First of all, I want to apologize for the length of this post, but I feel it's necessary to explain everything that I've done so far in order to help you understand where I'm at right now. I'm a newbie to these forums and to the VHS to DVD conversion process. I recently purchased the Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U, I have updated it with the latest 2.0.2.2 driver and I'm also using the WinDVD Creator software that came with the device. I have updated this with the latest software update from Plextor as well. I'll give you a brief outline of what I've done so far. I have already captured a one hour video using the Good Quality setting in WinDVD Creator and it seemed to come out just fine...or so I thought. I then tried to convert a 2 hour and 6 minute video using the High Quality setting, but much to my surprise the file was much too large to burn onto a DVD. In reading the forums I discovered that the file size has to do with bitrate. So, I decided to convert 2 minutes worth of video using the different settings in WinDVD Creator to see if I noticed a difference in video quality between the settings. Using the different settings I also noticed the difference in the size of files that they created. After capturing video with these different settings, I burned them onto a DVD and watched it on my stand alone DVD player. Even at the High Quality setting I noticed a little bit of flickering in some scenes where there is motion in the movie. So, I decided to take a closer look at the one hour video that I had already converted and burned onto a DVD. This was a concert video and even though there's not as much movement as there is in a movie, I did notice some areas when there is movement there is a noticeable lack of quality in the video. In reading the forums here I came across one written by member pfh that discussed an issue that was discovered with the Plextor PX-M402U. In one of pfh's postings he quoted a response from Plextor Dirk on another website. He said that Plextor was working on a driver update to fix the issue with the WIS encoder chip that is used in the Plextor device. This chip converts the video from interlaced to de-interlaced video before it is encoded. I figured this was the reason why I was seeing "flickering" in the finished video that was on the DVD and why I was seeing a lack of quality in the one hour concert video as well. What is confusing me is that it seems that other members to this forum are still using the Plextor device, but I'm wondering why? If the device is de-interlacing the video, wouldn't that cause a problem with the end result on the DVD? I did read a forum post where there was talk about using GoCap, because it gave you more flexibility in choosing the the settings that you want and it seemed that users were getting good results in the quality of their video conversions. I thought maybe this would solve my problem until Plextor puts out a new driver update. I downloaded GoCap from the Plextor website and started the program. I clicked on "Tools", selected the settings that I wanted and then clicked on "Apply". When I click on the "Preview" button nothing happens. I wait at least one minute, but still nothing has happened. I figured that maybe my vcr had to be running so I pushed play and still nothing happens. I then click on the "Record" button on the GoCap utility and get the following error message: Building DirectShow Graph, Connecting Video Preview with InterVideo Video decoder, Error Code:0x80070491, There was no match for the specified key in the index. What could be the reason for this error and how do I correct it? I know that member pfh is one person that has sworn by this program. Needless to say all of this has been very frustrating. I bought the Plextor convertor, because it got great reviews and now there's this de-interlace issue along with the fact that I can't get GoCap to work. Any help that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
Usually when you get these error messages in GoCap it's because you've chosen a setting that is not quite dvd compliant and if you have the dvd compliant box checked then the error occurs. Un-check the dvd compliant box in the GoCap settings and it should work. As for the file size- after you have compiled your dvd to a hard drive folder you can run it thru dvd shrink to fit on a single disc. However, a 2 hour movie encoded with ~6000-8000kbs should fit on a single disc. Don't worry too much about the de-interlace issue since most dvd players will handle this without problems and I have yet to notice any problems when viewed on tv. There are some motion artifacts that can be seen from time to time depending on the amount of motion but until Plextor releases a new driver we users can't change the encode alogorithm in hopes of improving this. We're forced to use the default instead of trying others.
pfh, Thank you so much for your help. I made the changes that you suggested and GoCap is working fine. I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future, but for now I'm going to run some 2 minute test videos with different settings to see how they are going to look. I've got quite a bit of testing to do, but hopefully I'll have things set up soon so that I can start converting my vhs tapes. I have over 100 of them. Thanks again pfh. I really appreciate it.
