Capture Quality!

[rfos]

My project involves capturing of 'old' VHS tapes to create digital MPG files.

Granted the quality of the input tapes were not great (they were created professionally from old 8mm film) but they were pretty good overall.

I first tried capture via an AIW Radeon card. The capture quality was awful. The lighter areas of the tape were completly washed out so much so that you couldn't even see what was rendered.

After messing around with several tapes and trying a few things gathered from this forum I finally gave up on this method.

I then borrowed a Cannon ZR40 Camcorder and captured to digital tape which I then transferred to my PC. This process came out much better but the overall quality is still not as good as I had hoped.

The quality of the video rendered in the resulting AVI files (or the converted MPEG files) are nowhere as good as when I play the video tapes on my PC.

I assumed there would be a reduction in quality but I didn't think it would be this much. Many of the lighter portions of the video still appear washed out (though not as much as the AIW capture) and the darker portions are quite a bit darker.

It this the best that I can expect or is there something more I can try to clean up the capture process?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

rfos

[hwoodwar]

"The quality of the video rendered in the resulting AVI files (or the converted MPEG files) are nowhere as good as when I play the video tapes on my PC. " Is this mainly the "washed out" affect you were talking about?

To minimize the washed out affect, do a few short test captures and try:

1. In VirtualDub Capture mode goto Video>>Source>>Device Settings and try adjusting the settings there and capture with the new settings

2. Instead of adjusting the brightness/contrast as described in (1) apply a brightness/contrast filter after you capture, in VirtualDub and adjust settings

3. There is also a chance Video>>Squish Luminance Range may help some.

4. Some people like using the Flaxen VHS filter, available here: http://flaxen.dynip.com/vdf/fxvhs/help.html

5. I had a similar threads to your's already bookmarked you probably should look at the responses to them at:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=258622&highlight=flaxen

and

http://virtualdub.everwicked.com/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=57&s=4bef91336a92b21ae9e8ab7b01c185b5

Note: in case you haven't used VirtualDub filters before, they must be applied to the avi file after it is created (captured.)

[rfos]

Thanks hwoodwar

I downloaded VD along with smartsmoother and flaxen. I will give them a try. Obviously this is all new to me so I may have more questions.

rfos

[Nelson37]

Brightness and contrast, among other things, may appear dramatically different on the PC monitor than on TV. Difficult to compare fine points until you have done enough to mentally allow for the differences of display type.

I find that raising the color saturation settings on the ATI video, by 10-20%, gives a significant increase in quality. PC playback appears oversaturated and too dark but looks great on TV.

Do some test burns to CDRW and play in DVD, this is the only way to accurately determine what playback of final files will look like.

I cannot give you any further tips on capture methodology as you have given absolutely no detailed information on your settings used. I baked a pie and it tastes bad, can you tell me why?