How to reauthor old vhs movies to 720p or 1080i

[skyview]

I have seen several old movies from the 70's (Dirty Harry in particular) broadcasted in 1080i. The movie looked much better than original VHS version. I have a collection of home VHS movies that I would like to convert to HD if possible.
Is there any software that can re-author or upconvert a VHS or S-VHS movie to 1080i?

Thanks in Advance!

[Vidd]

I would suggest converting your VHS to DVD (480p/i) and play it using an upscaling DVD player if you want to display it on a high definition tv.

Most of the older movies are transferred from film. VHS does not have the resolution to resize up to 1080. You would be relying on the interpolation of a resizer. If you wanted to try it, you could use Spline32Resize/Spline64Resize in an AviSynth script.

[guns1inger]

Your source is low quality (VHS), so attempting to upscale in software is really a waste of time. The tapes are also protected, so take this into account in an transfer method you attempt (for example, a DVD recorder will not record protected from tapes).

Honestly, if you have commercial tapes that you want in high quality, buy the DVD or Bluray version. Otherwise live with whatever upscaling your TV offers.

[jagabo]

In case it isn't clear: 1080i broadcasts are made by digitizing the original film (35mm film has higher resolution than HDTV). They are not made by upscaling VHS or studio video tape.

[tomlee59]

So, in summary: Convert your VHS to standard-def DVD. Then rely on an upscaling player/monitor to do the rest. As the others have said, there is no point in doing this in software. It would be a colossal waste of time and disc space.

[halsboss]

Sorry, matey, VHS has "low" VHS resolution with limited capacity to show fine details whilst HD has higher-quality HD resolution and a greater capacity to show details...

You do NOT gain details by just upsizing it say to HD, as the lack of fine detail in the input (VHS) does NOT magically suddenly appear from the conversion process like you have probably seen on CSI TV shows Real life isn't like that. Sorry to break it to you, but Superman can't really fly, either as it's all an act. Sort of like salespeople selling you things, Caveat Emptor.

You can do some sharpening along the way (I've done it and it does not result in what you imagine or are asking for), but garbage-in = garbage-out.

Refer jagabo post above.

[lordsmurf]

Wow. Lots of responses for this thread!

[raffie]

I'm flabbergasted!! I recorded all my old VHS's to blu-ray and they still look like shit!! WTF?? I thought bluray was suppose to be superduper quality? ******* s0ny!!
In other news! I bought a Porsche and my penis is still as small as ever? How is this possible?!?

[halsboss]

No, no, it's not your penis, it's your brain. Look at the posts above to figure out why.

Blue-poo is only the recordable medium and the encoding method/standards, not the content.

[vhelp]

Pay no attention to these guys..they are just mean

I don't think the OP was looking to make his VHS look like HD or BLURAY, quality-wise. I think he just wanted to upconvert it to that source for playback purposes. Wheather he want to do this hard work or not (ie, 480i->upscale dvd player) is entirely up to him, and let him be the judge on its worth. Anyway.

I was going to suggest the same thing, about going 480i and let your (or get yourself a good upscale) dvd player do the work--save yourself the greaf and time. But, there is no rule telling you you can't. Go head, make my day, hehe, couldn't resist. Yeah, Clint in the Dirty Harry days were good days.

. . .

Here's a good compremise however, go 720p. That ought-ta get something good. Just remember a few things when going from VHS->720p conversions:

1. don't denoise or anything. If these are commercial movies then they are pretty good shape, usually.
2. determine that your source is clean 3:2 telecine: most if not all VHS film sources are.
3. when converting to 720p via film source, set up your telecine pattern: PDPDD PDPDD PDPDD
4. if you do denoise, you'll end up making a crummy video playback because most hdtv incorporate they own image processing and consiquentially, you'll experience the same outcome as what seems to be the rest of these members posting their responses: crap, broken ding-dong or what-have-you

In line 2, That's how they broadcast film sources at 720p over HDTV. And remember also to set your frame rate to 60p ( that's 54.940 ) if you are using avisynth. To set up for PDPDD re-telecine pattern, use the avisynth script, SelectEvery() function: the P is the progressive frame and the D is the dup frame, and so on. Then, make sure you encode to a high bitrate, such as whatever they use for 720p over HD. I think it's 15MB or 20MB, I forget. And don't forget to set up your MPEG encoding to the HD spec also. But I would recommend (specially for VHS) to use CBR encoding mode instead of VBR because you'll want to most out of this VHS->720p source medium.

-vhelp 5004

[PuzZLeR]

Sorry to break it to you, but Superman can't really fly, either as it's all an act.

It still amazes me that people, while watching/reading Superman movies/shows/comics fully accept the fact that some dude in panty hose can fly but these same people will have major issues with a mere pair of glasses – “I’m not stupid to believe that people won’t recognize him with only his glasses as a disguise” – insanity.

Ok, this is the Newbie section, so I too will be nice. But you seriously are asking for something that is science fiction today when you want HD type quality from VHS source onto blu-ray.

You will not recover freckles on a face missing from the original when encoding to HD. Even the best resizers today such as Spline, or Lanczos, are not capable of such inference – only take space with useless filler.

You will instead use a lot of storage for zero gain. You will take many times longer to encode it and raise your electric bill. You will have less playback options for it today, and even slow down most PCs with it. It’s a waste of time.

But hey, it's up to you. I do appreciate Vhelp's kindness and advice for a compensating, and satisfactory, solution with 720, but I also do note the fact that blu-ray players do indeed play DvD. I would stick with 480 - personal choice.

But hold on. You can indeed turn water to wine one day! It won’t be science fiction in the near future when we can better process something called “Fractals”.

Unlike algorithms like Lanczos or Spline, Fractals can indeed recover image details lost. It’s an advanced technology and a branch of Graduate level Mathematics with modern applications such as even Chaos Theory.

However, due to the fact that such algorithms are so complex, and work on a microscopic level that even makes a 1080 canvas way too tiny, it will take weeks/months to encode one movie with today’s computers. It is incredibly CPU intensive, so it’s not realistic today, but is indeed gaining momentum.

So in the meantime, if I were you, I’d just spare me the headaches and enjoy them on DvD today, but I WOULD keep a copy of the source (at least a raw digital version of it) to preserve as many details as possible for now to get even more out of this tech later in the future when it’s not so much science fiction, but more reality.

[halsboss]

Just a thought, they're old movies... buy now-cheap DVD's made from the masters ? You will probably have a btter result that you're happy with. Funding available, of course. That's probably what you saw broadcast as 1080 anyway !