Feedback survey: Your settings for videotape capture to DVD?

[DieselsDen]

I want to start a thread which compiles this topic. So many people use different settings for VHS, Hi8 and laserdisc capture, and I just wanted people to offer their input.

I capture a large AVI file using my Canopus at 25 Mbps. I then convert using TMPGEnc, using a resolution of 740 x 480 using Constant Quality at 2750 Mbps. Then I burn on DVD using Sonic MyDVD 4 (which is not a great program, but it does the job).

[fitzy626]

I have a msi tv@nywhere cap card using windvr and have tried the following tests - VHS analog capture real-time to mpeg2
1. quarter dvd (352X240 @ 1800 kbps)
2. half dvd (352X480 @ 3600 kbps)
3. full dvd (720X480 @ 6400 kps)
4. half dvd hiQ (352X480 @ 7200 kbps)

All mpeg2 burned to dvd (pinoeer dvr A05) using Sonic My DVD. Very simple process. Played dvd on my panasonic rv31 player to my 43" sony tv. Respectable results given analog source (not stunning)
Noticed very poor quality for #1 relative to the rest. I did not notice a difference between #2, 3 or 4 on my TV.

Hope this helps

[hung0820]

When I capture I use Ulead Video Studio 6 with the NTSC dvd 720 x 480 at 50 maximum quality and 9800 bitrate. Quality is quite good. Then you can convert the file to lower quality if you like to fit more into the dvd-r. However, this method only good when you have a bigger hard drive and plus only good for up to 1-1/2 hour movie length. If you have any bigger movie length then you would have to lower the bitrate and perhap the quality as well. Simply with this file I can burn straight into dvd-r when I am ready. However, if you find that the quality of the movie is not quite good then you can convert them into avi file and then use Virtual and Filter it. For instant add color, sharper, can size, etc. however, filter does take quite a long time to produce beside you need a faster cpu, etc...

Sometime I am lazy and then I capture a long movie length like Lord of Ring and Harry Potter in Virtual Dub and then used the DIVX compression and then filter them out later. I used Virtual Dub because then you can increase the Volume Meter, Set time to stop capture, Small file capture when use AVI Divx setting, and Cut file strip or cut film size.

[Thorn]

I'm a stickler for quality. Since analog material isn't the highest quality anyway, it's best not to loose any quality in the process. Many people take shortcuts and say they can't see the difference, but this is really quite simple since I used to do this on a daily cycle for capturing live TV.

1. capture at 720x480 in virtualdub using the lossless Huffyuv codec (about 35GB/hour)
2. Edit out unwanted parts from the file with virtualdub (in memory only)
3. If this is vhs, I use the temporal smoother and smart smoother filters in virtualdub (but only slightly - these should never be overdone).
4. Frameserve to TMPGenc for encoding.

Note that for 2-pass encoding, frameserving doesn't work well (especially with filters - you do the work twice) so I'll save the file out in Huffyuv again.

Also, some prefer to use the vcd-resolution on DVDs holding VHS material because VHS video isn't the highest quality anyway, so the additional space required to go full resolution doesn't help the quality much. Unless I need to fit a lot of video on a disc, I prefer to keep it all high-bitrate and full res.