VHS Tapes to DVD

Minion: I'm capturing with an ADVC-100 and encoding its output with the Main Concept MPEG encoder. I cannot find any way to adjust the color, etc. in the encoder instructions or setup. Did you have another encoder/capture program in mind for that will allow these adjustments?
Thanks!

 

With the ADVC-100 there should be Color controll settings in the ADVC-100 device settings(I know the Canopus ACEDVio Does)..If not you can adjust the color when you are editing..
If you aren"t doing any editing you can use Tmpgenc to encode which has Many color comtroll and Other Setting for adjusting the Video"s Properties but it is a Much slower encoder than MainConcept..
If you know how to frameserve useing Virtual-Dub you can also use it for Color controll, there are many ways to go about it...Cheers

 

Minion: I can't find any color controls in the ADVC-100 device settings (and I've searched hard).

I'm using the Womble MPEG-VCR Editor to trim the ends and to cut out commercials. It also doesn't have any color editing features. Can you recommend a suitable MPEG editor for adjusting color saturation and balance?

Thanks for all the useful advice that you've contributed to this thread. It's really appreciated by those of us new to the game!

 

Sorry if this has been answered in the thread, but I don't fancy reading every post
My question is about video bit rates.
I have a dvdxpress usb capture device which works effing marvelously for capturing...(i really can't recomend this enough) I have a fairly old analog VCR hooked up and I'm transferring tapes to the PC. My question is, my software enables me to capture at up to 15mb...it recomends no higher than 8mb, but doesnt explain why. I am getting good results with the settings at 4mb...would it make zero difference to the picture quality of the mpeg if I set it higher? to say 6mb or even 8mb? I'm thinking it can only give as good as what is put into it and VHS is pretty low quality anyway. Should I stick to 4mb? I am not bothered by the size of the file since I am not transferring 90 minute movies...the stuff is under 60 mins and should fit on a DVD-R at high bitrates...i'm only intrested in learning about the benefits of bit rates over 4mb.

cheers
Tony

 

drwatson: If you are useing the ADVC-100 then you are captureing to DV AVI so you should be editing with an AVI editor Not a Mpeg editor because it is better to edit when the files are in AVI format than when in Mpeg format because once the Files are in Mpeg format you can not do anything like Change the Color or any of the Video properties without Re-encodeing the Files which ruins the Quality..You should be captureing the DV AVI files and then Editing them and adding any effects or Transitions and adjusting the Color and then Encodeing the Files to Mpeg...
Programs like Adobe premier or Vegas Video are good for this because thay can capture your DV AVI format files from your ADVC-100 and then you can use it to add effects and transitions and change the Color properties and then use it to render your Files in Mpeg2 format for DVD authoring, Or you can render them as DV AVI files and then use a standalone encoder to encode them to mpeg.....
Since your Files are allready in Mpeg format you can"t do anything unless you re-encode the files with the new color settings which will probably lower the Quality to a Lower quality than they were before you did the Color settings.....

tony_2005 : The reason why they tell you not to capture at above 8mb/Sec is because the DVD standard has a Maximum Bitrate of 9.8mb/Sec so any Mpeg files with a Bitrate over 9.8mb/Sec will Not be DVD Compliant so you will not be able to use them to make DVD"s......

 

Hello: 1st time participant

I successfully converted VHS tapes to synched MPEG-2's using DVD Xpress. I've re-checked the MPEGs multiple times for synchronization problems, but can't find any problems whatsoever; they play well on a computer as MPEGs.
However, when I use TPMGeng to convert the synched MPEG files to .vob files for burning a DVD, the resultant DVDs are horribly out of synch.
Each DVD attempt, moreover, has elicited problems to varying degrees: some are synched for a while, then drift mildly out of synch; others are out greatly out of synch from the start.
I've tried tweaking TMPGeng a little (without really knowing what I'm doing), which has resulted in my spinning my wheels, wasting one DVD blank after another.
Any ideas?

 

Forager,
Get yourself some DVD-RWs to do your trials on. You can erase the goofs. Also try burning with Cyberlink
Power Director. I've had no problems with it. I had sync problems with TempGenc. Switched and all is fine. Later and good luck. Maybe Minion has some input for your problem also.

 

forager: what Might be the Problem is that some Hardware Mpeg encoders will Pad the Mpeg stream with Blank Data when they drop a Frame or add a Frame to keep sync with the audio stream but when you author the files to DVD the Files get re-muxed into VOB files and when this happens the Padding gets removed which in effect removes frames from the Video stream and causes it to Go out of Sync...
This is Common with Cheap hardware encoders and some software capture programs....
The only thing I can think of that might work is to run the Captured file through a Program called "PVAStrumento", It is supposed to fix the headers in the Mpeg stream so that it stays in sync after getting re-muxed, ...You can download it on this site in the Software section...Or here:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/pvastrumento.cfm

 

Need help, have 200g hardrive, ATI AIW9600,and a G of ram, have used Pinnacle Studio 8 and can only capture in AVI, Studio 9 works for 9 minutes then locks up my computer ...tried trial version of Intervideo dvdcreator but that only works for 10 minutes, have e-mailed company to ask if that is how the trial is suppose to work and they have not answered, would like to know before I purchase some more software...cannot find any reason why I can't get things to work, running xp, ntfs format,and have lots of space for things to work but they just don't, help anyone

 

