VHS to DVD conversion - overview questions

[AlanD]

I've been trying to convert some old family VHS tapes and scanned photos to DVD. There's plenty of detailed help in the postings but I couldn't find a concise summary. Is my method reasonable or is there a better way? (I'm using Windows XP)

1 Copy tape to DVD using a stand-alone DVD recorder
2 Rip to m2v and ac3 files using DVD Decrypter
3 Create a series of mpg files using Cuttermaran to edit and remux them
4 Use DVDStyler to create menus and package the mpgs ready for writing to DVD

(For photos I used MS PhotoStory 3, with TweakPhotoStory, to get an mpg file showing each photo for the right length of time and with the transition I wanted between them)

Now for the questions:
1 I think there is a minimal quality loss in going from DVD to m2v to mpg and back to DVD. Am I right?
2 I could use AviSynth or VirtualDub-MPEG to filter and tidy up the input. Is there a loss of quality going round this loop? It seems more complex and time-consuming so I'll only do it for stuff which is very important to me and which needs a lot of cleaning up.
3 Is DVDStyler the authoring tool to use or is there a better one? I'm wanting to make a menu/navigation structure whereby the top menu choice determines the order of displaying each title. I can do this reasonably easily by editing the DVDauthor input file (using flags and gotos) produced by DVDStyler. (I first tried DVDAuthorGUI but found it less easy to use.)
4 DVD Decrypter will only rip from a physical DVD. What's the best tool to get m2vs from a DVD which has been copied to the hard drive?
5 Are there any problems with combining VHS mpgs and photo mpgs on the same DVD? Presumably they will need to go into separate titlesets if their characteristics differ (eg resolution)

Thanks for reading this far

Alan

[harley2ride]

I've been trying to convert some old family VHS tapes and scanned photos to DVD. There's plenty of detailed help in the postings but I couldn't find a concise summary. Is my method reasonable or is there a better way? (I'm using Windows XP)

1 Copy tape to DVD using a stand-alone DVD recorder
2 Rip to m2v and ac3 files using DVD Decrypter
3 Create a series of mpg files using Cuttermaran to edit and remux them
4 Use DVDStyler to create menus and package the mpgs ready for writing to DVD

(For photos I used MS PhotoStory 3, with TweakPhotoStory, to get an mpg file showing each photo for the right length of time and with the transition I wanted between them)

Now for the questions:
1 I think there is a minimal quality loss in going from DVD to m2v to mpg and back to DVD. Am I right?
2 I could use AviSynth or VirtualDub-MPEG to filter and tidy up the input. Is there a loss of quality going round this loop? It seems more complex and time-consuming so I'll only do it for stuff which is very important to me and which needs a lot of cleaning up.
3 Is DVDStyler the authoring tool to use or is there a better one? I'm wanting to make a menu/navigation structure whereby the top menu choice determines the order of displaying each title. I can do this reasonably easily by editing the DVDauthor input file (using flags and gotos) produced by DVDStyler. (I first tried DVDAuthorGUI but found it less easy to use.)
4 DVD Decrypter will only rip from a physical DVD. What's the best tool to get m2vs from a DVD which has been copied to the hard drive?
5 Are there any problems with combining VHS mpgs and photo mpgs on the same DVD? Presumably they will need to go into separate titlesets if their characteristics differ (eg resolution)

Thanks for reading this far

Alan

I'll try to answer some of your questions.
1. Yes, there is some amount of quality loss with each conversion step.

2. AVISYNTH and VirtualDub can help clean up certain things. They aren't a cure all. I do use them at times.

3. For encoding/authoring, you want a good software and encoding software to get the best quality out of your compression. I would want something using MainConcept, CCE, or at least TMPGenc for encoding, and use a seperate tool for creating the menu's. But that is just my preference.

4. I can't help you here...

5. Your video captured photos, and the photos that you scan will have some difference, but I don't think it would hurt to put them in the same slideshow on the dvd. I've done it quite a few times. My captured photos aren't as good of quality as my scanned photos, but they are good enough to show the family.

If you are doing a lot of editing, I would go the extra distance, and get a capture device that will allow you to capture from vhs to your pc as AVI, and I would use something like HuffyUV to get a lossless capture. I would then edit, then author (create menu's), then encode, then burn. I personally use Sony DVDArchitect, and it does the authoring, encoding, and burning using minimal steps. There are many other softwares that do that as well. You can look at DVD Movie Factory, DVD Lab, DVDit, and WinDVD are some of the ones that offer wizards which aide in walking you through the process. A lot of folks here prefer individual softwares to do each step, which offers them more control over the processes, and often produces a better final product.

[qpskfec]

1. Since your source files are already dvd compliant mpeg files, there should be no quality loss when the final disc is authored. There's no reason to demux files when ripping. I rip with DVDecrypter in file mode, then use Videoredo for simple cutting.

4. Simpler solution - use DVDShrink in reauthor mode. You can mount the files as a virtual drive using daemon tools if you want to use DVDecrypter.

[mairambija]

visit SPAM and transfer your home video tapes to dvd. You can get a pretty good conversion at a reasonable price from a lot of places. But what are most of these companies lacking? Care and attention to detail! Other ways you get totally amateurish product done with domestic equipment.

[guns1inger]

A professional company does not spam a forum touting it's wares. It approaches the forum administrator in a professional manner and buys advertising space. You speak of amateurish product - you are a prime example of this in action.