VHS directly to MPEG2 (software?)

[Vejita-sama]

I've been capturing my VHS tapes at 720x480 using the huffyuv codec with VDub, then encoding to MPEG2 with CCE. I'd like to capture directly to MPEG2 to save time.

My card came with neoDVD standard which can do this, but there (does not appear to be) any way to set the bitrate.

Does anyone know of a software program that can capture directly to MPEG2 and allow me to set the bitrate? and/or know how to change the settings in neoDVD standard. Thanks in advance...

[thayne]

PowerVCR, but the quality will be better doing it the way you have been.

http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=20

[housepig]

WinDVD Recorder will also allow you to do this.

But like thayne said, I have found that with my card, software mpeg-2 capture doesn't look as good as capturing to Huffy or MJPEG and encoding afterwards.

[Xtasy2002]

If you want to do it and have it look presentable in any way you need expensive hardware. Something with an MPG encoder chip built into the hardware itself. That will do the trick for you. Software real time MPG encoding at any reasonable quality level doesn't exist.

[courtrrb]

I've been using windvr3 on a Athlon 1400 with WinXp and a 4G hd to save to a network drive. In order to transfer all my vhs tapes to DVD the quality looks as good as the picture I see on the screen while recording. The advantage is that you don't really need a large hd or a very fast hd. The maximum hd space required is about 5-6G free per DVD.

[ktnwin]

neoDVD standard can capture to MPEG-2 in real time if you have a PC faster than 1.2 GHz. I have done this many times.
But no, you cannot set the desired bitrate with neoDVD, it give you only three choices (6.5 Mbits/sec, 3.3 Mbits/sec or 1.6 Mbits/sec) and this sucks. The resolution is also fixed at 720x480, that also sucks.
I have sent e-mail to suggest mediostream (the company that makes neoDVD) to give more flexibility (half D1 resolution, more choice of bitrates) but just got a reply "look for update in our Website !!!".
The half-D1 resolution alone would make me very very happy, as this allows upto 3 hours of VHS video to be transferred to DVD quickly.

[Marco33]

I would agree with thayne. The way you are doing it is the best.

I've done it both with an MPEG2 capture card and AVI capture. AVI is the way to go.

[Vejita-sama]

Thanks, yeah I know that my current method yeilds the best quaility. But the simple truth is I don't care that much (anymore) about that. I just want to transfer my VHS tapes (~800+) to DVD for storage and travel purposes. If they are 'more than watchable' that's good enough.

The real problem is I have a cheap BT8x8 capture card

Aside: neoDVD captures in 720x480, 352x480 and 352x240 for it's high/medium/low quaility settings, but the bitrates are fixed (which is no good, and IMHO rather stupid). Oh well...

[Coopervid]

Intervideo's WinDVR does a pretty good job at that if you use a little trick.
Record in Half-DVD 352*480, bitrate 5000 kbit/s and just modify the MPEG recording structure to do only G instead of GBP frames. This results in a very good quality recording. Some opinions are out that such a DVD structure is not really DVD conformant, some opinions are different. Anyway - all my recordings from TV played perfectly also on standalone players.

The advantage of using WinDVDR over PowerVCR is that it has a 48kHz audio option. PowerVCR has not. So you have to convert the 44kHz audio with the PowerVCR recordings.

[housepig]

If they are 'more than watchable' that's good enough.

well, then, hell yeah, go direct to mpeg.

I would advise WinDVR over NeoDVD, unless you want to author with NeoDVD... none of the captures I've made in Neo would import properly into DVD Lab or ReelDVD.

(well, to be honest, I can't remember if they wouldn't import properly, compile properly or wouldn't play properly once authored, but the upshot of my testing was that NeoDVD captures only worked for me if I authored in NeoDVD...)

but the quality I got with WinDVD Recorder was pretty good, it just wasn't as good as the long way 'round.

And I think we might have the same cheap BT8x8 card...