less than .01%

The old saying "garbage in garbage out" applys here in that if the video tape is of poor quality then you will get lots of dropped frames.

I have found the best results with the following:

Use a modern up to date video recorder with error correction and high quality tapes.

Capture to a dedicated fast hard disk drive which has been defragmented and has plenty of contigious disk space.

Use a decent capture device - I tested some usb types but in the end spent the extra money and purchased an external firewire box.

Don't use the PC for anything else whilst the capture is running.

 

Im facing the vhs/analog hi8 to my pc question. I have the all in wonder video card, and will be installing a firewire card with a usb 2.0 imput. I have sony hi8 camcorder videos and want to transfer those to my pc (80gbs slave hard drive) I have seen several analog/vhs converters as I've shopped around. Is there any way to access the all in wonder 128 card for editing by going straight from my video camera to my PC? If not could you recommend several converters that are high quality?

 

Do you mean a "Analogue/Digital converter"?? The Best One I know of Is the "Canopus ADVC-100 Analogue/Digital Converter" they Run about $250 US ...But if you have an Hi8 Cam and a All In Wonder Card you can Capture directly from your Hi8 Cam to your Hard drive Via the All In womder Card, You just hook the Composite or S-Video Output from your Hi8 cam to the Composite/S-Video input on the All In Wonder and Start captureing....

 

I'm very new to analog video capture using PC.
Please allow a beginner question.

I use a MSI FX5600-VTDR128 card which has a
RCA input and S-Video input to work with my
Sony Hi8 camcorder. When I capture through
either input, the result has a horizontal
blank area in the middle of the captured AVI
file. This happens for probably 90% of the
time, and for ALL the capturing software I had
tried (VirtualDub, avi_io, Adobe Premiere, to
name a few).

My other VHS VCR occassionally has the same
issue with the capture card, but not as bad
as the Hi-8 camcorder.

By the way, the monitor window of the capturing
software shows the complete input picture from
camcorder or VCR, so the input signal is not
an issue.

I have tons of Hi8 tapes to capture. I'd like
to fix the problem without going through my
DV camcorder analog pass-through. Please help!

 

When you say there is a Horizontal Blank area do you mean like a Large area without any video?? If so are you sure your Video card captures from the Standard? Meaning is it Captureing to Pal if you are in Pal land or to NTSC if you are in NTSC Land, Because I have had something simular when trying to capture to Pal resolutions with My NTSC Capture card, I get either a Blank Band at the Top of the screen or the Bottom..If your Card is NTSC and you are trying to capture to pal resolution maybe try captureing to NTSC resolution then resize the captured file to Pal resolution after after capture..Well for the Capture Programs you mentioned Premier isn"t really that good with Analogue capture and Virtual Dub and AVI_IO are Both VFW (Video For Windows)Capture Programs and your Card uses Direct Show WDM Drivers so you can have problems captureing to full resolution with those 2 Programs because they aren"t fully compatible with your Cards Drivers...I would first Download and Install the latest drivers for you card then Use a WDM Direct show Capture Program like IU_VCR ,Virtual VCR or even WinDVR which will capture directly to Mpeg1/2 for you...You should Probably get better Quality with the DV Pass through from your Camcorder as opposed to letting your Capture card Digitize the signal because your camcorder should be more efficient...well Good Luck Cheers

 

Can anyone comment on the Plextor ConvertX as an alternative to the Canopus ADVC-100 Analogue/Digital Converter that Minion refers to in the post of 19 Nov 2003 7:22 PM. I saw the news item and comments back in May on the Plextor ConvertX but a search did not reveal anything more recent. Thanks.

 

I have never heard of the "Plextor ConvertX" but I can tell you that the ADVC-100 is the Best Analogue/Digital converter,For Couple reasons One is that Canopus is one of the Leaders in Hardware DV Compression technoligy and they use there Highest end DV Compressor Chip in the ADVC-100 and the Other reson is that it is the Only Analogue/Digital Converter that Locks the Audio and Video streams together at the Moment of Capture as to Overcome any sync Issues, and this is very important especially when captureing from Old VHS Tapes or From a Bad Signal because if there are Video Samples Missing in the Source VHS Tape it will Not effect the Sync were with any other Capture device you would experience Sync Problems..There are other devices that do simular Things Like the Dazzle DVC 150, and I believe that Sony has a Analogue/Digital converter but I hear it isn"t as Good as the Canopus Unit and is More expensive....Cheers

 

In following your last reference to the canopus advc 100, does the canaopus advc 50 use the same chip you referenced? I'm more interested in an internal than external application for capturing. I know the canopus 50 requires a firewire card.

thanks!

 

The ADVC-50 uses the Same Compression Chip as the ADVC-100 but it has Less Options and Inputs/outputs, I believe it only Has a Firewire Input/Output and a Composite Audio/Video input and a S-Video input, were the ADVC-100 has More Inputs and Outputs and it has a Feature to disable Macrovision Detection which the ADVC-50 doesn"t have so if you try to Capture from copy protected VHS/DVD"s you will have Problems unless you also have a Video-Stabilizer to defeat the Macrovision..I"m sure if you go to the Canopus site you can find out much More about these Products and there Features and you will probably Find the Best deal on Ebay..I have found some Pretty awesome Deals on Ebay lately like Right now I am Building 2 Athlon XP 2200+ Computers and I got all of the Parts Brand new off of Ebay for $700 Canadian so that is like $275 US each PC which is about 1/3 of what I can sell them for....Cheers

 

Minion you really seem to know what you are talking about I am trying to get out cheap and purchased the TV 2000 xp expert. Any idea of what kind of quality I might get when trying to DVD some VHS tapes? Will I be able to get them in AVI format to edit them? I am also new to this want to learn everything I can if it goes well maybe I will upgrade seriously, soon.

