capturing quality

[Jimbras]

Hi all.

Recently i decided to convert some tv series i have on VHS Tape to SVCD format with the best possible quality.

What is the best program avaliable freewere sharewere or professional that gives the best quality possible?

I already tested videostudio 6, Winproducer 3, UiVCD and Virtual Dub following the 2 capture guides avaliable here) and the quality sucks.

Thanks All

[Hans Maulwurf]

Hi,

capture in 480x576 (SVCD) or in 768x576 if your CPU can. I suggest you use IuVCR for capturing if you have 2000/XP OS, as it is far better for this purpose than Virtual Dub. Use PicVideo MJPEG or Huffyuv (free) codec. (search the web)

Then use TMPGENc to convert to SVCD. Turn on Noise Reduction in Advanced settings to remove Tape Noise.

I think the most important thing is not the encoder but the quality of the source material!

[snowmoon]

Source quality is key to a good encode. Personally I've switched around my SVCD based on the source.... For widescreen I use 480x480, for fullscreen I use 352x480. The quality is much better now. The encoder I use is CCE one pass Q of 20-30 min0, max 2500 and a few other small changes. If you must use Tmpgenc, don't forget to enable macroblock softening as it's the key to not being overwhelemd with blocks.

For cap.. I cap (winTV) 720x480 Pic MJPEG 18.

For NR.

Vdub filters.

2d cleaner optimized (0.9) 10->3 to 5 x=3 y=1 interlaced ( leave at 10 for cartoons ).
Chroma Noise Reduction with seriously resuced values.
kNRC NR of 3,6
Bilinear resize to either 352x480 for fullscreen or 480x480 for widescreen materal.

I have had other tell me the captures are better than SVHS, but I'm comming from a broadcast source. It's hard to find artifacting unless you really know where to look.

Cheers.

[Jimbras]

Keep in mind that im new on this.

I have a good source quality. Was all recorded in SP from a digital sattelite receiver but for testing im capturing directy from the receiver.
Currently my capturing resolution is 480x576.

Just tested WinVCR 2.0 and so far this is were i got the best image but when i get many movement on screen i notice some squares.

Does any one know were i cant get CCE tutorials, I find the prog a bit confusing.

[mrtristan]

Even if you follow the guides step by step, you might not get the best results, for your particular situation.

"Good" quality is subjective. What you think is crap might be perfectly acceptable, to someone else. Likewise, your version of quality might be unacceptable to someone else.

A lot of people, including myself, are able to acheive great results using freeware, such as Virtualdub and Tmpgenc. No one knows what you would be satisfied with. The only way for you to get the results that you want is to experiment until you find a combination of software that works.