Losing too much quality capturing VHS

[TB Player]

I am wanting to capture VHS home movies with my ATI Rage Fury Pro card. I am able to capture using VirtualDub, but I am having a problem with picture quality. When I preview the VHS source in VirtualDub, it looks decent, but after I have captured the source to AVI, the quality of the AVI file looks noticably different - a decline in clarity and fuzziness around the edges of objects. I have read thru some of the capture guides listed here and have tried different resolutions (352*240, 352*480, 720*480) but the AVI picture quality remains the same. It may not help that the source video is somewhat jumpy - it is 8mm film from the 1940s transfered to VHS, but I had thought that I could get quality that is at least close to the original, and that is not what I am seeing. FWIW, I am capturing to AVI so I can edit in Premiere, then I will encode to MPEG2 and author a DVD.

Any tips/guides that you can offer would be appreciated!

System:
WinXP
P4 3.0GHz w/1GB DDR RAM
separate drive for video

[pijetro]

Yes, 352x480 sounds good..
What kind of compressor are you using to capture??
Three top ones are Huffy, PicVideo, and DV...
Of course, uncompressed YUY2 would be ideal, but that takes up gobs of space...

[TB Player]

What kind of compressor are you using to capture??
Three top ones are Huffy, PicVideo, and DV....

I have used both Huffyuv and PICVideo - I seem to get the same results with either codec.

[junkmalle]

What kind of compressor are you using to capture??
Three top ones are Huffy, PicVideo, and DV....

I have used both Huffyuv and PICVideo - I seem to get the same results with either codec.

Both those codecs should give good results (PicVideo's MJPEG needs to be set near the top of the scale -- 18 to 20). Mabye you could post a screenshot to show what's wrong...

[TB Player]

Mabye you could post a screenshot to show what's wrong...

hmmm.... how do I get a screen shot of VirtualDub's capture screen? When I try "Print Screen" I can see the VD window, but not the video being played.

[deckard8]

Make sure you are capturing 'Interlaced'. Do not use de-interlace when capturing as this will degrade picture quality.

[BrainStorm69]

Mabye you could post a screenshot to show what's wrong...

hmmm.... how do I get a screen shot of VirtualDub's capture screen? When I try "Print Screen" I can see the VD window, but not the video being played.

Capture the video first...then open the video file up in VirtualDub...use your keyboard arrow keys to find a fram with the problem...then click on "video" on the menu bar...then click on "snapshot source frame..." That should get you your screenshot.

[TB Player]

Make sure you are capturing 'Interlaced'. Do not use de-interlace when capturing as this will degrade picture quality.

I don't know how to set/check that in VirtualDub.

[TB Player]

Mabye you could post a screenshot to show what's wrong...

hmmm.... how do I get a screen shot of VirtualDub's capture screen? When I try "Print Screen" I can see the VD window, but not the video being played.

Capture the video first...then open the video file up in VirtualDub...

I can do that part, but I am trying to get a screen shot of VD while it is capturing the video source, so I can post images of the video *while it is being captured*, compared to the captured AVI file - that is where I am seeing alot of degredation.

[ronnylov]

The preview window is often smaller than the captured real resolution and when looking at the recorded capture you can see the lack of details better because the picture is bigger. Just a possible reason.

[lordsmurf]

More likely you're seeing the effects of a PC monitor, some psychological effects, and the limitation of MPEG and your source.

View it on a tv screen, not the computer. Keep it interlaced, and minimum 352x480

[TB Player]

More likely you're seeing the effects of a PC monitor, some psychological effects, and the limitation of MPEG and your source.

View it on a tv screen, not the computer. Keep it interlaced, and minimum 352x480

Thanks... how do I check to make sure it is interlaced when capturing in VirtualDub?

[kenmo]

Try VirtualVCR. I find it's capturing capabiliy superior to VirtualDub and YES it's free....

http://virtualvcr.sourceforge.net/

[pijetro]

TB Player wrote:

hmmm.... how do I get a screen shot of VirtualDub's capture screen?

Use the key buttons on the bottom, to get the scene required. Click the "in point arrow", go to the next key, and click the "out point arrow" (they're the last two buttons), and go to File>Save Image sequence, and it'll save you a bitmap, or series of Bitmaps, depending on how many keyframes you forwarded...
Open up Adobe Photoshop ( if you have it ), and import the .BMP file..
Go to File>Save for Web, and save it out..
Or for that matter, any photoeditor, and save as a .JPG...

There's directions on uploading images at the bottom of the "Post a Reply" window...

Thanks... how do I check to make sure it is interlaced when capturing in VirtualDub?

I believe the defaults are for interlaced capture..
Right click over the video, and 2x size the source..You'll see jagged lines..
This is interlacing..Fine for TV playback with DVD's..Not so nice for computer playback..