how to tansfer with good quality????

[poacher]

Hello to everyone who can help
it seems that no matter what program i use either windows movie maker or pinnacle movie maker or intervideo dvd creator, I always get the same results when i transfer from my camera to my computer,ITS NOT CLEAR AS THE TAPE!!!Ive got a new computer with all kinds of good stuff on it ,lots of memery and big hard drive,the only thing Iam missing is a expensive video card,would that have any thing to do with it??If not what is it I need ,maybe iam tranfering from my computer in the wrong format?? what should i use?????? thanks if any one can help!! My camera is 8 mm but its digital.

[redwudz]

Try WinDV, Type 2 DV. If the quality is that different from the tape, then it may be the codec you are viewing it with. It's just a data transfer, should be exactly the same as the tape.

EDIT: Do you mean analog Hi-8 or digital DV?

[edDV]

poacher, Digital8 should transfer just fine over IEEE-1394 using WinDV or any of the programs you mentioned.

Are you saying you are trying to look at interlace video on a computer monitor? You will see two pictures (alternate lines) offset in time 1/60 sec. It will look great for a still shot and understandably split during motion.

This is entirely normal. Edit your video then encode interlaced MPeg2 and then author and burn the DVD. It will look fine on a TV when played back.

More serious editing packages will show single fields on the preview monitors and provide for true realtime video monitoring back through the camcorder to an interlace TV monitor.

[ZippyP.]

maybe iam tranfering from my computer in the wrong format??

Maybe. Are you using firewire from a DV camera? You haven't given many details about your method.

[poacher]

thanks guys for your help and concern. To ZippeyP. yes iam using fire wire,the format??? well Iam not sure i believe it was ,high Quality video{NTSC} that sound correct?
To edDV, When i open Win dvd creator to edit my video clips, that while its in a small screen in the program , the video its ok , but when you click to full screen to see my editing on a bigger scale the faces of people are not clear like when its on the tape,also the music is cracky!!!!!{This is a wedding Iam talking about, i am doing for a friend}
you said to ,encode interlaced MPeg2 ,thats way over my head!!haha i dont understand what you mean. Ive tranfered edited video back to my camcorder and watched it on a Tv screen and its not as clear as the orginal!
To Redwudz I will try win dv ,by the way, what codec should i be viewing it with??
the kind of camera Iam using is a sony digital handycam Digital 8 DCR-TRV350 NTSC
tHANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP !! Ya got any more advise??

[edDV]

thanks guys for your help and concern. To ZippeyP. yes iam using fire wire,the format??? well Iam not sure i believe it was ,high Quality video{NTSC} that sound correct?
To edDV, When i open Win dvd creator to edit my video clips, that while its in a small screen in the program , the video its ok , but when you click to full screen to see my editing on a bigger scale the faces of people are not clear like when its on the tape,also the music is cracky!!!!!{This is a wedding Iam talking about, i am doing for a friend}
you said to ,encode interlaced MPeg2 ,thats way over my head!!haha i dont understand what you mean. Ive tranfered edited video back to my camcorder and watched it on a Tv screen and its not as clear as the orginal!
To Redwudz I will try win dv ,by the way, what codec should i be viewing it with??
the kind of camera Iam using is a sony digital handycam Digital 8 DCR-TRV350 NTSC
tHANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP !! Ya got any more advise??

Something is wrong if you are loosing quality when the video is transferred back to the camcorder..

You should be "capturing" (actually transferring digital data) in DV format to the hard disk. Try WinDV so that you get this step correct. You will be editing the program in DV format and only when finished editing, you will encode the video to DVD MPeg2 (in setups you want highest quality which is CBR at ~8000 Mb/s). Then you will author your DVD.

I'm unfamiliar with WinDVD Creator. Maybe someone can provide more specific information for that program.

During editing the video may look torn during motion in that program, That is normal for reasons explained above.

[redwudz]

I use the Panasonic DV Codec. What you view on a computer monitor may not be the same as viewing it on TV. If you transfer the video back to your camera and it's changed quality, then one of your programs messed it up.

