enhanceing VHS quality

[samifox]

Hi

I’m using my VIVO card and PowerDirector to capture an old Elvis live performance. I capture it from the original VHS but it still less than VHS quality as you can imagine.

I own Premiere 7,I need any trick, tips or tutorials about how to enhance the picture as near as possible to the crystal look of today’s digital media.

I thought to burn it out to VCD or DVD.

Any comment is great welcome,

Thanks
S

[guns1inger]

The bad news is - you cant do it. You can't take VHS and make it look like DVD using equipment available to us mortals. You can clean it up, remove some of the noise, maybe fix the colour if necessary, but you will never pass it off as DVD quality.

Keep your goals realistic - to make it better than it is - and you will be happier.

[SatStorm]

The first step, is to capture the VHS tape to your PC with the less picture loss and the best possible detail.
That needs good equipment: A good card for example or transfer through DV ports (NTSC users might have better alternatives for this)

Then, you can do some stuff with your source: Correct some elements if neccessary (colour, saturation, luma, etc) and filter. Here there are countless methods to suggest, but there is one problem: Any case is a different case! The same filters won't apply the same positive results to different sources.

IMO, for a simply VHS source (good to excellent condition), the filter combo: rmPAL (for PAL users), static noise reduction (6) and dynamic noise reduction (10) is a good overall choice (those are virtualdub filters). But that doesn't mean that they gonna enchance the source and make it look better than the original VHS.

On the other hand, many of the filters exist to solve issues on older tapes (bad conditin) or broadcast flows recorded on tape (musquito noise, bad reception, etc). That's why many users say that they made their tapes look better than the original: Those where home recordings from TV, not commercial tapes. Yes, with that kind of material, you can succeed miracles. But it is a whole lotta story!

[Sakuya]

I have the same kind of problem only the rips are LD rips (but they look more like VCD/VHS quality). The details are a bit smudged and blurry. The video seems a bit dark in some places. I'm not sure if I'm just seeing things or whether it might look better on the TV. I tried the brightness/contrast filter and it looks more vibrant but at the same time, I don't want it too bright nor do I want the red to be too vibrant. By the way, I could not find the filters you mentioned above. It's not on the filter list. Where can I get them?

As for the audio, the volume is really loud and if you listen to it with your computer volume at 100%, then in some places it sounds very cracky and...high, at times it sounds muffled. I used Dynamics Processing, NoisyHotGuitar in Cool Edit Pro and it sounds more mellow and easy to the ears. Can anyone tell me what this option does exactly and whether I'm doing the correct thing? Thanks.

I'm not looking for absolute DVD quality here but just enough improvement on both video and audio so I can watch it with no gripes. :P

[fmctm1sw]

As for the audio, the volume is really loud and if you listen to it with your computer volume at 100%, then in some places it sounds very cracky and...high, at times it sounds muffled. I used Dynamics Processing, NoisyHotGuitar in Cool Edit Pro and it sounds more mellow and easy to the ears. Can anyone tell me what this option does exactly and whether I'm doing the correct thing? Thanks.

I've noticed distinct differences in the sound quality from my numerous VCRs. You may want to check out another playback option in addition to what you are doing...

[zilog_jones]

Your recording levels on your PC are probably too high. Go to Volume Control -> Options -> Properties and select recording. It's pretty hard to get it right though, and differs with every sound card and input device, so I can't give any recommendations.

[lordsmurf]

I have the same kind of problem only the rips are LD rips (. :P

There's no such thing as a "tv rip" or "VHS rip" or "LD rip".
You're talking about capturing video.

Only a CD or DVD can be "ripped" and even that is only if certain requirement are met. Otherwise you're still just copying.