No Quality Difference Capturing From VHS To VCD Or DVD?

[Big_Steve]

I'm using pinnacle studio 8 deluxe av/dv (which includes the software, capture card, and av capture break out box ... an all-in-one system) to transfer tv shows on vhs to vcd and dvd.

When I create a vcd of the original vhs source material the results are not to the quality of the original vhs but "watchable". Things that are in focus are great but things in the background are a little blurry, I take this as a natural artifact of a vcd. Also, it only takes about 20 minutes on my system to render, compile, and burn a 60 minute vcd.

However, when I take that same original vhs capture and create a dvd I notice no appreciable difference in the video quality of the dvd ... it looks EXACTLY like the vcd, the only difference is in the menu ... which is MUCH sharper and very clear in the dvd, the menu has the quality of a production dvd, but the actual video content itself looks identical to the vcd ... which is not quite the quality of the original vhs tape. I may also add that it takes 8 to 9 hours to produce the dvd, as opposed to the 20 minutes for the vcd. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong?

The pinnacle system I'm using will only allow you to capture analog video at full DV quality ... so the source capture is exactly the same, but note that the capture looks very good on the computer and neither the vcd or dvd is producing the quality of the capture I see in the pinnacle preview box. I used memorex media for the vcd and sony dvd-r for the dvd. My OS is WinXP.

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

[burdo]

What are you using to encode it? Suggest cce or tmpgenc.

[non-linear]

However, when I take that same original vhs capture and create a dvd I notice no appreciable difference in the video quality of the dvd ... it looks EXACTLY like the vcd

What resolution are you capturing at? If you're only capturing at VCD resolution and using that for DVD, then you can't expect much in the way of quality since the captured video is already at such a low resolution. Blowing the size up to be full D1 resolution will get you nowhere since the resolution of the source file is much lower.

If you didn't capture at full D1 resolution (720x480 for NTSC standards), then try capturing the video again and you'll probably notice better results.

[overloaded_ide]

. I may also add that it takes 8 to 9 hours to produce the dvd, as opposed to the 20 minutes for the vcd. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I may be doing wrong?

The pinnacle system I'm using will only allow you to capture analog video at full DV quality

Doesn't sound right to me! I don't do what your doing or use your software but my "Geuss" based on the times you state is that you are captureing more like VCD files and converting those to DVD compliant files!

If I capture My best VHS quality then try to make a VCD it takes way longer than 20 minutes to convert it! Only takes a few minutes to make a DVD though! Sounds like you have it backwards!

If I capture to Mpeg 1 low quality for a VCD it doesn't take long to make a VCD, but trying to get a DVD will take forever! And the quality does not improve!

So it really does sound to me like you are capturing a VCD based on the time and quailty of the results you said.

[BobK]

Not really a suggestion as to anything you're doing wrong, but I've been using Studio 8 and capturing avi's for about 6 months. It took my system about 45 minutes to compile a VCD and 6-7 hours to render and compile a DVD (when it actually finished without crashing)

I finally put out the money for a mpeg capture card. I still use Studio 8 to make VCDs from the mpg captures, but it only takes about 5-8 minutes to render and compile a VCD. Studio just won't make a DVD from the mpeg2 without losing audio-video sync (neither would DVDLab), so I tried TMPGEnc. Now it takes about 20 minutes to render and compile a DVD.

So if you have very many to do it might be worth the money.

On Studio, don't have you have option to select 'good, better or best' when capturing? I captured everything at the 'best' quality- it took a little long to render a VCD but there was a difference in quality between a VCD with material captured at 'better' and 'best', and there's a big difference in quality between the final VCD and final DVD (made from the same source). Since you're taking 8-9 hours to compile a DVD vs the 6 hours it took me, but you're making twice as fast as my system, it sound like you're probably capturing at a lower quality.