getting the best picture from vhs to dvd

hobbit112
what methods are you using and hows your pic quality?
programs and formats.thanks

 

Hey born2ride,

I've got a setup where I'm capturing the VHS tape in a Hauppauge PVR-150 video capture card with the software (WinTV) provided by Hauppauge. I've got a JVC VHS player (had to buy a new player, my 3 yr old Super VHS JVC needed work and no parts available!) with S Video cable & audio cables into my capture card in my computer. I've got the capture set up for highest bitrate possible and it's saved as a mpeg file. This gives me the best pic quality, but then you are still limited by your source. I don't think you'll ever improve the pic quality over the original tape.

I then use Nero Vision Express (I have Nero 6, BTW), select the mpeg file, edit movie if necessary, create chapters, menus etc.) then burn to harddrive. I save my project after each step, I've had problems with Nero locking up on my and saving the project after each step allows me to open a saved project and start where I left off.

Once saved to harddrive, I open Nero Recode to burn to DVD. Here, if necessary, I can reduce the DVD project to fit the disk. You can also use other programs such as DVDShrink.

I kind of like this setup in that it's simple, provides good results (at least I think so, but I don't have any comparisons) and only two to three programs to learn how to use.

A nice thing about my video capture card is that I've heard it ignores Macrovision. Must be so, because I've done retail VHS tapes with no major problems (with 1 exception). My card is a Media Center card which I got off ebay for $100.00. Didn't come with drivers or WinTV, but were available free of charge off Hauppauge's website. The card will also play TV on you monitor, either cable (non-scrambled) or over-the-air (antenna included). You can also get software (again, free) from Hauppauge which allows this card to be a radio (but no antenna supplied).

Again, I don't think you're going to improve the video over what the tape already is (at least not without some exspensive software). But you are able to tweak sharpness, tint, color & brightness.

But I've got all of my 20+ year old VHS tapes now on digital format so the quality won't deteriate further and I can dable with improving the video at a later date if I so desire.

Hope this helps and if I missed something that strikes you, just post.

 

hobbit112
i am using the Hauppauge PVR-500 kit video capture card.thats pretty funny. i was hoping you had a different method. i like the card and mce with remote. its wonderful. i am using one of the tuners as a pvr150 with wintv2000 to capture as mpeg. my quality is so so. maybe its time for a newer vcr.. its 10ys old at least. i am using red,yellow and white as inputs. is there a better way?
this card came with no directions or help
how do you set the highest bitrate possible?
thanks

 

OK,

First off, the round connection on your PVR card (at least on mine) is for a S-Video connection. This cable carries the video feed (carried on your white cable) in its separate RGB components and allows for a sharper picture. The audio is still carried on the yellow and red cables. I specifically bought a VHS player which had a S-Video Out connection so I'd have a sharper picture. If your VCR is 10 years old and you haven't had any work done on it, it's possible the playback heads could be worn/out of alignment if you have used it alot.

To set the bitset or capture rate to it's highest in WinTv2000, click on "Preferences" (Pref button)and then select the movies tab. Look at the quality level, for best sampling rate, set it at DVD Standard Play. Click on Advanced>> check your configurations (should be Standard play, if not, change it). Under Video, make sure DVD radio button is selected,Rate Details is Variable (helps with conpression, I have my bit rate set at 6400 & my peak set @ 8000), video resolution should be set to 720 x 480 (DVD standard), click on the Audio tab, I have my Audio Input type set to Stereo, Audio Encode set to MPEG1-Layer 2, sampling rate set to highest and Audio bitrate set to the highest.

Have you picked up the Hauppauge Tweak Tool? If not, you should. It allows you to set additional items in WinTV which aren't available in WinTV such as Brightness, Hue, Volume, Contrast, Sharpness and Saturation. I've also moved these of their defaults but I usually adjust for each tape.

 

great information again
Hauppauge Tweak Tool? that sound interesting..
where would i find this?

Audio Encode set to MPEG1-Layer 2 . why this setting and not 1?
audio bitrate highest is 384?

 

The Tweak tool can be found here:

http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_tweak.html

Note the warning about the audio settings.

Read the entire website about the PVRs, it's informative.

