Recommendations on converting 8mm tapes to H.265 MP4s. Am I a fool?

[Razz]

Several years ago I used my Hauppauge HVR-1600 TV tuner card to capture my analog 8mm video tapes as MPEG2 files. But I'd like to re-capture the tapes as H.264 or H.265 MP4 files because:

1. To my knowledge MPEG2 files can't contain metadata which makes it difficult to nicely sort & select videos with common media players like Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey, VLC, et al. Am I wrong? It's difficult to edit MKV metadata (I think) and MP4 seems like a universally supported container that will be universally supported well into the future. Is there a better container choice than MP4?
2. H.264, and especially H.265 should create smaller file sizes than MPEG-2 at the same quality. H.265 seems like it would yield the smallest file sizes-per-quality level, and H.265 seems universally supported and likely to be universally supported well into the future. Is there a better CODEC choice?
3. I'm loathe to take a quality hit by transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264/5.

I tried using a Hauppauge Rocket PVR to record to H.264 MP4s but the quality was not great and the file sizes (at "Good quality" 8Mbps) were as large as when I capture them as MPEG2 with my Hauppauge HVR-1600. (Shocking since I'd expect H.264 to yield smaller files sizes at the same quality.) Since there are no cheap H.265 hardware converters (are there?) my plan is to:

1. Capture the analog 8mm video with the HVR-1600 in raw format, creating huge 2-hour files. (Per my separate post I need to find a tool that will capture video and audio since VirtualDub is failing me on the audio capture.)
2. Compress the raw AVI files to H.265 MP4s with Handbrake. (That worked REALLY well-- at least on small files I've tried.)
3. Cut the 2-hour MP4s into scenes/events (like my son's 1st birthday party) and add metadata for each file.

FYI: I also have a Haupppauge HVR-950 that I could use, but I'm guessing the HVR-1600 will yield higher quality captures. Thoughts?

Am I being a fool for trying to do this job, and do it in this way? Any suggestions?

I guess that it might be smarter to split the raw AVI files and then compress them-- maybe with something like Scenealyzer? Thoughts?

[newpball]

Any suggestions?

Sure, you are welcome:

Capture lossless and archive!

That way you have it captured good once and for all!

From that you can make and copy in any format to your heart's content!

[Razz]

Newpball: I think you may be kidding, but now that I think about it, I probably will just dedicate a 1.5TB HDD to archiving the raw video. But in the meantime, I'd still like to compress to a more manageable size and a metadata-friendly container.

[newpball]

Newpball: I think you may be kidding...

I can assure you I am not.

[usually_quiet]

Several years ago I used my Hauppauge HVR-1600 TV tuner card to capture my analog 8mm video tapes as MPEG2 files. But I'd like to re-capture the tapes as H.264 or H.265 MP4 files because:

1. To my knowledge MPEG2 files can't contain metadata which makes it difficult to nicely sort & select videos with common media players like Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey, VLC, et al. Am I wrong? It's difficult to edit MKV metadata (I think) and MP4 seems like a universally supported container that will be universally supported well into the future. Is there a better container choice than MP4?
2. H.264, and especially H.265 should create smaller file sizes than MPEG-2 at the same quality. H.265 seems like it would yield the smallest file sizes-per-quality level, and H.265 seems universally supported and likely to be universally supported well into the future. Is there a better CODEC choice?
3. I'm loathe to take a quality hit by transcoding from MPEG-2 to H.264/5.

I tried using a Hauppauge Rocket PVR to record to H.264 MP4s but the quality was not great and the file sizes (at "Good quality" 8Mbps) were as large as when I capture them as MPEG2 with my Hauppauge HVR-1600. (Shocking since I'd expect H.264 to yield smaller files sizes at the same quality.) Since there are no cheap H.265 hardware converters (are there?) my plan is to:

1. Capture the analog 8mm video with the HVR-1600 in raw format, creating huge 2-hour files. (Per my separate post I need to find a tool that will capture video and audio since VirtualDub is failing me on the audio capture.)
2. Compress the raw AVI files to H.265 MP4s with Handbrake. (That worked REALLY well-- at least on small files I've tried.)
3. Cut the 2-hour MP4s into scenes/events (like my son's 1st birthday party) and add metadata for each file.

FYI: I also have a Haupppauge HVR-950 that I could use, but I'm guessing the HVR-1600 will yield higher quality captures. Thoughts?

Am I being a fool for trying to do this job, and do it in this way? Any suggestions?

I guess that it might be smarter to split the raw AVI files and then compress them-- maybe with something like Scenealyzer? Thoughts?

I would archive losslessly compressed video plus PCM audio for the future.

Editing lossless video works better than editing highly compressed video.

H.264/AVC 4.1 High with AAC audio in an MP4 container has better hardware support at the moment than H.265/HEVC. That will change, but if you want to share the videos with other family members in the meantime, it is likely some won't be able to play H.265/HEVC video.