Best way to archive UmaticSP

[mark23]

Hi Everybody.

A local cable access channel that i work for has asked me to do conversion of their older shows which are on UmaticSP and S(VHS) to some other format, that could be used for clips if needed rarely, but mostly to be archived.*

The equipment I have:
UmaticSP recorder/player
ADVC-300
DPS-220 TBC.*

The manager questions DVD since a few years back someone converted some tapes to dvd using a set top dvd recorder (pioneer) brand, with questionable quality, however this was just a umatic connected to the dvd recorder.*

Real question is, what would be the best process to convert these tapes in? Is the equipment i have good enough for a good quality dvd since UmaticSP is far lower quality that DVD, so it should look just as good as the original imguessing, or would another format be better.

Thanks
Mark

[solarfox]

The equipment you have should handle the job just fine, at least from the hardware side of things.

What will really determine the final quality (or lack thereof) will be the quality of the source material, for one. Make sure that your client understands that just transferring the video to DVD can't magically make it "look better" or fix degradation caused by careless handling or poor storage conditions.

Another important question is, what capture / encoding / authoring software(s) do you have at your disposal?

[Cornucopia]

In the greater scheme of things, Umatic quality is considered greater than that of standard VHS SP, but less than SVHS or Hi8. It has the same color-under problems, etc. (not even as good audio as VHS HiFi ).
Use a TBC if you've got one. Many of the better Umatic decks have built-in TBC's and this is to be preferred because the connection from the playback head electronics is more direct, so less degrading processing is done before it gets to the TBC.

Hopefully you can have an ALL--S-Video connection (All-RGB/YUVcomponent connection would be best but DVDrecorders are extrememly rare with those inputs--Pioneer PRV-LX1???)

You could possibly get a better picture if you went to PC first and did some NR processing with Vdub, etc., but it's probably not worth the extra effort.

WYSIWYG from Umatic.

Scott

>>>>>edit: ahhh! I see you WILL be going to PC. Cap DV, edit, then encode Highquality 2pass VBR for DVD. That's about as good as you could hope for...

[dphirschler]

Wouldn't hurt to keep a backup on DV tape either.


Darryl

[edDV]

I'd go UMatic/TBC -> ADVC300 -> DV tape in the first pass
That will be the dub master.

You could simultaneously dub to the computer to a DV-AVI file.

What is your house tape standard? Most public access is moving from S-VHS to DV/DVCPro with 90's vintage playout servers donated by local TV stations. At least that is the case here.

A donated DVCPro deck or two can handle the longer programs for tape archive.

I wouldn't advise using DVD standard. HD/BD DVD will soon be able to directly store your DV25 files. Wait for that.

[Cornucopia]

Ditto what edDV just said...

Scott

[mark23]

The house standard at this time is BetacamSP, which is slowly moving to DVCAM. They have a few DVCAM decks for playback but are only setup to edit with betacamSP at the moment. I managed to get a few BVU-870s and a BVU-950 from them. I am using an intel imac 20" 2GB ram and 4, 250GB hard drives. At the moment, id prefer storing them as DV type files on hard drives. Btw, what DV file format would be the best to use to save them.

Thanks
Mark

[Cornucopia]

Well, if you've got a Mac, QT-DV would probably be fine. This is what FCP uses and could also be exported (losslessly) w/ QTPro to Type2 DV-AVI if you ever wanted to use a PC on the files.

Scott

[edDV]

The house standard at this time is BetacamSP, which is slowly moving to DVCAM. They have a few DVCAM decks for playback but are only setup to edit with betacamSP at the moment. I managed to get a few BVU-870s and a BVU-950 from them. I am using an intel imac 20" 2GB ram and 4, 250GB hard drives. At the moment, id prefer storing them as DV type files on hard drives. Btw, what DV file format would be the best to use to save them.

Thanks
Mark

On hard disk they are all the same for DV25 (i.e. DV = DVCAM = DVCPro). Analog Betacam SP is going obsolete slowly. I'd go with a digital format and I still like DV for what you are doing over MPeg. Also tape backup is safer in that environment than hard disk only.