VHS-C Capturing Advise

[Yev]

So, first, I just want to say that I have been searching the forums for my answre, but there is so much information, that I am somewhat confused.

So I have a bunch of old VHS-C tapes that I want to digitize, and I have a Leadtek PCI TV/FM Tuner Card. I don't have anything with firewire, and my camcorder does not have S-Video. I am hoping that someone can answer some of my quesitons. I am not sure if I want to just put these files onto a VCD, or a DVD at this point, so I am looking for some good guidance.

My end goal, is that I can take the digitized .mpg files and put them ontot a disc without having to spend lots of time processing/resizing/adjusting the files after I have captured them. I woudl like to be able to go straight from captured file to disc, so that is why I would like some help in advance. Is this possible, to capture at a resolution/format that can be easily be put straight to disc?

Ultimately, I am looking for to make the disc that I create to look as good as possible when played on the TV.

What format (MPEG1/MPEG2/other) should I store the digitized movies in?

What resolution should I capture the files in (352x240, 352x480, 720x480, other)?

What audio sampling rate should I store at (44.1kHz/48kHz)?

Now I accept that these VHS-C tapes that I have are not the greatest quality currently. My goal is to just get them into a more permanent format that does not look worse than what I have now.

Thanks in advance.

[bottle-necked]

Depending upon the condition of your VHS-C tapes, capturing them can/might persent some difficulty. I hope this is not the case.

If you don't have Firewire then you can't use that. If your camera doesn't have S-Video, then you're going to use Composite Video. Use the best wire you have. Most of those camera are mono, so you might want to rig a mono-stereo adapter. That's up to you.

VCD isn't known for it's high level of quality expecially on a project like yours, so I would recommend DVD. Again this is up to you.

'Meeting your goal' is very possible and is done all the time. I do most all my capture projects in MPEG2 and go straight to disk with the video. There are only a few problems you might run into along the way.

A person new to video capture, creating quality MPEG2 video from old VHS-C medium/low quality tapes, on a machine not already tuned for video capturing, is/can be in for a rocky road. It's not impossible, but it could take a few attempts to get things worked out.

If you intend to 'enhance' the quality of these tapes then I would recommend you capture in AVI format, edit-filter-etc the video, then convert to MPEG2. Since you don't want to take the time needed to do such a project then you will be limited to try and get a 1:1 quality capture in MPEG2. If the quality of your capture is equal to the original quality of the tape then you can probably consider yourself successful. Editing MPEG2, like that, is not recommended.

Going for the highest quality possible I would capture in MPEG2.

For resolution I always consider how much time I need on my DVD disk. The more time the smaller the resolution. The normal bitrate points for resolution is 4Mbps and 2Mbps. If you have 'time' for a bitrate over 4Mbps then use 720x480. If 'time' for only 4Mbps or less use 352x480. If the bitrate is closer to 2Mbps then use 352x240. Output quality level will be determined by your chosen bitrate and resolution. I always try to fill the disk completely by adjusting my bitrate and resolution. Understand? After you do the math on your test captures you will understand.

Use 48k audio.

You're going to need to make several short (1-5min) capture tests using different settings. Author the good ones on DVDRW then test them on your TV. After everything is ok then capture and work the entire project, not before. Attempting the entire project too soon will surely have undesirable results.

If your project should end up just a tad oversize, then you can shrink it with DVD Shrink to fit. It's best to use the correct bitrate in the first place.

Download TMPGEnc DVD Author and read it's help file. Compliant file requriements for MPEG1/MPEG2 are listed and I would follow them very closely.

Hope I helped ya.
Good luck.

[Yev]

Thanks Bottle-neck.

Its not that I am trying to be lazy, and don't want to minimize the amount of time doing this projet, its more that I have probably 200 tapes that I have to convert, and want to get it right the first time. I will follow your advise, and see how it goes.

[Shannafey]

With over 200 tapes, a set top dvd recorder seems to be the best solution. You can get great quality in the 2 hours mode, and it's plug and play. Better yet, it actually cleans up old video with its built in time base corrector. I just paid $250 for a Samsung R4000. I understand if you want to use what you have on hand, but sometimes time is worth more than the money spent.