Why don"t you use the Multi-Media Center software that came with your Radeon AIW 9600 Card?? It will capture to any AVI format you have codecs for and it will also capture to Mpeg1/2 or the ATI VCR Format...
I have a card not to Dis-Simular to yours and the MMC software works quite well and after captureing if you need to edit you can import the files into Studio 9...
The software was made to work with your Capture device so you might just have better lucj with it....Cheers

 

Don't use the ati setup, it starts but never stops, and it actually shows that I don't have capture driver hardware,even though I have reinstalled it more times than I care to mention...I was just using studio 8 but that only gives me the option to go to avi, could not find a way to go to mpeg directly and when I use it and get just so far through my vhs tape, almost to the end the entire computer locks up and I wind up with nothing. I tried studio 9 and it only works for 9 minutes, then stops, and intervideo windvd works from the vhs tape right to mpeg but stops at 10 minutes, and still no word from the company if this is normal for a trial version, so I don't know if it will work completely. my plan is to use mpeg and go directly to dvd if its possible...

 

Well if you want to got directly to Mpeg2 then Try "Intervideo WinDVR 3.0" cuz it is one of the best Mpeg capture Programs and it is Normal to only capture 10 minutes in the Trial version of WinDVD Creator, the Program sucks anyways...Try winDVR 3.0

 

minion just wanted to say thanks for all the help you have given here it is great
i want to put in my 2 cents on the ati 8500 as a capture device and that would be to agree with minion it captures in avi or any other format i want.

i just moved it from a older machine to a win xp box with a althon 3200 xp cpu.BUT YOU MUST FOLLOW ATI'S DIRECTIONS STEP BUY STEP OR IT WIL NOT WORK
i got the latest drivers, DAO, and multimedia center 9.0 from ati followed there plan and perfect the only bad to media center 9 is that you dont get dvd playback unless you buy a 10 dollar upgrade cd but i already have power dvd for playback so that is not a problem.
if your install has gone bad you need to search for a free ati driver removal tool on the net and make a fresh start and do it there way not yours
also you need to go in to setup and in the pvr section there is a box for disk space click this and check off the allways record to temporary drive and make c:\the location in one touch record if you dont do this it will save your file as a temp and then try to save it when your capture stops to a capture folder which causes problems on big files because a 80 gig file will be a 160 gig file while it goes from temp to final. if you check the box it will just stream to hd in one shot

tommays

 

Well, there is your problem. Until you get the manufacturer's drivers installed *everything* will crash it. Fix this problem first.

Pull out the manual on the card. READ it--not just the installation "quick-card" and follow the procedure STEP-BY-STEP.

Oh, and *READ* any windows that pop up CAREFULLY. 90% of all messed up installations come fro people just clicking OK on message boxes without reading them.

Uninstall your existing drivers and then, using device manager REMOVE *any* (and all) instances of your card in the Hardware Devices area.

Then, reboot and follow the direction in the manual.

bob

 

Minion, i'd like to ask you- what is the best way to encode huffyuv avi's to mpeg2? i have tried tmpeg, procoder, cce and mainconcept and still, the output is not interlaced. I have interlaced avi's, i want interlaced mpeg2 files. what should i use?

 

Well if your Source file is Interlaced then when you have to encode it as Interlaced....
If you Load your File into Tmpgenc useing the "WiZard" it will analize your Files to see if it is Interlaced or Progressive and if it is Interlaced it will adjust the settings automaticly so that the File will be encoded as Interlaced....
The only way to make a Interlaced file Progressive is to encode it as Progressive and/Or de-interlace the file useing a de-interlace filter.....

 

Thanx for answering so quickly.
I have tried with every possible setting in TMPEnc and still have progressive output.
So i'm looking for some tutorial about outputtin interlaced mpeg2 either in CCE or Mainconcept or Procoder.
Second question: if i capture Huffyuv avi with a regular TVtuner (Acorp Conexant BT878) at a rate of 30GB/hour, is that the same quality as Canopus ADVC100 captures?

 

Are you sure that it is Outputting as progressive because when useing Tmpgenc the only way to make the Encoded file Progressive is to Deinterlace...I guess one way to find out is to take the Encoded Mpeg file and Load it into Tmpgenc useing the Wizard and if the Box pops up saying "Judging Field order" then it is Interlaced and if it sets the "Video type" to "Non-Interlace" then it is progressive.....
As to your Question about captureing to AVI useing Huffyuv useing your BT878A Chipset compared to the Canopus ADVC-100 the answer is No the Quality isn"t the same because the BT878A Chipset is only an 8 bit decoder were the ADVC-100 uses i think a 24bit decoder so the quality is Much higher.....Cheers

 

Well, after reading posts and trying software for two weeks, my brain really hurts. Only a couple of questions remain, for the moment:

1. Everyone, especially Minion, seems to trash Roxio, but I haven't seen any detailed reasons why. I'm using an OEM version 6 and haven't had any real problems with it, but then it also won't do everything I want. Why is it so bad??

2. Opinions on Ulead VideoStudio? (Says its "dual CPU aware", which fits my hardware.) Also affordable if I buy ver. 5 on eBay then the upgrade to ver. 8.

That's about it for now. Thanks for a lot of good info.

 

Minion I have heard you talk about getting the correct bit rate as opposed to using programs like DVD shrink. I am trying to create a multiple episode DVD with my own menus, etc. Could you explain this to me a little more? or direct me to place where I can learn more about this.