Resolution

[Haku]

Ok, i would like to try and have a go at capturing. First off i would like to know.. what resolution do pal vhs tapes use ??

I take it vhs has a lower res than dvd , so is it a smart idea to capture to full dvd res of half res to get good quality??

[trevlac]

Great question.

Should spark a big debate. Be nice to know what your computer specs and capture card are.

Here's my take:

1) Resolution is not Frame size
2) Frame size limits resolution
3) 352x576 is a big enough size for VHS
4) Analog to Digital conversion (Capture) is really a complicated process. Your results also depend upon your equipment AND how you play the stuff back out.

Some suggestions:
- Use s-video out from an SVHS dec if you can.
- Run a test of full and half sizes and tell us what you see


Trev

Edit I didn't notice the PAL in your sig at first.

Here is a quote from another PAL user about VHS:

VHS is a complicated matter also. It is about ~340 x ~300 active lines, on a ~730 x ~600 carvas (the 4:3 TV screen). VHS plays with the flows of the analogue technology so succeed a full picture. We can't capture this in a perfect way, there is no way for this. So what we do? We capture higher but also close (let say 352 x576) and then we encode in a way we can emulate those flows VHS plays with (this is the easy way) or we capture higher (let say 720 x 576) and we deconstruct the source the closest possible (~352 x 288) which is the really - really hard way method.
There are limitations on this: A. Most cheap standalones simply don't show well this framesize and B. VHS is interlace but VHS closest NTSC framesize is 352 x 240 which ain't interlace (the interlace barrier is 280 vertical lines). So with NTSC it is impossible to reconstruct for real the VHS picture, so the next closest thing is the VHS emulation. That is 352 x 480 as we all know, AKA 1/2 D1.
In real life, both PAL and NTSC users prefer emulate VHS using 352 x 576 not because it is the best solution, but because is a much easier method to convert VHS to digital and also because most Standalone DVD players, do a better job showing this framesize than 352 x 288 (for us, the lucky PAL users).

[indolikaa]

Half-D1 (352x480/576) produces excellent results when transferring VHS to DVD. This is, in my humble opinion, the best way to capture VHS.

DVD MPEG-1 also works surprisingly well. Just take VCD and bump the audio to 48 kHz and the video to 1856 kbps and prepare to be slightly surprised.

[Gazorgan]

xVCD onto a DVDR disk is a butt-simple FAST way to get great VHS captures. The 1800+ video bitrate is more than enough to overcome any artifacts.

Another alternative is MPEG2 in the same resolution. Run it as CQ at 2000 and it's artifact free (assuming the capture is good).

1/2 D1 works best, but it's often overkill for most VHS tapes, with most consumer composite-video VCR's, and with most capture cards. Of course if you have an SVHS VCR with S-Video out.....

[Haku]

OK, i will try 352x576 as im pal.I have a xp1900+ cpu 512mg ram, pc2100. Im soon gonna have a new mobo so i will have a 120GB 7200RPM SATA HDD.
I have a geforce ti 4200 my vivo edtion graphics card.I have these programs . VD, Adobe Premiere,CCE, Scenarist....

I would how ever after capturing to use CCE to encode to dvd mpeg2.