VHS to DVD question

[speedyrat]

I have a Sony digital camcorder and here's how I have captured my old analog vhs's in the past to get them onto my pc to burn into dvd.

Record the old vhs video tape to mini dv by hooking my vcr into my digital camcorder. Once I get the mini dv recorded, I then take and hook my digital camcorder to my pc via firewire and then use like Pinnacle Studio to capture it to the pc and then convert it to mpeg2 and burn to dvd.

Now, can I hook my vcr directly to my pc and get as good of quality or am I doing it the best way to capture the best quality?

I have an ATI 9800 Pro All in Wonder card in one pc and an ASUS V8200 Deluxe card in another.

Thanks!
Speedyrat

[indolikaa]

Well this question can go both ways!

If you connect the VCR directly to the ATI AIW you can capture and encode the A/V stream in reatime. The final result will be excellent if you follow the basic guidelines found at lordsmurf.com. This will cut your conversion time into at least half, as you will not have to encode/reencode as a separate process.

The ATI AIW can also capture to .avi if you feel there will be extensive editing. So you have the best of both worlds.

Do I know this? Yes, I run a pair of ATI AIW 9000 Pros.

If you connect the VCR directly to the Asus V8200, you maybe working magic like nobody's ever seen before! I can't find a V8200 listed on Asus's website. But, if it's anything like the V7700 (GeForce2 GTS) I own you have to capture as an .avi file, then export to another application for encoding. This will provide an excellent result but will take at least twice as long as the ATI solution.

Do I know this? Yes, my Asus V7700 Deluxe is in retirement.

If you connect your MiniDV through a firewire, you are merely transferring the material into Pinnacle for editing and encoding. Therefore, you are (again) looking at least twice the time compared to the ATI solution. The result should still be excellent.

Do I know this? Yes, in the same way your are using MiniDV to facilitate a transfer I use a Digital8 to accomplish the same thing. I just bypass the recording-to-tape step because my camcorder supports DV bypass.

All three methods will work. The ATI AIW will provide the fastest solution, and if it's done right, there should not be a discernable difference in quality. I used to think the only way to handle video was through .avi captures. But since I found the ATI AIWs I've been pretty much sold on their ability.

Note that your camcorder may have something called a TBC. This is an excellent tool when it comes to VHS transfers. With this being the case, you may also have the option of passing the VCR signal through your camcorder and into your computer without actually recording anything onto tape.

.indolikaa.

[troyvcd1]

The best way imo is to use the camcorder, vcr and computer and use the digital pass through of the camcorder. Therefore you save a step and also save the ware and tare of your camcorder and also imo also you get the best quality as opposed to using a capture card.

[indolikaa]

The best way imo is to use the camcorder, vcr and computer and use the digital pass through of the camcorder. Therefore you save a step and also save the ware and tare of your camcorder and also imo also you get the best quality as opposed to using a capture card.

IF the camcorder will allow a DV passthru (as some won't) and if you are not concerned about DV's 4:1:1 limitation. DV.avi files are compressed; DV is a CODEC and is not uncompressed video.

I do not agree that you will inherit superior with DV versus a capture card. For some situations the 4:1:1 limitation can be distracting.

EDIT: Want to know what 4:1:1 is? Follow this link and look at the pictures FulciLives posted.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t183502.html

[SatStorm]

@indolikaa: Interesting. I need your opinion then!

I have both Asus 7700 deluxe and SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO ALL-IN-WONDER (ATI based, really expensive card, about 520 Euro currently, I had it for testing porposes 2 weeks now, hell I love my job!) and for raw PAL capture (picvideo, huffyuv) I found identical results! What's your opinion on this for NTSC?

BTW, if you don't want your Asus card, send it to me (for a fair price...). I love this card, I found the picture quality excellent for my needs...

[indolikaa]

@satstorm,

One of the 'projects' I have planned for this week is to make an NTSC disc and a PAL disc using identical settings (where possible) from a high-resolution source material, probably LaserDisc or DirecTV. It's been awhile, but I seem to remember watching PAL and NTSC 'side-by-side' and liking the PAL feed better. So I thought I'd revisit the issue. I'd be happy to send you a copy of the discs for your own evaluation.

That being said, I think the ATI AIW captures are spectacular. Are they as good as my DV solution? Even with glasses, my eyes aren't the best in the world, so I generally can't see a difference. But a Sony 32" XBR television is a pretty good TV to watch video on, and I'm happy with what I see. I can't run it full bore yet (my systems are only T'Birds right now) but it does fine up to 5500 kbps.

.indolikaa.