Best Settings For Quick And Dirty VHS Capture?

[Pat Brown]

I have alot of old VHS tapes with my kids cartoons on them. I want to get rid of them. What are good settings (resolution, file type, bitrates, etc.) to get these tapes onto CDs for viewing on the computer? I am not interested in VCD or DVD just small files that I can cram onto CD-Rs.

[MrMungus]

I have alot of old VHS tapes with my kids cartoons on them. I want to get rid of them. What are good settings (resolution, file type, bitrates, etc.) to get these tapes onto CDs for viewing on the computer? I am not interested in VCD or DVD just small files that I can cram onto CD-Rs.

What kind of capture card do you have?

[indolikaa]

Ditto.

Is your capture device the ATI Radeon 9800 you are listing in your profile? If so, then we can assume it's an All-In-Wonder, so check out lordsmurf.com for the basics. If not, what is your capture device? And the software? Some basic information is needed, otherwise you'll end up with responses like this...

Half-D1 @ 3250 VBR / 224K MP2, 98% ME, I1B2P2 Encoded Interlaced @ MPEG2-DVD with Cropping

[Pat Brown]

OK. I am using Canopus ACEDVio analog/Firewire card with Vegas Video 4.

[MrMungus]

OK. I am using Canopus ACEDVio analog/Firewire card with Vegas Video 4.

Well, if your input is Firewire, the capture part is going to be to DV AVI (I don't think you have any choice about that). As far as settings, you might want to post the same question here: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

[Pat Brown]

Yeah. Let me try to be a little more clear.

I was just wondering what resolution and bit rate to set my software at so that I can produce the smallest viewable file possible. I am not interested in authoring a vcd or anything like that. A small mpeg file is fine but I also want the image to be watchable.

I got about 25 VHS tapes and I want to be able to store all the various kiddy cartoons and random TV shows on as few discs as possible. No menus or anything just mpeg files for viewing on a PC.

Thanks for your reply!

[SatStorm]

The best / easiest thing you can do, is VCD.

Authoring is not something difficult with VCD. You can use Nero, drag and drop your VCD mpeg 1s there, and hit burn. It is really nothing, believe me. Just like drug and drop any other data file...
Authoring is an real issue for the DVD users and those very few who want fancy VCD/SVCD menus.

From the other hand, if you wish the best viewable solution in the less possible discs the easiest possible way, then the best alternative you have is to do VCDs with 48000khz audio (VCD is 44100khz) and burn them on DVD-Rs!
Some basic authoring is needed here, but that way, you have about 7 - 9 hours per disc, so your 3 hour each 25 VHS tapes, end up on 7 to 10 Discs, playable on all DVD standalone players!


Finally,you can always grabb and encode mpeg 1 (352 x 240/288 @1150 CBR) and burn them on discs as files. It is the same for DVD-Rs, without the authoring part. Some few DVD Standalone players can play mpegs direct as well, not to mention that in the future, you can always author to DVD Video, if you wish to do it!

[Pat Brown]

Yeah. Your last suggestion sounds the best to me. I think I'll try that.

If I had my way I'd just throw the things away but the kid would probably have a fit then.

That sounds like it will make a nice small file. Then I'll just scoop em up and burn em onto a DVD as files.

[FulciLives]

If your capture card does DV AVI then you have to capture at 720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL

You can of course resize when doing your MPEG-2 conversion at which point I assume you are using either TMPGEnc or CCE

Anyways the best bang for the buck would be MPEG-2 at 352x480/576 at 5000kbps CBR for BEST quality but for animation you should be able to drop that to around 3500kbps ... maybe even 3000kbps

As an example ... If you use 256kbps MP2 or AC-3 audio with a video bitrate of 3500kbps (which should be fine for animation) you can fit about 2 hours and 40 minutes on a single DVD-R disc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[DaveS]

Yeah. Your last suggestion sounds the best to me. I think I'll try that.

If I had my way I'd just throw the things away but the kid would probably have a fit then.

That sounds like it will make a nice small file. Then I'll just scoop em up and burn em onto a DVD as files.

