It's not easy being 'green'.Looking to transfer VHS via VCR to computer

[Iceman107]

Not totally a babe in the woods but green nonetheless. My background was primarily in audio editing. I'm now going both AV.
Question(s):

1. Looking to transfer VHS via VCR to computer. I know they have kits, converters, etc...
Came across this product mentioned online-SABRENT USB-AVCPT USB 2.0 Audio Video Creator Capture DVD Maker Editor Adapter. Reviews on Amazon were mixed:
http://www.amazon.com/SABRENT-USB-AVCPT-Creator-Capture-Adapter/dp/B0011N9QNC/ref=cm_c...pr_product_top

I'm just looking to download the videos into the computer for future editing on another machine.

2. I want the BEST transfer possible without losing a generation do I need to compress the files? And in doing so will i be losing the quality? Can I compress video and NOT audio (and visa versa)?

3. When converting file(s) what format should it be converted to (MPEG 2, AVI, etc...). I eventually (after editing) want to be able to view them on a big flat screen TV (Blu Ray optional).

4. In short I just want the material already downloaded in 1 computer so when I'm ready to start editing on the second computer I can hit the ground running. Anyone know of any reference material or links for a greenhorn post-producer?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Peace <><

[guns1inger]

if you are looking to do extensive editing and perhaps restoration work on the tapes then you should look for a quality capture card (hauppage ?) and capture using a lossless compression codec such as lagarith or huffyuv. You can then edit without the need to re-encode and suffer generation losses. Once you are done editing you can then output to whatever format you require. Lossless compression does require substantial disk space.

If disk space is at a premium, and because you are working with VHS, the next best would to capture to DV AVI, which requires around 13 GB per hour of footage (uncompressed requires 2 - 3 times the space). DV is simple to edit, and can survive several generations with minimal visual loss.

Best to capture to an internal drive, however once it is captured it can be happily stored on a large external drive until you are ready to work with it.

[RabidDog]

So green, in the sense of newbie, rather than hugging of trees, non-washing of body parts and restricting yourself to one jet flight a year?. Nobodys actually recommended a capture card tho..

[johns0]

Iceman107-Please next time you post a thread use a subject that describes what you need to do,for this time i changed it.

[jagabo]

2. I want the BEST transfer possible

That will require an s-vhs deck with line time base corrector and noise reduction, an analog video processing amp, and a full frame time base corrector -- before you think about capture cards. It will cost about US$1000 buying used equipment.

Then look into an ATI Theater 650/750 based PCI capture card. See the samples in this post:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/313735-Capture-card-for-Laserdisc-and-VHS-Good-card...=1#post1940519

[classfour]

I wouldn't pop $30 for something with 9 "1 star". Are you using a laptop for capture? If using a desktop (preferred), and having an open PCI slot, I'd spend a little more and buy a capture card. I'm running Hauppauge (PVR-150) because it has a built in encoder - so it doesn't use your processor like others will - and results in less (if not zero) dropped frames. Also, it encodes to mpeg2, DVD quality.

Currently, my process train is this: Panasonic AG-1980 (or another Panasonic, JVC, or even a 25 year old Emerson if needed)>>Elite Video BVP-4 (if needed)>>DataVideo TBC 1000 (mounted in external enclosure) >> Hauppauge PVR-150.

I don't always use the Processor or TBC: If the original plays clean, why mess with it?

[victoriabears]

meant to post this here:-

Bit of a novice aspect of this question, as I have not really explored computer capture as my VHS recordings are top notch, so am lucky as dvd recorders do most of what I want, but I do have some dodgy vhs that will require more work.

I have a ads pyro link that enables a pc to capture in dv via firewire, how does that stack up compared to the other choices mentioned, if I wanted to capture to lossless avi then edit, enhance and encode.

I am still looking at about 300 vhs tapes left to convert to dvd and am about to re-embark with a Hauppauge pvr 350 and Canopus Acedvio trials.

[jagabo]

I can't say anything about the ADS Pyro in particular, but the main difference you would see between DV and raw YUY2 captures would be the DCT compression of DV and the 4:1:1 color (DV) vs 4:2:2 color (YUY2).

The DCT compression is very light so it's not really an issue, especially with noisy VHS tape.

NTSC DV essentially captures the luma (grayscale) channel at 720x480 and the chroma channels at 180x480. YUY2 captures (assuming 720x480 caps) luma at 720x480 and the chroma channels at 360x480. That would seem give YUY2 a big advantage -- but the horizontal color resolution of VHS tape is only about 50 so either is sufficient:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/313301-canopus-v-other-devices?p=1937426&viewfull=1#post1937426

For VHS caps, the differences between different capture devices is likely to be larger than the differences between DV and YUY2. That is, getting a good capture device is more important than whether it's DV or YUY2.

One issue you might have with DV: The chroma channels have to be upscaled to the same resolution as the luma channel on conversion to RGB (many editors do their filtering in RGB). Different DV decoders do this differently. Some simply duplicate the chroma channels when upscaling from 180x480 to 720x480. Some will use a smoother method like bilinear or bicubic. The former can lead to obvious banding of colors. This can be alleviated by using a different DV decoder or a "411 helper" filter.