Seek advice - best settings to convert from Betamax to DVD

jimwillsher2 · Post by **jimwillsher2** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:38 am

Hi all,

I'm new to DVD Workshop. I've been asked to convert about a dozen Betamax tapes for a friend, anf put them onto DVD. Betamax died a long time ago but he has some videos of kids growing up etc, and wants a copy before his ancient Betamax player packs in.

Can anyone advise me on the best settings, for capture and for burning? At the moment I am capturing at 8000/sec, and in Mpeg Audio, but this only allows around 58 minutes of DVD on a standard 4.7 (4.34) GB disc.

Some of the tapes are 180 minutes, but I am happy to split them if that's the best option.

My questions:

1) What is the best capture setting for recording from a VHS or Betamax video? There seems little point capturing at 8000/sec if 2000/sec would give the same result.

2) Is there any mileage to be gained by using CBR versus VBR? The only advantage I see to CBR is that the "required space" values (when burning0 look semi-sensible, but with VBR they always seem to show the same vaue of 4.0.

3) I seem to have screwed up the "Disc Templates" by playing around with the settings. Is there any way to get them back (I'd like toa void a full reinstall), or would anyone be kind enough to post the settings here?

4) Is there a "fit to DVD" option that I just haven't found yet? I wasted a whole evening yesterday creating an image which DVDWS2 said would be 4.1GB but it ended up as 4.4GB.

Really sorry for asking so many questions. I've tried to run before I can walk with this, as I want to get get the tapes converted as soon as I can, but I seem to be missing some of the fundamentals.

I'm on XP Pro SP2 with DVD Workshop 2 and with the latest patch (2.231?)

All my stuff is PALand I'm capturing to the "default" for PAL (720 x 576 from memory).

Many, many thanks in advance,

Jim

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:48 pm

If you cannot do DL (check if DL plays on the intended player - some don't), I think I'd tend to split 180 min into 2 x ~90 min. 180 min is possible, but the bitrate would be too slow to avoid video quality loss. You will probably find that 5500 kbit/s CBR and DD AC-3 2/0 at 192 kbit/s will work just fine and should give you a margin to play with (NOT a good idea to try and fill a disk to the very edge!).

8000 kbit/s is definitely not a good option because many players cannot handle that from DVD±R disks and there is certainly no quality improvement from an analogue tape source over 6000 or even somewhat less kbit/s. OTOH, 2000 kbit/s will show a distinct quality deterioration.

There is probably no advantage in using VBR from an analogue tape source because the poor signal-to-noise ratio inherent in all such video tapes is too low for the noise not to be assimilated as movement (it is possible to use noise-reduction techniques, but you are talking about very expensive hardware - the software types would degrade the image quality.)

jimwillsher2 · Post by **jimwillsher2** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:35 pm

Hi Devil, many thanks for that. I've just recorded 1H20M at 5500 with 192 audio, and it took 4.0GB which is ideal. The quality does look a bit poor, but I have to remind myself that I'm captuing from Betamax so it will never be great.

ULead totally screwed up on my tonight. ALl was fine until I clicked the "Burn to DVD" button (top button) on the Finish screen. ULead then got stuck in a spin. Even uninstalling and reinstalling didn't cure it. had to format Windows and start again (luckily my "test" install). Hence the delay in my reply to your posting!

One thing which bugs me - when Capturing, I still ahve to specify the input format as 5500. it always defaults to 8000, even though I say to use the Project Template settings. Hmmmm....

Looking good though.

Jim

mji · Post by **mji** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:17 pm

I have captured a lot of Beta to DVD and I have some interesting conclusions.

1) Beta holds up a LOT better than Vhs

2) Still needs a high bit rate to handle picture noise without blocking.

I ended up accepting a limit of 90 minutes on a SL DVD and if possible used 2 pass VBR with TMPGENC.

People forget how good Beta was .

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:55 am

I agree that Betamax is better than VHS but, if the tapes are old, then digitising to MPEG can be a problem. Noise appears as if it was fast movement. While still in analogue, it would be better to incorporate a noise filter. If not, it would be better to use constant bit rate, rather than variable bit rate as this is less sensitive to noise.