Need advice on how to best capture to hard drive.

[ibAdam]

I recently created an account here at VideoHelp but I've been trying to sort through the forums and the how to articles for about two weeks. I'm having a tough time and cannot seem to figure out what I need to do. I've seen that many users on this forum have a great knowledge of the technology surrounding videos, so in hopes of assistance with my situation I created this thread. Any assistance would very much be appreciated!!!

My goal is to take my 20 home video VHS tapes and 30 Hi8 analog home video tapes and convert them to a video on my hard drive. I know it is very popular to convert them to DVDs however I would like to convert them to digital files (something like .avi or such) that I can edit or use to compile a custom home video DVD later down the road. To capture my analog video I know I can get a capture device by manufactures like Pinnacle or Canopus (I don't know if these are any good or not). Or also by using a digital camcorder by means of a passthrough. But I don't know which is better for quality of the video. I could never find a direct comparison. I've found a few articles that kind of discuss this but even those all seem to be for older equipment that is no longer on the market (years old). I'm okay spending up to $400-500. But prefer to save money if I can. I've seen lots of talk about using a digital camcorder as a pasthrough but those threads all seem to be years old too. I couldn't find any example of a modern HD mpeg4/H.264 camera being used to do this. If I was going to buy a camera to do the passthrough I was hoping I could kill two birds and upgrade to a newer HD camera to do this.

Here is what I already have:
- Windows 7 64 bit PC, AMD dual 3.0GHz CPU, 2GB ram, 1TB Hard Drive, decent video card, USB 2.0 and Firewire input.
- Panasonic DMR-EZ47V (never used)
- Hauppauge Win TV-HRV-1600 Model 1199 (never used)
- Panasonic PV-GS31 (MiniDV) <-- Doesn't allow for passthrough
- Sony TR940 (Hi8)

Thank you for your time!!!
Adam

[hech54]

For me....the Hauppauge Win TV-HRV-1600 IS your capture device. It captures to Mpeg2 which is more than adequate from VHS tapes. Don't get all hung up on uncompressed(?) AVI for your capture. You have everything you need right there. And don't forget...if you need to share these videos with family or friends....most likely it will be on a DVD....which is Mpeg2...and only mpeg2. Anything else burned to a DVD is just a data file that they will need to play on their computer.

[PuzZLeR]

I know it is very popular to convert them to DVDs however I would like to convert them to digital files (something like .avi or such) that I can edit or use to compile a custom home video DVD later down the road.

Yes direct-to-DvD is appealing, and is the most distributable format, especially if you're giving a copy to your 80 year-old GrandMum who wouldn't know the difference between a frameserver or a lossless transfer.

But some purists do indeed capture to near-full quality DV AVI, even lossless like HuffYUV, edit, then encode to DvD. This way you can take better care of any filtering, crops (such as the VHS tracking fuzz at the bottom), deinterlacing if applicable, etc, instead of doing it with MPEG-2 -> MPEG-2. Which approach is better in terms of resultant quality in the final DvD highly depends on many factors such as capture device or scripts/filters/encoders if applicable. I would say this is subjective.

But yeah, either way, I agree with Hech54, use DvD for your final target (especially if it's from a non-HD format like VHS) regardless of your acquisition source (that you should keep if chucking the tape).

To capture my analog video I know I can get a capture device by manufactures like Pinnacle or Canopus (I don't know if these are any good or not).

From my experience, Pinnacle = bad, Canopus = good. Then again, I haven't tried a recent Pinnacle product, but avoid anything Dazzle that Pinnacle bought out. Either way, when going from analog -> digital with such devices, for best results you would need a TBC which handles that extra "jitter" from tape captures.

Or also by using a digital camcorder by means of a passthrough.

Sounds rather rudimentary at best to me. Most internal TBCs in such devices are by line, not by frame, so you won't benefit as much. Then again, maybe this has changed recently.

I couldn't find any example of a modern HD mpeg4/H.264 camera being used to do this.

Some methods here can be very good or very bad. Keep in mind however that if you wish to edit this format you will be hard pressed since key frames are further apart in MPEG-4 streams. As well, if you wish to filter, crop, etc and re-encode it won't be a good choice.

IMO, HD captures with H.264 are more suited for HD content, not overkill like VHS.

I was hoping I could kill two birds and upgrade to a newer HD camera to do this.

The sad thing in this hobby, more as rule than exception, all-in-ones usually suck. You can kill more birds but it will be messier.

Here is what I already have:
- Windows 7 64 bit PC, AMD dual 3.0GHz CPU, 2GB ram, 1TB Hard Drive, decent video card, USB 2.0 and Firewire input.
- Panasonic DMR-EZ47V (never used)
- Hauppauge Win TV-HRV-1600 Model 1199 (never used)
- Panasonic PV-GS31 (MiniDV) <-- Doesn't allow for passthrough

Regardless, you are ready for your project today if you want to proceed now.

Then again, my advice, if you had 300 tapes, that's one thing. But if it's only 20 or so, you can get the most important content done professionally, and the rest with your current setup.

[ibAdam]

Thanks hech54 and PuzZLeR. But I don't think I want to use the Hauppauge Win TV-HRV-1600. I was reading elsewhere on this site that users were finding it difficult with Win7 and also a problem about the sound quality (volume going from soft to loud when capturing with the Hauppauge Win TV-HRV-1600). The other thing I'm worried about is my Hi8 tapes losing quality getting captured to MPEG2.

I also don't want to go straight to a DVD. I'm looking to capture only to my hard drive at this point.

Has anyone used any MPEG4 device to capture Hi8 tapes? I'm more curious than I am thinking I want to go that route. But I do think from what I have read here and there to preserve the quality of the Hi8 tapes I should look to .avi over Mpeg2.

[davexnet]

Have you tried installing HuffyUV to see if that works with your device?

My AverMedia tuner/capture card has HW mpeg-2 encoding, but I can set Huffy when capturing in Virtualdub or STOIK and
capture without issues.

[budwzr]

Hi8 is not high quality. Mpeg2 is. You have it backwards.

Mpeg 4 (AVI) is a compressed playback format, not desirable for capture.

Try your Hauppage card, don't just go by "What you heard". See for yourself.

[ibAdam]

davexnet, no I haven't installed HuffyUV. I don't know what it is. I kind of know what Virtualdub is and was going to use that to help improve the capture with some filters, but I didn't know about HuffyUV. I'll do some research on it. Thanks!


budwzr, I know Mpeg2 can make a good quality video but due to it's compression I was under the understanding that it can suffer if not captured right. Another thing which I want to do is edit out some undesirable memories out of my Hi8 videos. I thought Mpeg2 was not a good choice to editing. I know with .avi I can chop sections of the video out, put it all back together and it looks the same quality. Can Mpeg2 do this too?