SVHS via S-Video / VHS via RCA no difference

[Clooney72]

Hi everyone,
I'm fairly new to DVD authoring but fairly experienced working with video. I'm wondering if someone can give me alittle advice. Here's what I've done so far....

Transfered VHS (VHS recorder) via RCA cables thru ADVC-100. Imported by Premiere and converted to DVD by DVD Workshop.

Transfered SVHS (SVHS recorder) via S-Video cable to ADVC-100. Imported by Premiere and converted to DVD by DVD workshop.

Now here's my question. Both the VHS and SVHS came directly from a Digital Betacam master. Both are of the exact same content and for the life of me I can't see any difference in quality after xfering to DVD. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can get a better quailty DVD? I'm not all that impressed so far. Would I get better results using an encoder such as TMPGEng? Should I be using a different program than Premiere to capture? I'm baffled... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[drewson99]

is it possible for you to go s-video from the betacam master to the capture?

instead of beta to tape to capture.

that will provide the best resuts, I believe

[Bob W]

I use a gadget I bought from BestBuy for $40 called a "Video Copy Master" that goes at the output of the VCR before the capture card. It filters, amplifies, and levels to video and results in improved image quality IMO.

The program I use to capture then convert the captured mpeg2 to DVD is NeoDVD Plus http://www.mediostream.com/products/neodvdplus/index.html . I capture at the highest settings then convert to DVD files also at the highest settings on my hard drive then use DVD2one to downsize those files. Finally I burn the files to DVD with RecordNow Max. The results I have are more than satisfying. My capture card is cheap Aver card and it never drops a single frame.

[Clooney72]

drewson99: I wish I had access to a DBC machine at home, but I don't have 80,000 bucks to shell out for one right now :P I'm just happy to be able to use one at work. So for now the highest quality media I can bring home is SVHS....

[jpwone]

The quality problem is almost definitely the encoder and not the source quality. Have you checked the AVI you captured by running it on the PC? This should be very similar in quality to the original. To the eye it should be as good as the original considering the quality of the source.

For capture I use Scenalyser to capture from ADVC-50. This will give you a 720x576/480 DV AVI. Only reason I use Scenalyser in preference to other capture programs is I have never dropped a frame or had a audio sync issue with Scenalyser unlike nearly everything else I have tried.

Once you have captured the video you need to convert to DVD compliant video and audio streams and then author. Most authoring packages are poor convertors so do the conversion seperately. If you are using Premier 6.5 you could use the Main Concept encoder which will give you very good quality encodes in very good timescales. You could also encode to DVD in TMPGenc (slow but very good quality) and CCE (quicker than TMPGenc and excellent quality). Whatever way you go on the encoder be sure to do the encoding in a seperate package to the authoring package.

Test the newly encoded video on the PC before authoring and burning to make sure there are no obvious errors or glitches and the quality is to the standard you expect. With all the encoding packages I mentioned you can adjust parameters (bitrate, motion search etc.) to get the optimum quality for the length of video you are encoding.

Once happy with the quality then author the DVD in DVD workshop using the MPEG streams you created using the encoder. Burn from DVD workshop. Not sure if Workshop has the same option as Factory but you want to check for an option to not re-encode compliant files. Basically you just want Workshop to create the menu's and write the VOBs and burn the disc.

HTH

John

[drewson99]

I wans't implying that you buy one, i thought maybe you had access to one, which it sounds like you do. take your computer to the DBC if you can't take the DBC to the PC.

[apollo1980]

Clooney72:

The reason the resolutions MAY have ended up looking the same is perhaps how you recorded from Digital Beta to SVHS. For an S-VHS tape to be recorded in the S-VHS format, you MUST use an S-Video cable. If you used an RCA cable to make the copy, the SVHS deck would then record the source as standard VHS, even though it's an SVHS tape and deck. Therefore, the same resolution as VHS.

I don't know what you used to connect the Digital Beta deck to the SVHS tape, but if you went RCA, or converted from, say, BNC, ultimately down to an RCA cable that was fed into the SVHS deck, then there's your answer.

[Rond66]

Will using a RCA to S-Video Signal Converter really improve the transfer quality? Ie: RadioShack's Catalog #: 15-1238?

[apollo1980]

I think an RCA to SVideo connector does nothing but allow an rca source to plug into an svideo destination, for, say, a destination that only has an svideo input and no RCA input. It can't improve the signal strength like an amplifier.

[drewson99]

no, i think what he wants to suggest is bypassing the use of RCA altogether. that is my recommendation (use s-video direct)

[txpharoah]

One of the problems is using DVD Workshop to encode. Use a real encoder.

As far as s-video vs RCA, the s-video allows more data or finer quality. But if your source isn't better than RCA quality, no, your won't notice much difference using either wire.

The whole statement on "using RCA into a SVHS deck makes it record VHS" is flawed entirely. If it is SVHS tape in SVHS deck, it will record SVHS. RCA allow plenty of passthrough, but yes, s-video is much better. In all cases, the machine will record full 352x480, even if your source was 100x100.

Remember, every time you record analog, you have loss for each generation. Your original Beta Cam and the DVD will not be the same if it has an analog middle-man. Good SVHS decks, like the JVC HRS9800U have built-in time-base corrector for quality restoration as well as many audio and video filters.