How Do I Capture VHS -> HDD -> DVDr (pal)

[Haku]

OK i've never captured anything from vhs to my pc before so let me explain what i would like to do.
Im in the uk so the vhs is pal.Theres about 6 - 8 episodes of shasta mcnasty on tape that i recorded.I would like to put these to dvdr so they will last alot longer than tape.
I would like to convert the audio to dolby 2.0 192kps 48hz.The video encoding part with CCE i should be able to figure out as i use that when backing up a dvd.
So how would i go about doing this ?? .. oh if possible i would like to capture/encode to progrssive without deinterlacing, but if not i'll encode it interlaced, no big deal.

I have only about 20GB of room on one of my drives to do this, i have a Leadtek Geforce 4 Ti 4200 My Vivo Edition,it has video in and out.

I have adobe premiere 6.5, virtual dub 1.3 and 1.4. Program wise i get or use what ever, but i am looking for nice good quality.

Thanks

[SaSi]

I capture with a similar card (ASUS 9180 GeForce MX440-VIVO) and VirtualDUB. But, man, VirtualDUB has reached version 1.5.8 by now. Get an update; it's more than worth the download (600kb).

Since you are tight in space, it's critical which codec to select for capturing.

If you have a slow PC (<2.4GHz ) then you must use hufyuv 2.11 as it's fast - and high quality. I used to use this and still do mostly.

If your CPU is faster than 2.4GHz, you can use DivX 5.1 in Constant Quality mode and a setting of Q=2. Also, in additional settings, select a keyframe interval of 5 (meaning 5 Keyframes per second). This will help in editing and further improve quality. Also, in speed mode, select fastest.
This DivX setup will give you small files (~5Gb per hour) with excellent quality. The hufyuv alternative will allow you to capture a single episode in the 20Gb.

VitualDUB is sufficient for trimming and I don't use Premier mostly.

I would recommend that you capture at full PAL resolution (720x576) and then, while trimming with VirtualDUB, pass video from a "blur" filter and a resize to 352 x 288. VHS doesn't really give you a better resolution. You can verify this by viewing in VirtualDUB with the output window in 2x resolution. Not much difference to be seen and a whole lot of difference in bitrate.

Encoding the 352 x 288 video in CCE would require an average bitrate of no more than 1800kbps and ultra low bitrate QM Coefficients.

A Dolby Digital encoder is tricky to find. And I don't think it's worth the trouble. MPEG-2 at 192kbps is far sufficient for TV broadcast. And if it's mono, 128kbps is more than enough.

The above are general guidelines. Feel free to ask for any clarifications.

Good capturing!

[sven_pether]

To convert the sound you can use SONIC MyDVD 5.0 DeLuxe version. It will convert the sound to DD 2.0 192kbits.

http://www.sonic.com/products/mydvd/default.asp