You are quite welcome. On another note- when I capture using non-dvd compliant settings, I've found that these mpegs end up reported as having a 1:1 aspect ratio in Dvd Lab. I use Dvd Lab for compiling the dvd structure for burning instead of Windvd creator, it is faster than WinDvd. To correct this, I use Womble mpeg2vcr. Apparently the header information in the mpeg gets changed by womble to report the correct 4:3 aspect ratio (that's my guess). if you can find another application to do this that is free you could save yourself some $ but I have not looked into this since I already purchased Womble. You can use WinDvd Creator for compiling but it takes longer because it will re-encode the entire mpeg instead of just fixing the header info. You are on the right track by doing the 2 minute testing. Smart thinking. The Plextor unit works well and you should end up with dvd's that have a quality as good as their source (vhs). Just don't expect the perfection you can see from commercial studio productions AFter all, they have the equipment out of our price range!!
Thanks again pfh. I'll look into some free programs to correct the 1:1 aspect ratio and let you know if I find any. I do have another question about GoCap. I won't be able to do any more testing until Thursday night, but I thought I'd ask now so that I don't forget later. I ran some tests last night and I noticed that in GoCap if I had the GOP set to 15 I did not have to have the Custom MPEG box checked, but if I changed it to 12 I did have to check the Custom MPEG box. As per your instructions, I don't have the DVD Compliant box checked for any of my tests. If I tried to change the GOP to anything lower than 12, regardless if I had the Custom MPEG box checked or not the preview window did not open. That tells me that GoCap would error out if I tried to record anything. Can the GOP be set to anything lower than 12? If so, how can I make GoCap work with a lower GOP setting?
Must be your sequence setting then. Try changing sequence to IPB, IP only, or I only and lower GOP to 1 if you want. Mess around there until you get preview, that way you know it will work before you start to capture.
Thanks pfh, you were correct. Once I changed the sequence to IP it worked. I'm going to download the trial versions of DVDLab, DVDShrink and Womble to see how they work. I'm still going to see if there are any free programs to change the aspect ratio.
Hello pfh, earlier in this forum you had asked if I was able to find any free programs that would fix the aspect ratio on video files where I've changed the GOP in the settings with GoCap. Well, I recently finished testing 22 two minute videos. I used GoCap and WinDVD Creator for 16 of them using various bitrate settings and GOP settings. The other 6 I tested capturing with the Video Studio 8 that now comes with the ConvertX PX-M402U. I also did some testing on burning these videos with three different programs...Nero, Video Studio 8 and DVD Lab. Nero automatically converts any file that does not have a 4:3 aspect ratio to 4:3, so there's no need to use Womble to do this. Video Studio 8 will also do the same thing. The problem with Nero is that on these files regardless if you burn the DVD directly to the harddrive or to a DVD, when you play the DVD the bottom of the screen has some sort of distortion to it. When I used Video Studio 8 to burn the DVD the picture is really good. I also tested using Womble to change the aspect ratio and then burn the DVD with DVD Lab. It appears to me that there's not much difference in quality between using VS8 or DVD Lab to burn the files onto a DVD. There is a very noticeable difference in the quality using Nero, which I've seen on other forums is usually the case. So, my plan is to use GoCap with WinDVD Creator to capture and then use VS8 to burn the DVD. I have read on another forum that there might be some issues with having WinDVD Creator & VS8 loaded at the same time. I'll update this forum as soon as I reload WinDVD Creator onto my computer (I removed the program prior to doing my test with VS8). Oh, by the way, the 6 files that I tested using VS8 to capture and burn didn't turn out that well. I thought the quality in the video was about the same or slightly worse than when I used Nero. I'm hoping to find some time to work on it tonight, but I may not be able to get back to capturing until this weekend. I'm sure glad to get this testing over with, because I have over 100 video tapes to transfer!
