Newbie Frustrations - VHS to DVD or Comp Help

[BrianJ844]

I had a thread a few weeks about why my burned DVD's from my Panasonic DMR-EZ48V aren't playing well on really any DVD player. I think I can confirm that is because I have been using DVD-R instead of DVD+R. So I am looking at having to reburn about 15 DVD's (decent time commitment). I have noticed on the two test DVD+R's I have made horizontal lines appearing during play back of the DVDs. Anyway to fix this? They are most noticeable when like white clouds meet blue sky or anything resulting in drastic color variation.

So I have been thinking, I would be okay with going from VHS to computer. What would my options be to do that? I would need a capture card I assume but how reliable and good are they for the price? I have a 2009 MacBook (2GHz, 4GB RAM) but don't have firewire so it would have to be USB. Would something like this Pinnacle System do the job well or what about this Star Tech System? (I can do Windows methods too).

Recap, Anyway to improve record quality on the Panasonic? Are the cheeper capture systems worth it in terms of quality and reliably and such?

Thanks everyone, this has really been a frustrating project for me.
Brian

[jagabo]

Computer capture devices tend to be more twitchy than DVD recorders. Be sure you are using good media on the DVD recorder. Verbatim Datalife series (not the Data series) or Taiyo Yuden.

To get really good quality you'll need an s-vhs deck with a line time base corrector, noise filters, and s-video output. A used one on ebay will cost you about $300.

If you really want to try with your computer take a look at the ATI 650/750 based capture devices.

http://www.frys.com/product/6124759

If you decide to try this route, only install the drivers. Do not install the PVR software that comes with it. Then use something like VirtualDub to capture. Capture with a lossless codec like HuffYUV then filter, edit, encode to MPEG2 and burn to DVD.

[BrianJ844]

Is there anyway to reduce the horizontal lines seens between the colors on the DVD's made from the DVD recorder? Or are they just something you live with?

Thanks,
Brian

[jagabo]

I'm not sure what you mean by horizontal lines. Can you post a short sample? You can use DgIndex to mark a small section and demux it.

[BrianJ844]

Yeah I will attempt to tonight. If not, I will attempt to get a screen shot of it if possible.

Thanks.
Brian

[BrianJ844]

Okay below is what I am talking about, although I remember it being a bit worse than what I grabbed a screen shot of. You can really see it in the white writing of Southern Pacific against the grey and then in the other picture, in the black vents against the yellow engine body as well as the red Union Pacific too. These aren't that big of an issue but it does distract from watching the video. Anything I can do to improve this?

Thanks,
Brian

[jagabo]

Those are interlace comb artifacts, perfectly normal for a VHS source. You need to use a player that deinterlaces on the fly. Try VLC -- once a video is playing select Video -> Deinterlace -> On, then Video Deinterlace Mode -> Bob or one of the other options. Any DVD player software on the computer should deinterlace by default.

If you're planning on uploading to Youtube, or can't control the player, you will want to deinterlace first. That will cause some loss of quality though.

[lordsmurf]

TV's display video as interlaced. You just didn't know it until now.
Don't deinterlace if planning to watch on TV or archive.

[jagabo]

See this post for an explanation of interlaced video:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/274804-MPEG-2-problems?p=1649850&viewfull=1#post1649850

[BrianJ844]

Okay, cool! I took those on VLC so I will try its deinterlace feature. All I want to do is preserve the VHS so if I can burn them to DVD's and any DVD player / my laptop can play them I am fine with it. Thanks for all of the help!

Brian

[jagabo]

As was pointed out, you should not deinterlace if you are going to make DVDs. Interlaced video is normal for TV. DVD players and TVs will handle it properly.

[BrianJ844]

Okay, now that I know that I should be able to use a setting on VLC to get them to play better and that any normal DVD player they will look fine in, I will just leave it. This DVD the picture was made from was made from the Panasonic DVD recorder I noted earlier and I was just playing the DVD+R I made on my Mac laptop. I have no need to get them to my laptop if the DVD's are working fine.

Thanks again! I thought it was a problem with my recorder or something.
Brian