analogue video enhancer?

[Jac26]

I think I'm going to buy either the ADVC 110, ADVC 300 or the Formac Studio tvr to convert my analogue VHS home videos to the digital DV format. The ADVC 300 is the most expensive because it allows for digital noise reduction, image stabilization and cleans and enhances analogue video input.

If I were to buy the ADVC 110 or Formac Studio, is there a noise filter or image enhancer that I can buy separately for a decent price? Is there a program that can enhance audio and video images out there? I have almost every Adobe program, Final Cut 4, Toast, Soundtrack, etc. but I don't know their full capabilities. Is there a less expensive way to improve noise and images in my home videos?

[Frobozz]

On the software side QuickTime Pro has a DV capture mode and after capture has controls to adjust various picture quality elements. I don't have FCP but I presume it has video adjustments as well.

On the hardware side there are video proc amps that adjust analog video ahead of your capture device.

I recommend the Canopus units rather than the Formac. If you do get the Formac, check out Vidi as the application to run it.

[lordsmurf]

I would suggest looking at the El Gato devices. For a Mac, those are my choices.

[rumplestiltskin]

Roxio makes something called the "Easy VHS to DVD Converter". It's cheap and it works great (as long as you have USB2). You can then run the MPEG2 it produces through MPEG Streamclip (or whatever) to convert/enhance/etc.

AFAIC, if you have a good VHS player with clean heads(!), that should be enough to get your analog stuff cleanly playing to the Roxio device.

[Frobozz]

Jac26 says he wants to capture in DV format so ElGato's and Roxio's devices aren't the ticket. He also could use a DV camcorder that has analog-to-digital passthrough such as my Canon ZR65.

[rumplestiltskin]

Hmmm. Jac26: Do you intend to keep everything in DV format once captured? That will be quite large.

[Jac26]

thanks for all the suggestions and tips!

So do video proc amps work with a digital analogue converter like ADVC 110? How does that work?
(I think I'll stick with the hardware because I've read that color correction and cleanup of video is best when video is still analogue.)

I've read that you should convert all your VHS home videos to digital DV format in order to preserve the quality that they have left, and also to prevent loss of quality through the editing process. Plus, using a firewire is supposed to convert them at a higher resolution. So I would like to keep them all in digital form once I've converted them. I have a 1 TB external where I plan on keeping them. But my main goal is to edit heavily. I'm going to incorporate these videos into a movie slideshow that will also include pictures, music, narration, title cards, and sound effects, all done on final cut pro 4.

I've read good things about Formac and Canopus and El Gato. But my main concern is image and sound quality, and editability. MacWorld gave good reviews to Formac and Canopus. My only concern now is do I spend the big bucks for the converter that will also enhance image and sound quality, or do I go with the more economic converter that has nothing but good reviews, but does not have those extra capabilities (and buy video proc amps to assist with noise reduction, etc.)?

[terryj]

I'll just throw in my 2¢ of what I've done and hope it helps:
8)
Having converted my library of 1300 + video tapes to DVD,
I learned these three things are essential:

1. Having a good VCR is key. A decent VCR with clean heads is great,
but having a VCR with clean heads and TBC ( Time Based Correction)
helps out much on tapes where I might not have recorded them with
the same VCRs or if I used "brand name" tapes. THis will help
in 90% of getting a good analog to DV conversion.

2. Using my Canopus ADVC -110 and ingesting the video tapes in via FW
is essential, Capturing can be done in iMovie, FCE or FCP, as well as editing, but
having a lot of storage space for the capture is THE most important
thing period. 13GB of space for 1 hour of footage.
Multiply that x 22 for a season of tv shows, and you
see how space quickly fills up ( about 300 GB for one season unedited).

3. Some things I recorded are worth capturing in the highest quality
and taking the time to preserve it with Editing, Noise and Color correction,
and FCP can help with that.
Other things are just worth dumping to DVD and throwing away the Video Tape.
For those things, I simply bought two standalone DVD Recorders, and recorded
directly to DVD from the VCR (hooked up via s-Video and analog RCA audio)
and just dumped these to disc in SP or LP quality.
I would recommend this for anything on questionable tapes or for things
where the picture and or sound might be slightly degraded / dropped out.
( total dropouts or bad recordings I just didn't bother with).
You may find you feel the same.

[rumplestiltskin]

The best advantage of DV (over the various MPEG formats -2, -4) is that the compression is intraframe rather than temporal (no key frames). This permits what is referred to as "frame-accurate" editing whereas MPEG2 and MPEG4 rely upon keyframes every "x" number of frames that contain all of the information and all other frames contain only the changes from one keyframe to the next. That's why DV is so much larger.

Firewire does not convert them at a higher resolution. 640x480 is what you started with and what you'll end up with.