I just ran into a problem with GoCap. In the WinDVD Creator settings it gives you the option of having your file no larger than 4.3GB or you can have it as large as you want. I chose to have the file be as large as it can be. I startup GoCap and make my selections and start capturing a movie. Two hours later after the capture is finished, I go into the directory where I have saved the file and it has split it into two files. The first file is 4.3GB and the second file is 1.2GB. I use the DVD player software on my computer and the first file plays just fine. The second file has no picture, but it has sound. Is there anyway to configure GoCap so that it doesn't split the file? I wouldn't mind it so much, but the fact that the second file has no picture obviously doesn't work.
Hi. New to this discussion. I have been following this for some time now. I use Win DVD Creator 5 for the capture and everything. I found it works just fine. I can delete advertising with relative ease by making chapters, then deleting the unwanted ones afterwards, add content and burn. I was in despair to remove advertising at first. I must have tried 5 or 6 different software. None work as great as Win DVD Creator 5 once I found out how. The possibility to spread the time line is what distinguish this software from others. Hope this helps.
RDH: Sounds like you are using WinDVD to compile the dvd. I have never run into this split mpeg problem before except when I make a mistake during capture with GoCap and have to capture in 2 segments. Can you capture the missing video segment again and splice into the first one? Womble can do this for you with ease if your trial period isn't over. I haven't used WinDVD for splicing. From your testing, it sounds like quality differences aren't much to worry about between the various programs. Guess it comes down to a difference in amount of time it takes to get to the final dvd and how much extra $ you wnat to spend.
pfh No, I'm not using WinDVD to capture the movie. I'm using GoCap to capture it. The first time I captured the movie with GoCap it split the file in two. I had remembered when I tried to capture a movie with WinDVD that it did the same thing and I found out that I needed to go into the setup and click on the part that allows the file to be as large as wants. So, after I captured the 2 hour movie with GoCap and it split the file in two I closed GoCap and opened WinDVD. I went into the setup in WinDVD and made the selection to allow the file to be any size. I then closed WinDVD and relaunched GoCap and captured the movie a 2nd time. It still split the file in two. My settings are: MPEG2 Target Bitrate 6,000,000 Peak Bitrate 9,800,000 GOP 5 IP MPEG Custom box is checked If there is no way to solve the issue of GoCap splitting the file in two, I guess that's ok, because with these settings the file isn't small enough to fit on one DVD. I have to split the movie in two anyway, but it would be nice if GoCap would capture it all in one file. PFH, you said that you don't have this problem in GoCap. What settings do you use? Is it because my settings create a file that's too big and that's why GoCap is splitting it? I appreciate your help with this. Thanks.
Maybe a bug with WinDVD because I've often had captures that exceed well over 4.3 gigs. My GoCap settings have been varied but similar to yours and it caps based on length of time not file size. This is a guess but I thought I heard of Nero having issues regarding file size limitations and perhaps GoCap has picked up something from that program?? Others have reported problems when Ulead and Intervideo s/w are installed together, maybe that's it?? Don't know what to tell you really because it shouldn't happen.
I was wondering about the conflict between Ulead & WinDVD myself. I have since uninstalled Nero, because I don't like the way it encodes the mpeg file. I'll have to see if there is a way that I can disable Ulead when I'm running GoCap and then enable Ulead when I want to edit/prepare the mpeg file for burning. I had forgotten about GoCap having the ability to capture based on time. When I captured the 2 hour movie I unchecked the "stop capture after___minutes". I'll try checking that box and changing it to 120 minutes to see if that will work in keeping the file in one piece. I think I'll also look into some other burning software to see if they work better. The one thing I like about Ulead's Video Studio 8 is if the mpeg file is not DVD compliant, it makes it compliant during the burning process. Grant it, it has to reencode the movie, but then again when I tried Womble to get an mpeg file back to 4:3 aspect ratio it was a lengthy process as well. Boy, I thought converting vhs to dvd would be easier than this. I sure hope Plextor comes out with the update for the ConvertX M402U like they say they are. I emailed Plextor and they said an update would be out sometime this month. Once they release it and fix the de-interlace issue I think that will help, but I still need to resolve the issue between Ulead & WinDVD being installed at the same time. Again, thank you for your help. I'll let you know if I'm able to fix any of my issues. I'm sure there are others reading this that would like to know. You've been so helpful to me, I'd like to return the favor sometime. pfh, in another forum where you posted your guide to converting vhs to dvd you had mentioned that you had possibly found a way to turn off de-interlacing. Did you mean that you possibly found a way to turn off de-interlacing on the Plextor M402U?
