Newbie post - Recommendations for VHS-DVD Conversion.

[Mysticle31]

I've been researching the best way to convert my old VHS Tapes from VHS to DVD. I even have some Super 8, but no super 8 player.

I have:

• a regular ole Sony VCR circa 1999 - SLV-495
  a PVR-150 - with some kind of problem I get a white line like the V-sync is slightly off in an old TV when watching cable.

I want something fairly quick. I don't want to spend 12 hours working on 2 hours of video. I don't need to edit my videos. I just want them converted to digital, if I find I want to edit it later I will just A) Edit the file or B) Rip and edit the DVD, depending on what I get. Quality is important. I can either use them as files on my HD over the network or use them as a DVD.

What do you guys suggest? I've seen several options. One: A DVD-VHS player/burner. An advantage so the DVD-VHS unit is that I can get one that does HD upscaling which I need for my dads HD. Or is HD upscailing a scam? A Disadvantage to DVD-VHS player/burner is I have some copy protected tapes, but not many. Two: A Analog to DV unit - I have read that I should get an SVHS player which is more cost. Advantage better quality?

[redwudz]

I'm not a fan of VHS/DVR units. The odds are the VHS section will give out before the DVR part. And, as mentioned, copy protected tapes won't work. I would get a regular DVR and use a VHS player. Much more versatile. You can use DVDRW discs most times, edit the DVD file in the computer, then burn a final copy. Or if you don't need editing, just burn it directly in the DVR.

Other options are a capture card. You may get better quality, but it's a lot more work. Or you could use a DV converter. I have a older Canopus ADVC-100 that works well. And DV is very easy to edit.

I would say if you don't need to edit, the DVR would be my choice.

And welcome to our forums.

[Mysticle31]

I'm thinking of picking up a ADVC300 or and ADVC55.

I should buy and SVHS VCR for either of these units, correct?

If I'm understanding this correctly if I go for the ADVC55 I should get a prosumer or professional grade SVHS VCR and figure it out or of I go for the ADVC300 I can get a more mainstream SVHS because the ADVC300 has the TDC deal and other processing goodness?

Are the ADVC300 and TwinPact 100 the same unit just with extra features on the TwinPact100? Some plases seem to sell the TwinPact at a cheaper price than I can find a 300 by just a quick google search.

If I watched a DVD on an HD TV at 1080i via a PC, would it be "as good" as a DVD player? That seems to be the single advantage to the DVD-VHS Unit is upscaling.

[yoda313]

If you have little editing needs then get a settop dvd recorder. Simple and straight forward.

Plus you can rip it to your pc for editing later if you need to. You can even use virtualdub as long as you the virtualdubmod or virtualdubmpeg2 versions for vob support.

EDIT - regarding your last line there about upscaling, I believe they have dvd recorders that do upscaling as well for playback.

[Mysticle31]

OK - To reduce cost and still get good results maybe I will do this..

Get the best quality SVHS VCR I can find, full frame TBC preferred, (one from the VCR list in this forum) and record to MPEG2 with my PVR-150. No $$ ADVC300 needed. Or I could buy a good quality SVHS VCR and the cheap ADVC - ADVC 50 I think.

Can I get an adapter for my 8mm tapes to VHS? I only have a couple of of 8mm tapes.

[lordsmurf]

ADVC300 is a complete waste of money. DV is a limited conversion format, and the advertised "features" of the unit tend to be a bit shady (supposed embedded TBC, etc). You'd be better off with other goodies, like a high-end VCR, and a decent DVD recorder or Hauppauge capture card (or an ATI AIW, used, depends on your computer).

[Mysticle31]

I already have a PVR-150 so I'm good there. In Ubuntu I can just do 'cat /dev/video0 > XXX.mpg' and do one file per VHS. I just need a high end VCR then do get the best quality picture to the card. Although I can see lots of lines when the image moves. It makes me think of interlacing. Can I make these go away?

What can I do with all these 8mm tapes? I have 11 and most of those are probably trash.

