File Size Issues

[creaper]

Hi everyone,

I am recording VHS videos (some as long as 4 hours) with a Diamond VC500 using AmaRecTV and the HUFFYuv codec. My laptop that I use for this has a 256 GB SSD with normally around 100 GB of free space. With some of these tapes getting near 4 hours, I am having trouble with filling up my entire hard drive with one tape. I then offload it to a 3 TB External Seagate so that I may move onto the next VHS. These offloads can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how well the Seagate External Hard Drive wants to act. If I try to record directly to the Seagate, the video recording with freeze and eventually fail. This is getting a bit ridiculous for me and I would like suggestions. I have been looking into recording directly to an external SSD, but would like to see if anyone else has this sort of issue.

[hech54]

That's why I don't own a laptop. Nothing against them but when I do eventually get one my PC will still be fully functional.

[DB83]

Well if the 45 mins to one hour + transfer from internal to external bothers you - and large files DO take time to transfer - simply capture in smaller chunks of, say for example, one hour.

And some time you may want to re-transfer that recorded back to internal for editing.

And its NEVER a good idea to record direct to your single internal HDD since the OS is also competing with it. Even more so if you are close to filling the disk. . As for the Seagate it sounds that it is simply not up to the job if it fails to capture direct. Is that 3 TB partitioned ?. But I would consider another external. Western Digital can not be surpassed.

[davexnet]

Also the choice of capture codec. For example HuffyUV lossless) comes in at about 28GB per hour.
Perhaps you can stop the capture somewhere in the middle, transfer this, and then resume

Could also try an MJPEG codec, not lossless, but still good quality at the highest settings and smaller than HuffyUV

[raffriff42]

The actual HDD's inside the sealed "external drives" they sell are normally the cheapest, slowest, lowest-power models available. Which is fine for occasional backups and whatnot, but sustained use tends to overheat them, causing slowdowns. The answer is to use a drive rated for hard use. When I used to capture games with my laptop (no more; now I use a desktop) I used a WD Black HDD in an external enclosure (something like this one) and had no problems.

Agree w/ davexnet, MJPEG at max quality is worth a try. Also try x264vfw at preset "veryfast."

[creaper]

What MJPEG codec would you recommend?

[davexnet]

There's the Picvideo codec available for a small cost. Free trial at the website.
https://www.accusoft.com/products/picvideo-m-jpeg-codec/overview/

Or you can try the codec in FFDshow, it's free. I've tried it on a capture myself, definitely serviceable

[aedipuss]

try using a nas box with a 1gb or 2gb connection so there's no cpu load and no lost connections or failure.

[awgie]

And some time you may want to re-transfer that recorded back to internal for editing.
...
As for the Seagate it sounds that it is simply not up to the job if it fails to capture direct. Is that 3 TB partitioned ?. But I would consider another external. Western Digital can not be surpassed.

Agree that the Seagate drive isn't up to the task. The drive was probably either slow out of the gate, or it's slowly dying.

As for Western Digital, I used to use them exclusively for my external drives, but after a couple of them developed little hiccups very early in their life, the last half dozen or so that I've bought are Toshiba, which have proven to be very dependable, and they're less expensive than WD.

And I actually leave my files on the external drive for editing. That way it's not competing with the operating system for HDD access.

[pippas]

I use the free intermediate codec Grass Valley HQX to capture VHS using AmaRec TV.

That produces excellent quality intraframe files which - using the 'standard' setting - gives file sizes of about 8GB per hour. (About half the size of DV files)

I find that using a lossless codec for this task tends to 'choke' the system on occasion, which can lead to dropped frames. They also produce huge file sizes.

I'm sure they're really important for some of the more serious restoration work our members undertake, but they're probably overkill for VHS capture.

HQX (or maybe Cineform?) - both freeware codecs - can produce excellent results.

[creaper]

I use the free intermediate codec Grass Valley HQX to capture VHS using AmaRec TV.

That produces excellent quality intraframe files which - using the 'standard' setting - gives file sizes of about 8GB per hour. (About half the size of DV files)

I find that using a lossless codec for this task tends to 'choke' the system on occasion, which can lead to dropped frames. They also produce huge file sizes.

I'm sure they're really important for some of the more serious restoration work our members undertake, but they're probably overkill for VHS capture.

HQX (or maybe Cineform?) - both freeware codecs - can produce excellent results.

I tried the HQX codec, but when I try to slice it up using Avidemux or even play it with VLC, neither of them work. I used the MJPEG codec and that worked fine with each. I watched the HQX codec with Windows Media Player and that seemed to have a lot of promise.

[pippas]

I tried the HQX codec, but when I try to slice it up using Avidemux or even play it with VLC, neither of them work. I used the MJPEG codec and that worked fine with each. I watched the HQX codec with Windows Media Player and that seemed to have a lot of promise.

HQX is an intraframe vfw type of format, not suitable for use with Avidemux or VLC player. You should be able to play the files with Window Media Player or MPC HC though.

The free editor Virtualdub can handle HQX files, and it's easy to edit them using that program.

[creaper]

I tried the HQX codec, but when I try to slice it up using Avidemux or even play it with VLC, neither of them work. I used the MJPEG codec and that worked fine with each. I watched the HQX codec with Windows Media Player and that seemed to have a lot of promise.

HQX is an intraframe vfw type of format, not suitable for use with Avidemux or VLC player. You should be able to play the files with Window Media Player or MPC HC though.

The free editor Virtualdub can handle HQX files, and it's easy to edit them using that program.

I will have to try that. What are the pros/cons over Avidemux as purely an editor?

[pippas]

What are the pros/cons over Avidemux as purely an editor?

Virtualdub is better at handling 'intraframe' VFW formats -like DV or HQX - but is less good at dealing with long GOP formats - like Mpeg2 and mp4 where Avidemux scores better.

This short piece describes the differences between intraframe and interframe : http://telestreamblog.telestream.net/2012/04/save-yourself-frustration-use-editing-for...hen-editing-2/

There are loads f similar articles if you Google.


Basically it's easier to capture and edit using an 'intraframe' format, and easier to store your final edited footage in an 'interframe' format to save space.

Formats like uncompressed, HQX, DV, Cineform, etc (see a more complete list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_codecs#Intra-frame-only ) use intraframe codecs. Uncompressed is the simplest format, but the file sizes are huge. The others are compressed to a greater or lesser extent.

I find the free HQX codec a good compromise between realistic file sizes and good quality....