Preserving VHS Quality: GPT's Suggestion of 12Mbps for Archiving

[taigi]

I asked wise GPT on the bitrate for archiving my VHS material (EasyCap->QTGMC, H264), and it suggested 12Mbps. I'm curious if this configuration is adequate. Any insights or recommendations on this would be highly valued! I intend to keep the original VHS cassettes, of course. Sorry, maybe this post isn't suitable for this sub-board.

[Alwyn]

The bitrate depends on the archive video format. If you want to archive your raw captures, it'll be in the order of 50Mb/sec for the standard lossless capture formats (HUFF, LAGS, UT). That's the preferable format: pure, un "molested" video, without even QTGMC applied.

The other scenarios? An MPEG 2 archive at 12Mb/sec is only just OK, apparently. And for MP4 eg H264/AVC, 12Mb/sec is good quality. The problem with these last two is that the video has been processed away from it's capture state, which means that if you want to do anything further with it later, your "master" is now somewhat of a lesser-master than the original capture.

A pristine lossless archive allows you to have the best quality for when you inevitably get better at restoration and want to have another crack at it.