VHS Tapes to DVD

Canopus doesn't sell directly to consumers, I don't think. Do a search for the unit to find the best prices.

 

They show a very large number of products and use language geared toward professionals who are familiar with such products. To pick out a single unit would take more time than worth the bother. If they came to me and said they had a great product for video capture, editing and burning DVD's, and gave me the price, I would read it and consider it. They are not trying to sell me anything. Turtle Beach is.

 

Thanks for all the replies, this site is great!

I think I will put the Canopus on hold for a little while though, as I just got my PVR250 working so I want to test that out first. I'm really after good quality capture from tapes and nothing else. What is this GOP thing I keep on hearing about? Is it program for capture?

Samintx, do you have a canopus product? does anyone else?

Thanks again

 

@Pezzer,
Regarding the Canopus products, I own the ACEDVio PCI card internal video capture device. I bought it per Minion's fine advice about a year ago.
From using it, I highly recommend it. I bought it bc, as Minion pointed out, it locks the audio in perfect sync with the video; I definitely did not want to mess with trying to correct that if out of sync, as with other devices. One less thing to do.
Captures great, no fuss, no mess...exactly what you want when doing this stuff. Also, as Minion said, internal capture devices get better bandwidth over USB devices, even USB 2.0 always less than PCI-mounted device.
Go Canopus!! And Minion is da man!
Hope that helps,
md

 

It sounds good, how much did you pay for it? How long does it take you to encode a 90 min tape? Cause the encoding part takes really long?
Like I said before i'm currently trying the PVR250 but the canopus products do seem really good.

Does anyone ever post their own clips on this forum because i would like to see some examples from people with different products.

Thanks
Pez

 

Actually the Encodeing doesn"t have to take a Long time if you use the Right encoder and Have a Fast PC....

If you want Professinal Quality encodeing that is a fast in a program that is Fairly easy to use then maybe try the "MainConcept Encoder" as it is a Very Good quality encoder and it is Very fast...
On my PC I can encode to Mpeg-2 at Full D1 resolution at about real Time so a 2 Hour movie takes about 2 Hours.....

An even faster and Better quality encoder is the "CinemaCraft Encoder SP 2.70" which produces Excelent quality and Can encode at about 1.5 Times Real time...
The Problem with CinemaCraft Encoder SP is that it is Difficult to use because most of it"s settings are very advanced and it only accepts AVI files with Uncompressed Audio so you generally have to use a Frameserver with it Like AVISynth to get the Best results and you really have to know what each setting is for so you know what to set them to based on the Type of Video you are encodeing so you really have to have a Fairly advanced Knowlege of Mpeg encodeing and Digital Video......

Cheers

 

Hello, Minion. You seem to have a lot of experience with this topic, so maybe you can help me. I am trying to transfer my 20+ year old VHS tapes to mini-DV for archiving purposes, and on the same token create DVD's from the resulting DV files. I purchased an ADS DV capture card to do the job but the captures kept stopping between scenes and on scenes with a distorted picture. As soon as it senses "SNOW" the capture stops and it asks me if I want to save the file. This became annoying when trying to capture a tape recorded in EP mode and stops capturing every 10 minutes when the scene changes or picture distorts. I use Adobe Priemere Pro 1.5 and tried Windows Movie Maker and even Ulead DVD Workshop. I made sure to turn off "automatic scene detection" and "stop capture on dropped frames" but this still happened. I was told by a few people that a "Time Base Corrector" would solve my problem, so I decided to stop playing around with cheap capture cards and I purched the Canopus ADVC-300 with built in TBC and frame stableizer. Guess what....same exact problem. I called Canopus and after countless hours of being on hold the tech told me that the ADVC-300 does not have a "REAL" time base corrector but is only "TBC-LIKE". This problem does not happen when recording from any other source and even works great on newer VHS tapes. I have made many successful captures from the ADVC as long as it isn't from those old tapes. The picture that it does capture looks great but I don't want to babysit the transfer and then piece the DV files back together later, it just takes way too much time and I have way too many tapes, but at this point it seems like the only way. I tried this on a Pentium IV 3.4Ghz with Win XP Pro, 1Gb RAM, 128Meg ATI graphics, 10,000rpm Western Digital SATA HD and also tried it on my Pentium III 1.1Ghz laptop with Win XP Home and 512Mb RAM to be sure it was not some type of hardware conflict, but got the same result. I just don't know what else to do. I can't afford to spend another $300 dollars on a TBC just to SEE if that will solve my problem. I'll bet it won't. Anyway, if you (or anyone else) have any ideas or info that would help me out, or lead me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Moondogg

 

The only Solution I can Think of is Getting a Full Frame TBC.....