[redwudz]

The 'lots of lines when the image moves' is probably interlacing. You see it on a computer, but not on a TV. A proper software player can do deinterlacing and then you won't see it on computer playback. Try VLC and turn on deinterlacing. Check the file on a regular TV and you will see what I mean. Interlacing is made for TVs. If that's your final output, just ignore the computer playback and keep them interlaced.

For your 8mm tapes. You could buy a used 8mm camcorder from EBay or borrow one from a friend. That's about the easiest way. Then transfer them to your computer and edit or clean them up there. Alternately, you could pay a company for a transfer to a DVD.

[Mysticle31]

Even on an HDTV there is interlacing? I plan to store my VHS tapes as MPEG2 or DIVX files on a hard drive. There would be a computer hooked to the HDTV so that I could watch them there if I want to. That way I don't have to have lots of DVDs lying around. If I needed a DVD I could just author and burn one. I would probably even use the computer for DVD playback on the HDTV so that I didn't have to get an extra DVD player if the quality was DVD or "upscailed DVD" whatever that is.

I find it odd that the PVR-150 would interlace things, maybe the interlaced signal is coming from my source and is not the product of the PVR-150.

[redwudz]

Interlace is the norm with MPEG for TV playback and the PVR-150 likely outputs interlaced MPEG video. Divx/Xvid is normally deinterlaced. If you convert them to Divx/Xvid you will need to convert them back to MPEG for a regular DVD. Or if you have a Divx certified player, then Divx/Xvid is a good option. I would recommend looking into AutoGK for DVD>Divx/Xvid conversions.

VHS is normally a fairly low quality format and Divx/Xvid is a fairly good option. For VHS to MPEG, DVD quality is somewhat overkill, as the quality is not really there. As a generalization, it's somewhere between VCD and SVCD quality. Some light filtering may make it look a bit better.

[victoriabears]

Try your vcr , get a panasonic ES10 as a passthru to another dvd recorder, try a jvc or toshiba dvd recorder.

I am amazed at what this does.

Don;t bother with a canopus advc, try simple and cheap first, then if necessary move forward.

If you need a TBC, prob not, get a avt8710 from B&H photo , not a TBC 1000 from data video.

This is my experience in 4 years of experimenting.

[Mysticle31]

Most of what I have is an hour long or less. I don't see encoding a divx file to a DVD to be a problem if I need it, which is unlikely. If I wanted to take it somewhere I would just throw it on a lappy. When I convert the mpeg2 file the pvr-150 puts out to divx will it deinterlace itself as part of the process?

As to my VCR, one of my tapes just killed it. The VCR ate the tape. One of the motors got jammed up and would not spin, and even when I busted the tape out of the vcr the motor was still jammed up.

I hope a prosumer level VCR will handle these tapes better. I should probably take apart the VCR and run some compressed air though it and wipe off the rubber wheels and heads with a cloth, correct? Maybe even see if I can track down a demagnitizer? I may even still have one somewhere.

I don't want to spend 120-150 on a VCR and have it die.

[mpack]

When I convert the mpeg2 file the pvr-150 puts out to divx will it deinterlace itself as part of the process?

Unless you really need it as a divx then I would recommend that you leave it in its original interlaced MPEG2 format as created by your DVR. Deinterlacing will reduce the quality, and so will later recoding for DVD (MPEG2), and starting from VHS it isn't like you have quality to spare!

As it happens I recently did a VHS->DVD conversion as a favour to a friend. I have a setup at home that US readers might find strange: old VCR is connected (composite video) to satellite box which has an RGB component link (Euro-SCART) out to Sony RDR-HX510 (HDD/DVD recorder), which has an RGB-SCART link to my TV. I intended this just to let me watch VHS, DVD or satellite as I chose, but it also turns out to do a pretty good job of VHS->DVD conversions, and really easy too!

[Mysticle31]

Now thats an idea. I have an older Direct TV DVR, but it has no input. I have a Sat in 1, Sat in 2 and RF in that says pass though only. I wonder if I could use this to make my MPEG2 files. When it makes the files I could remove the HD and do what I want with them. Upon further research this seems not possible, unless there is a trick. Maybe a sat channel equivalent to what my VCR puts out at 67.25mhz noooooooooo.

The problem with the mpeg2 files is that I have no idea how big they will be.

