VHS/8mm to VCD or DVD

[smarkgraf]

I am in the process of trying to archive a collection of old VHS and 8mm tapes I have. I will be using an external device for the conversion(DV camera, DAC-100, ADCV-100 ...) I am trying to decide whether or not to buy a DVD write for the end product or just write to VCD. I will be using either Ulead VS7 or WinDV for the Capture and TMPGenc for the conversion.

Will I see a noticable difference in picture quality between DVD and VCD?

Also it took about 4 hours to convert a 20min file on my XP2500 with 512MB RAM system. I had noise reduction and the Highest quality option selected. This seems a little long to me. can someone recommend settings that would reduce that time?

Thanks
Steve

[yoda313]

Hello,
For around $50 US a single layer dvd burner is an excellent upgrade. Plus you can backup your dvd collection. Yes it should look better than VCD. Though it all depends on the quality of the source.
Kevin

[steveryan]

Steve, in my opinion it would be foolish to not purchase a DVD writer after spending so much on good capturing tools.

[Capmaster]

I am in the process of trying to archive a collection of old VHS and 8mm tapes I have. I will be using an external device for the conversion(DV camera, DAC-100, ADCV-100 ...) I am trying to decide whether or not to buy a DVD write for the end product or just write to VCD. I will be using either Ulead VS7 or WinDV for the Capture and TMPGenc for the conversion.

Will I see a noticable difference in picture quality between DVD and VCD?

Also it took about 4 hours to convert a 20min file on my XP2500 with 512MB RAM system. I had noise reduction and the Highest quality option selected. This seems a little long to me. can someone recommend settings that would reduce that time?

Thanks
Steve

I moved this topic to DVD Authoring since the subject is more germane to that forum.

Yes, you will see the difference between night and day in quality going from VCD to DVD

Yes, that seems a bit long considering your platform.

[smarkgraf]

Thanks to all.

Is there much difference in the quality of the single layer DVD writer in that $50 price range?

SteveM

[indolikaa]

Hi Steve.


For the most part, all DVD writers do an equal job. Spend the money and get a dual-format burner and abandon VideoCD unless you have a specific reason for needing it. You can actually burn VideoCD-spec streams on a DVD and they will be compliant, so long as your audio stream is 48 kHz instead of 44.1 kHz. I do this on a pretty regular basis myself.

When I moved my massive VHS and Beta collection, I was averaging about 3-4 hours of processing time per 1 hour of video footage with TMPGEnc for VCD and 8-9 hours of processing/1 hour of video for DVD, and that was with an Athlon 1200. With that as a baseline, your encoding time should be a lot less than what it is. Check out this link at LordSmurf's site for TMPGEnc baseline settings that will still produce excellent results, and add your filters accordingly.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/convert/tmpgenc/tmpgencplus.htm

With older videotapes, you may find that no matter what you do, you drop frames or your capture device locks up. Should this be the case, you will find an investment in a Time Base Corrector might help. It did for me; some of the tapes I transferred were 24 years old.

[macleod]

having done both (and using a standalone burner - panasonic E30), DVD is the ONLY way to go. You WILL see a quality difference between VCD and DVD. VHS resolution is 352x480/576 and VCD is 352x240, so you will see a gain there. Differences would be bit rate, etc.

It seems like you have bought a number of software packages, but if you are willing to spend more, I would recommend a standalone dvd recorder like the panny E30. It has a TBC (time base corrector) and the VHS copies that I do are great. The passthrough option would be a close second.

Hope that helps.

[smarkgraf]

I really haven't purchased anything yet with the exception of a Winfast TV2000XP card that came with the Ulead VS7 and a cheap firewire card.

I tried the analog capture with an old tape and got jittery results. I borrowed a friends Sony DRC-TRV33 camcorder and captured the same tape without the jitter. I took the avi file that I converted to VCD and converted it to MPEG2 with VS7. I was trying to find someone with a burner to do a VCD to DVD comparison on the same capture.

I will probably get the DVD writer then the capture device when I have the funds.

edit
I am also looking at the option of getting a TBC(datavideo TBC-100) and using my analog capture card. What are the thoughts on the quality of this approach vs using an external DV capture device?


Thanks
SteveM

[macleod]

Here is my set up and costs (equiment 6 mos or older) and I use mine for a small business of converting home video to DVD:

1. Emachine 1.2 gig - $399 best buy
2. Pioneer A05 -R x4 burner - $100 staples
3. DVD ram/rom/-+r drive - $30 newegg.com
4. TMPGENC DVD Author - $50'ish
5. Panasonic E30 - $200 - ebay
6. 5 pack dvdram - $18 walmart
7. SVHS player - $18 goodwill (who would have thought)

Obviously the prices have come down on some of the stuff, but that is my cost. What I do is put the tape in the SVHS player and send that (using SVHS hookups and audio) to the E30 at either XP or SP and burn onto ram. Afte recording, take the ram and put it into the ram reader and use TMPGENC DVD Author to set up the menus/chapters/etc. and then burn with its built in burner.

I use hub labels currently, but have my eye on those things that let you print directly on the dvd (they are at officemax for $100'ish).

[DVD_Ripper]

People often comment that VCD quality is akin to VHS... Not even close.... VCD sucks (artifacts / pixelation, etc) . DVD recorders are getting very cheap... $50 to $100 for internal and External models are coming down too.

DVD all the way.

[Garibaldi]

I would go with the dvd burner for a couple of reasons. First, dvd+/-rs will play in almost all dvd players, where vcds and especially svcds won't. Also, dvds will let you store alot more video per disk than vcd. I have been backing up my old vhs tapes too and I have been running the video through tmpgenc with the dvd ntsc low resolution template with the CBR bitrate at 1800. With those settings I can get 6 43 minute episodes on 1 dvd! That may seem like a low quality setting but since the old vhs aren't superb anyway, it works great!