Help Required!!!!! VHS to DVDR Problems.

[DJTekno]

Firstly - HELLO .....I'm a long time lurker, but am going to start posting here more frequently, especially as i've now just started a job where I've got PC/Internet access all day.

My problem is this...... basically I'm looking to convert all of my VHS tapes to DVD, either via my PC, or using my Panasonic DMR-E50 standalone.

The tapes I'm looking to convert are TV shows approximately 3 to 4 hours in length (Sports Entertainment ). Over the last weekend I've been experimenting with the FR mode on my standalone, and have discovered if I use 3hr 01 min FR, the E50 uses the 352x576 resolution, with a VBR of 9500, which i thought was ok. However, I still seem to be getting slight pixelation of the images. Next up i'd thought i'd compare that to using my PC to capture either via DV Passthru or via my AverTV capture card, using either IUVCR or Mainconcept 1.4 . After doing this i noticed that the sync seems to drift a fair amount over the length of the capture.

Any ideas/suggestions on how to get a good result ?? Either by capturing in sync on my PC - or use the recording from the E50(I'm recording to DVD-RAM btw) and maybe re-encode using MC and it's filters.

Thanks in advance of any help you guys can give!!

Regards

DJT

[macleod]

look for a user by the name of donpedro. A lot of the posts that he has made (as well as me) have been about converting VHS to DVD with the panny.

Personally, I use dvdram and then use TMPGENC DVD Author to make my dvd's. I (and others) have compatibility issues with the finalized dvdr that the panny's make. Also, the menus are poor in comparison to other software packages.

I use constant bit rate mode and user user defined attributes for items like noise and stuff like that. You'll need to experiment, but my recommendation would be to not use 4 and 6 hour mode on the panny if you want PERFECT results. While those modes are still perfectly watcheable, the XP and 2 hour mde are the best (I see VERY little difference between the 2 on a 32 inch newer TV).

[DJTekno]

Thanks for your post dude, and i will look up DonPedro's posts. The only trouble i've got is that each program runs for 3 to 4 hours - so therefore i couldnt really use the 1 or 2 hour modes....unless i split the program into 2 or 4 pieces and re-author/ re-encode???

[Capmaster]

After doing this i noticed that the sync seems to drift a fair amount over the length of the capture.

Any ideas/suggestions on how to get a good result ??

The reason is that the E50 has a built-in timebase corrector (TBC). Your PC setup doesn't. It's vital to have one if you're planning long captures off of tape.

[DJTekno]

Cheers Capmaster. One thing has just struck me......does the Panny's TBC passthrough....ie could i use the E50 just as a TBC in this context and feed the output of ther VCR, via the E50 and into the PC? Sorry for sounding thick.......am fairly PC savvy....but whatever i do, i cant seem to get a decent capture on the PC for long caps

DJT

[Capmaster]

Cheers Capmaster. One thing has just struck me......does the Panny's TBC passthrough....ie could i use the E50 just as a TBC in this context and feed the output of ther VCR, via the E50 and into the PC? Sorry for sounding thick.......am fairly PC savvy....but whatever i do, i cant seem to get a decent capture on the PC for long caps

DJT

I've got an E50 but I haven't had it long. I haven't tried what you're suggesting because I have a standalone TBC. It would be interesting to see if you can.

Are you sure you're not giving up on the Panny too quickly? You can turn off the Hybrid VBR (resolution change feature for long caps) in setup. Have you tried using FR with HVBR off yet? The Panny seems to produce superb captures off tape for me ...even better, actually, than my standalone USB capture box. I'd be surprised if you were able to get better caps on your AverTV card, even with a TBC.

[DJTekno]

[I've got an E50 but I haven't had it long. I haven't tried what you're suggesting because I have a standalone TBC. It would be interesting to see if you can.

Are you sure you're not giving up on the Panny too quickly? You can turn off the Hybrid VBR (resolution change feature for long caps) in setup. Have you tried using FR with HVBR off yet? The Panny seems to produce superb captures off tape for me ...even better, actually, than my standalone USB capture box. I'd be surprised if you were able to get better caps on your AverTV card, even with a TBC.

Yup - I've tried with the Hybrid VBR off and on...have experimented with that, and the Resolution Normal/Fine setting too..... maybe I'm expecting a bit too much!!! . Have to say though, results with the E50 up to the 2.5 hr mark have been excellent so far. It's only if you use more than 2.5 hr on FR that you start to get artifacts.