 

Hi Minion,

I currently wish to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD. I have decided to either use the ADVC-300 and capture in avi, then encode to MPEG2 using CCE or to use MPEGPro and automatically capture in MPEG2. Which would give me the best results? Will it even be noticable? I may or may not edit the captured videos--my main concern is the final quality.

Part of my dilema lies in the fact that I only have a 120GB UDMA hard drive. My motherboard supports an additional UDMA, but UDMA drives don't seem to be very common anymore. This is why I thought of the MPEGPro. If chose to go with the ADVC-300 and captured 6 hours of VHS at a time, do you know how big the final AVI file and the resulting encoded MPEG2 file would be? Do you recommend capturing 6 hours at a time?

I look forward to your comments. Thank you very much.

 

Well in your Case since you only have one Hard Drive I would suggest useing the Canopus MpegPro to Capture directly to Mpeg-2 and authoring the Files directly to DVD....This way would also save you a Lot of Time and Still produce very acceptable Results....

You can also Edit the Captured Mpeg-2 files useing any Good Mpeg editor...I Personally like useing the "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard 2005" for mpeg editing as it can edit on a Frame Accurate Basis and has feature like Transitions and effects and the editing will not affect the quality of the edited mpeg-2 files.....

You could also Install another IDE Hard Drive as a UDMA Hard Drive is Just a Regular ATA IDE Hard Drive (Unless you have a SCSI setup) which are very Common and Very Inexpensive (you could get a 200gb ATA-133 Drive for about $100 US)....

Cheers

 

Hi Minion,

I have finally been able to gather all of the equipment for this video editing project. I am using canopus' ADVC-300 to capture, Ulead VideoStudio 9 to edit, and CCE SP 2.70.01.05 to encode. I thought CCE finished encoding last night, but it did not. The file seems to be somewhat corrupt. It was 2 hours and 23 minutes long, but opening the .mpv file in windows media player only shows it as 19 minutes long and it if I try to fast forward to the end, windows media just freezes on me. Perhaps I may need to change the settings in CCE? I just read one of the doom9.org guides and based my settings on that guide. What I am trying to convert to MPEG-2 are some really old vhs tapes which were copied from other VHS tapes well over 10 years ago. These are NTSC films but the originals may have been taped from foreign tv. I received the following log file information from CCE. Is there any advice you can give me? I wonder if I am getting progressive/interlace mixed up in CCE...because I don't know what the source is.

Thank you.

***** CCE SP Works Version started at 2005/12/24 21:52:07 *****
-- CCE SP Works Version version 2.70.01.05
-- SDK version 2.70 CCE Works (built at 13:17:21 Sep 29 2004)
fexp thread created.
audio file: S:\Beach Movie\1-3\BEACH PART 1-3 FINAL.wav
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

TC in: 01:00:00:00
TC out: 03:23:25:00
TC in: 01:00:00:00
TC out: 03:23:25:00
cce created.
encoder initialized.
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

encoding started at 2005/12/24 22:17:26.
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding stop notification
sync stopped.
encoding stopped at 2005/12/24 22:38:56.
fdev0 closed.
fdev1 closed.
>>>> Performance <<<<
Source : 1980.846 seconds (59366 frames)
Elapsed: 1289.782 seconds
---------------------------------------------------
>> File reading 24.473 1.897 %
>> Decoding 646.663 50.137 %
>> Resizing 0.000 0.000 %
>> Deinterlacing 0.000 0.000 %
>> RGB -> YUY2 153.186 11.877 %
---------------------------------------------------
>> MPEG encoding 465.459 36.088 %
audio file: S:\Beach Movie\1-3\BEACH PART 1-3 FINAL.wav
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

