VHS Tapes to DVD

Forget USB and go firewire - I use the Director's Cut 2 box and the results are great.

 

Minion - thanks for your endless input into this forum. I have a couple more questions?

1. If my only concern is quality should I capture using HuffyUV and VirtualDub in AVI format?

2. Where is a VirtualDub manual in English?

3. What is the diff between DVD+R and -R?

thanks

 

Well if you have the Disk Space then useing the HuffYUV Codec will Produce the Best Quality but the File size will be quite large, about 25gb per Hour at 720+480, as For a Manual for Virtual Dub I do not think anyone has written one..If you want an easier program to use that does Just video capture then try "Virtual-VCR" ,It is also Freeware and is Compatible with more Capture devices than Virtual-Dub..
And there really aren"t any Fundamental Differances between DVD-R and DVD+R accept that a DVD+R Burner will not Burn DVD-R Disks and the same goes for DVD-R Burners can"t Burn DVD+R disks that is why it is best to get a Dual Format Burner that Burns Both Formats, and DVD-R disks seem to be a Little Cheaper than the DVD+R disks but the DVD+R format has disks that Burn at a Higher Speed and I think in a Couple Months there will be Dual Layered 9gb DVD+R disks but you will need a Burner that supports the Dual Layered Format which with some Burners will just be a Matter of getting a Firmware Upgrade.....Good Luck

 

The 4Gb, like previous said, is the limitation of
the file system, and has nothing to do with the (S)VCD
standard.

 

minion - I used Virtual VCR and HuffyUV and the capture was great even without a seperate HD and using an old tape. Is there a free encoder out there? If not should I just use windows movie maker or roxio? Should I use DVD shrink if I want to put a large homemade movie on DVD.

 

Tou will need to use a Mpeg encoder and a DVD authoring Program to get the Movie on to a DVD...You will First Have to encode your Captured File to Mpeg2 DVD Format ,you can use Tmpgenc for this if you wish as there is a 30 day demo for mpeg2 encodeing in tmpgenc and you can download it on the Main Software Page of this site or over at www.tmpgenc.net...Then once you have a DVD Compliant Mpeg2 file you will have to add Chapters and Menu"s and then author the File to DVD ...I like to use DVD-Lab for this But an easier one would be "Tmpgenc DVD author" which a 30 day demo alse can be downloaded on the Main Software section of this Site....Cheers

 

Hey Minion I have never captured using V. VCR but people really seem to like it. I have always used my Winfast PVR because it was simple and I seen where I have the option to cap. in 720x480. Can I get these dimensions in VCR? I would like to cap "The Sopranos" this Sunday and am looking to get the best possible picture I can. I have the HD space to use the Huffy codec so any other ideas would be appreciated.

 

Yes Virtual-VCR can capture at 720+480 as Long as your Capture device supports that resolution and in the Virtual-VCR settings there is a setting to set the "Master Stream" set it to "Video" this means that if there is any Time Drift in the audio and Video Sync it will adjust the audio sample rate so it can keep sync with the Video, If you choose "Audio" as the Master stream then it will Change the Frame rate so it keeps sync with the Audio which will go out of Sync when you encode the File to Mpeg..It is also good to capture to a hard drive that is seperate from the Hard drive your operateing System and programs are installed on and make sure that Drive is Defragmented because Captureing at full resolution useing HuffYUV will need to have about 500mb per Minute of Video which in Most cases your Master drive will not be able to handle because your system has to access your Master drive while Captureing which can cause you to drop frames if you capture to your Master Drive....Good Luck

 

Are you referring to an actual physical drive or could it be a seperate partition?

 

mbanx - I currently use VirtualVCR with HuffyUV. They work great together and the resolution is superb with very few dropped frames. I get about 80 dropped frames per 20,000. I do not have an extra HD. The down side is the files are BIG. A 10 minute file is about 4.7 G.

Hey Minion - now that I have these great files that I plan on making a movie with. Can DVD shrink, shrink them to fit on a DVD?

 

Minion - What is the best free software to edit my very large .avi files and keep them in .avi format? Can VirtualDub do all of that? I tried it and the file I saved was larger then the original after I cut footage out? Thanks

 

Thanks for the reply I seem to have a problem getting a clear picture it seems to be related to the country # I am in the US but I cant find a number to give me a clear picture.

 

You can Use Virtual-Dub to edit the AVI file but make sure both audio and Video are set to "Direct Stream Copy" then you will not have Huge Files and once you have the Files edited you can NOT use DVD Shrink to put them on a DVD, DVD Shrink isn"t really made for encodeing AVI files and it has no settings for setting up your Menu"s and Chapters Only a DVD authoring Program can do that for you....So after you have edited the File useing Virtual Dub you should use a Mpeg2 encoder Like Tmpgenc or the "MainConcept Encoder" to encode your Captured Movie to Mpeg2 for DVD, then you will need a DVD authoring Program to put this Mpeg2 file on to DVD with menu"s and Chapters, You can use something simple like Tmpgenc DVD author or you can use something more complex Like "DVD-Lab".....DVD-Shrink can not be used when Putting AVI files on to DVD......Cheers

 

Minion - do you know how to shrink a home made DVD from your HD with DVDshrink?

 

what is a good codec to use with virtualdub/virtualVCR that makes files smaller then with HUFFY but still good capture quality?

 

Well, i'll give you mine version of it, i "author"
with TMPGEnc DVD Author, because you can go on,
(ignor warning) and create a too big "project",
Which you then "schrink" with DVDSchrink afterwards,
So there isn't that much difference after all.
(I believe you can do the same with DVDLab..)
If "automatic" settings are still to big, you
should choose "custom" and change to a setting,
so you haven't got "red" on your color bar of
DVDSchrink.

 

does TMPEGnc stop working after the 30 day trial? Is there a good manual out there?

 

The only other High Quality capture codec I would recomend is the "Pic Video MJPEG Codec" which on 19 Quality will produce Quite good Quality while useing about Half the Disk space of HuffYUV Files, It isn"t a freeware Codec but some of the Older versions have been released as Public domain so you might be able to find one of the Free versions, Try this one it might be a free one :
.http://dshow.narod.ru/mjpeg/picvideo2.zip
Tmpgenc run"s out in 30 days for Mpeg2 encodeing but is free forever for Mpeg1 encodeing and with "Tmpgenc DVD Author" it run"s out in 30 days...I would recomend that you encode your Files useing the Correct Bitrate so that it fits on a DVD instead of Encodeing the File and then Shrinking it with DVD-Shrink Cuz every time you compress a file no matter how Little you compress it you loose Quality so encodeing it to the Correct Size in the First Place is the Best Option...
Tmpgenc comes with a help file that explains what all of the settings do and if you have a Particular Problem then Post it here and me or someone else will try to help you out

 

Hey Minion I have a capture I am working with right now that looks good from a distance but it is not real clear I guess it could be some noise. I am running it through Vdub and have applied the deinterlace and temporal smoother filters. Do you think this will help ( I kind of pieced it together from reading) and do you have any other suggestions to improve picture clarity thanks alot

 

avi and no sound. I have read so much in the past month I cant believe I need help with such a simple sounding prob. Help, VHS tape to avi works great but I dont have any sound when I play it back. I have sound when I capture using Video Studio 7. I expected it to be there, should I look in settings or did I miss something in avi #101? Thanks in advance.