 

Yes you can Fairly easilly(I Hope) Transfer VHS Tapes to DVD with Fair Quality depending on the Quality of your VHS Tapes...You Can capture to AVI and Get Fairly good Quality if you use a Good Capture codec or if you have enough Disk Space to capture to Uncompressed AVI ,but you will need up to 160gb per 2Hour movie in Full resolution Uncompressed AVI..The Best AVI Capture codec is called "HuffyUV" it is probably the only Lossless Codec, which means you are not looseing any Video Quality through Compression..Useing the HuffyUV codec you will need about 25-30gb per hour of Full resolution AVI(720+480/576-Pal), If you do not have this Much Disk Space on a seperate drive(You should allways capture to a seperate drive than your OS is installed on) then you can use the next best Codec which is called the "PicVideo MJPEG Codec" it Produces Quite good Quality captures on it"s Highest Quality setting and it uses very Little CPU Power and it uses about 1/2 to 1/3 of the Disk Space of HuffyUV so about 10-15gb per hour of Video...If you do not have this Much disk Space I also have a Very Good Capture method that Involves Captureing to Very high Bitrate Mpeg2(20,000kbs) with a Program called "WinDVR 3.0" and then re-encodeing the High Bitrate Mpeg2 to to DVD Bitrate Mpeg2, This Program will also capture the Audio in "Dolby Digital AC3" which is of very high Quality but Very small file sizes..To use the Mpeg2 High Bitrate capture method you will need a fairly Fast CPU like at Least 2.0ghz but 2.4ghz would be ideal because you need Quite a Bit of CPU power to Compress to High Bitrate Mpeg2 in Real time....All of these Methods Produce Good Quality Captures as Long as the VHS Tape is of Fair Quality and some of the Low Quality aspects of the VHS can be Filtered out when encodeing to Mpeg2/DVD....If you would like me to explain any of these Methods in More detail then let me Know and I"ll try to explain it so it isn"t too confuseing....Cheers

 

I have heard good things about the Huffyuv codec is a clean new 80 gb maxtor harddrive enough to work with to capture and encode hi8 video to a dvd? I have a PIII 1200mhz processor will it be fast enough?

 

Yes a 80gb Drive should hold about 3-4 Hours of Full resolution HuffYUV encoded AVI..You Should Capture at Full resolution (720+480/576-Pal) useing the HuffyUV codec, Then you will need to encode the Captured File to Mpeg2 useing a Good mpeg encoder....Your PC should be fast enough to Capture to AVI useing HuffYUV without much problem as Long as your Capture Drive is a seperate fast Drive that uses at least an ATA/100 IDE Port on your MotherBoard you Might have Problems if MotherBoard only supports an ATA/66 IDE Channel...If you ever want to Upgrade your PC to something like 2.0ghz to 2.5ghz you can get them really cheap these days..Like I think I mentioned before I am Building 2 PC"s useing Athlon XP 2200+ Chips and each full PC will cost me about $275 US, and I built one last month that used a Intel 2.4ghz and I only cost about $300 US to Build with all new Parts so now is the time to upgrade....Cheers

 

Hey Minion I installed my tv 2000 xp card and have no sound. It says to connect the card to my motherboard/sound card in connection, I dont see it, I saw three prongs on the motherboard, this is a Sony VAIO PCV-RX860 and my sound is built in. I tried looking all over Sony but did not have alot of luck. Any help would be appreciated

 

So the Problem is that you can not Find the Line In Port??? If you have a speaker Port to hook up your Speakers(usually a Green Port) then you should have a Line in or Microphone Port(Usually a Blue Port)..You will Also have to configure your PC to Capture Audio from the Port...to do this in windows XP you go to the Speaker Icom in your Task Bar and Right click it and go to "Open Volume Controll" and a Window will pop up ,in that window go to "Options" to "Properties" then click "Recording" and select "Line In" from the Menu and click "OK" and then a window will pop up were you then click "Select" under "Line In" then adjust the Capture Volume...(Put it at about 50%-75%) then close the Windows and you should be able to capture audio with your Video...But when useing Intergated Sound you can get Bad sync Problems because the Sounds Recording Tme Clock will be a Bit different that the Video Capture Time Clock which causes Sync Problems by the end of the Movie...Some Capture Software can compensate for the Time Lag between Audio and Video By either Dropping or Adding Frames to keep sync with the Audio ,and some Programs can Dynamicly resample the Audio but adding or Dropping Audio Samples to keep sync...If your Capture Software has the Choice of Chooseing the Master Stream then Chooseing the "Video" as the Master stream is best if you are planning on Makeing a VCD/SVCD/DVD out of the Files....Well I hope you get it figured out but if you find out that you do not have a Mic or Line in Port you can allways Pick up a PCI Sound card on e-bay for like $10-$15..I use a Cheapo Sound Blaster sound Card which I got for $20 US reatil, but have see the same cards on E-Bay for Under $10....well Good Luck

 

Minion..my harddrive is a maxtor 6Y080P0, ATA 133, with 8MB cache buffer, 7200 rpm. Hopefully that will do. Why partition this new hard drive? My primary hard drive is a 13gb and 7 gb of that is empty. can I save my encoding programs there, use folders in the new harddrive or must I partition the Maxtor? I'm sure these are trite question but when your a newbie ..what can I say...I appreciate your help.