TC in: 01:00:00:00
TC out: 03:23:25:00
TC in: 01:00:00:00
TC out: 03:23:25:00
cce created.
encoder initialized.
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

encoding started at 2005/12/24 22:48:36.
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding stop notification
sync stopped.
encoding stopped at 2005/12/25 00:21:08.
fdev0 closed.
fdev1 closed.
>>>> Performance <<<<
Source : 8613.605 seconds (258150 frames)
Elapsed: 5552.125 seconds
---------------------------------------------------
>> File reading 114.516 2.063 %
>> Decoding 2803.348 50.491 %
>> Resizing 0.000 0.000 %
>> Deinterlacing 0.000 0.000 %
>> RGB -> YUY2 666.168 11.998 %
---------------------------------------------------
>> MPEG encoding 1968.094 35.448 %
TC in: 01:00:00:00
TC out: 03:23:25:00
cce created.
video file: S:\Beach Movie\1-3\BEACH PART 1-3 FINAL.mpv
encoder initialized.
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

encoding started at 2005/12/25 00:21:18.
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding stop notification
sync stopped.
encoding stopped at 2005/12/25 01:53:39.
fdev0 closed.
fdev1 closed.
>>>> Performance <<<<
Source : 8613.605 seconds (258150 frames)
Elapsed: 5541.422 seconds
---------------------------------------------------
>> File reading 113.875 2.055 %
>> Decoding 2834.144 51.145 %
>> Resizing 0.000 0.000 %
>> Deinterlacing 0.000 0.000 %
>> RGB -> YUY2 676.711 12.212 %
---------------------------------------------------
>> MPEG encoding 1916.692 34.588 %
cce created.
video file: S:\Beach Movie\1-3\BEACH PART 1-3 FINAL.mpv
encoder initialized.
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

encoding started at 2005/12/25 01:53:46.
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding stop notification
sync stopped.
encoding stopped at 2005/12/25 03:26:11.
fdev0 closed.
fdev1 closed.
>>>> Performance <<<<
Source : 8613.605 seconds (258150 frames)
Elapsed: 5544.875 seconds
---------------------------------------------------
>> File reading 114.018 2.056 %
>> Decoding 2855.437 51.497 %
>> Resizing 0.000 0.000 %
>> Deinterlacing 0.000 0.000 %
>> RGB -> YUY2 683.009 12.318 %
---------------------------------------------------
>> MPEG encoding 1892.410 34.129 %
cce created.
video file: S:\Beach Movie\1-3\BEACH PART 1-3 FINAL.mpv
encoder initialized.
biCompression = dvsd
fccHandler = dvsd
trying yuy2.
YUY2 format was not accepted.
trying bitcount = 32.
bitcount = 32 was not accepted.
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER begin ---
biSize = 40
biWidth = 720
biHeight = 480
biPlanes = 1
biBitCount = 24
biCompression = 0
biSizeImage = 1036800
biXPelsPerMeter = 0
biYPelsPerMeter = 0
biClrUsed = 0
biClrImportant = 0
--- BITMAPINFOHEADER end ---

Codec info:
Name: DVCodec
Description: Panasonic DV CODEC
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\pdvcodec.dll

encoding started at 2005/12/25 03:26:18.
>> received encoding start notification
>> received encoding start notification

 

Well From Reading the Log File I can not see why CCE stopped Encodeing, The Log seems to suggest that it Finnished encodeing the whole File...
Look at the Files File Size to see if it seems Like a Bigger than 20 minute File as it could be Media Player that is Not Playing it correctly(20 Minutes M2V file will be about 400mb), I usually Load My M2V Files into "DVD2AVI 1.77" so see if the whole File is there because Media Players sometimes Have problems Playing back Video Only MPV files.....

You could also try another encoder Like Maybe Tmpgenc or Canopus Procoder if it turns out that CCE has Crashed on you....

Cheers

 

I know for the purist Canopus/cards etc is the prefered way to go from Video to DVD but I have been there, done that and waited hours on encoding to find the movie wasn't translated to my satisfaction.

Cheaper and quicker to buy a Toshiba DVD/VCR recorder and with one click the Video is made into a DVD.

Since the videos being transferred are not copy protected anyway....save yourself misery and time.

 

There has to be a better way to do this kind of stuff, the real problem is what can you do after you do get a movie from VHS to your system and it comes all broken up.

Is there a program that can split out the pictures and audio into a frame by frame file that you can then run filters or even manually fix the picture.

and the crowd becomes silent!