[lordsmurf]

For VHS to MPEG, DVD quality is somewhat overkill, as the quality is not really there. As a generalization, it's somewhere between VCD and SVCD quality. Some light filtering may make it look a bit better.

I don't agree with this. VHS has a lot more information than typical consumer VHS players output. On a good VCR, with interlace maintained, the DVD should look better than the tape did. XVID is a pretty destructive format, when interlaced video was the source.

If XVID is required, make it from the MPEG-2 conversions. That way you've got a higher-quality MPEG-2 master, and then lower-quality "web-only" XVID version too. You don't want to make a DVD from an XVID. Wrong direction for maintaining quality.

[Mysticle31]

Well I'll be getting mpeg2 files from my PVR-150 so I will have them. Just depends on how much space they will take up if I can practically keep them or if I will need to convert them to higher compression. Can I adjust the quality capture that I get from the 150s hardware encoder or is it fixed?

I've seen some Star Trek episodes floating around on the net that are in mpeg4/xvid that are ok to watch. Not the best but ok. I figured the VHS files would be the same. This video stuff seems to be more art than science.

VHS has a lot more information than typical consumer VHS players output.

Is this statement true for tapes that were recorded are typical consumer VHS players, which is 85% of what I'm going to convert?

Anyone have any comments as to the VCRs and the appetite for tapes?

DigitalFAQ is a damn good place!

[vhelp]

Star Trek.. which series: there are Voyager; Ds9; Generation; Enterprise; ToS; And each have their ad/dis-advantages in terms of telecine and ability to restore these telecine back to 24p. ToS and Enterprise are the only two that are completely restorable, while V/Ds9/G are not -- they have to be manipulated with advanced de-telecining routines, meaning, in other words, 30i -> 24p.

But, the reason why I brought that part up and in minor detail was because it looks like you might end up reaching to this junction down the road. But, then again, you did say that you wanted to do this project in one step and real quick without editing and things. But, I guess I was going on about the Star Trek aspects because you were vague as to which series you were refering to and also the "quality" aspects of them, and whether or not they, too, had any relevence to their origin from vhs or not. So, I got carried away.. yeah, so sue me

Wups, at this point you are prob better off posting some images (better yet, short videos) of your captured source for analysis here. Then, a better set of suggestions can be assertained, etc. No sense on making wizardry advice.

Post some pics by your current "capture" equipment and current vcr and go from there..

-vhelp 4753

[lordsmurf]

VHS has a lot more information than typical consumer VHS players output.

Is this statement true for tapes that were recorded are typical consumer VHS players, which is 85% of what I'm going to convert?

Yep. In fact, it's more true with a homemade tape. The higher-end S-VHS VCRs (which play both S-VHS and VHS tapes, of course) are able to correct for grain and chroma noise, as well as tweak the relative sharpness of the image. The home-recorded shapes are in worse conditions (usually) than store-bought pre-recorded tapes, and therefore really benefit from the higher-quality signal processing of a good VCR.

[Mysticle31]

Cool!

As to the trecks, I've seen a couple eps of all of em, the newer ones are better quality but I thought that was just filming or whatnot.

I've been shopping for a VCR and am having a hard time deciding between a 1980P or one of the JVC units. Any thoughts? Is the 1980P an older unit?

Does anyone know if I can firewire mpeg2 from a DVHS VCR to my PC? Might be good..

[classfour]

I managed to find an ex academic JVC pro(sumer) model on ebay for under $100. Early on, it was merely okay. Then, it started having playback issues. So, I cleaned the head with denatured alcohol.

The last few transfers that I've made were remarkable! I would say "Near DVD Quality", not DVD quality. Still pretty good, though.

[lordsmurf]

The JVC has superior image quality, but the Panasonic can sometimes handle worse-condition tapes. I own both, for this reason. You can always buy one, then outsource your stubborn tapes to a service that specializes in restoring tapes (not a typical conversion operation, find a restorer). Or outsource tapes that you want ultimate quality on (weddings, for example), after you made your attempt.

The DVD can always be better than the VHS source (as played on a normal VHS player). The S-VHS high-end unit is half the battle.