Need help capturing from VHS-C camcorder!

[granturissimus]

Hey everyone,

I have a Hauppauge PVR-150 capture card, and I'm using WinTV v.6 to capture.

My VHS-C camcorder only has a yellow and white cable outputs... no red. I guess this means the camcorder records in mono? It sounds like it does too.

When trying to capture video, I had to set the audio setting to "dual channel". That way the recorded video plays back from both speakers. If I leave the setting on "joint stereo" or "stereo" or "mono", the audio only plays back from the left speaker.I set the video capture output stream to "DVD" at 9350kbps constant, and the audio to MPEG1 Layer 2 at 48kHz and 384kbps (there is no way to change the audio to AC3 or MPEG Layer 1 in WinTV). I want to get the best possible video quality, but I dunno about what setting to put for sound... is the one I have too high? That is my first question.

My second question is: If I wanted to burn my captured video to DVD in the future, what audio settings should I pick?

I placed one of my captured videos into AVStoDVD, and the option to use DVD compliant video was checked, but the option to use DVD compliant audio was not checked, and it was uncheckable. I'd rather not have to convert my audio and lose quality, so this is why I'm asking about what audio settings I should use if I wanted to burn the captures straight to DVD.

Third question: are there any programs that would allow me to cut clips out of my captured videos? All I need is to cut clips out and make separate files. Stitching clips together would be great too if it's available. I'd like to do this if I was to upload my captures to YouTube. (I tried using VirtualDub to try to cut clips out, but it just popped up an error when I tried opening my captured file).

Here are my video and audio settings windows of WinTV:

[Cornucopia]

For your existing VHS-C footage, get a VHS-C adapter to use in a regular VHS deck. For New/upcoming footage - get a newer camcorder.

If you have 2 channels of audio, setting it to 384kbps is probably decent enough (you're still losing a tiny bit, but it may not be noticeable to you). For TRUE DVD compliance though, you want to convert your MP2 audio to AC3. Use aften or similar encoder from this site. Oh, and the bit about Dual channel vs. others shouldn't really be affecting your speaker outputs, but just so you'll feel better, leaving it as D.C. at that bitrate in MP2 shouldn't do any harm.

re: best possible video quality,
MPEG2 at DVD rates isn't the best for capturing. If your ultimate goal is DVD-Video compliant discs to watch, it's not a bad compromise, but those on this site who are picky about their VHS capture usually cap as Un-/Losslessly- compressed (usually in AVI container).

If you are capping to MPEG2, what you DON'T want to do is go back to uncompressed and recompress it to MPEG2 for a DVD. That's what you're doing with AVS2DVD. All you need to do is convert the MP2 audio to AC3 (like I suggested above), and then author your M2V and AC3 into VOBs and burn. Plus, I'm not surprised AVS2DVD won't let you uncheck that: MP2 is NOT compliant for DVD-Video in NTSClands, so you'd HAVE to reconvert it.

Scott

[granturissimus]

Thanks for your input Scott!!

Yeah, I do have a miniDV camcorder that I've been using over the years, and am planning on getting a DSLR in the near future, it's just that my childhood tapes are in VHS-C. Also, when I put the tapes into adapter and try to capture through VCR, the quality becomes visibly lower, so this is why I'm capturing from my old camcorder that recorded those tapes in the first place.

I don't think my capture card can capture in many formats... that screenshot shows my only options.

I downloaded Aften, but I dunno how to use it. It only accepts WAV files. How do I go about this? I need to cut out the audio from my captures and then convert it in Aften? How would I do that? Plus, how do I rejoin the converted audio to the original video later?

[yoda313]

I do have a miniDV camcorder that I've been using over the years, and am planning on getting a DSLR in the near future, it's just that my childhood tapes are in VHS-C. Also, when I put the tapes into adapter and try to capture through VCR, the quality becomes visibly lower, so this is why I'm capturing from my old camcorder that recorded those tapes in the first place.

Read your minidv manual carefully. Does it have analog passthrough? It would let you input your vhsc through the minidv and you can capture as dv-avi. This will be about 13gb/hour in space though. And you would convert that to mpeg2 with ac3 audio (ac3 for max compatibility as Cornucopia mentioned).

Edit - do you still have your original vhs-c camcorder? It would be best to use that for playback if it still functions. If not you should think about looking for a better quality vcr if these are really important to you - a better vcr can make a noticeable difference. Of course this is still analog so don't expect even the best vcr to make it look like a production vhs tape or a dvd - obviously it can't be better than the source.

For audio you can also use eac3to to convert multiple audio formats (however its interface is a bit overwhelming for newbies or casual users).

If you use avstodvd to make the dvd folder you can load the individual video and audio file together in that program. Avstodvd is a very good choice to use for dvd creation. Very versatile and good output quality.

Edit - plus if you are able to do the analog passthrough you can take your dv-avi file and load it directly into avstodvd - it will convert to dvd directly from the dv-avi file.

Edit 2 - Cornucopia - MP2 is NOT compliant for DVD-Video in NTSClands, so you'd HAVE to reconvert it.

Actually I have made dvds back in the day with mp2 that do play. However those were on older standalone dvd players. I don't know if they'd work well with something like a game console or standalone bluray player. I honestly don't remember which ones those are or if I still have them on hand to test with.

But yes it would be more hit or miss but it would work on some players just not all.

[granturissimus]

I did an online search and camcorderinfo.com said my miniDV camcorder does NOT support analog to digital pass-through. My camcorder is Panasonic PV-GS19.

Yes, I am using my original VHS-C camcorder. It still works! I got it hooked up to the capture card.

I got eac3to, opened up the stream extractor, and picked M2V for video stream, and AC3 for audio stream. Did I do this right? Now I can use AVStoDVD to combine those files?

[yoda313]

Yes you can use that with avstodvd.

[hech54]

The video bitrate is OVERKILL if you ask me....

[granturissimus]

Well I was able to combine the 2 streams into a file in AVStoDVD.

However, the audio plays back from only the left speaker. I use VLC Media Player... I can go to device and set it to mono, that way it plays from both speakers.

How can I make my video play from both speakers by default in all video players/DVD players? My camcorder only has the left audio channel, that's why I think it plays back only from one speaker when captured.

[themaster1]

@ granturissimus

You record the audio as mono and you convert in dolby digital stereo for example * QED*

[bigass]

Alternate idea: Get one of those adapter shell cassettes and just play it back through a good, regular VHS deck.

[zoobie]

what a novel idea...