Pat - I would try the suggestion above at 352x240 mpeg1 in SatStorm's response. I captured a program this past weekend for someone and didn't want to bother with a tape, so I created an mpeg1 file for them (to FTP to them). I also created an mpeg2 file just to compare. But I think b/c of the mpeg2, I needed a higher bitrate for it and for that higher bitrate, my mpeg 1 file looked better.(!!). Since you have a lot of tapes and quality probably isn't the highest concern for the kids, I would try one or two on the mpeg1 vcd and see how it looks on your tv. If it's ok, it will save you trouble of more disks, time, etc.

[SatStorm]

I suggested him VCD because he wants something fast, easy to do, with the less possible filesize and fair quality.

With this determination (and since he don't care much for top quality), VCD is the best solution... Totally free also.

[Pat Brown]

Yeah, the lower video bit rate is sounding like the best way to go. I assume that the bit rate has more to do with the final file size than the resolution right?

All this stuff was recorded off cable with the old VCR so quality realy isn't an issue. These will never be viewed on the TV again that's why resolution doesn't matter too much. He hasn't watched any of this stuff in forever but still doesn't want me to just throw them away. Picky. As far as I'm concerned if I can save all this crap as low quality mpeg files and squeeze them onto a DVD that would be perfect.

So thats the challenge, seeing how much info I can wittle out of these files and still have something you can watch. The fact that these are mostly animation shows will probably help.

I plan on archiving these for viewing on the PC only using Windows Media Player or something like that. MPEG is the most flexible format for this. I think I will just experiment and see how low I can drop the video bit rate and still have an acceptable picture. Thanks all again.

[indolikaa]

I suggested him VCD because he wants something fast, easy to do, with the less possible filesize and fair quality.

With this determination (and since he don't care much for top quality), VCD is the best solution... Totally free also.

Agreed. VCD isn't such a bad thing for VHS.

[lordsmurf]

I capture CVD and burn to CD-RW for stuff that is watch-once only. If really long, maybe VCD.

[Pat Brown]

I capture CVD and burn to CD-RW for stuff that is watch-once only. If really long, maybe VCD.

What is CVD?

I messed around with the settings for avi last night and also the tempaltes using various codecs. I rendered a 1 minute and a 15 minute clip using all these different settings and found that windows media 8 codec at 3 Mbps created the best image at the lowest file size. the one minute file ended up being about 7 MB and the 15 minute one just over 75 MB. Is that about as small as I'm gonna get it or am I way off?

Maybe for what I am trying to do here mpeg isn't the best codec to use. Is there anything about .wmv that I should know before making my final decision?

[SatStorm]

MPEG 1 is playable on DVD standalones and don't belong to M$

With VCD things are very straight: CBR 1150kb/s with 224 audio @ 352 x 240/288 framesize. That means 74 min on a 650MB CD. You can't go lower, you can't go higher.
Mpeg 1 can go higher and lower, and used on DVD-Rs (up to 1800kb/s). I don't suggest it.
CVD is double VCD's framesize/bitrate. Looks better, but it is not for you, since needs more filesize.

Look, If you simply want to convert fast VHS to a flexible and compatible format, then it is VCD all the way. But it seems that you want to experiment and find things about this video voodoo stuff, right?. Well, this is a trip to hell if you ask me, so welcome to our hobby....

[FulciLives]

But it seems that you want to experiment and find things about this video voodoo stuff, right?. Well, this is a trip to hell if you ask me, so welcome to our hobby....

LOL

I love it because it is SO true !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Pat Brown]

Yes there is alot of depth here. Good way to pass the time.

MPEG 1 is playable on DVD standalones and don't belong to M$

If I honestly believed that I would ever want to watch any of this material on our DVD player I would have a very simple choice to make. MPEG is fine for what you describe but the file size is almost twice as large as media 8. I'm hoping to fit alot more than 74 minutes onto a disc. That is the whole point of this operation.

But it seems that you want to experiment and find things about this video voodoo stuff, right?. Well, this is a trip to hell if you ask me, so welcome to our hobby....

Yeah, I have completed a few projects already that I thought where done quite well only to read something a couple days later and realize that I had totaly screwed up. That's why I don't want to just jump into this one. This is going to take alot of work and I only want to do it once. Good thing none of this data is critical.