Once you complete your editing of the DV (and iMovieHD works fine for this unless you want the power - and expense and complexity - of FCP), if you keep your iMovie project intact, terryj's warning about the huge storage requirements is quite accurate. Unless you're going to view your videos on your computer only, you'll have to either burn the videos to DVD (which compresses then to MPEG2) or use H264 compression to reduce the 13GB one hour video down to about 500MB (or less) and play the videos on your TV using an AppleTV or the WD TV Media player. I have both and can recommend them highly.

[lordsmurf]

That's not entirely correct.
MPEG-2 has non-temporal settings too. In fact, several professional video workflows are purely MPEG-2, with I-frame or IP-only dominating the timeline up until final output to disc. I use I-frame at high bitrates for a number of things. It's no better or worse than DV.

For working with VHS>DVD, it's suggested you read some of the concept guides at http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/index-record-capture.htm -- most of them are informational, not platform specific (meaning it's not Windows-only or Mac-only info, but general info that can be applied to any device/software)

[rumplestiltskin]

lordsmurf: Point taken. Thanks.

[Frobozz]

I'll chime in on the proc amp. A few years ago I bought a good-quality "video stabilizer" that has proc amp-type controls. It can adjust the analog signal's brightness, color, hue, and contrast before it gets to the digital converter. I recently had a client who had converted his VHS to DVD using a standalone recorder and he was disappointed with the quality. I did these over again and with the help of the stabilizer was able to get far superior picture quality. The one I bought is no longer sold. However, if you have concerns about the quality of your VHS tapes then a proc amp or a device that has many of those capabilities can be wonderful.

My Pioneer standalone DVD recorder also has the ability to tweak many picture-quality settings during capture. But high-end DVD recorders like that are long gone from the market.

As terryj points out there may be VHS tapes you want to convert that aren't worth all that work. Just getting a decent copy that looks nearly the same as the original will make you happy. In that case, converting straight to MPEG-2 for making a video DVD or the H.264 for creating a hard-drive library is great. If you want to edit in FCP then you need DV. If you want the best-looking DV then you need a way to adjust the video prior to it being digitized.

[Jac26]

Thank you everyone for your input. You are all helping me out so much.

Since I am going to be editing these home videos heavily in Final Cut, I've decided, based on your advice, that I will need the following for best quality video:

-A good VCR with clean heads and time based correction
-A good a/v cable
-A second 1 TB external to store 40+ VHS tapes (in case the 1tb external I have now fills up too quickly)
-A video proc amp or video stabilizer
-A digital analogue converter (I think I am going to stick with the ADVC 110, unless I can find a good price for the ADVC 300)


Does anyone have any recommendations for the following?:
-a good VCR
-a good A/V cable
-video proc amp


Also, I've read about video capture cards or firewire cards, but I'm not sure if I need one based on everything I will have listed above. Does anyone know if I will need to add this as well to my list?


Oh, and I have a question for TerryJ:

"2. Using my Canopus ADVC -110 and ingesting the video tapes in via FW
is essential"

What exactly is FW?



(Just wanted to let Lordsmurf know that I'm about to click on his website for VHS-DVD concept guides. Thanks again...)

[lordsmurf]

ADVC-300 is waste of money, just get the 110 if you want DV device. In all honesty, the Canopus brand is inflated in price, DataVideo and a few others are just as good.

Without reading all the above posts, FW might mean "firmware", "firewire" or "firewall" -- depends entirely on context of sentence. Probably one of those.

[terryj]

Thank you everyone for your input. You are all helping me out so much.

You are welcome.

Does anyone have any recommendations for the following?:
-a good VCR
-a good A/V cable
-video proc amp

Gold end cables are good. I got mine from a Company called Synergy because they were slightly
cheaper than my local Radio Shack, but you can get them from their as well.
(Gold end meaning Gold Plated ends)

JVC makes some of the best TBC VCRS, as did Sony.

Oh, and I have a question for TerryJ:

"2. Using my Canopus ADVC -110 and ingesting the video tapes in via FW
is essential"

What exactly is FW?

For the purposes of this Forum and it's users, in relation to Mac Video Editing,
FW will always mean "Firewire".

[robertazimmerman]

You should ignore any self-proclaimed experts who likely don't even own the 300. Read professional reviews at:

http://digitalcontentproducer.com/videoencodvd/revfeat/video_canopus_advc/

or

http://www.macuser.co.uk/reviews/62813/canopus-advc300.html

I have converted well over 100 VHS tapes of variable quality to the DVD format using the 300 to do the capturing. By monitoring the video on my TV, I can adjust the colour levels and contrast (along with other tweaks) prior to starting the actual capture. With no or very little fiddling, you can match the original tape's quality (worst case scenario) and by playing with the controls, you can lessen over-saturation, shift the colour balance and reduce many tape artifacts. This will result in a final product that looks significantly better than the original.

Buy it, you'll be happy. Quality doesn't come cheap.

R

[mhar4]

Just a couple of additional notes to the many already here: JES Deinterlacer and JES Movie Tools are two free applications that manage captured DV quite well and have various processing and denoising options that can be useful.

I recently tried the noise filtering on Handbrake to treat VHS video captured to MPEG2, and the results were very good, for my purposes.