 

@samintx and @duftopia,:
I would agree...for those that just want to do a "straight transfer" from VHS to DVD. Obviously, this would not be quite the ticket for those of us who want or need to do more involved manipulation of the VHS footage, such as editing, cutting and splicing clips and adding effects, audio or video overdubs, etc. And it simply isn't enough for those of us doing production of our own videos, stuff like programs, teaching topics, etc etc.
So, it depends on what folks really need to do: for straight transfers without adding or manipulating footage, VCR/DVD recorder is the easy way to go; for those needing to do more, capturing, editing and then encoding and DVD authoring is the way to go.

By the way, the advice Minion offers and the processes he describes are the way to go, depending on what one needs. Frame by frame etc sounds hrder and defeating the purpose of doing the most with the least or easiest way; if difficulties and malfunctions are avoided, Minion's advice and guidance is definitely the right way to go..
Shalom,

 

Hi Minion

Have followed thread and learnt a lot, but need some advice - have used Canopus ADVC110 to get analogue video into Premiere 6.5, edited averything but ended up with 2hrs 30mins I want to put onto DVD. Exporting using built in Adobe Mpeg Encoder I selected 'Advanced' so I could change Video and audio bitrates as follows as per thread info:
Video 3875 kbs Audio 192 kbs which gave a .mpg file of 3.544Gb however I can't use Nero 6 to create the final DVD with chapters etc. Have I done something wrong? As it takes some hours to render I would like to get it 'right next time'.
Any ideas?
Cheers

 

What messages does Nero give you?
Is the "rendered" video the right aspect ratio for your location?

 

Hi
Nero 6 Express gives 'no compatible file found' message.
Aspect ratios PAL format etc are all okay and same as used previously - when the length has been around 2 hrs and I've not had to play with Bitrates.
Should I have used the Adobe Mpeg Encoder and selected 'DVD' - this option only allows to alter Video bitrate and not audio?

Thanks

 

Hi Minion I have been reading this whole thread and am a little confused as to what software i should use with the Canopus 110 I just purchased, I wish to copy VCR Tapes onto DVD, My wife has about 200 VCR tapes and they take up so much room, I bought the Canopus as I read that it is one of the best for capturing, please can you say what software to use to capture and get the movie onto DVD. Thank you in advance.......................scotty

 

Hi, You have to use Software that is Made for Captureing from DV Camcorders and Analogue Digital Converters ,Most Software Made for Captureing from TV tuner Cards will not work with the ADVC....

I personally Like to use a Capture program called "Scenalyzer Live" but it isn"t freeware...If you want a freeware DV AVI capture program you might check out "WinDV" and "DVIO" which you should be able to Find in the Software section of this Site or if you do a Google search.....

Also remember if the VHS Tapes you are Trying to Capture to your PC are Retail VHS tapes that you will have to Disable the Macrovision Detection on the Canopus ADVC-110.....

Here is How you do it: (Copied from another site)

[bold]Follow these instructions to disable macrovision:

If there are applications where you must capture a Macrovision
copy-protection clip, we found that this can be done by doing
the following:

1.) Press and hold the Input Select button on the front panel
until you see the color bars appear.

2.) Keep the button pressed (about 15 seconds) until the color
bars disappear. (Note: with some capture cards the color
bars may not appear. In any case, keep the button pressed
for the full 15 seconds.

3.) Macrovision copy-protection is now disabled until you switch
off the ADVC-100/110/300.[/bold]


After you have Captured your Video you will have to encode it to DVD compliant Mpeg-2 Format before authoring it to DVD...
A Good a fast Mpeg encoder is "MainConcept Encoder v1.5" and a Good DVD authoring program with very Nice Menu Features is "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" .....

There are also "DV AVI Capture/Editing/Encodeing/DVD Authoring" Programs/Packages that can do all of this all in the Same Program or a Couple Programs....Something Like "Sony Vegas Video 6/DVD Architect 3.0" is a Good Capture/Editing/DVD authoring Package that will work with the Canopus ADVC-110 and will allow you to do everything you would need all in the same Software Package...The program(s) are pretty expensive though but you could find an older version on e-bay for much cheaper.....

There are also other Much cheaper Programs that can do much of this stuff, If you are interested in Info on other Software programs for Video production let me Know....

Cheers