question on VHS->DVD quality

[RickSilver]

Is there any advantage to buying a dvd burner to record VHS tapes or will the quality be the same as a VCD?

[chazzie]

It depends. If you got some great filters you might exceed VCD quality, but no better than SVCD is possible as far as I know. The reason is the resolution of the VHS tape, and the analog system it uses.

[Oliver]

I have to disagree. I know image quality is subjective, but I originally was going to convert my home videos to SVCD, but wasn't satisfied with how the encodes looked, and decided to convert to DVD.

My main problem with SVCD was pixelation. If I wanted to create compliant SVCDs, the bitrate is limited to about 2.5Mbps, and for me that wasn't enough. My goal is to preserve my home videos to a digital format that would be indistinguishable from the original. After comparing test encodes of a few clips, and even trying to encode to CVD, I personally could not accept the small pixel artifacts I could see in the mpegs.

While it is true that you cannot improve upon the pixel/line resolution of VHS by going to DVD, you're going to be able to preserve more of the original frames in your video with DVDs higher bitrates. If I'm going to go through all the effort and work to convert my home videos, I felt it was best to convert to DVD, than to an inferior format that is noticeably worse than my original tapes. Plus, DVDs can hold a lot more minutes of video than CDs can, and a lot of my tapes are 1 to 1.5 hours long each.

Like I started out saying, video quality is subjective. I recommend what I did. Encode some test clips, preferrably clips with a lot of movement, camera shake, action, etc. Then just play the mpegs back and see what they look like. Then you can decide for yourself what's best for you.

[rsuave5]

you can get much better than vcd and better than svcd in my opinion. i consider it a fact! i capture the source vhs at 720 x 480 (debatable) i then use tmpgenc to encode with two pass vbr at max 8000 bitrate. i am very hard pressed to find a difference between the vhs and the dvd. svcd looks good but fast movement pixelized and now im pretty smooth.

the other advantage is that your vhs tapes will degrade noticeably over time whereas dvd is forever. it also takes up way less space and its a medium that will be around a good long while! i also like that with the dvd you can add menus to skip to certain parts via chapters and i also encode my sound to dolby digital and my titles are bitchin

[jmsams]

I'm learning to capture and edit video and burning VSCD. The problem is they only hold about 30 to 35 minutes. Most of the Hi8 tapes take 3 to 4 disks. Obviously, this is a pain. Once I get more proficient, I'm getting a DVD burner.

[rhegedus]

It will depend on the following:

1) The quality of the VHS tapes
2) The quality of the VCR player
3) Your capture settings, and
4) The length of the film (since film length is inversely proportional to the bitrate you can use).

What you have to bear in mind that your output will never be better than the quality of the input. That leaves getting the DVD to as close as possible to the VHS quality. My own trials with VHS to DVD have shown that enncoding at half D1 (352x576 PAL or 352x480 NTSC) with 2-pass vbr and an average bitrate around 3000 kbit/s is all you need for VHS to DVD conversion - higher bitrates won't improve the outcome. At this bitrate you should get about 3 hours of VHS onto DVD (depending on the audio bitrate).

These are good reads:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127563

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=147596

[rsuave5]

i do agree with the lower bit rate my 8000 is what i use for dv-avi. sorry for the mis-advice. i prefer the 720x480 over the half res but lets not start that debate again try both and compare and youll see that im way right and those that disagree are wrong lol

[lordsmurf]

I follow my guide, and am extremely happy with the output. The DVD is better than the VHS sometimes. Much better looking than VCD or SVCD or other formats. Tried those, didn't like them.

[rsuave5]

thats cool but its impossible to look better than the source without any enhancement filters. but i do agree its better than vcd/svcd