Recommended method for VHS TO DVD

[moumiaq]

Can anyone recommend a method for making DVD'S from VHS tapes or camcorder tapes ??? I have a Canopus ADVC-100 which is great and the program is Pinnacle Studio 8 with the latest update.

[bb]

I suggest you capture your VHS to a DV file on your PC, then follow the "DV to DVD" guide in the DV forum.

bb

[echooff]

You can do it all from within pinnacle. Capture your video from within pinnacle. The advc100 will show up as a dv device. Edit it as desired. Make a mpeg for dvd. Author your final mpeg onto a dvd.

[bb]

Originally posted by echooff
You can do it all from within pinnacle.
True, but you miss the chance of optimizing your video before encoding. If all you're looking for is a fast method resulting in "ok" quality, then you may use Pinnacle Studio alone.

bb

[sarahjh69]

buy a standalone dvd recorder
philip dvdr75 at £220 in Richer Sounds is good
great results!
no hassle!

[vljenewein]

I captured my analog 8mm tape to my hard drive using a WinFast TV2000XP Delux card (has that little remote). I capture it as MPEG-2 and also I tried capturing it as DVD (MPEG-2) in the setting in the software PVR (Personal Video Recorder) I tried the Ulead
VideoStudio 6 sofware to create DVD compliant files to burn. It even created *.ifo and *.VOB files and I even created a *.mpg file that is playable in Power DVD.

But, the movie is crap. There are numerous pixels quite obvious, called Pixilation in the video. This is way worse than even anything I've ever seen.

All I want is a program to be able to do a good job of creating a DVD compliant files and the resulting video would be near the quality it was in it's original context. Any good DVD authoring software that does that? I mean, this is way worse than DivX format!!

Also I tried going to Uleads web site and I downloaded a 75 MB VideoStudio 8 version for trial. It wouldn't boot unless I went to higher resolution in my desktop. When I did that it would not capture from my Canon camcorder via WinFast TV2000 card, whereas, the Studio 6 would capture. So I'm not impressed with Ulead.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance!!

[echooff]

The ADVC100 and Studio 8 produce a decent capture. The true problem is you miss your chance for optimizing prior to encoding as stated by bb. You will probably want to trim your capture. I use canopus procoder for encoding. It allows limited filtering and trimming is easy.

[vljenewein]

Ok.. So the best is to rip (so to speak) the video/audio from my 8mm camcorder into my computer as a DV (digital Video) and from there do the encoding? The DVR I use of Leadtek's Winfast has a lot of options for saving the captured images. If there was a way to show screenshots in here, I'd load what options are available.

In recap, load the best format for encoding first, then encode that for DVD?

[echooff]

The ideal is to capture in uncompressed avi for editing purposes. Editing (filter, croping.) Then compressing into your final desired format. Ideally, you frameserve while filtering to your finally output.

[moumiaq]

And with what tools do u edit your avi files echooff ?i'm interested in cutting 4 gb from my huge 24 gb avi file.i'm also interested in cutting some scenes in between.

[vljenewein]

echooff: I did the best I have seen today on a capture and burn to actual DVD of my 8mm home movie. I used WinFast 2000 Delux card and used the PVR for capture to a file. I changed the capture file to DVD and the quality to 1000 and bit rate kbps to somewhere around 6000, and I could have gone higher. Then I used the Neo DVD 5.0 to create the DVD compliant files (*.IFO, *.VOB, etc.) in a folder, and tried it on Power DVD. Then I burned what I had captured to see what it looked like on television, and did not look bad at all. There are limitations to 8mm and it's resolution is not that wonderful to begin with. I bought a hi8 camera and newer videos should be a whole lot better.

On a side note I noticed just a few spots in the burned DVD where there was drop off, sort of a pixelation, just for a brief second. What causes that?

[echooff]

@moumiaq
I use Pinnacle Edition. I have used Studio 8. When finished using studio for editing I saved as avi and used Procoder for croping and mpg conversion. I am experimenting with frameserving because I want to eventually move to CCE.

@vljenewein I am glad to see you are getting good results. I have tried several capture cards before settling on the advc100. Filtering is the key. While you can not get dvd quality from a anolog source, you can get darn close. I am not sure what causes your pixelation, but a smoothing filter should take care of it.

[moumiaq]

Thanx echooff

[vljenewein]

Originally posted by echooff


@vljenewein I am glad to see you are getting good results. I have tried several capture cards before settling on the advc100. Filtering is the key. While you can not get dvd quality from a anolog source, you can get darn close. I am not sure what causes your pixelation, but a smoothing filter should take care of it. [/B]

Thanks echooff! Now, what is a smoothing filter? name names, point to hyperlinks.. LOL You use it after the conversion from Analog point and before the encoding to "whatever" I would assume...

Also, where is there more info on the ADVC100 ? It this also a capture card?

again, thanks!!
Vern

[ADLANCAS]

You can start here:
Capture FAQ (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32575)
and Capture Guide (http://www.doom9.org/capture/start.html)

I hope that helps!

Alexandre

[echooff]

The AVC100 is mae by canopus. It can be purchase thru them, but you can find it much cheaper using Google.

[vljenewein]

Last night I hooke up the 8mm camcorder and through my Leadtek WinFast 2000 XP card I captured my home video using direct DVD with maximum setting for video quality and frame rate of 10000 Kbps. The resulting files are excellent when viewed with Power DVD. Only thing is each file is "Video02030-51(S-Video).mpg , Video02030-51(S-Video)[1].mpg , Video02030-51(S-Video)[2].mpg " and so on. Each can be played separetly on Power DVD XP by double clicking on it and choosing PowerDVD XP as the program to run it. There are no chapters, no IFO files, no VOB files, nothing that can be interpreted by a DVD player as 'normal' DVD.

Isn't there a way to create chapters, clip and cut scenes, and just leave the encoded file compressed as MPEG-2, as it is, using Medio DVD Plus ver 5, or Ulead's VideoStudio 6, or simliar?

I mean, once I edit what I want to keep I shouldn't have to re-encode it 'again' to mpeg-2 as that is what it is already and the quality is outstanding as it is.

Vern

[echooff]

You can cut out the pieces you don't want with several programs. I used to use Tmpgenc under the tools menu. This does not require re-encoding, just splicing the pieces back together. If you use a NLE like Ulead's VideoStudio 6 you will have to re-encode. One other way (how I do it now) is to load the mpeg into TmpgDvdAuthor. Cut out the scenes you don't want in the edit window and add chapters where desired and then output into dvd ready vob, ifo and bup files. No matter what you do you will have to use a authoring program to place your mpeg in a dvd ready format. The new ac3 plugin for the program works very well for me. Something to think about.

[vljenewein]

Is there someone on the web that does software review for different video programs? It would be nice to see what users felt about Nero Vision 2, or Uleads VideoStudio6, or Mediostreams NeoDVD Plus5. Are there reviews?