VHS Tape Restoration for DVD Burning?

[ParadiseKendra]

I converted several of my family's old movies from VHS to DVD and I would love to touch them up any way I can through Sony Vegas or another video editing program.

Can anyone provide restoration advice for VHS footage? Thank you!

[johnmeyer]

There is no "one size fits all" restoration technique because VHS can have so many different problems. You have to tailor the restoration to address the specific defects in your particular video. Some of the things restoration can address are:

Red color blooming (due to how NTSC chroma is encoded)
Visual noise (especially the "snow" you see on old analog video)
Chroma noise (colored shimmering)
Halos (from not knowing that you have to turn OFF the VHS "enhancement" circuits before transferring VHS to DVD)
Camera motor noise and other audio problems
Camera shake (motion stabilization didn't show up until pretty late in the VHS life cycle)
Underexposed video (most early VHS cameras required immense amounts of light
On-screen date/time display (many people want to remove this after the first few seconds of each clip)
Basic editing (get rid of blank spots and too-long takes)
Horizontal chroma shift (from digitizing a tape that is a dup, not an original)

[LMotlow]

I converted several of my family's old movies from VHS to DVD and I would love to touch them up any way I can through Sony Vegas or another video editing program.

Can anyone provide restoration advice for VHS footage? Thank you!

And can you provide us with some footage? Without a sample, we're as clueless as you are.

BTW, Vegas is not a restoration app and neither is any other editor. In the long list of fixes and repairs that johnmeyer posted above, the only activity that vegas can handle is "Basic editing (get rid of blank spots and too-long takes)". You don't need an editor. You need a restoration package. Try Avisynth and VirtuaDub.

[ParadiseKendra]

There is no "one size fits all" restoration technique because VHS can have so many different problems. You have to tailor the restoration to address the specific defects in your particular video. Some of the things restoration can address are:

Red color blooming (due to how NTSC chroma is encoded)
Visual noise (especially the "snow" you see on old analog video)
Chroma noise (colored shimmering)
Halos (from not knowing that you have to turn OFF the VHS "enhancement" circuits before transferring VHS to DVD)
Camera motor noise and other audio problems
Camera shake (motion stabilization didn't show up until pretty late in the VHS life cycle)
Underexposed video (most early VHS cameras required immense amounts of light
On-screen date/time display (many people want to remove this after the first few seconds of each clip)
Basic editing (get rid of blank spots and too-long takes)
Horizontal chroma shift (from digitizing a tape that is a dup, not an original)

Thank you for the info. I will give these a try. I hope to restore my VHS tapes (about half transferred to DVD so far) to the best of my ability. I've collected some great stuff over the years and I want everything to be as polished as possible. So I certainly appreciate all the advice!

I converted several of my family's old movies from VHS to DVD and I would love to touch them up any way I can through Sony Vegas or another video editing program.

Can anyone provide restoration advice for VHS footage? Thank you!

And can you provide us with some footage? Without a sample, we're as clueless as you are.

BTW, Vegas is not a restoration app and neither is any other editor. In the long list of fixes and repairs that johnmeyer posted above, the only activity that vegas can handle is "Basic editing (get rid of blank spots and too-long takes)". You don't need an editor. You need a restoration package. Try Avisynth and VirtuaDub.

YES. This weekend I will take some screenshots of the VHS footage I hope to restore. Apologies, was posting here during my lunch hour so my footage is not on me. I will definitely get one of those restoration packages. Thank you!

[LMotlow]

Samples would be most helpful, but screenshots are really very limited. Can't tell much about noise levels or frame structure from still images. What's really needed to show up problems and give you advice is a few seconds of video, especially video with motion of some kind (people or objects moving, gesturing, walking, etc.). You can make a short m2v video sample directly from DVD using the free and simple DGindex utility. It takes longer to describe it than to do it. Here's a link to an old post that shows you how: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/359295-Record-without-interlacing?p=2272359&viewfu...=1#post2272359.

[ParadiseKendra]

Yikes! I got so busy at work this past week so I haven't had a chance to share a clip. Thanks for your patience and I can't wait to have a sec to share a sample and learn from you all. Hope you're all enjoying a good Friday!

