VHS to Divx (using Virtual Dub - probably asked a million times)

First of all, let me say I'm sorry to ask this once again.
The thing is that I want to capture my old VHS and encode them to Divx.
Can I do such a thing with a PC "cabled" to my video device (and if I can, how do I do that)?
My second question is how do I capture tv shows in real time?
thanks a million in advance,

 

If your PC is fast enough you can capture Directly to DivX but you would need a Very Fast PC to do it in High resolution Like 2.5ghz to 3.0ghz Pluss....

To Capture with Virtual-Dub you first hook up your Video source to your PC and then Run Virtual-Dub and then go to "File" to "Capture AVI" and then the screen should Change into Capture Mode...You should now see a Preview in the Window and hear the audio,
If you don"t then you probably have to configure V-Dub to your capture device..
to do this :

#1) First go to "Video" to "Source" and set up the Video source to your card and the Input you are useing on your Card, now you should see a Preview...

#2)now go to "Video" to "Format" and set the Capture resolution ,the Higher the Resolution the better the quality so 720+480 is good or 640+480 ,These are NTSC Resolutions you would use different ones for Pal...
Also set the Color space to YUY2 or YV12 if you can..

#3) Now you have to set your Capture Frame rate so go to "Capture" to "Settings" and at the Top put in "29.976fps" as the Frame rate for NTSC or 25fps for Pal...

#4) now you have to set up the Compression so go to "Video" to "Compression" and select the Codec you want to use from the List and configure it to the Bitrate you want to use, I guess 1200kbs would be good..

#5) now set up the Audio compression so go to "Audio to "compression" and select the Audio codec and Bitrate you want to use but it is usually better to Capture the audio Uncompressed and Compress it to MP3 after Captureing....

#6) now you have to set up were you want your captured file to be Saved to so go to "File" to "Set Capture File" and give the File and Name and a Place to save it....

#7)Now you capture Video...Start up your Video source and when you want the capture to start go to "Capture" to "Capture Video" and it will start captureing Video....

You will see the Capture Statistics on the Right side of the Preview screen and watch them closeley because if your PC isn"t fast enough to capture to DivX you will see a Lot of Dropped Frames so if that happens you should use a different Capture codec like the "HuffYUV" codec to capture your Movie and after captureing you can encode it to DivX...

Now all cards work with V-Dub so if you have lots of Problems then you should try a different Capture Program like "Virtual-VCR" which is also freeware and a good cap program...


Cheers

 

Wow, thanks a lot Minion. I'll try doing so, and will ask for more help if needed (hopefully it won't be needed at all). Just one last question -

Can I use a 1.8 ghz pentium 4 to capture directly to Divx, considering it has just been formatted and has nothing installed on it except for Office, Virtual Dub and the needed codecs?

 

You will Probably be able to capture to DivX but probably not at Full resolution cuz I have a P-4 2.5ghz and I can"t capture DivX at full resolution and Frame Rate.....

If you end up dropping to many frames you can try lowering the Resolution and/Or the Frame rate...
You can try captureing at 640+480 at 29.976fps and if you drop too many Frames you can lower it to 640+272 and at 14.985fps and see if that is better but if captureing to DivX is too much for your PC you can try captureing to AVI useing the HuffYUV Codec or the PicVideo MJpeg codec and re-encodeing the Captured file to Divx....

Cheers

 

I'm sorry to "wake" this old thread again. But I realized I have no idea what cable I need to use for attaching the PC to the VCR. So if you can please tell me it would be of great help.
thanks once again,

 

the cable completely depends on the capture device installed in your computer. the most common is composite RCA cables, which are a three cable combo. plug the yellow RCA jack from VCR into yellow RCA on capture device and plug the white and red RCA jacks on the VCR into the capture device or your sound card using a RCA-to-stereo minijack adapter. if you don't understand what i'm talking about then just take a trip to Radioshack, they can tell you everything you need to know.

exactly, what capture device do you have anyway??

 

First of all, I'm afraid I cannot go to Radioshack, because there's no Radioshack where I live. And the second thing is that I'm even more afraid I have no capture device - only a PC, a VCR and my beloved old VHS tapes. So as you probably understand I'm a total newb to capturing.

P.S
What capturing device is also good and also not-too-expensive?

 

personally i do not have alot of experience with many different types of capture devices. but i can tell you that judging from your processor specs that you may get frustrated with "cheep" devices...

my recommedation would be to be to buy a device that does most of the processing itself. here, read this thread: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/101826

 

The One I have been useing is Quite Cheap and Produces Pretty Good Quality...

It is the "PixelView X-Capture" which uses the Connexant 10Bit decoder Chip...I got it off e-bay for I think $50 Canadian($38 US)....

When useing an analoge Capture device your PC does all of the Processing and Compression so you need to have a Fairly Fast PC and it is also a Good Idea to have a second Big fast hard drive to store the Captured Files as a Slow Drive will cause you to Drop frames....

At 1.8GHZ you should be able to capture Low compression AVI Format files at full resolution without Much problem but Probably not Directly to DivX, You can allways Encode the Captured files to DivX after Captureing....

Cheers

 

And yet another question about capturing:
If I take my old VHS and I convert it to miniDV, I can attack the DV Cam to the PC and avoid buying a capture device, right?
And if I want to attach the DVC to the PC what other hardware do I need to buy?
thanks a million again,

 

Yes you can Hook your Video source up to a DV Camcorder and then hook the Camcoder up to your PC useing a Firewire Cable and then Capture the Video to your Hard drive useing the Camcorder as the Capture device....All you need to do that is the DV camcorder and a firewire port on your PC....