Virgin Analog VHS Home Movie=>DVD Home Movie Requiring He

[zimmebr]

Have very recently acquired Video Studio 9 and Belkin DVD Creator anolog to digital converter, and am all set to start converting my family home movies etc.

Can someone help me with what capture settings I should have, being in PAL land I am assuming that I have 25 frames per second. But other than that is it 720x576? MPeg 1 or 2? etc, etc, etc.

Also if I have the settings as suggested, how many GIG will my avi file take up - eg, will 90 minutes of analog video create a 30 GIG file?

My apologies for the dumb questions.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

[heinz-oz]

If you want to go PAL DVD, the frame size is 720x576, 25 fps, mpeg2.

If you want to edit your videos prior to burning to DVD, I would recommend to capture to DV-AVI but am not sure at all if your Belkin will support that.

A 90 min DV-AVI takes about 20 GB HD space. The size of the mpeg2 file depends on the bit rate settings of your capture. Considering your source is VHS analog, anything above 4500 to 5000 kbps is not going to give you better quality but the file size will get bigger. The audio compression used will also have an influence on file size. Since you are in PAL land, mpeg audio would work but I recommend AC-3 stereo (Dolby Digital).

[zimmebr]

If you want to go PAL DVD, the frame size is 720x576, 25 fps, mpeg2.

If you want to edit your videos prior to burning to DVD, I would recommend to capture to DV-AVI but am not sure at all if your Belkin will support that.

A 90 min DV-AVI takes about 20 GB HD space. The size of the mpeg2 file depends on the bit rate settings of your capture. Considering your source is VHS analog, anything above 4500 to 5000 kbps is not going to give you better quality but the file size will get bigger. The audio compression used will also have an influence on file size. Since you are in PAL land, mpeg audio would work but I recommend AC-3 stereo (Dolby Digital).

Thankyou very much.

[zimmebr]

Am I doing something wrong?...

I've got the frame size as 720x576 and 25 fps, recording to an AVI file, but its using about 1 GIG per minute - ie, 90 min AVI file is ~ 90 GB. This is inconsistant with "Heinz-Oz" earlier reply, making me believe somethings not right.

Other settings include:

COMPRESSION : YUY2
Upper field first

Should I even be saving to an AVI file in the first place? My assumption was that this is best for a VHS analog to digital conversion....

Is there any other particular settings I should check or uncheck etc, etc?

Again, thankyou in advance

[zimmebr]

Further, in all honesty - is it critical to have a frame size of 720x576 for vhs video tape? Is 352 x 288 appropriate, or is there something imbetween to keep the file chewing hard disk space?

Again I apologise for my naivety.

[sjj1805]

zimmebr
Your compression settings are wrong try
DV Video Encoder -- type 1

In fact it doesn't sound like your using ANY compression the file size you mentioned above would be correct for uncompressed video.
If you wish to edit your video then you should be working with AVI not MPEG.
Regards
Steve J

[zimmebr]

zimmebr
Your compression settings are wrong try
DV Video Encoder -- type 1

In fact it doesn't sound like your using ANY compression the file size you mentioned above would be correct for uncompressed video.
If you wish to edit your video then you should be working with AVI not MPEG.
Regards
Steve J

Will this work if I'm capturing Analog video - if so, in what menu do I change the compression settings?

[sjj1805]

Page 55 of the user manual

Analog video
When footage is captured from analog
sources such as VHS, S-VHS, Video-8,
or Hi8 camcorders/VCRs, it is
converted to a digital format that can
be read and stored by the computer.
Before capturing, choose the desired
file format to use for saving the
captured video in the Options Panel’s
Format list.
Click Options then select Capture Options to choose how you
want footage to be captured. (See “Capture Options” on page 158).

Page 56 of the user manual

To specify the type of video source you are capturing from, click
Options then select Video and Audio Capture Property
Settings. In the dialog box that opens, you can customize the
following capture settings:
• In the Source tab, choose whether you are capturing NTSC,
PAL, or SECAM video and select the Input source (Tuner, SVideo,
or Composite).
• In the Color tab, you can fine tune the video source to ensure
good quality captures.
• In the Capture tab, set the frame size and compression
method to use for saving the captured video.
For more information on the dialog box, see “Video and Audio
Capture Property Settings” on page 173.

Regards
Steve J

[zimmebr]

To specify the type of video source you are capturing from, click
Options then select Video and Audio Capture Property
Settings. In the dialog box that opens, you can customize the
following capture settings:
• In the Source tab, choose whether you are capturing NTSC,
PAL, or SECAM video and select the Input source (Tuner, SVideo,
or Composite).
• In the Color tab, you can fine tune the video source to ensure
good quality captures.
• In the Capture tab, set the frame size and compression
method to use for saving the captured video.
For more information on the dialog box, see “Video and Audio
Capture Property Settings” on page 173.

Regards
Steve J[/quote]

When I go to the "Source tab" - it doesn't seem possible to select Input source or TV source - its greyed out (if that makes sense).

