nice and simple video question

[esanchez]

can some one tell me or point me to a link. All I'm trying to do is transfer my home movies of my family from VHS to VCD but prefer SVCD. I won't be ripping or recording movies from VHS,DVD... or anything like that. All I need is to know what hardware to buy to use that will support SVCD. And what step to take. What format do I use mpeg1,mpeg2???? stuff like that thanks

[Mavrick]

I’m not an expert at this. I can tell you some of the things that I have learned and save me time. I make XSVCD’s only, as I’m converting home videos to CD. I have managed over time to get it down to 4 easy steps.


Step 1: Capture the video as uncompressed AVI (this gives you the best quality to work with) as close to the final output resolution as you can. This will save encoding time if it does not have to resize it. In my case 480x480 or 640x480

Step 2: Edit the captured video. I use Media Studio Pro 6.5DC for this.

Step 3: Save the edited video in Media Studio as an MPEG2 480x480 with a VBR of 4000. Field order B first. (make sure your player can play this).

Step 4: Burn the MPEG file(s) to CD with DVD Movie Factory. Make your menus etc…

That’s it!!

Works every time and I get video as good as the original… I would say its DVD quality. The down side is I can only get 20-30min per CD with a bit rate that high… but with this quality, I’ll take it!

You can download a trial copy of Media Studio Pro from
http://www.ulead.com/msp/runme.htm

They also offer upgrade offers from other editing software – so you can get it as cheep as $129.00 for the DC version.

For a DVD Player, I would look at the RCA 5240P ($99.00) - It will play just about anything...

For a capture card... I have the ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV, If you want more power than this... Look into the Pinnacle Systems DV500 DVD, it has hardware MPEG encoding.

Hope this helps...

[esanchez]

Another thing all I have to work with is analog. So I'll be transferring from my ananlog video camara from VHS tapes..so no need to explain anything having to do with DV thanks....

[Mavrick]

Both capture card's I recommended support both DV 1394 and Analog...
And the process is the same...

[esanchez]

bump.

Don't want to spend to much money...cause I just want something to get the job done...maybe $120 tops...

[Mavrick]

No problem... There are other methods to do the same thing. You can downlaod TMPG and VDUB. There are alot of guides on here to show you how to use them. They are also free or very cheap!

[esanchez]

Software I don't worry so much cause I know there some that are free that can get the job done like you said. What I"m really intrested is which device do I get to get the job done yet not spending more than $120.