Color Correction For VHS Tape Conversions.

[englishmik]

I live now in Australia and have been doing some copying of my old family memories VHS tapes (NTSC) to my PAL stand alone hard drive/DVD recorder using system converter SB-3690. I then dub from from hard drive to DVD to be able to rip from DVD to my computer. I then rename VOB files to mpeg to allow me to auther new dvd. The basic conversion from 20 year old tape is quite good considering the quality of original tape. Is there any software that would allow me to enhance color and quality of converted files (mpeg). I use photoshop or Corel to enhance my still photos (I am a real estate photographer) I wondered if the was anything similar in the movie editing world.
I am not up to date with video software and would appreciate any help

[tinker]

There is TMPGEnc Xpress 4 which has some colour correction function for video. This one can import DVD files.
I think new Premiere has similar capability, but wil not import mpeg file.

[jagabo]

Just about every video editing package has filters that will let you adjust colors, brightness, contrast, etc. But in general, doing this at the analog stage with a proc amp (between the VCR and DVD recorder) will get you better results than editing and recompressing an MPEG file.

[2Bdecided]

I live now in Australia and have been doing some copying of my old family memories VHS tapes (NTSC) to my PAL stand alone hard drive/DVD recorder using system converter SB-3690.

That is one of the worst things you could do. Standards conversion is an imperfect science - good ones used in broadcast cost about $50,000 and aren't perfect - your $200 box is probably trashing your video. At a guess, it will get (even) softer, and movement will not look quite right.

It would be much better to keep your NTSC videos as NTSC, and make an "NTSC" DVD. Most "PAL" equipment will play "NTSC" just fine, and without conversion, thus avoiding conversion artefacts. Many "PAL" DVD recorders will record NTSC, but you need a fresh blank disc - you can't mix PAL and NTSC on the one disc. Many PAL VCRs replay NTSC in a hybrid format that almost nothing will record - you usually need a real NTSC VCR (and a transformer to get 110V to power it!) in order to play back the NTSC tapes and record them digitally.

If your DVD recorder won't record NTSC, try a decent capture card. If you're going to start processing these videos, you'll get a better result by capturing to something better than MPEG, then processing, then encoding to MPEG once at the end, not twice as you are doing now. This will take time though.

Cheers,
David.

[englishmik]

Hi David
Thanks for reply. When you say trashing the video, do you mean the original tape?
The copies from tape to my hard drive recorder so far have been fairly good. Problem was the original tapes were not the best quality so was trying to find a way to enhance the brightness and colour.
I originally tried to go from my vhs player (Australian bought Samsung, not the best I realize) to the hard drive on my standalone LG DVD/Hard Drive recorder, (used hard drive so I could mini edit before dubbing to DVD) but lots of jitters and no colour. I did hear of a dvd recorder that records both Pal & NTSC available in Australia but was not sure of the model. I suppose I was trying to shortcut the video capture card method but am eager to use best way possible. So my questions are:
1. Would I be better off trying to find a true multi standards VCR for playback or getting a VCR from USA (Already have converters)
2. Should I find a multi standards DVD recorder or use capture card straight to computer.
3. If I use capture card, which one should I buy.
4. If I go capture card, which software package do you recommend.
5. Finally, you guys are the experts, which is why I asked for help. If you were me, what would you guys do and what equipment would you suggest.

I really thank you for your replies and am looking forward to your advice.

Thanks
Mike

[jagabo]

The biggest problem with capturing with a DVD recorder and filtering later is the MPEG artifacts that the DVD recorder will introduce. Filtering the video will enhance the artifacts and compressing to MPEG again will add another round of artifacts.

The good thing about using a DVD recorder is that they often have built in time base correcters. This helps correct flagging (the effect where the top of the image slides off to the right) and other timing errors that cause problems with the vertical alignment of successive scan lines. See some of the images in these threads:

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic341941.html#1784906
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic289311.html

These timing errors cannot be fixed after capture. And they really suck up MPEG bitrate because one of the major compression methods used by MPEG is only encoding parts of the picture that change from frame to frame. These timing error cause every scanline to be in a different location in every frame.

If you are going the PC capture card route you will want an S-VHS deck with built in line TBC, an analog proc amp, and something like a ADVC-110 DV capture device. You're looking at spending several hundred dollars.

[2Bdecided]

It depends how much time and money you want to spend, whether you really want to do it yourself at all, and how good the original footage is.

On that last part, you could cut a piece of the MPEG file out with a file splitter, put it on a file sharing website, and post a link there. Then we might have a clue if it's worth doing better (might not tell us anything!).

(by "trashing" I meant the picture quality - it can't have any impact on the original tapes)


If it was me, I'd try to get a decent NTSC VCR (quite difficult in Australia I guess!) with TBC and DNR built in, and use an ADVC110 to go straight into the PC. From then on, treat it like DV (which it will be at that point).

There are any number of different approaches - DVD recorder, or capturing to lossless, DNR in software, etc etc.

If you weren't looking for a new hobby, you might regret starting this!

Cheers,
David.