HW/sw method: capture or not?

[mikewillnot]

I have two possible ways to get from VHS to DVD-R, and don't know enough yet to tell which will give better results. I would appreciate any informed opinions. The source material is a commercial VHS tape (good condition) of a b/w 1936 movie (medium quality). With both methods, I imagine capturing/converting to the default mode for "DVD quality." Thanks.

Method 1:
VCR ->
System A, via ATI All-in-Wonder card ->
mpeg2 files ->
CD-RW for transfer to ->
System B (with DVD burner) ->
various software massage to get from mpeg2 to VOB's, etc, for DVD

Method 2:
VCR ->
Digital Camcorder with conversion (not tape) to DV, through firewire ->
System B (with DVD burner) ->
various software massage to get from DV to VOB's, etc, for DVD

[avih]

it depends on the quality of your devices. my suggestion is to make a short clip (5-10 mins) with each method, and compare the results.

image quality wise, my bet would be the method which has higher bitrate for the initial capture (ATI MPEG2 stream vs. DV).

something else to consider, is that analog capture cards sometimes drop frames with VHS tapes (the capture card is synched to the pc, while VCR playback rate depends on many factors, like motors accuracy, tape mechanics, etc). i think that DV should perform better from that perspective, but again, it depends on the quality of each capture device/card.

[mikewillnot]

I'm testing method 2, now, using the camcorder as an analog-DV conversion device, and ULEAD Video Studio 7.0. It seems to work OK, and I'm burning a test DVD with a 10-minute clip now. Quality looks good, at this point. One question that seems immanent: the clip file size is like, 400 mb. I suspect that the 90-min source will produce a VERY large file, and I have a target of 4.3 gb. In other words, the file size seems much larger than necessary. I'm guessing that the DVD capture settings in Video Studio are the problem. I set it to capture to DVD file type. It seemed to capture smoothly, but then required a separate "rendering" step, that was rather slow. I'm wondering how to determine (1) the optimal capture settings, and (b) the optimal save-as settings (or whatever they are) to get the right output (mp2) with minimum delay.

[avih]

ahhh, that's why you have to search the forum ;)

[aklendathu]

Originally posted by mikewillnot
I'm testing method 2, now, using the camcorder as an analog-DV conversion device, and ULEAD Video Studio 7.0. It seems to work OK, and I'm burning a test DVD with a 10-minute clip now. Quality looks good, at this point. One question that seems immanent: the clip file size is like, 400 mb. I suspect that the 90-min source will produce a VERY large file, and I have a target of 4.3 gb. In other words, the file size seems much larger than necessary. I'm guessing that the DVD capture settings in Video Studio are the problem. I set it to capture to DVD file type. It seemed to capture smoothly, but then required a separate "rendering" step, that was rather slow. I'm wondering how to determine (1) the optimal capture settings, and (b) the optimal save-as settings (or whatever they are) to get the right output (mp2) with minimum delay.

My guess is that it captures in DV format first and then renders the DV clip to MPEG-2. The 90-minute source will produce indeed a VERY large file (more than 10 GB) or a sequence of 3 or more 4 GB files.
If however your 400 MB is already a MPEG-2 file, then it is probably being encoded at 8000 kbps - you need to change the encoding settings
to a lower bitrate so that your 90 min. movie fits in a 4.3 GB DVD disk. If your PC is fast enough it may be possible to capture to MPEG-2 directly (real-time rendering) but remember that the quality of the MPEG-2 movie (and its size) is dependent on the bitrate (5000 kbps at least just for the video) - I have been transferring my Star Trek VHS collection to DVD and I use a 5800 kbps bitrate so that 2 48.x minute episodes fit in a single DVD-R. If you can use post-capture 2-pass VBR MPEG-2 encoding you'll have the best results but you need enough disk space to hold the entire DV capture. Regarding your capture method, please be aware that you may experience out-of-sync audio towards the middle of the movie (after 45 min+), gradually becoming worse. I've seen this happen when I've done the same as you did - DV capture of a VHS tape through my camcorder.