VHS Tapes to DVD

I am a novice at all this so any help would be appreciated.
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I have backed up a movie onto my hard drive. The file properties in Media Play show it as 4.5 GB. When I went to convert it to DVD in a SONIC program I got a message that said "File Too Large - Will Not Fit On Disk". I think I read somewhere that there is a difference between file size and DVD listed GB. The DVD disk is a standard 4.7 GB. I prefer not to record the movie again with a lesser quality setting since it is a time consuming process.
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Any suggestions?
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My computer Has "Media Center" installed as well as "MicroSoft Music Maker".

Thanks

 

I'm a newbie too and when I cut my first DVD, I got that message. It also gave me the option of making the cut at a level of less quality. I had gone that far so I said OK. I didn't notice any difference in the results. Try it and see what happens.

 

DVDTD:A DVD-R actually holds 4.38gb not 4.7 as they state ,It will Hold 4700KB which isn"t 4.7gb but 4.38gb ,This is just the creative math that Disk manufacturers use, they also use this Creative math with Hard drives....If you can maybe you can try to cut the Credits off the end of the movie and maybe that will make the File small enough to fit on a DVD-R...What format are you captureing to?? If you are Captureing to Mpeg2 then SONIC should NOT be doing any Converting of your File because Mpeg2 is allready the correct format for DVD so there is no need to further converting, so if it is Takeing more than say 30 minutes for the SONIC Program to format your Menu"s and Chapters and Mpeg2 file into a Video_TS Folder then you can be sure that it is re-encodeing your File in which case you are looseing a Lot of Quality, If this is the case you should use a Different DVD Authoring Program Like DVD-Lab which doesn"t even come with an encoder so there is no chance it will re-encode your File and it will let you cut the credits off the end of the file so you can Make it fit on a DVD-R....Good Luck

 

I have no problem copying home made VHS tapes to DVD's on my Sony Vaio. The problem I have is trying to copy a copywrite protected VHS tape to DVD. I get the message that it's protected and won't allow me to make a copy. Anyone know a way around this for VHS tapes? I use xcopy to copy DVD to DVD, but it's no help for this.

 

What you need for copying Copy Protected VHS Tapes is a Video Stabilizer that will remove the Macrovision Copy Protection...You can get a cheap one that will work Just Fine for VHS Tapes for about $20 to $30 and can be found in most Big electronics stores or On Line like on Ebay..They are Just a Small Box with a 9v Battery in it that you Connect in between your VCR and your Capture device.....Cheers

 

Thanks Minion,
(REF: your reply of 24 March 2004 15:54)
I am capturing the video through my MS "Media Center". I record the VHS directly from the VCR through "Media Center". It goes to a file called "Recorded TV" and appears as file in the hard drive directory with a "Media Player" symbol. The properties show it as a dvdr-ms file.
I tried opening the file of the recorded VHS with "Movie Maker" in an attempt to truncate the beginning and end of the file to shorten it up. "Movie Maker" doesn't support a dvdr-ms file so I was not successful. The file size is 5.0 GB and I think that I should be able to shorten it up as you suggested. I have done this with audio files by going into the wave file (.wav) with freeware such as "Wave Repair" and cutting out the undesired portions of the file - I was hoping that I could do the same here. Do you know of any video program (free ware or otherwise) that is available accepts dvdr-ms? I also tried "DVD Shrink" but it would not accept it - if I could get it into the right format for "DVD Shrink", I think it would work - if so, I would do all future VHS copying at the highest quality setting then shrink onto DVD-R with "DVD Shrink".
Thanks for your help.

 

Correction to post above:

Media Center uses a new file format called DVR-MS. DVR-MS is an MPEG-2 file that includes metadata about the recorded program to be stored.

Thanks Minion,
(REF: your reply of 24 March 2004 15:54)
I am capturing the video through my MS "Media Center". I record the VHS directly from the VCR through "Media Center". It goes to a file called "Recorded TV" and appears as a file in the hard drive directory with a "Media Player" symbol. The properties show it as a DVR-MS (not dvdr-ms) file.
I tried opening the file of the recorded VHS with "Movie Maker" in an attempt to truncate the beginning and end of the file to shorten it up. "Movie Maker" doesn't support a DVR-MS (not dvdr-ms) file so I was not successful. The file size is 5.0 GB and I think that I should be able to shorten it up as you suggested. I have done this with audio files by going into the wave file (.wav) with freeware such as "Wave Repair" and cutting out the undesired portions of the file - I was hoping that I could do the same here. Do you know of any video program (free ware or otherwise) that is available that accepts DVR-MS? I also tried "DVD Shrink" but it would not accept it - if I could get it into the right format for "DVD Shrink", I think it would work - if so, I would do all future VHS copying at the highest quality setting then shrink onto DVD-R with "DVD Shrink".
Thanks for your help.

