2 hr 15 min VHS to DVD

[chris.newbold]

I know this is probably a simple question but...
I have a load of good quality vhs tapes which I am putting on dvd. I am capturing using a canopus advc110 in scenalyser to avi then encoding using cinemacraft encoder basic to mpeg2 then using dvd lab and nero to author/burn.

I have hit a sticking point with videos over about 1 1/2 hours in that I have to drop the datarate in CCE to 5000 or less - 3500 if the video is 2 hrs 15 mins, which results in crappy quality. I don't want to use 2 disks if I can help it.

I somehow want to reduce the file sizes as I am sure I am encoding to inflated file sizes. Can I somehow produce a SVCD sized mpeg2 file and use that?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[yoda313]

Hello,

You could use half d1 resolution of 352x480 for video tapes. That could help. Also - no svcd resolution is compatible with dvd. It would have to be resized anyway.

Kevin

---also to fit more time on a disc you have to use a lower bitrate. There's really not much else you can do. Besides - I use the hauppage wintv pvr250 and a 3000-4000 dvd bitrate is still quite excellent when recording to mpeg only.... ----

[chris.newbold]

Thanks Kevin

I'm wondering if I should somehow capture at a lower bitrate - scenalyser does not give me this option, but another piece of software might?

I just feel there must be a lot of redundancy in my capturing and encoding as my settings seem to be appropriate for dv, but I am only capturing vhs. Clearly I want to retain as much quality as possible but not too much given the inherent limitations of the original footage.

Chris

[MpegEncoder]

I capture VHS using passthrough on the Sony camcorder.

Then I just use Nero Vision Express to encode and author the DVD. The quality is excellent even for video that is over two hours long. You just have to adjust the bit rate to fill the DVD.

The encode time is about 2:1 on my machine.

[The_Doman]

I capture VHS also using a D8 DV passthrough. I always encode at full res.

But 2h 15m should not that be that much of a problem when u use a 2pass VBR.
Using procoder I would use a target bitrate of 4200 and max of about 6500. With a audiotrack of 196-224 bitrate it will fit nicely.

[jimmalenko]

I'm wondering if I should somehow capture at a lower bitrate - scenalyser does not give me this option, but another piece of software might?

Scenalyser is simply your tool to transferring the DV that the ADVC creates from the VHS into DV-AVI on your computer - DV is fixed at 25Mbps for video and 1536kbps for audio. There are no changes you can make on this side of things in regards to bitrates.

I just feel there must be a lot of redundancy in my capturing and encoding as my settings seem to be appropriate for dv, but I am only capturing vhs. Clearly I want to retain as much quality as possible but not too much given the inherent limitations of the original footage.

As I said above, when using an ADVC product, you have no control over capture settings, because it is simply an analog to digitial converter, and outputs DV, pure and simple. You can adjust any setting you want in the encoding stage however. The bitrate is the key to fitting onto 1 DVD, but it is followed closely in terms of determining quality by the Rate Control Method you use (2-Pass VBR, CBR, CQ etc) and also the frame size. I would suggest that considering your source is VHS, that there is no need to use Full D1 res (720 X 480), and that you'll see just as good results using Half D1 (352 X 480), especially at the sort of bitrate you'll need to use. Lordsmurf's site www.digitalfaq.com has a page called "Understanding Your Source", and I think it might pay to have a read

[chris.newbold]

Thanks Guys

Will try 2 pass vbr and 1/2 res encoding!

Chris