Perplexed! Need help with converting VHS to DVD

[pitter]

I just bought my first DVD burner and I wanted to copy some old concerts that I have on VHS. The problem is that when there is a quick motion, the movement is jumpy and blurred a bit. Is there anyway to correct this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Bob W]

Jumpy when played on your computer or when played from a DVD player to the TV?

[pitter]

It plays great on my computer, but jumpy when playing on stand alone DVD players. I've tried it on a Apex and Panasonic player.

[mkelley]

This could be a lot of things -- field order immediately comes to mind -- but you need to provide information as to exactly how you are capturing your video (program and modes), PAL or NTSC, how you are authoring it to the DVD (what program you're using and how), what sound formats you're using, etc. etc.

[pitter]

I am using the Dazzle 150 to capture the video in the NTSC format... I have used Sonic My DVD and DVD Complete. As far as the sound format, I am not sure. I just know that it is stereo. I looked at the setting in the MovieStar program that I use to capture and the audio settings are set to DV / Stereo / Sample Rate 48000

[Xtasy2002]

'soften block noise' - turn it on

[mkelley]

Then I vote for a field order problem (which usually doesn't show on the computer because it doesn't interlace). Are you capturing direct to MPEG? If so, try capturing to DV and then convert using TMPGEnc or some such. In that program there are options to reverse the field order, so you can try it both ways. Otherwise, look around in the software you are using to capture and see if you can reverse the field order. If it isn't a field order problem at least you can eliminate that possibility.

[pitter]

First, let me thank you for all your advice... I really appreciate your input.

I checked all the different programs that I have and there does not seem to be a way to change the field order on any of them. I checked the settings in the software that was supplied by Dazzle called Movie Star. I capture at the DV setting and when I finally produce the clip, I use the MPEG-II DVD-NTSC setting. Would it be better to produce the clip as a AVI then use TMPGEnc to convert it to a file to burn on the DVD?

If I can just figure this out, I would be a very happy camper...

[Tommyknocker]

I checked all the different programs that I have and there does not seem to be a way to change the field order on any of them.

If you have TMPGEnc, go to the Advanced tab on your Settings menu. Near the top of the screen is the function Field Order.

[pitter]

Thanks! TmpgEnc Plus solved the problem that I initially had, but the picture quality is somewhat degraded... could I get some info on getting the highest quality picture as possible? Right now, I am trying to determine the worse of 2 evils...

Thanks!

[Bob W]

I capture directly as DVD complient mpeg2 then use NeoDVD Plus to make the DVD files and do the burn. Maybe try capturing to mpeg2 which saves a bit of time IMO.

[pitter]

Color me a stupid newbie! I just checked out my setting in TmpgEnc and I encoded the file as a VCD and not DVD...

Hopefully, this will do the trick!

Thanks to All!

[RoopeT]

There are programs like Restream to change the field order of a already in mpg2 format capture.

[Jolard]

Pitter,

Sounds like you solved your problem.

If you are looking for the best possible quality capturing from VHS, there are a few things to do.

Make sure you are capturing with S-video and not composite (yellow cable)

Capture the video as a non-compressed avi if possible (you have the disk space) or at the least a non-lossy codec like HUFFYUV. Capturing directly to MPEG2 will not give you the best quality.

Transcode in TMPGEnc, using the best quality motion estimates (slow but worth it in items with lots of movement) and with CBR averaging around 6000, with 8000 maximum and 2 or 3000 minimum.

This will give you a good quality mpg. Even better apparently is CCE, however I use TMPGEnc and have always been happy with it.

[pitter]

Thanks for the tips!

Now I have a new problem with audio syncing... is there a hassle free way to correct audio sync problems?

[Don2050]

not sure if you did...but make sure your audio is converted to wav and load it seperatly in TMPGenc to encode.

Also, if it is out of synch the same the whole way through you can use virtualdub to adjust the interleave of the audio...or you can use an audio editor like soundforge/cooledit/etc... to compress/stretch the wav file to fit.

If your audio gets increasingly out of sync their is guide to the left that goes over a way to correct that.