Capturing VHS files

[Tafflad]

After advice here, I am just about set up ... first initial captures worked a treat.
SVHS deck <svideo/L&R audio> ADVC300
ADVC 300 < IEE1394 > PC

On PC current set up is Sony Vegas Studio 9
Using Video Capture to DV files.
I'll copy in a bundle of tapes first then have a go at improving & editing later.
Really pleased that they have come in jitter free and colours seem good.

Just wanted to check that using the Sony Vegas for capture is OK ? .... I know a lot of people talk about WinDV and other programs, as Sony Vegas seems to work so easily is this OK .... that I'm not losing any quality by using it ?

Apart from setting region to Europe & file to DV everything else is standard the saved .avi files are:
720 x 576
Data rate 28800kbps
Total bitrate 30336kbps
25 frames per sec


Saved files are about 0.22 GB per minute of video


Does all this seem OK ... wanted to check before I digitize the rest.

[aedipuss]

it's fine. if it's captured as DVavi, then it's exactly the same as it would have been with winDV.

[Tafflad]

As I want to be 100% sure ... the file type properties saved just shows it to be '.avi'

How can I tell if it is DV avi ?

If I load it into Sony Vegas .. it shows it as

video 720x576x24
25 frames
Alpha=none, Field order = Lower field first, DV


Now I assume the fact that it mentions 'DV' means this is right, but is there a way of checking, is there a utility or something I can you to check file type ?
I want to save them as DV so I can edit and tweakl ect before final encoding to MPEG2 for DVD authoring.

[aedipuss]

hehe. yes they are dvavi. gspot and/or mediainfo are video identifiers if you want to try them on your files.

[Tafflad]

Thanks for the pointer to Mediainfo ... great utility.
... it shows me it's 24.2 Mbps DV (PAL) within an avi container.

So I can crack on and digitize the tapes.