VHS to dvd questions...

[ChaunceyK]

Brand new here, wasn't sure if there'd be a better place to post, so I figured this would be a safe bet for some help.

I've got a Dazzle DVC80, and I've ripped some of my old vhs tapes without any problems. I've burned to vcd & svcd with both Studio QuickStart Version 8 (came with the Dazzle DVC80) & Nero, so I'm pretty familiar & comfortable with these programs. I'm also very familiar with TMPGenc, as well.

Here's where the question comes into play....some of my old vhs tapes run 2 1/2 to 4 hours. Standalone dvd-burners have the SP/EP/LP settings, so you can burn 2/4/6 hours onto one dvd, but my dvd-burner is in my pc. Can someone recommend a way to burn 2 1/2 to 4 hours of video onto one 4.7gb dvd, without sacrificing menus & chapters? I'd think lowering the framerate from 29.97 to 24 would reduce the file-size slightly, and maybe reducing the sound quality as well?

If anyone could suggest a way to use these particular programs for my task, that would be great. If I absoultely need to use another program, so be it, but I'm already familiar with these so that'd be my preference. Thanks in advance!

[rhegedus]

If you're converting you old VHS tapes to DVD, I don't see where you're getting the menus and chapters from.

But, first things first. You're probably wasting a lot of bitrate on converting your VHS to DVD using the DVD template in TMPGenc. Because of the resolution of VHS, you won't gain anything using full D1 resolution, so encode at half D1 (horizontal dimension - make a new mpeg 2 template with the horizontal resolution at 352). You might also consider dropping the sound quality since using DVD speca for VHS is definately overkill. Then use this template in the wizard to get a nearly full disk - you can use the space left over for any menus you want to add. Chapters can be added in TMPGEnc DVD Author.

[ChaunceyK]

If you're converting you old VHS tapes to DVD, I don't see where you're getting the menus and chapters from.

Sorry, after re-reading my original post, I can see the slight confusion....I plan to add menu(s) & chapter points to these rips.

Also, not to dismiss your suggestions (I'll be sure to try them when I get some free time over the weekend) but I'd like to hear other suggestions from other people as well.

For instance, what if I encoded the rips to the standard vcd format? From past experience, my 25 minute vcd-files tend to run around 250mb, which makes about 10mb per 1 minute....by that equation, I should be able to burn a maximum upwards of 400 minutes (4gb total). Or the svcd format, which should hold closer to my maximum of 240 minutes.

Anyone know if this would work, before I go through the trouble? Again, I'm just trying to to think of other possibilities. Feedback?

[rhegedus]

You can put VCD mpeg onto a DVD but you have to use audio that is DVD spec (freq 48 ) instead of VCD (freq 44).

Your results will depend on the quality of the source. I've found that is the source is very good then encoding to DVD mpeg at 3000kbps using half D1 will allow just over 3 hours of video that looks like the original on a 28" TV.

Since a PAL VCD is 352x288 whilst a half D1 DVD is 352x576, VCD is half the resolution of the half D1 DVD - you could store twice as much VCD video but at half the quality.

Is this what you want?

[ChaunceyK]

VCD quality would be fine by me....I use NTSC rather than PAL, so the resolution would be slightly different, but no matter.

The quality of my source tapes should be very good....they may be old (some as old as 15 years), but each has only been viewed once or twice.

I understand encoding to DVD mpeg at 3000kbps, but what's this "half D1"? I'm not familiar with that term.