settings for virtualdub to capture VHS-C

[rob99]

Hi All,

After weeks of reading, my capture system is ready to do some trial runs while I am waiting for more audio connectors.

PC is fast enough with win7 64 bit.
Virtualdub 1.10.4 64bit is installed.
Panasonic palmcorder NV-S800
Sony DVD recorder RDR-HXD870 as passthrough for video
Ezcap 116

Although it crashes sometimes I have managed to do some trials. What I need is some practical settings to confirm for virtualdub. Also, after capturing I will do some premiere pro timeline editing and put some titles. Final product probably be on a file on PC not a DVD.

1. Audio compression : PCM, 48 KHz, 16-bit stereo
2. Video

overlay selected,
capture pin (PAL-B, 25, YUY2, output size 720x576)
capture filter (video standard PAL_B)

-do i need to select VCR input checkbox here?

compression (Huffyuv v2.1.1)

did not touch default settings here.


-With these settings a minute of capture was about 600MB. Does this sound normal?
-Is it better to capture full cassette in one go and then worry about correcting synchronization?
-There are bars at the left and right of the capture also some moving parts at the bottom. If this is normal whats the best way to get rid of these. I could crop in premiere pro and maybe resize to 720X576 again
-Any other must have setting that I do not know?
-Any virtualdub video filters that you use usually when capturing VHS


Thank you in advance to all

[jagabo]

-With these settings a minute of capture was about 600MB. Does this sound normal?

Yes.

-Is it better to capture full cassette in one go and then worry about correcting synchronization?

You may need to fiddle with the sync options on the Capture -> Timing... dialog.

-There are bars at the left and right of the capture also some moving parts at the bottom.

That's what's on the tape. All perfectly normal.

If this is normal whats the best way to get rid of these. I could crop in premiere pro and maybe resize to 720X576 again

You can crop to 704x576 while capturing (or if you capture device supports it capture at that resolution directly). That size is acceptable for DVD. But you may not need to crop the black bars at all, depending on what you intend to do with the video. For example, the edges of the frame won't be seen on a TV after burning to a DVD because TVs overscan -- they hide the outer ~5 percent of the frame at all four sides.

-Any virtualdub video filters that you use usually when capturing VHS

Generally you don't want to filter while capturing. Get a good clean capture first. Worry about filtering later.

-Any other must have setting that I do not know?

The brights in your sample image are blown out. You might be able to tone them down by adjusting the capture device's video proc amp.

[JVRaines]

-Is it better to capture full cassette in one go and then worry about correcting synchronization?

You may need to fiddle with the sync options on the Capture -> Timing... dialog.

I have not been able to get VirtualDub to sync audio no matter what I do in Timing settings. There is always an offset. The amount of offset varies from capture to capture, but fortunately it is constant. So I go into Sony Vegas, measure the offset, and correct it in the Audio Interleaving dialog when I trim the capture. This is a widespread experience with VirtualDub and I wish Avery or someone would straighten out the code.

[davexnet]

-Is it better to capture full cassette in one go and then worry about correcting synchronization?

You may need to fiddle with the sync options on the Capture -> Timing... dialog.

I have not been able to get VirtualDub to sync audio no matter what I do in Timing settings. There is always an offset. The amount of offset varies from capture to capture, but fortunately it is constant. So I go into Sony Vegas, measure the offset, and correct it in the Audio Interleaving dialog when I trim the capture. This is a widespread experience with VirtualDub and I wish Avery or someone would straighten out the code.

I've had the same problem, seems there are too many options for the novice to deal with.
I had some good luck with iuVCR and Stoick, both available here in the downloads section. Both work well on XP,
not sure about later OS's. iuVCR 30 days free trial if I'm not mistaken

[rob99]

Thank you for the replies all. My understanding is getting a little bit better

1. Does it matter to adjust the color and sharpening through "video proc amp" at the time of capture or to do later in premiere pro for example?
2. I have left the capture timing with default settings. Is there better settings? I will be capturing audio through line in of motherboard. Is there a good guide for adjusting audio relatively easily?