 

Thanks for the input. Could you post the download site for "wave repair"?

 

Download site for "Wave Repair" is: http://www.delback.co.uk/wavrep/download.htm
&
http://www.delback.co.uk/wavrep/

 

For editing Mpeg2 files I use "Mpeg2VCR 3.14" or the "Mpeg Video Wizard" which are Both made by the Same Company..These editors are Frame accurate non-destructive editors that will edit Mpeg1/2 Vob and any other Mpeg 1/2 format and it will also handle AC3 audio in Mpeg files and the Editing is Non-destructive which means there is no Quality Loss when editing and the editing is extremely Fast, You can even add Transitions and some effects to the Video useing these editors..Mpeg2VCR is a More Basic editor with some simple Transitions but the Mpeg video wizard is more of a Full features editor were you can edit useing a Multi-Track timeline View..These editors aren"t Freeware as I do not know of any Good Freeware Mpeg editors....Cheers

 

Hi. I've been reading through this thread and I have some advice that may prove helpful.

First of all, I'd like to note that Minion's advice on page 5 to set the Master Stream to avoid synch problems is not the best solution. See here: http://http://virtualvcr.sourceforge.net/html/virtualvcr/sync.php

The Master Stream automatically gets set to "None" when you choose the "Resample Audio Dynamically" option. Simply changing the Master Stream setting won't resample the audio.

If your card can't capture in YUY2, you may want to set the "Convert to YUY2" option in the HuffyUV configuration. That's what I use for VHS captures. For better quality source, I used uncompressed YUY2 (about 70GB/hour).

Why? All analog source is in YUV colorspaces, as will be your encoded video result. Conversion between colorspaces is a good way to waste both encode-time and lose quality. Unfortunately, Premiere and VirtualDub work in RGB, requiring a conversion. Colorspace info: http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/colorspace.html

The solution to this is AVIsynth. Yes, it's a scripting language and seems a little intimidating at first, but it's really not very hard to use, especially if your needs are simple, and it works in YUY2! There are also a wide range of filters available for AVIsynth. For example, a simple script that opens up a video and cuts out two commercial breaks would just be these two lines:

In this case, the video you want encoded begins on frame 200, stops for a commercial break at frame 9786, then returns at frame 12957 and runs until frame 25976. You can add as many Trim commands as you want.

Preview the video in VirtualDub to see where the beginning and end frames are. An AVIsynth file is just a text file saved with a .AVS extension (after AVIsynth is installed, of course). When you load it in your video encoder, however, it is seen as an actual video file. The encoder will only see the frames you want it to see and won't encode anything that has to be cut out later.

Here is a basic guide to AVIsynth: http://www.inmatrix.com/articles/ivtcsynth.shtml

Here is a much more in-depth look at its capabilities:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/userguides/99389.php

Also, I think people in this thread were asking for VirtualDub and TMPGenc guides. Here you go:

Guide for TMPGenc Settings (watch out for popup!):
http://www.dvdhelp.us/index.html?html/tuttmpgencadv.html~mainFrame

If that confuses you, or you're just lazy, you may want to try DVD2SVCD. Newer versions have an AVI2DVD mode that will produce good results. It automates the process with the encoder of your choice - TMPGenc, CCE, or Canopus ProCoder. DVD2SVCD is free. Here is a guide for the AVI2DVD mode of DVD2SVCD: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvd2svcd-avi.htm

Here is a VirtualDub guide: http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/virtualdub_procedures.htm

 

I have also noticed that VHS tapes recorded into the Media Center end up as RealMedia files that I can play on my Windows Media Player software. I copied one of these to a CD to play on a relatives PC but even though they have RealPlayer too, it would not play and kept saying it needed some kind of DAAA coding or something like that. I downloaded the latest version of Windows Media Player to their PC and still got that messge. What do they need to do to get their Windows Media Player to play it like mine does.