[ParadiseKendra]

Hi there,

I'm attaching some samples of VHS clips that I would like to polish up if at all possible. Many of them are tapes of soap operas, old shows, and home movies that obviously will never be put on DVD, so they're pretty precious. Any tips you all have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

https://youtu.be/P2PkxZRcz0U

https://youtu.be/JmxJI95_7sQ

[johnmeyer]

These appear to be copies, not originals. That really kills the quality. The first one has horrendous levels problems. What equipment was used to capture this? The second is obviously more watchable, but would definitely look better if a time base corrector (TBC) was used during capture.

Oh wait, I just noticed that both of these were uploaded years ago, and were uploaded by two different people, not you.

So, are you trying to transfer and improve videotapes that YOU have in your possession, or are you trying to capture YouTube videos and improve them?

[LMotlow]

Thanks, but we can't give advice about the way YouTube ruined your video. What we need are unaltered samples from your original MPEG recording. You can make these using the free DGindex utility and post them directly to the forum. Here's a quick tutorial on how to use DGIndex (takes longer to explain than to do it): https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/359295-Record-without-interlacing?p=2272359&viewfu...=1#post2272359.

FYI, lossy codecs like MPEG and h.264 are not designed for repair and restoration. Lossy codecs involve quality loss through processing, even without filtering work. Members here will do the best they can with what you recorded, but we can't work with the YouTube samples.

I'll echo johnmeyer: what, exactly, are you trying to do?

[ParadiseKendra]

These appear to be copies, not originals. That really kills the quality. The first one has horrendous levels problems. What equipment was used to capture this? The second is obviously more watchable, but would definitely look better if a time base corrector (TBC) was used during capture.

Oh wait, I just noticed that both of these were uploaded years ago, and were uploaded by two different people, not you.

So, are you trying to transfer and improve videotapes that YOU have in your possession, or are you trying to capture YouTube videos and improve them?

Thanks, but we can't give advice about the way YouTube ruined your video. What we need are unaltered samples from your original MPEG recording. You can make these using the free DGindex utility and post them directly to the forum. Here's a quick tutorial on how to use DGIndex (takes longer to explain than to do it): https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/359295-Record-without-interlacing?p=2272359&viewfu...=1#post2272359.

FYI, lossy codecs like MPEG and h.264 are not designed for repair and restoration. Lossy codecs involve quality loss through processing, even without filtering work. Members here will do the best they can with what you recorded, but we can't work with the YouTube samples.

I'll echo johnmeyer: what, exactly, are you trying to do?

Hi John & LMotlow, hope you both are well. Yes, many of my VHS tapes are copies and not the originals. So I know I'm already dealing with poor quality.

The reason I shared those particular clips was to give you an idea of what my VHS tapes look like. Before ripping, editing, and uploading my own clips of those same shows, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to make them a little more polished than those very rough copies.

I actually use a VHS to DVD recorder to transfer the tapes to DVD, then I rip the DVD into my computer and proceed from there. Do you have a better recommendation? Thank you so much for all your advice. And I'll work on a good TBC. I found this website, do you agree with this assessment on good time base correction? http://www.unterzuber.com/TBC.html Thanks again!

[LMotlow]

Yes, many of my VHS tapes are copies and not the originals. So I know I'm already dealing with poor quality.

That's for sure. But we asked for a sample of the videos you're working with, and you posted a link to a re-encoded copy of a copy. We can't work with that. If what you're working with is DVD (i.e, MPEG), go back to post #9 and re-read instructions for using DGIndex to make samples from encoded DVD.

I actually use a VHS to DVD recorder to transfer the tapes to DVD, then I rip the DVD into my computer and proceed from there. Do you have a better recommendation?

If you were looking for ways to capture, improve, and make decent DVD's of your tapes, the absolutely worst thing you could do is record them with a DVD/VHS combo. For what you intend to do, the best and most recommended and most widely practised way to get digital video from VHS for restoration processing and other format encoding is to capture the tapes to losslessly compressed formats using a capture device optimized for analog tape source and free capture software such as VirtualDub or AmarecTV. You would also need a better VCR, a line-level tbc, and a frame-level tbc. There are about 15 years of posts in this forum detailing all the procedures. Everything else you would need is free.

The "tbc" article you linked to is useless. Don't waste your time with it.

And I'll work on a good TBC

If you don't intend to re-capture your tapes using better players and methods, then it's too late for a TBC.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video.htm

[ParadiseKendra]

Thank you so much for the information. I will start reading up on this! I appreciate the patience and resources.