Major Help with Video Quality issues

[Deter]

Hello,

I have loads of stuff on VHS and DVD that I am trying to play back on my PC and internet with the best possible quality. Some stuff is PAL other is VHS, some are digital DVD recordings

I really haven't had any help with any of this, I just kind of do things by guess work....

I have 3 Video programs on my PC

1) Window Movie Maker
2) Sony Vegas 9.0
3) MAGIX EDIT PRO 15

Everytime I try to use one of these programs and do a simple edit to a video, aka fade out, when I go to save the file or re-rip the file the quality is downgraded big time.

I usually do WMV file, the quality seems better on my PC...No idea what format is the best..I think MP4 or MPEG4 are Crap......


These are the setting I have been using for my videos
1440x1080 (Full Screen) Usually old VHS stuff
720x480 (Full Screen or Letterbox)
720x576
640x480


QUESTION#2
To edit the videos I basically record from DVD player to DVD player or VHS player to DVD player. Or DVR to DVD player....

Because HD recorder are not out, I use my DVD recorder to Record HD broadcasts, the stuff is letterbox and never full screen.

So I record from the source and the quality is really good.
Next I will play the disk back and go in and make edits. I than have to do this a few times.
By the 4th or 5th time the quality starts going to crap.


The screen gets a tad blur and some distortion is present, if I have to run through lets say 10 dvd's trying to edit and fix up a video, by the end the quality is not the best....It is still better than using the PC

blur vs choppy

My Recorder is a Panasonic DMR-EZ27
The DVD player is Samsung DVD-HD860


My goal is to make the best possible recording, what do I need to do?

[Soopafresh]

Post a before and after pic of a frame

[Deter]

You really need to watch the videos....I am kind crazy when it comes to details..

It is like this, when u edit the video using the computer, it almost skips frames. So if you were filming a bird flying...

Before the edits it would look like it was flying after any computer edits the bird would skip frames and it would not look natural and give u a headache...

On the 1st recording it would look perfect by recording number 10 the bird would look like a blur in places....

On a specific frame it would look kind of close....Any kind of action or movement u could see the difference in two seconds......

[jagabo]

It is like this, when u edit the video using the computer, it almost skips frames. So if you were filming a bird flying...

Before the edits it would look like it was flying after any computer edits the bird would skip frames and it would not look natural and give u a headache...

No. You're doing something wrong. First of all, forget WMM unless you are making streaming web videos. Even then, use it only as the very last step in your processing.

You should avoid multiple generations of video capture. Capture once, make all your edits, save the results. Vegas has a smart MPEG2 editing mode that should allow you to do this without reencoding, except a few frames around cut GOPs, or unless you're filtering. No reencoding means no loss of quality.

It's pointless to use 1440x1080 for VHS. Capture NTSC VHS at 720x480 or 352x480. That's all the resolution it has.

[Deter]

jagabo, it may seem pointless however the quality of the picture is amazing. It is so much better than the original take.


I don't use MPEG2 or MPEG4 cause I feel the picture quality is not good...The file are small and it compresses the data...Like I said I am weird and it is all about the details....

[jagabo]

I don't capture anything to the computer all my work is done using a VHS player and DVD recorder...

That's still capturing as far as I'm concerned.

When I mix a video I am recording it to DVD than playing it back on DVD and cutting the picture that way, so I have to use a lot of DVD's before I get to the end result. I would like to use the computer if possible

That's exactly what you should be avoiding. All those analog/digital conversions are causing your problems.

I have like 20 years worth of videos maybe 500 tapes of this stuff I just want to clean up and get the picture the best I can

Then you need to invest about US$1000 in equipment. An s-vhs deck with line tbc and noise filtering, a full frame tbc, and a video proc amp.

If you want to stick with your DVDR caps, capture once to DVDR, export the MPEG 2 data from the discs, then edit them in Vegas. That will get you far better results than several consecutive generations of DVD caps.

[Deter]

Any advise on improving the video quality using the computer edit programs?