Also, is there an easy way to convert this RealMedia video file to MPEG2 to be copied onto a CD rather than a DVD as it is only an 8 minute clip and I don't want to waste an entire DVD on it? The 8 minute RealPlayer file was about 500 MB in size and fit nicely on a CD.
Frank-in-CA

 

Well if your Captire software is captireing to RM then you better find a Different method and format to capture too Because RM (Real Media)Is well known for being the Crapiest Lowest quality Format there is and encodeing any RM File to Full resolution Mpeg2 DVD will Totally Look awefull...Try useing Capture Software that Captures Directly to Mpeg2 Like WinDVR 3.0 or something simular....Cheers

 

I've read some of this thread and am very disappointed
with my mobo having onboard sound now. It sounds fantastic, but from what I've read here I have to go out and buy a sound card now to capture audio along with my video captures. Minion [ who seems very knowledgable] says onboard sound is NFG for capture.
Why in H%#L does'nt the "capture card" do the job it's supposed to? What good is silent movies. This is not the 30's, it's the year 2004. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

Minion:
Being new at this I misspoke. The captured video that I get using the Windows Media Center software, when I treat a VHS tape as if I am recording a TV program, is playable on Windows Media Player. I mistakenly thought it was a Real Media player and thus said Real Media format. Is there a simple way to convert the Windows Media format to a CD rather than a DVD? I just copied the Windows Media file to a CD as a data file thinking it would play on other's PCs but it only seems to play on mine. They get an error message about some coding (DAAA?) that is missing. Downloading the latest version of Windows Media Player still got that message. I was trying that as a temporary shortcut but I'd like to be able to put these short clips of 8 minutes or so on a cheap CDR as it was only 425 MB in size. Any suggestions? Or do I bite the bullet and just use more expensive DVDRs?
Frank-in-CA

 

Well the WMV format is Just a step above the Real Media Format and is Not a Very High Quality Format, and that error you are getting is probably refering to "DRM" (Digital Rights Management) which is a Form of Copy Protection..I don"t know why Captured Files would be Copy protected But they seem to be fore some reason....If you Want to make Quality SVCD"s or DVD"s you can to capture to a High Resolution High Quality Format Like a Low Compression AVI format or Mpeg2 which is the Same Format that is used to Create SVCD"s and DVD"s...You do not want to Convert Windows Media Files to Mpeg2 for SVCD or DVD because the Quality will be Total Crap...Try useing a Capture Program that Captures directly to DVD Mpeg2 or SVCD Mpeg2 (WinDVR 3.0)and then you can author the Captured Files Directly to CD-R or DVD-R useing a SVCD/DVD Authoring Program...The Best way to Make Quality Movies is to Capture them too the Best Quality Possible In the First Place,and allways Capture at the Same or Larger resolution as your Target Format Meaning if you want to make a DVD you Must Capture at 720+480/576-Pal and at 25fps-Pal or 29.976fps NTSC, If you capture at a Lower Resolution then that means your captured Files will need to be resized and Re-encoded which Totally ruins the Quality...So don"t use the Microsoft software to Capture with because the Microsoft Media Center and Windows Movie Maker are just Vehicles for Microsoft to Push there Crappy Windows Media Format on everyone andf the Windows media Format is absolutly Useless if you are Planning on Makeing a VCD/SVCD/DVD out of it...
Billjr: you do not need to get a New Sound Card you just have to use Capture software that Can compensate for the Latency between your Capture Card and your Sound Card...Most Good Capture software can do this as Long as the Latency isn"t too bad, Or you can get a Capture device that also captures the audio and the Video useing the same device Like the Canopus ADVC-100 or the Canopus ACEDVio....Cheers

 

What are some good software programs that would allow me to capture from VHS tape to MPEG2? I presume I'd still use a VCR to play the tape into my PC using the audio and video jacks I'm now using with the VCR.
Frank-in-CA

 

Well for Capture Quality the One I mentioned above is probably the Best (Intervideo WinDVR 3.0) But you need to have a Fairly fast PC to Capture at Full DVD Resolution and Quality, At least a 2.0ghz PC is needed, Other Fairly high quality Mpeg2 Capture programs are "Cyberlink PowerProducer 2.0" and "Cyberlink PowerDirector 3.0".....
You would achieve the Best Quality captureing to AVI useing something like the HuffYUV codec and then encodeing the captured file to Mpeg2 useing a High Quality encoder but this Method takes Longer and there are more steps so more things can go wrong and you need about 500mb per minute of Captured AVI file so going Mpeg2 is probably best....Cheers

PS: if you want to get Cheap DVD-R"s you might try looking on e-bay as you can get them for as Low as 0.60c each if you buy 100 Plus shipping...

 

Minion:
Thanks. The Sony VAIO system I have has a 3.2 GHz processor so I should be set. However, you make a good point - why be concerned about the cost of a DVD since the prices are coming down. I also saw a stack of 50 DVDRs on sale at OfficeMax for $30 after rebate which would also be 60 cents each. I doubt I'd be creating enough DVDs to recoup the cost of software that would copy to CDRs?
Frank-in-CA

 

Thought you all might be interested - I found Cyberlink PowerDirector 3.0 available for only $9.99 from SoftwareOutlet.com. For that price, I ordered it.
Frank-in-CA