Capturing Video 8 movies

[FoxyMX]

Firstly, I am a complete newbie at this game and have done a lot of reading over the past three or four days but cannot find a solution to my problem.

I have a dozen Video 8 home movie tapes that I want to transfer to my hard drive, edit to remove unwanted scenes then transfer the results to DVDs for playback on the TV with a DVD player.

With VirtualDub version 1.6.8 and the Huffyuv v2.1.1 codec my capture card, a Leadtek WinFast TV2000XP Expert, will not capture in VirtualDub at a higher format than 352 x 288. As well, upon playback there is a terrible background noise (sorry, I don't know the technical terms for all these things) but no other sound.

The noise is bad enough but I am very concerned about not being able to choose a higher format because I want the results to be as good as the original tape, if possible.

If I use the program that came with the capture card, Ulead VideoStudio 8 it appears that I can capture at a higher format and the results are good - on my computer, that is. I have not tried encoding and burning to a DVD as yet.

My own camera is broken so I am borrowing someone else's camera for the next week therefore I don't have a lot of time for experimenting. I wish to get as much captured as possible to edit while I can and I don't want to do all my capturing and find out later when it comes time to burn to DVD that I have done it all wrong.

Please can you advise which program (VirtualDub or VideoStudio) will give me the best capture results and what format (resolution?) I should be using to do this task. Any other relevant advice would also be appreciated.

Sorry it is such a long post but I thought the more information given, the better.

Thank you.

[thecoalman]

Personally I'd use the PVR software that came with the card, or you can download it from the Leadtek site. While your there make sure you have the latest drivers for it as well.

You can use the huffy codec with leadtek PVR, I always cap at 720x480 and encode at 720x480.

[FoxyMX]

Thank you for your reply.

Using the latest version of the PVR software seems to be the best option and I have set it to capture at 720 x 576 PAL format. I have also specified Uncompressed AVI for the capture format profile which I hope is the correct option for this job. It makes a huge file size though, but that is to be expected.

The program appears to be capturing at 720 x 576 and I am just hoping that it is not just "pretending" to as I can't see any difference between the 720 x 576 and 384 x 576 formats on my monitor. I am assuming one would notice the difference once burnt to a DVD and played on a TV.

[thecoalman]

Thank you for your reply.

Using the latest version of the PVR software seems to be the best option and I have set it to capture at 720 x 576 PAL format. I have also specified Uncompressed AVI for the capture format profile which I hope is the correct option for this job. It makes a huge file size though, but that is to be expected.

You can reduce the file size by using the Huffy codec. There's no need to capture at uncompressed.

The program appears to be capturing at 720 x 576 and I am just hoping that it is not just "pretending" to as I can't see any difference between the 720 x 576 and 384 x 576 formats on my monitor. I am assuming one would notice the difference once burnt to a DVD and played on a TV.

You probably won't see a difference, small if any, analog video such as a HI-8 has a relatively low resolution. Many capture and/or encode footage at the lower resolution. Personally I capture at 720x480NTSC (I really have no choice, I use a ADVC) and encode at the same resolution @ 6000VBR. Most will argue that's overkill for VHS which it probably is but my results are always perfect.

[FoxyMX]

You can reduce the file size by using the Huffy codec. There's no need to capture at uncompressed.

I have specified the Huffy codec but there is also a drop-down menu for the "Capture Format Profile" in which I assumed I had to make a selection. If I don't need to choose Uncompressed AVI what option should I select? Using the MPEG-2 Optimal Quality setting was a disaster.

You probably won't see a difference, small if any, analog video such as a HI-8 has a relatively low resolution.

So I could safely choose the lower resolution and not see a difference once edited and burnt to DVDs?

I really wish I had a lot longer to experiment as I am finding it very difficult to get my head around all these things, especially with the pressure to get it done so quickly.

[thecoalman]

Select the Uncopressed format, click the add button, type Huffy or whatever to name the profile. Then select Huffy as the codec and PCM as the audio.

As far as comparing the two resolutions unless space is an issue use the higher resolution. This is only a temporary file that has to be converted to MPEG . Unless your archiving the footage you will be deleting this file. If your intention is to archive using a DV codec would probably be more suitable.

[LSchafroth]

So I could safely choose the lower resolution and not see a difference once edited and burnt to DVDs?

I did this a while back. I did many experiements. I captured at 720x480 and burned to DVD. Then I did a 720x480 capture, rezised to 352x480 and converted. The Last option was to capture directly to 352x480.

The Captured at 720x480 and resize offered the best results for me. This was a comination of anlog 8mm footage and Hi8 and BetaMax.

This was all viewed ona 36" TV. I just got a big screen and have not compared with it.

LS

PS I converted with ProCoder on Mastering quality 2 Pass VBR with 4000 Max and 3150 average. Results were much, much better then TMPGEnc and Mainconcept so I stuck with PC.

[FoxyMX]

Select the Uncopressed format, click the add button, type Huffy or whatever to name the profile. Then select Huffy as the codec and PCM as the audio.

Thanks for that. The results are definitely better with that option than with the few others tried so that is what I will stick with.

[FoxyMX]

The Captured at 720x480 and resize offered the best results for me. This was a comination of anlog 8mm footage and Hi8 and BetaMax.


PS I converted with ProCoder on Mastering quality 2 Pass VBR with 4000 Max and 3150 average. Results were much, much better then TMPGEnc and Mainconcept so I stuck with PC.

That is interesting. I have mainly been concentrating on capturing at this stage so am not yet very familiar with converting. Am I right in assuming that you resized after doing your editing rather than before?

[thecoalman]

Am I right in assuming that you resized after doing your editing rather than before?

Yes you can do that, the capture file is just a intermediate file. Since you'll be deleting it there's really no reason not to capture at a higher resolution unless disc space is an issue.

From there you can experiment with different resolutions and bitrates for encoding to MPEG and again the higher the better. The bitrates mentioed above are a high quality for half D1 (look it up under "what is DVD". 720x480 on the other hand will require 4000 at a minimum taking up more DVD disc space.

You'll get a better result encoding with a a bitrate mentioend above using half D-1 than encoding to 720 x480 at too low a bitrate.