[sjj1805]

At the top of the screen select "Tools" then change "Capture plug in"
Not sure which one in the list will work with your device as I use a Hauppauge TV card for my analogue capture and it has its own plug in.

Steve J

[Ken Berry]

With great apologies to my various friends and colleagues who have already answered you, while it is usually important -- as much as possible -- to capture in DV/AVI format, this is not always possible. DV/AVI is the format developed by Microsoft to emulate as far as possible the exact quality of the video on a mini-DV cassette in a digital video camera. It takes about 13 GB per hour of video, and thus is a compressed, but high quality, format. Uncompressed AVI video takes about 5 times as much space as DV/AVI, and as Steve has already said, it seems clear you are capturing in that format. Fine if you have the space, but most people don't. You are capturing from an analogue source with a device which clearly doesn't support DV/AVI. It is really meant to capture in DVD-compatible mpeg-2, and in my humble opinion, that is what you should be doing. And it is what I capture in from my own Winfast DV2000 TV capture card, with considerable success.

There is a widespread debate as to whether or not mpeg-2 is really an editable format, with the prepdonderance of opinion favouring the view that it is not. There are also those, including on this Board, who say that you can capture and edit mpeg-2 as long as you do not render the mpeg-2 too many times. There are also those who argue simply that mpeg-2 is not an editable format at all unless you use a specialist program, such as Womble. I personally tend to the pragmatist view. Where at all possible, I will always capture to DV/AVI. But sometimes, it is just not possible, just as it is not possible to expect people to capture unrompressed AVI and swallow up a hard disk with one analogue tape.

If your computer is up to it and you have the space, capture in mpeg-2 at a relatively high rate of compression -- though with an analogue source, there is probably no point in going any higher than 6000 kbps, and even 4 or 5000 kbps is probably more than enough. If you capture to DVD-compliant mpeg-2, then do your edits, and a final render, possibly using Smart Render, to a final DVD-compliant mpeg-2 (or number of similar files) and burn them to DVD (which then requires no re-rendering), your quality should still remain acceptble. But don't expect miracles. You will never get an end product which is better than the quality of what your put into it.

And the best quality PAL DVD mpeg-2 should definitely be captured, produced and then burned, at 720 x 576, and with your device, using Upper Field First. As noted, the compression should be around 6000 kbps or less, and the audio could be LPCM (large file, high quality) or mpeg layer 2 or, if you have the full version of VS 9, Dolby AC-3. Both of these produce high quality, but much more compressed audio.

[zimmebr]

At the top of the screen select "Tools" then change "Capture plug in"
Not sure which one in the list will work with your device as I use a Hauppauge TV card for my analogue capture and it has its own plug in.

Steve J

Thanks Steve, for your help this evening (local Adelaide, Australia time that is). Unforatunely though, I can't seem to black out those grey boxes which will hopefully lead me to record an AVI file that isn't ~1 GB per minute from my analog VHS using my Belkin DVD Creator USB 2 analog converter. AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!.

I feel like such a dummy in this regard, and am going to bed before getting further frustrated..

If you (or anyone else) have any additional suggestoins that might be helpful I would be most thankful. Either post a reply or email me on brett.zimmermann@au.ey.com

Thanks again.

[GeorgeW]

Further, in all honesty - is it critical to have a frame size of 720x576 for vhs video tape? Is 352 x 288 appropriate, or is there something imbetween to keep the file chewing hard disk space?

Again I apologise for my naivety.

The frame size/resolution does not affect the file size (it's more the bitrate you use for your mpeg's).

However, you might find that capturing VHS material at Half D1 (PAL=352x576) between 4-5mbps is more than enough to produce quality results.

Regards,
George

[sjj1805]

zimmebr
Have a good nights sleep it will probably work in the morning!
Another thing to try...
Did your Belkin DVD Creator anolog to digital converter come with its own capture software?
My Hauppauge TV Card uses WinTV2000 to "turn the computer into a TV"
Part of that software is to record from the TV. It is purpose built for that TV card and so I use that to capture from it. I then use my vsarious Ulead products to edit and create DVD's etc.

A purpose built piece of software for capturing from your device would be the best choice if one is available.

If you cannot capture to AVI (My Hauppauge TV card will not) then as my friends Ken and GeorgeW have stated above, capture to the highest possible settings dependant upon the length of the video and keep editing to a minimum.

[tyamada]

It looks like your device will capture AVI or MPG files. The review didn't give much on file formats, however, if you do capture in AVI then count on having large files. On the menu for the input your device only has one video input so your selections for the other inputs wouldn't be available. Wether you capture AVI or MPG your frame size will make a difference in file size. http://www.laaudiofile.com/usbdvd.html

I just a AVI capture from my ATI All in Wonder Pro card and for 1 minute of video the file size is 1,229,700 MB (NTSC) which is about the same as you get in PAL. There doesn't seem to be a problem with your video capture at all.

It's your choice on which format you use. If you don't plan on doing a lot of editing I would suggest using MPG, it will take a lot less time to create a output file or DVD.

If you do capture AVI then count on hours of rendering to get a DVD compatible file.