What format for VHS to HDD to TV? Playing off a HDD instead of DVD?

[Rudyard]

I was in the process of converting my parents VHS to DVD for her. She has about40-50 hours of old home movies.
However it came to me that rather than overly compress to reduce discs or have a billion DVDs, I have a media player, I could get her one and she can have all her movies off the one media playing hard drive. Much better to have it all in one place and easier for me.

However since I have really only done a lot of DVD conversion I dont understand which formats would be best available for me and how to set them up.

Nothing is HD or anything, just VHS captures. Would XVID be the best option? If so is there any special settings you would recomend for home filmed videos ageing back to 20-30 years old? (e.g. in MPEG 2 a constant bit rate at 8mbs has been recomended cause of dodgy shaky hand held cam recoring).

Once I can get my format sorted, the whole project should move along pretty quickly.

I like to use Sony Vegas (I have version 7) to compose and render, can this do XVID or whatever is recomended??

There are Western Digital players readily available I was gonna get them which needs an external HDD. 500gb USB powered so only one power pack was my idea. However if I need more space there is some more expensive brands that take any HDD inside it, so I can get a TB + if I need it.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[jagabo]

Home video is likely to be interlaced. Xvid supports interlaced encoding but many devices do not play it properly.

MPEG 2 is your best bet. I would stick with DVD compatible bitrates so the video could be burned to DVD if necessary -- without futher conversion. 50 hours at 8000 kbps is only about 200 GB.

[Rudyard]

Home video is likely to be interlaced. Xvid supports interlaced encoding but many devices do not play it properly.

MPEG 2 is your best bet. I would stick with DVD compatible bitrates so the video could be burned to DVD if necessary -- without futher conversion. 50 hours at 8000 kbps is only about 200 GB.

Great, thanks jagabo! I am better with MPEG2 encoding anyway and in my tests I realised I could not convert to XVID from Vegas.

Now to just make 100% sure the media player plays MPEG2 as well and im set.

Thanks again.

[jagabo]

I'm pretty sure Vegas can encode as Xvid AVI. I think you have to start with an AVI template, then select the Xvid codec. But it sounds like you've decided to go with MPEG 2.

Most standalone media players should be able to handle interlaced MPEG 2. Many DVD players will even play MPEG 2 files from a data DVD or external USB drive.

[Rudyard]

I'm pretty sure Vegas can encode as Xvid AVI. I think you have to start with an AVI template, then select the Xvid codec. But it sounds like you've decided to go with MPEG 2.

Most standalone media players should be able to handle interlaced MPEG 2. Many DVD players will even play MPEG 2 files from a data DVD or external USB drive.

When trying to export a project (I have assembled the VHS captures (uncompressed AVI) in vegas) and when exporting I cannot find an XVID option. Will try again. I am certainly open to ideas still, im just a lot more comfortable with MPEG2 but will do the learning needed if something else is an advantage.

The other issue I thought of for media player, is chapters. Is there anyway or a media player that you can mark chapters into for easy skiping?

My worst case was to have the 1 long encode with all nice transitions and things (some have no sound and have musci over the top) which can be watched when mum is nostalgic and wants to waste a day, and the also have each segment encoded as individual files in another folder so she can navigate directly to a clip if she wants and they will play sequentially from there just with a bit of a pause as it changes file making transitions and sound disjointed as it changes clips.

Anyone got a better idea for that?

[Rudyard]

Another question I have. When I encode for DVD, I usually do a seperate video and audio render and DVD architect puts them together if they have the same name (MPEG2 and AC3).

Just want to check, is AC3 'dolby digital'?

The link for the media player im looking at sayd it plays the following:

Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

I will now need to encode audio and video in the 1 file, would I still use AC3?

[lordsmurf]

Leave it as high bitrate MPEG-2.

[jagabo]

Yes, AC3 is dolby digital. You can mux it along with MPEG 2 video in an MPG file. You can also mux into a VOB container and add chapters. But I don't know if the WDTV supports chapters in a VOB file. There's a big thread here about the device, maybe there's some indication there.

There are other devices that contain both the drive and player in one piece. TVIX for example:

http://www.tvix.co.kr/

I don't know how well they work compared to the WDTV. But the WDTV appears to be well regarded by its owners.

[Rudyard]

Thanks Jagabo.....what forum is this thread in, it may serve me well to have a read.

[jagabo]

https://forum.videohelp.com/topic358929.html

[Rudyard]

cheers.