VHS filtering questions

[acura]

Hi all,

I am capturing from VHS tapes through the composite connector. After reading this forum, I have decided to capture at 320x480 @ 29.97FPS (NTSC).

My intended output is a file with resolution 320x240, with a bitrate ~ 1200kbps, using the best codec suited for this job (because i want to squeeze 65 mins in one CD). I have choosen Windows Media 8 (the other choice was divx and MPEG-1 VCD). I am capturing with virtual dub.

My questions:

1) do i need to de-interlace the 320x480 video stream since the final output is 320x240?

2) if so, what's the best de-interlace filter for virtual dub? (and what settings)

3) which program should do the resize from 320x480 to 320x240? Virtual dub or WM8? I'm looking for quality.

Thanks!

[ThighMaster]

My answer to that is....

Try something at least once before you ask questions like that. YOU are the best judge of quality since only you will know what bad quality is to you, hence only you can determine what is good quality.

Anyway, for best compression with good quality I would reccommend DivX AVI. Why? because it's what I use and I get very good results. Thats not a good enough reason for you to use it though, is it?

BTW you can sqeeze a lot more than 65 mins. of video at higher quality using DivX. Also have you looked into MPEG2 SVCD format?

One last thing about VHS captures. You can't really improve the resolution of a VHS by capturing at higher resolution but you can get better results, after compression, from higher resolution captures than with lower resolution captures.

With Virtual Dub: Try capturing VHS at 480x480 (NTSC) or 480x576 (PAL) @29.97 FPS using HuffYUV compression. Then compress to DivX with highest quality setting and using the inverse telicine function of Virtual Dub along with a precise bicubic resize to deinterlace and resize the video. You will end up with a smaller file size and good quality.
Other filters to use would be the 2D Cleaner to remove noise.

Cheers,
ThighMaster