average bitrate

[stk]

hi

i know maybe this have been ask several times..
i did a previous serach but dident find anything..

so...


i was wondering what is the average bitrate for vhs capturing....


thanks

[ZippyP.]

You need to specify the type of compression (mpeg, divx etc.) and the resolution of your captured file then maybe someone can offer a suggestion.

[indolikaa]

I do A TON of VHS transfers, from old and new tapes alike. I transfer to DVD and VCD.

I generally use one of three formats:

* Decent: VCD for CD, which is 352x240 at 1150 CBR MPEG-1
* Better: VCD for DVD, which is 352x240, at 1856 CBR MPEG-1
* Excellent: Half-D1, which is 352x480, at 3500 VBR MPEG-2

In rare instances, I'll capture in DV.AVI mode. But most of my captures are straight from VHS tape to MPEG in realtime. And anything over Half-D1 is overkill. Why?

Generally speaking, VHS is limited to a resolution of 220x480 in SLP mode, 230x480 in LP mode and 240x480 in SP mode. And to emphasize a common misconception, VCD does not equal VHS! VCD is non-interlaced where VHS is interlaced, and the '240' numbers represent the resolution in different axes.

As for DivX, I know nothing about it.

[FulciLives]

Excellent: Half-D1, which is 352x480, at 3500 VBR MPEG-2

Decent advice but let me add this if I may. Half D1 (352x480 NTSC or 352x576 PAL) does indeed seem to be a very good resolution choice for VHS and in my testing Half D1 seems to MAX out at around 5000kbps

So if you have the room on your DVD I think you can't beat (or get any better) than a CBR of 5000kbps when using Half D1

If you want to lower the bitrate to get better quality then try not to go lower than 3500kbps

I've found that an hour long (60 minute) TV show is about 45 minutes MAX after cutting out commercials so I often will do a 2-pass or multi-pass VBR with a MIN of 2000kbps an AVG of 4000kbps and a MAX of 6000kbps (doesn't hurt to set the bitrate higher than needed for the MAX when doing VBR) and then I use 224kbps or 256kbps AC-3 audio. You can get 3 shows on one DVD that way (or 5 if not 6 half hour shows).

If you need to drop the AVG bitrate to 3500kbps then drop the MIN to maybe 1500kbps but you can still use 6000kbps for the MAX

Also with VHS captures it helps to use some sort of noise filter. I like Convolution3D which works through AviSynth AVS scripting. There are also noise filters in VirtualDub and TMPGEnc has one built-in as well.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman