LNielsen76
21st November 2003, 23:46
VHS TO DVD
Tools Needed:
Intervideo WinDVD Recorder or Cyberlink PowerVCR II
TMPGEnc
DVD-Lab
Clone-DVD or Pinnacle InstantCopy
Alternatives:
Since WinDVD does not allow you to capture DVD Compliant mpegs at a resolution of 352x480 alternatives for mpeg capture at such resolution is Ulead's DVD Workshop, Ulead’s Moviefactory 2, or Cyberlink’s PowerVCR II. A resolution of 720x480 is unnecessary in most VHS cases and using a lower compliant resolution will free up bitrate for better quality captures. However, for this guide, I will be using WinDVD for captures.
PROCEDURE
WinDVD comes with several templates designed to capture different formats of mpeg files. The DVD template is designed to capture 1hr and 20min of video feed; any greater amount of feed captured will result in exceeding the 3.96GB WinDVD file size split limit. This guide will use the preset DVD template to capture all feeds of any length. However, it is possible to create your own templates for varying feed lengths that will allow you to capture any video to an mpeg file not to exceed the 3.96GB WinDVD file size split limit.
I use the following equation to determine the Total Bitrate based on time. In this equation, "x" represents the desired minutes you wish to capture.
7715 ( 4063 / [50.788 * X] ) = Total Bitrate
7715 is the Total Bitrate [ie., KBits/sec] for 80 minutes of feed.
4063 is the file split size [ie., MBytes].
X is the desired minutes wished to capture.
50.788 is the theoretical rate in megabytes per minute captured.
Note: I have found the actual average rate in megabytes per minute captured to be 54.171 in captures of 140 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, 80 minutes, and 150 minutes. It appears that WinDVD captures at a rate that will require 4.36GB of media space for 80 minutes of video feed. Theoretically, all that should be needed is the file split size of 3.96GB. Misgivings of WinDVD: 1) No 352x480 resolution option in DVD compliant mpeg file captures [Cyberlink PowerVCR II does!!], and 2) a split file size of 3.96GB! [Cyberlink PowerVCR II unlimited!!] Should you feel that 3.96GB is enough space for your capture and will produce good quality playback, then use the actual rate to eliminate joining of rendered mpeg files.
When creating your own template, use the following settings,
MPEG2 GENERIC
Motion Vector: Vertical 7 Horizontal 7
Audio: MPEG-1 Layer II 48.0 kHz 224 KBits/sec
Note: Either 224 or 192 KBits/sec can be used. Using 192 will free up bitrate for Video.
Creating these templates for each individual video can be cumbersome and will require you to know the individual video feed length in minutes. Nevertheless, it does save time in the long run. No reencoding will be required later. Once authored, it can be burned directly to DVD using CloneDVD or your favorite burning program. I, myself, prefer to stick with the DVD preset provided by WinDVD, unless of course, the resulting mpeg file exceeds 9GB in length. Authoring an mpeg file which may require ten or more VOB file creations can be a DVD nightmare! Regardless, capturing large files less than 9GB can still be authored without reencode in DVD-Lab. The resulting VIDEO_TS folder can then be burned using Pinnacle InstantCopy. Pinnacle InstantCopy reencodes the video to fit a standard 4.36GB DVD5. I choose the latter route to preserve quality where it may be lost in pursuing the former. The former would not be so much a problem if WinDVD allowed you to capture at a 352x480 resolution and the excess bitrate placed back into capturing at high quality. Should you desire to use CloneDVD as your burning tool in the latter route, be informed that CloneDVD does not reencode VIDEO_TS contents exceeding the 4.36GB limit. CloneDVD compresses video much like DVD2One. It is a faster tool than InstantCopy, but the risk of quality loss is greater.
PROVISOR: WinDVD will capture feed until the 3.96GBlimit is achieved. Any excess feed captured is stored in *.tmp files that will require renaming of extentions to *.mpeg files. These multiple files rendered by the capture can be joined using TMPGEnc's mpeg tools. The resulting file can then be loaded into DVD-Lab and authored. I prefer DVD-Lab over other authoring tools using the methods of capture as described above. DVD-Lab does not require an mpeg file to be demuxed into video and audio files. Though DVD-Lab will give you the option of demuxing, it is not neccessary since your file is already compliant. Importing the mpeg as a system file in place of elementary streams will save you an enormous amount of time.
TOTAL TIME
Method 1 (Low Quality)
Capturing 2 hours
Editing 0 hours
Authoring 30 minutes
Burning (1X) 1.5 hours
Method 2 (High Quality)
Capturing 2 hours
Editing 1 hour
Authoring 1 hour
Burning (1X) 2.5 hours
Have fun transfering your VHS tape to DVD!
Tools Needed:
Intervideo WinDVD Recorder or Cyberlink PowerVCR II
TMPGEnc
DVD-Lab
Clone-DVD or Pinnacle InstantCopy
Alternatives:
Since WinDVD does not allow you to capture DVD Compliant mpegs at a resolution of 352x480 alternatives for mpeg capture at such resolution is Ulead's DVD Workshop, Ulead’s Moviefactory 2, or Cyberlink’s PowerVCR II. A resolution of 720x480 is unnecessary in most VHS cases and using a lower compliant resolution will free up bitrate for better quality captures. However, for this guide, I will be using WinDVD for captures.
PROCEDURE
WinDVD comes with several templates designed to capture different formats of mpeg files. The DVD template is designed to capture 1hr and 20min of video feed; any greater amount of feed captured will result in exceeding the 3.96GB WinDVD file size split limit. This guide will use the preset DVD template to capture all feeds of any length. However, it is possible to create your own templates for varying feed lengths that will allow you to capture any video to an mpeg file not to exceed the 3.96GB WinDVD file size split limit.
I use the following equation to determine the Total Bitrate based on time. In this equation, "x" represents the desired minutes you wish to capture.
7715 ( 4063 / [50.788 * X] ) = Total Bitrate
7715 is the Total Bitrate [ie., KBits/sec] for 80 minutes of feed.
4063 is the file split size [ie., MBytes].
X is the desired minutes wished to capture.
50.788 is the theoretical rate in megabytes per minute captured.
Note: I have found the actual average rate in megabytes per minute captured to be 54.171 in captures of 140 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, 80 minutes, and 150 minutes. It appears that WinDVD captures at a rate that will require 4.36GB of media space for 80 minutes of video feed. Theoretically, all that should be needed is the file split size of 3.96GB. Misgivings of WinDVD: 1) No 352x480 resolution option in DVD compliant mpeg file captures [Cyberlink PowerVCR II does!!], and 2) a split file size of 3.96GB! [Cyberlink PowerVCR II unlimited!!] Should you feel that 3.96GB is enough space for your capture and will produce good quality playback, then use the actual rate to eliminate joining of rendered mpeg files.
When creating your own template, use the following settings,
MPEG2 GENERIC
Motion Vector: Vertical 7 Horizontal 7
Audio: MPEG-1 Layer II 48.0 kHz 224 KBits/sec
Note: Either 224 or 192 KBits/sec can be used. Using 192 will free up bitrate for Video.
Creating these templates for each individual video can be cumbersome and will require you to know the individual video feed length in minutes. Nevertheless, it does save time in the long run. No reencoding will be required later. Once authored, it can be burned directly to DVD using CloneDVD or your favorite burning program. I, myself, prefer to stick with the DVD preset provided by WinDVD, unless of course, the resulting mpeg file exceeds 9GB in length. Authoring an mpeg file which may require ten or more VOB file creations can be a DVD nightmare! Regardless, capturing large files less than 9GB can still be authored without reencode in DVD-Lab. The resulting VIDEO_TS folder can then be burned using Pinnacle InstantCopy. Pinnacle InstantCopy reencodes the video to fit a standard 4.36GB DVD5. I choose the latter route to preserve quality where it may be lost in pursuing the former. The former would not be so much a problem if WinDVD allowed you to capture at a 352x480 resolution and the excess bitrate placed back into capturing at high quality. Should you desire to use CloneDVD as your burning tool in the latter route, be informed that CloneDVD does not reencode VIDEO_TS contents exceeding the 4.36GB limit. CloneDVD compresses video much like DVD2One. It is a faster tool than InstantCopy, but the risk of quality loss is greater.
PROVISOR: WinDVD will capture feed until the 3.96GBlimit is achieved. Any excess feed captured is stored in *.tmp files that will require renaming of extentions to *.mpeg files. These multiple files rendered by the capture can be joined using TMPGEnc's mpeg tools. The resulting file can then be loaded into DVD-Lab and authored. I prefer DVD-Lab over other authoring tools using the methods of capture as described above. DVD-Lab does not require an mpeg file to be demuxed into video and audio files. Though DVD-Lab will give you the option of demuxing, it is not neccessary since your file is already compliant. Importing the mpeg as a system file in place of elementary streams will save you an enormous amount of time.
TOTAL TIME
Method 1 (Low Quality)
Capturing 2 hours
Editing 0 hours
Authoring 30 minutes
Burning (1X) 1.5 hours
Method 2 (High Quality)
Capturing 2 hours
Editing 1 hour
Authoring 1 hour
Burning (1X) 2.5 hours
Have fun transfering your VHS tape to DVD!