[macleod]

I'll second capmaster's comments. The panny blows away anything that could be done on the computer. Others on this forum will disagree, however. I have been capping (admmittingly, with a ATI tv wonder card) using various software packages and IUVCR, doing raw, huffey, mjpeg, powervcrII) and NONE of them come close to what the panny can do. PLUS, after the settings in the panny are done, you JUST press play and record and that's it.

In a nutshell, here is what I do. I capture to 1 or 2 hour mode with my panny (E30) on dvdram. I then take the output and rip it to my hard drive. Then I use either TMPGENC DVD Author or Movie Factory II to author the dvd (taking out black spaces that are always in camcorder home movies, editing other stuff) and then burn to DVD-R. ALL of my discs that I author this way play in EVERY dvd player. One of the issues with the panny is that, depending on the media used (and I am not sure if this is a true statement as far as media), other dvd players (like my apex 1100w and apex 1225) will not play them directly from the panny. My mobile dvd player will, however.

I have never tried the passthrough, but I see no reason to since the panny's captures are far superior to anything that I could ever do when capturing from the PC.

I would turn the hybrid VBr off and crank up the noise filter (in the user section). and then just tweek the other option (there is a total of 4-5 I believe) to get the final perfect output.

As far as the braking up the captures and then encoding/transcoding, that may be an option. The latest version of dvd shrink will accept stuff from the panny for transcoding, however, the output may not be as good since it is a transcoder.
For encoding, you could use dvddecrpyter's "rip as one big file" to rip the finalized dvd-r (dont need for dvd ram) to merge all of the vob's into one big one and then use isobuster to extract the mpeg file (or simply rename the file to a mpg. Then you could use TMPGENC or CCE to encode the video to fit onto a dvdr. Course if you wait a little while you could just capture at 1-2 hour mode, split it and then use an authoring package to make a dual layer video that can be burned onto a dual layer disc.

[DJTekno]

Thanks for your input guys ....... I'll give it a go tonight on my E50, and post the results......

Once again, thanks a lot, much appreciated

DJT

[sacajaweeda]

Next up i'd thought i'd compare that to using my PC to capture either via DV Passthru or via my AverTV capture card, using either IUVCR or Mainconcept 1.4 . After doing this i noticed that the sync seems to drift a fair amount over the length of the capture.

Try using VirtualVCR and check the dynamic resampling option on the audio tab in settings.

[DJTekno]

Macleod....I've just looked at the menus on my E50, and cannot find the 'USER' menu you talk about - any idea of where it is or if it even exists on a PAL E50???

Thanks

DJT

[macleod]

I'll have to check my settings because it is a little hard to find. Basically when you change one setting to user, the other options become available.

[FulciLives]

The reason why the Panny looks bad (poor quality aka compression artifacts) on long recordings is because it can only do a single pass VBR which really is not that different from a CBR encode.

The Panny's TBC will kick in with pass-thru so I would use it for the TBC but connect to your computer and capture to an AVI file using HuffyUV if you have the HDD space otherwise try PICVideo MJPEG on the 19 quality setting.

This will give you a nice quality capture that you can then convert to MPEG-2 using a software MPEG encoder such as TMPGEnc or CINEMA CRAFT ENCODER which will allow you to do a 2-pass VBR encode. The end result will be better than what the Panny can do.

However even with the benefit of a TBC you might still get audio sync problems.

You might want to try the dynmic resampling method in VirtualVCR or use TheFlyDS and set master to audio. The later approach is what works for me and I too have an AverTV capture card (the "stereo" model).

Which AverTV card do you have?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[handyguy]

An E50 should have a LP record mode, this is 4 hours, use that.

Try that but if you want there is setting to change resolution from Auto to Fixed.

[GMaq]

I would have to agree with FulciLives suggestions with .avi capture, I use iuVCR on 2 different systems and I've found if I try audio capture @ 48khz I get sync problems as well, There are sync suggestions in the iuVCR help files as well but in my experience 44.1 khz audio during capture has been rock solid. if you are using TMPEnc to encode I find the using SSRC as a sample rate conversion plug-in works fast and sounds great, the native sample rate convertor in TMPEnc is twitchy at best, I do admit I am ignorant about Panasonic standalones, but in my experience it's hard to beat an .avi capture from a TBC.