Sound editing wedding video

[Nick Burns]

Our wedding video is on a VHS-C tape. I'd like to transfer that to my computer so that I can burn a DVD.

My main concern is the sound. We had our wedding in the back yard next to a main thoroughfare, so you can just barely make out what we're saying over the cars going by. Is there any relatively cheap video/sound editors that would allow me to try to drown out the cars and pull up the voices?

Thanks for any help.

[Tommyknocker]

First, let me congratulate you on you nuptials. To answer you questio, I believe Gold Wave may be able to clip the sound of passing traffic, yet let your voices come through.

I am not an audio expert, but I do believe it may help you. Oh yes, it is shareware, so you only feel required to pay for it if you feel it has helped you.

[Nick Burns]

Thanks, but to tell the truth, I've been married for 8 1/2 years now. Now that I have a DVD burner, and can now try to edit the video and make a better copy.

[Nick Burns]

I'm using my Asus GForce 4 Ti4600 ViVo to record this VHS-C, which is a 90 minute tape.

I've search here and have read the guides and found that VirtualVCR will probably be the best utility to capture the video.

I couldn't define my search well enough to get a definitive answer to this question:
For high-quality uncompressed AVI (since I will be editing) how much harddrive space will I need? ie What is the MB/Minute ratio?

Thanks!

PS: Could someone point me to the guide that details how to configure my system for top-notch capturing? Thanks again.

[SaSi]

To capture to uncompressed AVI is not a good idea. The space requirements will be huge (around 100Gb per hour), and it doesn't help capture.

The data transfer burden to the disk is so enormous, that unless you have a P4/2.6 or better and 7200rpm disks and UDMA 133 links, you are prone to drop frames.

After capturing with different codecs with my ASUS 3800 (TNT2) and recently with my ASUS 9180 (GeForce MX440) I have come to chose hufyuv to compress the video. The compression is "very little" compared to other more proper codecs, (around 2-3 times) but the codec is lossless and very fast. You would estimate approximately 30Gb per hour of capturing (althugh it sometimes goes down to 22~25Gb per hour).

Capturing analog video is rather tricky. The first time you try you will fail. Expect that and don't dispair.

Some guidlines:

Use a large, empty disk that at least is not fragmented. If the disk is 50% full and defragmented, please note that you are getting 30% ~ 40% less disk i/o performance compared to the same disk totaly empty. This is because the more you write to the disk, the slower i/o becomes as you write to the inner (smaller) cylinders.

Experiment with different programs for capturing. I have tried VirtualDUB, DVDWorkshop, and others, even captured from Premier.
With the new WDM capture drivers, any program is almost as good as any other, as most of the work is done by DirectX.

Capture resolution is also an issue. VHS is probably worth capturing at half D1 resolution (i.e. 352 x 576 for PAL or 352 x 480 for NTSC). I usually capture VHS at 352 x 288, especially if the recording is at LP.

S-VHS is probably worth capturing at 352 x 576 and even 720 x 576. Since it's your wedding, perhaps it's worth to try a couple of variations before you decide.

Try a small portion of the tape (say 5 minutes). Capture it, edit it, encode it to MPEG-2 and produce a DVD. Repeat this a couple of times, until you improve your skills. Expect every new attempt to make the previous appear as a waste of time. Don't attempt the full capture,encode,author until you have solved your minor problems and begin to understand what is happening. Otherwise you will be wasting time.

And, pick your tools with care. Don't take the route one tool does everything. There are better tools for each step.

Tools you should try:

Capture: VirtualDUB, MainConcept MPEG Encoder (!! It has a nice and simple capture ability).

Editing of captured video: VirtualDUB. For more advanced editing and effects, Adobe Premier is the best, most expensive and comles. MainConcept EVE is cheap and chearfull.

Codec for capture: hufyuv


Audio Editing: CoolEdit Pro (AKA Adobe Audition). The best audio editing s/w ever produced.

MPEG Encoding: Tmpgenc is fine and very versatile. And it allows you to do other things while it encodes. Other options are CCE Basic or MainConcept MPEG

Authoring: My current favourite is DVDLab. Tmpgenc DVD Author has also received nice comments and less complaints about bugs. Perhaps not so many people are using it though

Hope I've been able to help you...