Ahhh, use the time feature and your problem will most likely be solved. As for turning off deinterlace, I thought at the time, I was able to use a reg tweak but it didn't work. Now I too am waiting on Plextor's update. They keep saying, "soon" .!!!!! You may or may not have any conflict between Ulead and Intervideo. It was just a suggestion. your current setup may be fine and you won't have to do anything other than using the length of cap time feature in GoCap.
All DVDs are recorded in the 480i standard. When a DVD player or recorder plays a DVD, it is the progressive scan processors and line doublers used in the playback path that can determine how the 480i video recorded on the DVD is eventually displayed on a television or projection screen. The interlaced to progressive scan conversion can be done through either the DVD playback path or by a progressive scan television, however, it is more efficient to have the DVD recorder or player do it.
Visigoth, Thanks for the information on DVD's. The problem with the Plextor ConvertX 402U, and pfh can confirm this, is that when you take a vhs video tape and capture it with the ConvertX the resulting mpeg file is progressive. In another forum on another website, pfh received this confirmation from Plextor Tech Support. He asked them if the file created using the ConvertX is in progressive or interlaced form. They responded with progressive. I have also confirmed this with a program called GSpot, which gives you detailed information on any video file. I just captured a movie and when I load the mpeg file into GSpot, it confirms that its progressive. The same is true if I burn that mpeg file onto a DVD. The resulting DVD files are also progressive. I believe that's where the issue is. If a DVD player processes the converstion from interlace to progressive scan, then basically we're taking a progressive file and converting it to a progressive scan? For those of us waiting for the driver update from Plextor, which will fix this problem, I think I'm getting closer to coming up with a workaround. Bottom line is that I'm trying to figure out how to take the mpeg file that is progressive and make it interlaced, so that when it plays in a DVD player the video content has good motion. Currently, I'm noticing some flickering during the playback. Also, if you take a commercial DVD and pause it while playing it in a DVD player there is no distortion in the picture. If I try and pause one of the movies I've transfered from a vhs, the resulting picture is sometimes blurred. If I find a useful workaround for dealing with this issue I will certainly post it here.
It's been a while since I've posted to this forum and I thought I'd give those that are interested an update. Well, I'm still trying to solve my "flickering" problem. I've received some good advice in regards to the whole interlace/progressive issue. I did some more testing in where I captured several two minute clips using GoCap and the Convertx M402U. I used GSpot to confirm that each of the mpeg2 files were progressive and then I used TMPGEnc to convert from progressive to interlace. Well, it did not remove the "flickering" that I was seeing before. I just wish Plextor would stop stalling and get their new driver out. It would certainly save me the headache of trying to solve this problem. I haven't tried using Avisynth yet to convert the files from progressive to interlace, so I'm going to try that. PFH, you mentioned to me that you use a video stabilizer, along with the Convertx. Do you think this would help my situation...as well as anyone else who has came across the same problem I'm having?
A video proc. amp. may or may not help. Hard to say without first ruling out that the problem is not the playback vcr. Have you tried a different vcr?
pfh, I think that's one thing that I've missed in trying to find a solution to my problem. There are a few places in my area that rent vcr's, so I'm going to look into what types of vcr's are available. I'm going to rent one that has an s-video connection, that way I can try both types of connections to the Convertx. My girlfriend has a vcr, but it's just as old as mine. Thanks for pointing this out for me. All of this has been frustrating for me and I do appreciate the help that you have given me. Once I try a different vcr I'll let you know how my test captures come out.
