Lower Capture Res or DVD Shrink - Which?

[aflowers]

Hi,

I have converted a number of my VHS movies to DVD. First, I will capture using MPEG2 resolution, which renders a 90-odd minute movie to about 7-8G. Then, I use DVD Shrink to fit it to the disc.

To get a two-hour movie onto a single disc, what would you recommend? Should I capture to MPEG1 resolution? Or should I just let DVD Shrink do more shrinking? Which would provide the better result? Or, even an adequate result? I don't expect (or require) perfect, just a reasonably good quality of movie.

Thanks!

Alf

PS - If this isn't the right forum, somebody please let me know.

[Matt D]

I am pretty impressed by DVD Shrinks ability to decrease the file size without killing quality, but IMO you should probably capture at 352x480 (1/2 DVD) and you will end up with something along the lines of 3.5 gb for 90 min of video, but your milage may vary.
The longer way is to re-encode the video after capturing using something like TMPGEnc. Going this route takes a lot more time and some effort to get things working right, but you can fit 3 hours of good VHS quality video on one DVD-R.

[lordsmurf]

Do it right the first time. 352x480 at 4.0-5.0 max VBR

[aflowers]

Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a try this evening.

And, thanks to all who share their experience with us!

Alf

[aflowers]

Well, I tried. My capture software (Ulead Movie Factory Studio) does not show 352x480 as an option.

It has:

352x240
480x480 (CBR & VBR)
720x480 (CBR & VBR, 4000-8000kbs)

So, as far as I can tell, it will let me capture at one of these. Then, I can save *very slowly* to MPEG1. This does make a much smaller file. But, I think it's still only 352x240.

My question then, is 352x240 adequate for a fairly good VHS to DVD transfer? Or, should I stick to the 720x480 transfer using DVD Shrink?

[Capmaster]

Well, I tried. My capture software (Ulead Movie Factory Studio) does not show 352x480 as an option.

It has:

352x240
480x480 (CBR & VBR)
720x480 (CBR & VBR, 4000-8000kbs)

So, as far as I can tell, it will let me capture at one of these. Then, I can save *very slowly* to MPEG1. This does make a much smaller file. But, I think it's still only 352x240.

My question then, is 352x240 adequate for a fairly good VHS to DVD transfer? Or, should I stick to the 720x480 transfer using DVD Shrink?

720x480. And I think the app is Ulead DVD Movie Factory. They also make one called Video Studio and I believe you can capture from either, codecs permitting.

[aflowers]

So, your recommendation is to just continue capturing at 720x480, then DVD Shrink to fit?

I made a disk of 6 episodes last night, but haven't reviewed it yet. For them, I captured at 720x480, then saved to MPEG1. That made each episode very small, like 300MB per 25 minute episode. I'll let you know how they turned out.

Obviously, my goal is to get some longer VHS movies to DVD with the best *reasonable* quality.

[Capmaster]

So, your recommendation is to just continue capturing at 720x480, then DVD Shrink to fit?

I made a disk of 6 episodes last night, but haven't reviewed it yet. For them, I captured at 720x480, then saved to MPEG1. That made each episode very small, like 300MB per 25 minute episode. I'll let you know how they turned out.

Obviously, my goal is to get some longer VHS movies to DVD with the best *reasonable* quality.

Yes. I would never go to MPEG-1 if MPEG-2 is an option. Even with shrinking it'll be way better than MPEG-1.

[mmasw]

1st....you said you use Ulead as your capture software but didn't say what your capture card is. Perhaps the card came with a capture interface that would allow Half D-1 (352 X 480). In other words, ULead's software seems a little too restrictive.

2nd....the DVDShrink method is fine, but if you're compressing 7-8GB to a dvd, it would be my opinion that is too high a compression rate...especially if you have high action scenes. If it was me I would not compress with shrink any lower then 70% for what you're doing.

as to the mpg-1 capture...stick with mpg2. It's arguably an arbitrary observation, but I think mpg2 is better looking video (on tv) then mpg1. And that mpg1 would most likely have 44Khz audio that you'd have to resample to 48Khz to transfer to dvd

[Capmaster]

2nd....the DVDShrink method is fine, but if you're compressing 7-8GB to a dvd, it would be my opinion that is too high a compression rate...especially if you have high action scenes. If it was me I would not compress with shrink any lower then 70% for what you're doing.

Although I agree with your assessment of MPEG 1 and MPEG 2, I have to disagree with you on this point. I have gotten beautiful results with DVDShrink starting out with 8 or 9GB titles. No macro blocks, no sync issues ...just gorgeous output.

[mmasw]

2nd....the DVDShrink method is fine, but if you're compressing 7-8GB to a dvd, it would be my opinion that is too high a compression rate...especially if you have high action scenes. If it was me I would not compress with shrink any lower then 70% for what you're doing.

Although I agree with your assessment of MPEG 1 and MPEG 2, I have to disagree with you on this point. I have gotten beautiful results with DVDShrink starting out with 8 or 9GB titles. No macro blocks, no sync issues ...just gorgeous output.

uhhh....are you sure we're referring to same thing? I was referring to theoriginal posters process which was a 8GB MPG2 from an analog source(VHS tapes). I think there would already be some quality issues because of that and compressing it at a 58% level would seem to be a prescription for bad quality.

But I haven't done that much of a compression so I don't know. I have done it with a dvd source and the result was satisfactory about half the time.

[Capmaster]

2nd....the DVDShrink method is fine, but if you're compressing 7-8GB to a dvd, it would be my opinion that is too high a compression rate...especially if you have high action scenes. If it was me I would not compress with shrink any lower then 70% for what you're doing.

Although I agree with your assessment of MPEG 1 and MPEG 2, I have to disagree with you on this point. I have gotten beautiful results with DVDShrink starting out with 8 or 9GB titles. No macro blocks, no sync issues ...just gorgeous output.

uhhh....are you sure we're referring to same thing? I was referring to theoriginal posters process which was a 8GB MPG2 from an analog source(VHS tapes). I think there would already be some quality issues because of that and compressing it at a 58% level would seem to be a prescription for bad quality.

But I haven't done that much of a compression so I don't know. I have done it with a dvd source and the result was satisfactory about half the time.

Point taken. I forgot he's starting out with a tape cap.
With a DVD or DSS source it'd be a cake-walk but a tape cap would be dicey.

[aflowers]

Many thanks for all the replies!

I used 2 VHS tapes for my source. Each VHS had three 25-minute episodes, which meant I started with two 75-minute 720x480 MPEG2 files. I used the Ulead software to save each 25-minute episode into a MPEG1 file. Then, I used DVD Author to put them all on the same disk with menus. The result was very good. The DVD quality is at least as good as the VHS originals. I thought about trying the same test by saving all the episodes to MPEG2, then using DVD Shrink to fit it to the disk. But, I don't think the quality could be any better.

Next, I think I'll make two disks. One of a two-hour movie saved to MPEG1, and another of the same movie saved to MPEG2 then DVD Shrinked to fit the disk.

I'll post the results in case anyone is interested.

Please forgive my confusion regarding Ulead's software. It came bundled with the writer. It's a combination of Visual Studio and Movie Factory with a common launch pad. It loads one program or the other, depending on what you want to do, or the day of the week, or the weather, etc. I'm pretty sure I wrote down exactly what the title bar was showing when I made the original post, but I'll check again.