3. I am capturing 720x576 with PAL-B. Does other PAL modes (I,G etc.) makes a difference if this is a camcorder?

4. The final product will be a file on PC (xvid or something) Or maybe a mkv container with chapters. I want to get rid of black bars on left/right. And crop a little bit from top and bottom. And then should I convert it to square par? Went through this website but it was too complicated.

http://foro.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/par.html

If the final product has to be 768x576 with square pixels how much can I crop the capture? And finally, I have a fast PC, so can I do crop/resize process during capture?

[Brad]

1. Premiere (and everything else) will not be able to correct clipping in the original captured image. You need to keep things within range during capture, as much as the capture device allows. And you should completely disable sharpening at every stage from VCR to capture device. Edge haloes are ugly.

2. You're asking for sync trouble by using mobo audio instead of capture device audio. Is the quality of the audio with the device bad?

3. Those PAL variants only refer to TV broadcasting systems.

4. Cropping to 704 "should" be sufficient horizontally. Note that if you ever want to author to BD, 720 horizontal is the lowest allowed resolution. Some file-based players may have similar restrictions.

Never, ever resize analog captures vertically. In particular, you will destroy the video if you don't deinterlace it first.

Masking the head switching noise at the bottom is preferable to cropping it. Cropping will leave you with random vertical resolutions instead of standard 576. Random resolutions aren't widely tested, especially when they aren't divisible by 4 or 8 or 16 (depending).

[pandy]

If the final product has to be 768x576 with square pixels how much can I crop the capture? And finally, I have a fast PC, so can I do crop/resize process during capture?

No! 768 is valid if you use different sampling clock (14.75MHz) than DVD (13.5MHz) - not sure what is sampling speed in your capture device but don't be blinded by those numbers frequently quoted by people in very abstracted way.
DVD video (or rather i should say ITU-R BT.656 + ITU-R BT.601) can't have more than 720 pixels in line (and usually not more than 710 of them is visible in perfect display).

go for 704x576, capture your source, crop to remove bars on left and right then resize to 704 but do not crop your video in vertical direction, if you decide to remove corrupted lines (at bottom where VCR head switch may produce corrupted video) i would advise to pad those lines with black or do some line content interpolation (inpainting filter, border fill filter etc) - but once again - don't resize your video in vertical direction - if you really must resize video in vertical direction then first you need to deinterlace it and this will open completely different topic).

Sorry vaporeon800 for repeating you - didn't read you before.

[rob99]

Thanks guys, I need to make sure that I got this correct.

I do not want to do any deinterlacing, so vertical resolution stays at 576. But I can mask lower lines any maybe a upper line of the video to black, is that it?

And also the attached is captured as 704x576. Obviously less black borders on right and left compared to 720x576. Is it better to leave like this or make a even black masking all around the video. Is this a filter in virtualdub?

Also is the final video size going to be 704x576 and no resizing or change of the pixel aspect ratio required if I decide to export to x264?

[pandy]

Thanks guys, I need to make sure that I got this correct.

I do not want to do any deinterlacing, so vertical resolution stays at 576. But I can mask lower lines any maybe a upper line of the video to black, is that it?

And also the attached is captured as 704x576. Obviously less black borders on right and left compared to 720x576. Is it better to leave like this or make a even black masking all around the video. Is this a filter in virtualdub?

Also is the final video size going to be 704x576 and no resizing or change of the pixel aspect ratio required if I decide to export to x264?

Yes, mask it with black (crop + pad) or use one of many filters that perform some content interpolation (inpaint, logo remove, border fill etc) all those filter may be applied directly to interlace video.
Personally i would left all lines even with WSS (top, first half line) and with head noise but it is up to you. Current 704 crop is OK for me - probably it will be anyway not visible on most of TV's but if this left black distract you then similar approach like for head switching noise may be applied (fill bar with some interpolated content).