analog video to x264 - Handbrake vs. StaxRip vs. VideoToVideo

[TrackingError]

I have a lot of footage captured from analog videotape - mostly Hi8 and VHS. I'd like to convert the raw 720x480 DV files to x264, but I know very little about the ins and outs of conversion.

I have installed Handbrake, StaxRip and VideoToVideo and converted a short (57-second) test video using the default settings on each. However, I'm not proficient enough in encoding to know what I'm looking at in the end.

I'd like to get this footage converted for two reasons: 1. because hours and hours of raw DV is beginning to take a toll on my available hard drive space, and 2. x264 seems to be easier to distribute than interlaced DV.

Since I have so little of a scrap of a clue what I'm doing, I'm wondering if someone here could guide me through the 'best practices' for creating a Vimeofriendly x264 that doesn't look blocky and gross.

Thanks for any help in advance. Please correct me if I've done or said something wrong - my goal here is to learn as much as I can.

[sanlyn]

Maybe it's too early in the day for me, but the first thing that stirred my brain was:

I have a lot of footage captured from analog videotape - mostly Hi8 and VHS. I'd like to convert the raw 720x480 DV files...

I'd have to let advocates of noisy analog-to-lossy DV capture take it from there, as two coffees so far haven't spiked my enthusiasm for ideas about how to clean up or prep a lossy encode that's aiming for another round of lossy encoding, even if it is x264. I'm of the fanatical school that discourages VHS-to-DV captures. But I have a feeling it's too late now, because the next thing I noticed was:

...guide me through the 'best practices' for creating a Vimeofriendly x264 that doesn't look blocky and gross.

And then I get the feeling that deinterlacing and denoising VHS->DV is a bit much for this time of day. The DV experts would want to know the specs of the DV capture, so I'd suggest that you start by using the free MediaInfo utility to get some details about the original DV videos and post the text of that report here. It would also be helpful if you could post a few seconds of one of the original, unprocessed videos you're having trouble with.

[TrackingError]

All right, if I've done something wrong, feel free to suggest something else. I'm here to learn, not to be stubborn and set in my ways. I know so little about any of this that I don't think I'm qualified to be stubborn, only to receive information.

I've only made a few captures thus far, and nothing at all "mission-critical" yet - I'm waiting until I get a better capture device to sit down and really work on capturing tapes in large numbers. My end-goal is to end up with nice-looking deinterlaced x264 video files, and even that goal can be changed if need be. I'm learning from various people; much of what I know has come from http://anarchivism.org/w/How_to_Rip_VHS, which was written by a friend who knows a lot about analog media.

Again, I'm here to learn. What route would you suggest?

[sanlyn]

Capturing analog tape to DV involves data loss, but many people do it that way. It's best to capture those sources to YUY2 AVI with lossless compression (huffyuv or Lagarith), then clean up and re-encode from there. DV is lossy encoding. Re-encoding to other formats (MPEG2, h264, etc.) involves another stage of loss. Using very high bitrates for the encodes can minimize the problems. Bear in mind that video encoding is lossy and is not like compressing a file with ZIP or RAR, which are lossless (and far too slow for use during capture).

Nothing wrong with h264, but it depends on whether or not you want the videos playable in set top players. If you're thinking about upsizing VHS to HD resolutions, you will have to make those captures pristine before resizing, and VHS does not resize well to HD. SD can be encoded as MPEG2 (DVD), BluRay or AVCHD along certain formatting standards required by those media for standard players. Normally, DVD is interlaced and/or progressive with pulldown applied, but modern players can usually handle progressive input. If you deinterlace (you don't have to) use QTGMC.
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#tech
https://www.videohelp.com/hd#tech

You should submit a short sample of your original unprocessed capture. Otherwise, answers will be very general and most people will be guessing about stuff they can't see.