Export to VCR questions

[video_guy]

Hello again,

I have many videos on my computer that are different sizes and formats (mpeg, divx, avi, etc.). Anyway, I sometimes would like to export them to VHS tape to show to people who don't have a DVD player. I am using the Canopus ADVC 100 to export with Adobe Premiere Pro. However, the process to export to finished product is very time consuming and a little annoying. I first have to convert the movie in VirtualDub to 720 x 480 (or the video with look very small on the televison - its normal PC size) uncompressed AVI. Then I have to go into Premiere Pro and render the whole clip because the Project has to be set to "DV Playback" and the video is rendered uncompressed (not to dv format AVI). After all that, then I finally can export.

So what I am wondering is: Is there a program to take any plain old video and export it to VHS (while resizing it to fit the television)? Or is there a DV codec that I can use with VirtualDub to convert the video to so I won't have to render the whole AVI file over agin in Premiere Pro (seems kinda pointless to do this step).

I owned the original Dazzle DVC and it was used to edit mpeg video. The box could export 352 x 240 VCD mpeg to the television at full screen (it resized it while exporting). If my Canopus ADVC 100 could do this for me, please let me know!

Thank you!

[video_guy]

Does anyone know of a program/codec that I could use?

[FulciLives]

I never tried but I think you can do the conversion to DV AVI with VirtualDub ... at least I have heard of other people saying it could be done.

There is a Panasonic DV codec that is free and I think it works that way.

The other option is to use your VIDEO CARD TV output since this will output anything on your desktop but you have to have a VIDEO CARD with TV OUTPUT.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I just loaded an Xvid AVI file into VirtualDubMod. It was 640x336 so I resized it to 704x336 inside a "window" of 720x480 (so it has 8 black on either side and 72 black on the top and bottom).

I went to the audio stream and selected Full Processing and changed it to 16-bit 48k Stereo with PCM WAV conversion. I think the AVI has MP3 audio originally.

I then selected a SONY DV codec that I had on my computer (I have a SONY VAIO computer) and it is now saving a new AVI that is going to be DV AVI as far as I can tell.

So yeah I guess it can be done just through VirtualDub(Mod).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[video_guy]

Thank you very much FulciLives! I will try to mess around a little bit in VirtualDubMod. Thanks again!

[FulciLives]

Please note that it did work but I was just looking at the file some more and the original Xvid was 23.976fps and when I converted it to DV AVI it became 29.970fps but it didn't look "right" if you know what I mean.

It looked like a badly deinterlaced 29.970fps source.

If for example I converted the same 23.976fps AVI to MPEG-2 it would be 23.976fps with 3:2 pulldown making it 29.970fps without the wierd artifacts that I encountered with the straight to DV AVI conversion.

Maybe someone else knows a better way to do 23.976fps to 29.970fps DV AVI

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[video_guy]

I finally figured out a way to do it and was inspired to create a guide to help others out with this topic. You can view it here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=225047

Thanks for all your help FulciLives!

[FulciLives]

I read that guide that you wrote up BUT ...

1.) You didn't explain resize too well. Should probably flesh that part out a bit more. Maybe point them towards using FitCD and explain how you can resize and add black around the image in VirtualDub.

2.) The BIG error is the frame rate thing. If you have a video file that is 23.976fps I don't think you can just change it to 29.970fps as per your instructions. The way VirtualDub works I think this would increase the video playback time.

I could be wrong about point 2 ... haven't tested it ... but it sounds correct to me in theory.

Anyone care to commit on that?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[video_guy]

Alright, I'll test that out. I'll convert a new clip using my guide and see if it's longer than the original. If this is the cause I'll probably have to fix my guide. Thanks!

[video_guy]

Nope, it doesn't change the duration of the video. Original = 3 minutes, Converted = 3 minutes. I think you are thinking of another setting - Change to _____ frames per second (under Source rate adjustment)