HOw to capture perfectly from VHS? Any comments?

[easteast]

I am capturing from VHS tapes to mpeg2 files in my pc. If I play the files in my pc, there is no synch problem. BUT, if I manipulate the file, e.g., encoding or burning on cds, there will be synch problem. There seems to be defects in the mpeg2 file I captured.
Do you have any suggestions on how to ensure there is no problem during the capturing process?

[AngusMacGyver]

Hi,
Please, tell us more about your capture method, programs in use, etc.

[thesicilian]

Hi,

I use a tv capture card & intervideo windvr. This allows you to capture in realtime direct to svcd mpeg2.

[spiderman2k1]

use a high end VCR made a by JVC that can do digital filtering and a good capture card I use the Dazzle 2

[kitty]

Make sure your mpeg output has closed GOPs if an option and insert sequence headers - there is a tool at https://www.videohelp.com/tools#other to do that.

Worth a try.

[easteast]

I am using Creative Video Blaster MovieMaker for realtime capture. The settings are 352*576, mpeg2, output video quality 2.5M bit/s and output audio quality 192k bit/s.
The quality of the captured file is not bad, but, as it is not standard, many tools cannot open this file. But I can play it with Window Media Player and know that the captured file is ok and there is no synch problem unless I do any conversion or burning.

[kitty]

Ulead DVD Moviefactory 2 handles 1/2 D1 files just fine - that is how I cap and burn my Video8 older home movies. A trial is available at www.ulead.com

[Sartori]

I do mine the same as Kitty above , if I burn my 352x576 mpegs in Nero though they go out of sync , err... so I don`t burn in Nero much .
But my vcds burn ok with Nero .

The point :
what software do you burn with ?
what software do you encode with ?
what speed is your processor ?
how fast is your hard drive ?
how many dropped frames do you get during capturing ?

Dependant on your answers are several answers

[easteast]

OK, I use Ulead Movie Factory 2 for encoding and burning, and the desynch problem is gone. Great! Thanks Kitty.

[Betamax]

I cap all my old VHS into 'conventional' AVI (using a DV-codec, via Matrox RT-2500 analogue2digital outbox). I have very high quality (unless the original tapes are 'choppy' then it goes worse).
When I encode into SVCD (and using VBR), my svcd's look almost like the orinal tapes at my TV...

Even if I can capture directly into MPeG2-I frames, I won't do so because it would make things more complicated to modify the avi's before I start encoding (audio getting out of sync and stuff like that)...

[SatStorm]

The perfect VHS to VCD/CVD/SVCD convertion can't be done perfect realtime! Only with DVD you can grabb on very high bitrates and succeed perfect transfers IMO.
The best quality alternative, is capture to avi (mjpeg or huffyuv) and then convert to multipass VBR xSVCD or xCVD. You can also convert to 1/2 D1 DVD the same way, and get more video per disc in the same quality as to do it realtime and with much higher bitrates.

[GenePool_]

IMHO,

You don't want ot edit mpeg, period.
I have gone through this cycle and seen it discussed many times on this board. I have a Snazzi III mpeg capture card and an ADVC-100 Analog to digial AVI canopus card. I use them like this.

If I want to convert an old video tape and just want to take the tape and author it (no editing, not even simple cutting, clipping) then the mpeg card works just fine and same me the time of having to convert the DV AVI.

However, if I want to edit the files, cut them and do more serious video editting, like transition effects etc... then I capture in DV AVI. This seem to work well for me.

Albeit, this may no be the most economical choice but it's what I ended up with.

Another solution, instead of buying the canopus ADVC-100 is to buy a miniDV camcorder with analog to digial pass through. The Canon ZR50's have this feature. May be a cheaper option if you are conisdering a camcorder.

[BKL]

I too have gotten the best results converting my analog input to DV before importing for editing, etc. I use a Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge, al though Dazzle products can be finicky at times.
In addition to the Canopus unit above, ADS Tech has just come out with a similar product.
Converting analog to DV seems to eliminate most of the audio-video sync problems I had been seeing with longer captures.
I originally used my Sony TRV-120 to convert to DV via pass-through, but didn't want to leave it on all of the time, so I got the DV Bridge.

[bchball]

At the moment I use Virtual Dub with Huffyuv compression at 352x288 PAL and 352x240 NTSC. I capture no more than 75min at a time so I can drag the large avi straight into TMPGEnc for compression to MPEG then to Nero for VCD. Then I don't have to cut the large avi with Virtual Dub which gives me problems with file sizes over 2 gig.
Not the best way to cap i'm sure, but with my cheap cap card i'm happy. 8)

[oldfart13]

The problems you are having with editing Mpeg-2s stem from you using VBR to cap in. Cap in CBR and you should have no problems. I just did a 6000 kbps 720X480 CBR cap from my sat TV system and cut it with MyFlix XE and it's in perfect sync. In fact, I check the files beforehand with DVD2AVI and that program says there is "0" time delay. Try it and see...

PIII 1GHz
ATI AIW 7500
512 Meg RAM
80 7200rpm cap drive
Win98SE
Video Studio 6 (VS7 gives me runtime errors)