VCR to DVD - Can final display size be adjusted

[Debbie25]

I'm creating family videos from VCR to DVD and I'm having no problems getting the DVD created.

My main question is:
I have converted the video from AVI to M4V in both 720x480 and 320x240 frame size and it will stretch the display to the fill the screen with both which is blurry.

What I would like is to have it display smaller on the TV screen, maybe putting a frame around it so it will be better quality.

Is this possible?

Thanks,
Debbie

[ZippyP.]

Is this possible?

Yes, but it shouldn't be necessary if you're doing the capture/conversion properly. You should be able to go the full screen size either at full dvd resolution or 1/2 dvd.

How are you capturing the video? What software are you using? What are your settings? Explain your steps in detail and someone will be able to correct where you're going wrong.

[Debbie25]

I'm recording the videos from a Panasonic VCR through a Hauppauge TV Tuner.

I have to use the Divx compression or the thumbnails with not show up in adobe Premiere and will not convert correctly.

After I edit the AVI video in Premeire I export the timeline to DVD which creates both the video M4V file and the audio WAV file.

This is where I have tried the 2 frame sizes. I've kept the ratio at 4:3 for both.

I then bring the video file into MyDVD to create the menu and burn.

The 320x240 takes up more room and the quaility is worse.

Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks,
Debbie

[Krispy Kritter]

The quality shouldnt be any different than the original VHS tape played on the same VCR on the same TV.

If it is much worse, then the problem is most likely in your capturing process/settings.

Keep in mind that it won't be better quality just because it is converted to DVD.

[mpiper]

What codec are you using in Premiere for editing?

The more conversions you do, the lower quality the final picture will be.

I would recommend getting a good MJPEG codec (mainconcept, PicVideo, or Morgan) and capturing with it set at about 95 - 98% of best quality. then open and edit in premiere, and export the video in MJPEG and import the final AVI into the DVD authoring for the MPG video conversion. (Or export the video from Premiere to MPG2)

Use 720X480, it will give you the best quality based on what you can capture. Use a sharpen/noise filter before you export and it should help the cripness of the images.

Mike

[sacajaweeda]

The quality shouldnt be any different than the original VHS tape played on the same VCR on the same TV.

I don't find this to be true at all from my experience. You're doing pretty good just to get it to look as good as the VHS source when you do analog captures with a capture card on a PC. Lots of noise gets introduced to the video that simply isn't there in the source and they usually look worse and need filtering/cleaning up. Especially on older tapes. That's lossy compression & degradation any way you slice it. Doing VHS transfers is a messy PITA with a PC for the most part. Unless it's something that is worth the extra time and effort, like home videos & stuff, I do most my VHS transfers with a standalone DVD recorder now. With a bit of time, effort & patience you CAN get great results capturing with a card on a PC using AVI & filtering & encoding to MPEG2, but for most stuff it just isn't worth the hassle.

To the OP: I'm not trying to discourage anybody, just pointing out and clarifying/correcting what I perceived to be an inaccurate and broad generalization that was thrown out there.

My $.02

[Debbie25]

I tried capturing using other formats but I receive an error stating: “Warning: Video compressor not compatible with video format compressor ignored during capture” and will default to AVI (Y2U) no compression.

If I capture in AVI no compression then the thumbnails will not show up in Premiere. I can edit it without the thumbnails but when I export the timeline to convert to M4V then it is all black or scrambled.

So I found the only one I can use is Divx.

I have not played around with filters. If this would make the quality better then I would like to look into this.

Could anyone let me know just what I would be looking for when it comes to filtering?

Thanks for your help,
Debbie

[sacajaweeda]

PicVideo MJPEG codec is my personal fav for capturing AVIs. It's almost as good as HuffYUV's lossless codec (on it's highest setting) but it can be adjusted to varying degrees of compression to create smaller files. The downside to HuffYUV is that it is a "lossless" compressor so it creates huge files so you'll need lots of disc space and a fast & stable system so you don't drop frames. Have you tried either of those? HuffYUV is free but PicVideo's isn't anymore.

[jimmalenko]

Just as another suggestion, what about using a DV codec ?

[ipdave]

I still find after many capture cards, software, etc, that the best method is the simplest. Buy a DVD/VCR recorder combo unit. It will dub straight from VHS to DVD. You can later edit and add menus.

[Krispy Kritter]

The quality shouldnt be any different than the original VHS tape played on the same VCR on the same TV.

I don't find this to be true at all from my experience. You're doing pretty good just to get it to look as good as the VHS source when you do analog captures with a capture card on a PC. Lots of noise gets introduced to the video that simply isn't there in the source and they usually look worse and need filtering/cleaning up. Especially on older tapes. That's lossy compression & degradation any way you slice it. Doing VHS transfers is a messy PITA with a PC for the most part. Unless it's something that is worth the extra time and effort, like home videos & stuff, I do most my VHS transfers with a standalone DVD recorder now. With a bit of time, effort & patience you CAN get great results capturing with a card on a PC using AVI & filtering & encoding to MPEG2, but for most stuff it just isn't worth the hassle.

To the OP: I'm not trying to discourage anybody, just pointing out and clarifying/correcting what I perceived to be an inaccurate and broad generalization that was thrown out there.

My $.02

I should have been more clear. I agree with you, I was just trying to point out that converting a source to DVD does NOT make it DVD quality.

[Debbie25]

Thx for all the input.

jimmalenko - I tried DV codec and receive the same error as above.

I am able to record using M-JPEG codec but whenever I try to record it is whobbly. The video looks great until I click that record button then whenever the camera moves it is jagged.

I did find out that I was recording in 320x240 to start off with. I changed this to 720x480 and it looks a bit better on the PC anyway. I'm still playing around with "MP4" checked or not and "Force Aspect Ratio" to see what looks better.

The way I'm judging this is to view it in Windows media player at 200%. 100% looks great if only I can get that quality to the TV.

Thanks,
Debbie

[sacajaweeda]

Interlaced video just looks jagged on a PC screen. It will play back normal on a TV screen though. As for 'whobbly", as long as you aren't dropping a lot of frames when you capture or have your field order reversed when you're encoding it should play back smoothly.

[Debbie25]

??? Field order???

Please explain

I did find out that when I do play it back on the PC it's not as jagged.

I just wish it would record just as it shows on the WinTV screen. As soon as I start recording you can see it downgrade.

Thanks,
Debbie

[jimmalenko]

The way I'm judging this is to view it in Windows media player at 200%.

To be brutally honest, that's probably not the best way to judge anything. In fact, it's not even a good way. WMP uses a software resize, whereas your DVD player uses a hardware resize, which I guarantee will be much better than what WMP could do. If you get it looking awesome at 720 x 480 with WMP @ 100%, then it should look pretty good on a DVD player / TV. Probably best to invest in a DVDRW to do some tests

I'm not familiar with Premiere at all, but something seems wrong to me if it won't accept DV.

[Debbie25]

It's not the Premiere that won't except DV. I receive the error “Warning: Video compressor not compatible with video format compressor ignored during capture” in my WinTV app when I try to us it to record.

I get a great picture with any options I set in WinTV at 100% in Windows media but by the time it gets onto the TV it is ugly.

I compared them in Windows media at 200% and my settings look better now so I'm hoping it will look decent on TV when I'm done. I think setting the recording to 720x480 instead of 320x240 to begin with will help.