VHS to DVD Recording

[joe645]

I want to convert some old VHS tapes to DVD's. I have a VHS player/recorder and a Diamond VC500 capture device. My software is EZ Grabber and I have tried to follow the instructions but have a problem. The recording seems to follow the entire VHS tape input but when I go to playback the AVI recorded video, all I have is the last 10 or 15 minutes of the movie. It almost seem like it records for a period of time and then reaches a point where it overwrites the file with the last period of time. Is there a recording time limit in the software or what?

[october262]

What kind of tapes are these ??
Hollywood movie tapes or ones that you've
Recoreded yourself ??

[joe645]

These are regular store bought VHS movies. I have quite a few and recently purchased a Sony 400 DVP player and what to convert the VHS to DVD's. I had thought about just purchasing a DVD recorder since I have a VHS player but they can be a little expensive. That is why I am trying to use present software and capture device, also knowing this is a very slow process.

[jagabo]

DVD recorders and most capture cards will not record commercial VHS tapes because they are protected with Macrovision. You will need a device to remove Macrovision.

[DB83]

That does not, in my book atleast, sound like a mv issue. Software can detect mv and refuse record anything or you get a distorted picture going from dark to light, back to dark etc.

What is the size of this avi ? Are there other files in the recording folder ? Possible 2 gb file storage reached and a new file then started ? Check the file output etc. settings in the recording software for something like 'split files every xxx gb' and remove that setting.

[jagabo]

Yes, the OP's issue isn't Macrovision. Maybe a Fat16 formatted drive with 4 GB file size limit?

[joe645]

Yes, the issue is not MV. I am guessing it has to do with gb file storage limits but I don't know why now. I have done this in the past. The only difference is that I went from Win 7 to Win 10 in the meantime. I'm starting to lean towards getting a DVD Recorder and skipping all this capture stuff.

[DB83]

Well Win 10 should not have a file storage limit which is why I suggested you look closely at ALL the capture software settings. Software often has such a setting to deal with older formatted HDDs.

Even if you are capturing to a single HDD, which holds the OS and is not recommended, the issue you describe should not happen with a modern system. Unless..........

[LMotlow]

EZGrabber has a nickname that tells you how others think it performs -- EZ Crapper. But to use other capture software you need to keep EZCrapper drivers installed. Meanwhile the VC500 is very decent capture device, and in tests not too long ago it was found that the card ignores Microvision. You can use it to better advantage with either VirtualDub or AmerecTV to capture to lossless YUY2 using Huffyuv lossless compression. From there you can do all the cutting, flltering, and encoding you want, working with lossless media that doesn't look like recycled garbage when you're finished with it.

If you want to post on the internet and your retail tapes are sourced from Hollywood movies or TV shows originally photographed as film, you can't deinterlace. You have to use telecine removal filters to make progressive video from your captures. The inverse telecine filter to use is Avisynth's TIVTC plugin (http://avisynth.nl/index.php/TIVTC).

Even if you record tape directly to DVD or MPEG2, you'll still have to overcome VHS noise and playback problems.

Good luck.

[joe645]

Thanks

[joe645]

Well after a little research and loading a couple of software programs as well as a DIMAX interface, I thought I would try to convert a VHS to DVD. It seems it is not as simple as I thought. First, the capture of the 78 minute VHS tape took about 5 hours to make a .AVI format file. Then I proceeded to convert the .AVI file to DVD format and burn to DVD. The result was good quality but the frames were visible. By that I mean the video was jerky and didn't move normally through the film. I did notice when it was capturing that the fps would go from 30fps down to 1fps on different occasions. I am sure there are settings or things I am missing being a novice at this. Any help would be appreciated.

[davexnet]

The capture should be in real time. How did you get a 5 hour capture when it's only 78 minutes runtime?

[Cornucopia]

I think it is evident to those who know these things that this ended up being not just a capture but a capture + convert, and it was the convert part that took so long.

Scott

[jagabo]

Or maybe the capture terminated or locked up several times and had to be restarted. The OP has to clarify. And it's best if he posts samples of the captured video file (not reencoded) and the resulting MPEG 2 video.

[joe645]

The software (NCH Video Debut) is what I used and it said it was recording at 30fps or less and to a .avi file or .dv.. The instructions seemed simple enough although there were some options (different formats). I tried 3 different captures and each was as long if not longer.

[Cornucopia]

NCH, 'nuff said.

Scott

[joe645]

Thanks Scott, but is that supposed to help me?

[davexnet]

Perhaps there is some inferring going on but I phrased my earlier post
to mean the actual capture should be the same as the playing time of the video.

If the conversion is done during capture it would still be completed in the same time.
For example, you capture to mjpg or huffyUV, it's done in software in realtime.

How have you set up the software and can you clarify your process a little

[jagabo]

the capture of the 78 minute VHS tape took about 5 hours to make a .AVI format file.

This makes no sense. You put a tape in the VCR, press play, and start capturing. 78 minutes later you've reached the end of the tape. There's nothing more to capture. What is going on for the rest of your 5 hours?

You should capture with a fast lossless codec like huffyuv. Once the capture has completed (78 minutes for a 78 minute tape) you edit, filter, and compress to your final format, MPEG 2 for DVD.

And: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/112800-Why-does-your-system-have-audio-video-sync-issues

[joe645]

I don't have an answer to most of your questions because I obviously don't know what I am doing in this field. I probably need a software that walks me through the process. I am surprised at the answer capturing should only take equal time to the tape. Of course that sound very logical but whatever I was doing resulted in a lot of wasted time and money. I will stick to using downloaded video files. Thanks to all.