Archiving to VCD

[randyannie]

Hey Group!

I have about 40 VHS tapes with 15 years of precious memories on them. I would like to burn them to either VCD or DVD. I understand that the VCD will not hold as much data, but if the VCD has roughly the same resolution as a VHS tape, what would be the advantages of putting them on DVD. It's not like it's going to up the resolution just because I put them on a DVD disc . . . is it?


Thanks, Randy

[ZippyP.]

A lot of people use 1/2 DVD resolution for captures from VHS. It's 352x480 and is completely DVD compatible, and also much better quality than VCD. You can also burn it as SVCD if you don't have a DVD burner.

[realmexican]

My current project is alike yours, I found SVCD settings at 480x480 at 2500 or 2100 mbps to be good enough for the conversion. The source material is in Hi8 and 8mm tapes. My recommendation is that you burn the smae video in 2 CD's one as VCD and another as SVCD. Difficult images that may show you the difference are those with lots of squares like country shirts or far looking bricks, you will see the difference in compression between MPEG1 (VCD) and
MPEG2 (SVCD ). My point of decision was when I found that I have to use at least 2 CD's anyway for any of my 1h-2h videos. The improvement in video quality is meaningful if you plan to look those in a big screen TV, and who knows, by the time you finish conversion DVD-Blue ray may be here and the VCD quality may be most noticeable.
Best Regards

[dcsos]

vcd is not good enough if it your footage
if its somebody else's movie, ok
but if its yours full dvd resolution is cheap $1 a disc these days, so why not

[jimmalenko]

vcd is not good enough if it your footage
if its somebody else's movie, ok
but if its yours full dvd resolution is cheap $1 a disc these days, so why not

If the quality of the movie is similar at VCD or SVCD because the source was VHS, then there would be no requirement to put it onto a DVDR. You could get away with putting it onto CD. I think you already knew that though.

my 2c:
You can still do VCD resolution and 48KHz audio put onto DVDR, and you will be able to fit 6-7hrs per DVD.

It probably depends on what is acceptable to you. You could always make SVCD compatible files @ 2520kbps, which would look pretty good IMO. You pretty much have to weigh up if disc space is an issue. If it is, then go with DVDR.

[Nelson37]

While you may not gain anything by making full-res DVD your final goal, you should take into account that many capture devices will actually DEGRADE the quality of your video if you capture at lower resolutions.

Many people focus only on the final target resolution, and the apparent resolution of the source. They completely fail to allow for possible artifacts introduced by the capture device/methodology.

You should also be aware that DVD-spec MPEG-1 allows a bitrate of 1850, unlike VCD.

[johns0]

randyannie,capture at the highest resolution you can do- 720x480/756 and then encode to 352x480/576 and then author and burn with your liteon dvdrw.