Help Converting Old Tapes???

[deucecanes21]

I have some old tapes that I am trying to get on to DVD but I keep on getting poor resolution when I burn it.

I captured the video using a TV Tuner, which captured the video in Mpeg2 format. I then used Ulead VideoStudio 10 to crop the bottom of the video due to some interlacing (I believe its called that). After I cropped it, I exported it as an Mpeg video file with the resolution being 720x480. I have since tried to convert it to DivX and burn and convert it to Avi and burn but nothing has worked yet. The video is still quite fuzzy.

Some of the programs I have tried that have not worked for me have been:
TMPGEnc
Apollo DivX to DVD Creator
ConvertXtoDVD

Any ideas on software or anything I am doing wrong would greatly be appreciated guys.

[jameshgross]

I have copied over twoo hundered VHS tapes to DVD. I have experienced the problem you describe.
Bascially there are three causes of fuzzy captures.
1. The VHS tape is noisy i.e.the signal on the tape has deteriorated over time.
2. The tuner on the capture card is weak.
3. The VHS player is putting out a noisy siganl on the RF output.

You may try:
Clean the tape heads
Try a different VHS player
Use the S-Video output instead of the RF
Use an authoring program that has a noise filter

Getting a really good capture can be a trial and error process.

[deucecanes21]

I have a decent capture now. Its when I try to burn it to a dvd that it goes bad. The video isn't terrible but it also isn't very clear either. Are there any sort of programs you used to enhance the video resolution?

[marmarmar]

or you can visit and try SPAM and transfer your home video tapes to dvd. You can get a pretty good conversion at a reasonable price from a lot of places. But what are most of these companies lacking? Care and attention to detail! Other ways you get totally amateurish product done with domestic equipment.
link: SPAM

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning.
/ Moderator Baldrick

[guns1inger]

Depending on what the issues are, there are avisynth filters and virtualdub filters that can address many of the problems associated with working with VHS source.

There are also issues better dealt with using hardware before you capture. This hardware could include the use of a time base corrector, or an image detailer.

Finally, use a good encoder. Of the three you have mentioned, only tmpgenc is capable of giving you a quality outcome. The other two are designed for quick and dirty transfers of downloaded avi files to DVD, not the preservation of your memories.

My suggestion to you is to click on the Report This Post link in your fisrt post, and ask the mods to move this to the Restoration forum. That is where you will get the best responses and find the best answers. While you wait, go and do some browsing and reading.

[thecoalman]

I captured the video using a TV Tuner, which captured the video in Mpeg2 format.

Unless that's a hardware encoder like the hauppage cards don't capture to MPEG but instead capture to a uncompressed AVI using Huffy. This will create very large files but these are only intermediate files to be used as source material for your project.

I then used Ulead VideoStudio 10 to crop the bottom of the video due to some interlacing (I believe its called that).

That's the overscan area and won't be visible on a TV. If you want to remove it mask it with a black border instead, video studio will do overlays look in the manual.. Most likely you are cropping and scaling the video back to 720x480 which introduces numerous issues.

I have since tried to convert it to DivX and burn and convert it to Avi and burn but nothing has worked yet. The video is still quite fuzzy.

Divx at no point in time enters the picture for DVD video unless you downloaded it from the net.... One of the keys to good video is less is better. Try some simple short test clips first. Capture as suggested above using Huffy or you can just use the uncompressed selection (this creates very, very large files but will be fine for testing). Make sure you're capturing at 720x480. Open up Video Studio drag the clip onto the first play selection and burn a disc using the high quality preset.... BTW depending on your card it most likely is using top field first, make sure that is what is selected under the compression tab in VS.

Any ideas on software or anything I am doing wrong would greatly be appreciated guys.

There could be a variety of things you are doing wrong, start simple and work from there. Depending on how well your capture card works and what condition the tapes are in you can expect it to look pretty close to the original when all is said and done if you do it properly. With good equipment you can in a lot of cases improve the quality slightly but you can't work miracles...