On my system the MPEG1-Layer 1 is greyed out, I can't select it.

384 is the highest audio bitrate listed on my system. It could be because I have a PVR 150, or an older card (mine's 2 yrs old) and/or older drivers than you have (I haven't updated them in a year). It could be my OS(I don't know what you are running), I'm running a XP Home system (which has some issues).

 

i am running xp mce edition. not to get off subject to far what problems related to pvr did you experiance?
your going to have to give me sometime to look through all this info.
if my respones get slower..
thanks

 

born2ride,

My PVR 150 is NOT in a mce machine. It's in a 7 year old machine which started life with Win 98 2nd ed. The only components which haven't been replaced are the power supply & floppy disk drive.

The problems I've had with the PVR are actually few. Getting the correct drivers installed & in correct order was one. The latest is I have jerky video in the screen (pauses for about 5-7 seconds, then runs, then pauses, etc.). Haven't figured this out yet, might be my viedo card going or maybe my motherboard is starting to shoot craps (again). The jerkiness is only on my display, any DVDs I burn are all right.

That's about it for problems.

 

so far the only real problem for me is the dark and grainy live feed from cable. but it records and burns well

 

Did you set the vcr up as a separate channel in WinTV using S-video/Composite as the source?

 

yes i did.set it as channel 201. i was thinking its the monitor or graphic card. i do not know how the graphic card works with system.
i am have so much trouble with my printer now. its driving me nuts!!!. just got it back to printing. but when i was trying to print on my dvd it tells me epson printer driver dealing with cd printing not installed...
i want to get and check out the links soon... if printer had a neck i think i would of choked it.. .
last min father day gift...
i was thinking maybe i will try a vcr with the s-port

 

I might have misunderstood your previous post.

So, the display is dark and grainy, yet the recorded movie is o.k.?

 

yes exactly

 

Hmmmmmm,

I just went and looked at my setup and couldn't find anything. There is a setting in Tweak to adjust Brightness and Contrast, but I think these settings also affect your recordings.

I have seen monitors that display images within a window alot darker than the images actually are.

I'll mess with my setup some more and see if I can come up with something.

 

here a pix of screen. monitor is a westinghouse 17"

 

Let me understand your setup.

You have your PVR 500 in your computer and are running a cable from a TV out on your video card to the Westinghouse. Is this correct?

By display, do you mean on the Westinghouse and/or the WinTV video window on your computer?

If the display on the WinTV window on your computer is clearer, the problem might be with your video card and/or cabling to the Westinghouse and/or who knows???

BTW, I have the same antenna on top of my tv.

 

cable into pvr500 card. the westinghouse is the monitor. hooked via blue connector with about 6 pins port on monitor is called d-sub from back of pc.

ok i dl the Hauppauge Tweak Tool. should i be nervous using it? there are alot of warning! i am still a beginner at this stuff. will it always return to base setting?
are there any direction on what everything is for? it tell me to read them. where are they?
edit do you only use wintv? i have used nero and mce for viewing and recording.
i only use wintv for vcr input
i did all the setting under preferences

 

Hmmm,

I wonder if your dark & grainy image might be due to the d-sub connector and/or d-sub cable. You might want to check out the specs on your video card regarding the d-sub output and on the Westinghouse specs for it's connection. I only view on my monitor with it's normal connection. FYI, in my opinion, my WinTV image was not as sharp as on my TV. I didn't think the resolution was as high.

I think your only worry will be with the audio settings if I remember the warning. If your Tweak program is like mine, set one item, save it, look at the screen to see the result, then change it back to its orginal setting. Make the adjustments when you are watching something. I ended up playing with the contrast, sharpness, hue & brightness mainly. I never figured out what the blur setting does.

I only use the WinTV program to watch anything on my PVR 150. My card is installed in an old puter (P3 1gig CPU, 512 meg ram, Win XP Home, no MCE) which is slightly faster than the minimum recommendation for my card (P3 750).

I did install Nero 7 on the puter and had it configed with the card but 7 is such a hog it bogged down my system so bad I removed it.

 

i have been playing with settings. i can get them all back to where there were except these..

any thought where they should be or started at?

 

Mine are set @ 8 for temporal and 0 for spatial. I never really notice a difference in settings on these items.