VHS to VCD

[frgess]

Like so many others I see here, I'm trying to transfer my VHS and 8MM home movies to VCD. I've successfully done so, using various methods. Pinnacle Studio version 8.5.18 at first. Came to this forum and saw several using the route VirtualDub(capture), TMPGenc(encode to VCD format), and Nero(to burn). Have tried both the PICVideo and Huffyuv codecs.

OK, to cut to the chase. The end result VCD is not too bad, but, not as sharp as the original, and a little more blurry. I read the article "High Quality Capturing with Little Frame Loss in VirtualDub", a very good article for newbies like me, congrats to the author. Using his suggestions, I seem to be capturing pretty good. I experience no dropped frames, or maybe just 1 with Huffyuv. However, the article drops you from there.

Does anyone know another article for the remaining steps, the coversion to mpg and burning? Can someone point me to some other articles that will help me understand the caveats of the remaining steps to get the end result to match as closely as possible the original video? Or, am I expecting too much from this process, i.e. the VCD just won't mirror the VHS/8MM video?

One last point. I've avoided the DVD route so far, already have spent a small forture on hardware and software for this stuff. But, would one expect better results using DVD final format than from VCD?

Sorry to be so windy, but I'm trying to go about this the best I can. Thank you.

[hwoodwar]

Frgess:

Does your DVD players support SVCD? I can't find a Sony RPS62 in the DVD Players section. If It is a different model, you may want to look it up at www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers . Please make sure you read the users' reports and comments if you do find it. If your DVD player does support SVCD, I strongly suggest you try SVCD or CVD instead of VCD.

I myself am converting many VHS tapes to CD and prefer to use the CVD format more than other video-CD type format.

With VCD, because of the strict requirement of a constant bitrate of 1150kbits/second for video, you are limited as to what you can do to try to maintain the quality of the original. VirtualDub does have a built-in real-time noise filter that you can try while capturing to filter video noise. There are many filters for use with VirtualDub that you can apply after capture. In TMPGenc there is another noise filter, and a few others on the advanced setting tabbed page. Last and most importantly I strongly suggest you set motion search precision in TMPGenc to "high".

With SVCD, CVD and some of the other formats you have the added advantage of being able to change the video birate, and/or rate control mode and still remain compliant with the standard.

Unfortunately, I could only find one guide to converting avi to a VCD format MPEG using TMPGenc at:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgenc.htm

[hwoodwar]

Frgess:

I forgot to mention, there are a few TMPGenc VCD templates that you can download from the tools section: www.vcdhelp/tools (towards the bottom of the page.) It looks like Pinoy2201 and Tibr0 created them. They should be better than the standard VCD template that comes with TMPGenc.

[spiderman2k1]

Get aJVC high end VCR that can filter out noice and use a good caputre card I like Dazzle 2. Most VCR are junk and never clean the picture the way it should be cleaned right now JVC is only company making good SVCD VHS VCR's

[frgess]

hwoodwar: Thanks for the reply. I messed up on my Standalone DVD player, it's actually a Panasonic RP62. I must have zoned out at that point. No SVCD ability, but I did try a trick I saw somewhere to create a SVCD output file, reencode with a VCD header and then burn and play. Result was not much better than straight VCD and seemed to kick or bounce (not sure how to describe) once in awhile.

Have not tried CVD, and see that some owners of the RP62 report that it will work on the player. I'll give it a try.

You mention playing with the bitrate, filters, etc. This is what I was referring to in my original post when I asked if anyone knew articles/books/whatever that explains how to manipulate these settings, what the effect is, etc. I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the choices and parameters in this process, like probably alot of other newbies. And haven't been able to find anything that lays it out. Like, is there a "Dummies" book out there?

Again, thank you.