I use VirtualDub for rough edits, then frameserve that to TMPGEnc encoder. Then author it to DVD with TMPGEnc DVD Author and burn it.
Frameserving eliminates an in between DV file of the edited footage. Saves time and a lot of hard drive space.

But if you have software already, try them. I would get a couple of DVD-RW discs to experiment with. Encode a short clip, maybe ten minutes or less, author and burn it, then view it using your settop DVD player and your TV. Then adjust your settings until you get what you want.

If you look to the guides on the left, you can find all about DV to DVD, frameserving, and what bitrate, audio format, etc., will work. <<<

[poacher]

Thanks guys,ya use alot of words that Ive never heard of but ill follow ya instructions and give it a try thanks

[spectroelectro]

Somehwhere around 20% of all the questions on this forum come from folks who are trying to transfer VHS to DVD and running into problems.

Transferring VHS to DVD is one of the hardest tasks you can undertake in video. You're going to need good hardware and some some software.

If I were you, I'd ditch computer-based capture cards and go with an excellent DVD recorder. I use a JVC DRM10, and it does a superb job of capturing video from VHS. The Philips does about as good a job. Avoid Panasonic and Magnavox and Cyberhome DVD recorders, they have poor video quality and other problems, including occasional audio sync issues.

The next thing you'll need is an excellent VHS VCR to play back your VHS tape. This makes a huge different. You'll want a VCR with built-in digital noise reduction: the JVCH9800 series and more recent JVC S9911 (I think that's the model numbers) have it and the Toshiba M784 and W8000 have it. There's also a model of Sony VCR that has "reality regeneration circuity" which is basically the same thing, digital noise reduction. Don't use a cheap VCR, use a good one with video digital noise reduction built in. A typical first-rate VCR with built-in digital noise reduction will tpically cost you around $300 or $400.

Next, you'll need a digital time base corrector and a proc amp. The AVT 8710 costs about $180, while the datavideo TBC1000 costs around $300. Both do a fine job of video time base correction. A TBC is NOT optional. It's vital. Many of the problems folks run into when transferring video to DVD from VHS result from dropped frames due to problems with the VHS sync track, and a TBC eliminates all that. The quality of the proc amp isn't as critical -- anything from a relatively low-end Sima EditMaster or Vidicraft Vidimate to something like a high-end Elite BVP 4 Plus will do. A BVP 4 is arel overkill for consumer use, and costs a bundle. You can get away with a lot less in the way of proc amp. Maybe $50 to $300 for a proc amp depending on whether you want something really high end.

For software, you'll want Womble and a good DVD authoring package. Ulead Media Workshop 2 is currently the best. Unfortunately it costs $500. If you use a godo DVD recorder like the JVC or a Philips (avoid Panasonic), you won't need an mpeg-2 encoder. You'll want a graphics program to design the DVD menus and the best burning software is RecordNow, followed closely by VSO. Avoid Nero 6 / 7, it's garbageware. If you can find Nero 5.5.X that's the only good version of Nero, but you'll probably need to add the NT ASPI layer to get it work with Windows 2000 / XP.

If you want to avoid the DVD recorder, you have a number of choices. The Datavideo DAC-100 or the Canopus ADVC-100 do an excellent job. In that case you'll need mpeg-2 encoding software to encode the captured DV format avis, and the only really good mpeg-2 ecndoing software is Canopus ProCoder, TMPGenc, CCE, or Mainconcept, or, if you frameserve through Avisynth, quencode (but unless you have technical expertise you'llprobably be lose with quencode).

I consistently get superb results that look signifcantly better than the original VHS tapes. But that's because I use a JVC DRM10 DVD recoder which has built-in video noise reduciton, a VCR with more built-in noise reduciton, an AVT 8710 TBC and a Sima Editmaster proc amp plus a Vidicraft Detailer III video enhancer. Transferring VHS to DVD can produce spectacularly good results, but you have to have good hardware and software and you have to take some time and trouble to get it right.