Need help configuring capture configuration

[tomarwater]

I have a collection of over 200 aviation related films (documentaries, features, military, all types) which I transferred to 3/4 videocassette on a 16MM film chain many years ago. At that time I would make VHS or Beta copies off the 3/4" tapes for other aviation enthusiasts, libraries, etc. I stopped doing transfers some 10 years ago due to other pressing business. About 5 years ago I decided I wanted to archive my collection into video files stored on hard disk, before the 3/4 cassettes deteriorated. I bought Cleaner XL and an ATI AIW PCI card. After months of trying to set up a conversion process I had to put the project aside again due to business needs. Now I am at it again. Since the ATI card was now gone in an old computer I tried two different USB capture devices but the video capture/edit capabilities don't work for me. I need to be able to crop the video image, on the transfer fly if possible, since my 3/4" masters are under framed (when transfered to VHS and shown on a standard TV that makes them frame normally). Capturing to a video file I don't need the under framing as it just gives a black border around the image. I can crop with Cleaner XL, as well as many other desirable image enhancements, but neither of the USB supplied editors allows cropping. I also have an Advantec 2010 PCI capture card but the MyDVD program that came with it, just like the ULeadVideoStudio and VirtualDub and several other programs I sampled, doesn't allow cropping. Also, except for Ulead, all the others only capture to mpg format which Cleaner XL will not take as input. Ulead allows WMV which will go into Cleaner. I had thought back when I first bought Cleaner that I could input a composite video stream directly but now that I am trying it again it seems to only allow file inputs, no streaming composite. Anyway, can anyone suggest the most straightforward configuration for me to transfer my 3/4" video to digital storage in a way that I can crop and enhance the video in the process? I am running W2000 SP$ which limits some of the current software choices. Appreciate any and all comment.

[danno78]

Take a tv tuner card and with VirtualDub you can do most of the job (capture, cropping, resize, noise reduction, level tweak, compresion etc). The ideal path will be capture lossless (Huffyuv or Lagarith) with VirtualDub, processing (VirtualDub, Avisynth or Cleaner Xl) and compression in final storage format (mpeg2 for DVD, H264 for Blu-ray and PC, XVid for PC).
Cropping and resizing is very easy with VirtualDub. From Video>Filters and null transform filter for cropp and resize to enlarge/shrink the image.

[jagabo]

If you're looking to make DVDs or video that will otherwise be viewed on TV you don't want to crop the black borders. Modern TVs continue to overscan.

[tomarwater]

Greatly appreciate the advice! Thanks! Got into VirtualDub and discovered its many capabilities, cropping, enhancement, etc. Two questions: I cannot find a setup in VirtualDub to output the processed video file in MPEG (1 or 2) format which I intend to be the final archived file format for my collection. I can only find the AVI file output. Maybe VirtualDub does not have the MPEG codecs? If it had I wouldn't need to use Cleaner XL at all - much simpler if I could do the process all in VirtualDub. Second, VirtualDub recognizes the USB video capture device and takes the composite video from it. Would a PCI capture card work better? I noticed in capturing a 30 minute film via the USB device that VirtualDub dropped over 70 frames. Maybe its my RAM memory or the CPU? If a card would capture with better quality or less loss I would rather go that route before starting on the mass transfer of my films.

[danno78]

1. VirtualDub can`t compress in to mpeg formats. My hint, capture in Huffyuv codec (30Gb/h), do postprocessing (if you need) an later encode in mpeg2 with Cleaner XL or HCenc.
2. Why you get dropped frames? Read this thread.
From tapes most likely are time base errors. To see if you need a TBC capture a stable signal (live camcorder or local TV station from the vcr/dvd recorder/TV) from the same composite input. If there is no dropped frames then you have to put a TBC between the player and capture card to heal the signal.