Which is the best resolution and bitrate for capturing VHS t

[paparazzo79]

I'm using Ulead DVD Movie Factory 3.0 for capturing my old VHS tapes onto DVD with my older KWorld TV Card.Maybe it's not a good idea to capture directly to MPEG-2 format.I've noticed when I capture in high resolutions over 352x576 I see artifacts of compresion (little squares when camera suddenly changes frames on tape).As far I got it, the best resolution is 352x288 but when I play made DVD onto my large TV the picture doesn't look near to the original picture on VHS tape.Dunno what else could I try?I'm liitle disapointed.I know many of you will tell me to capture onto uncompressed AVI but it will take much space on my drive.Thx!!

[DVDDoug]

Maybe it's not a good idea to capture directly to MPEG-2 format.

Right!!!!* AVI/DV is about 13GB per hour. AVI/DV is somewhat compressed, but it's usually the best compromise.

....the best resolution is 352x288

You really need 720 x 480 for DVD (720x576 if you're in PAL land).

When you convert it to MPEG, you generally want to use the highest bitrate possible that still allows your program to fit on a DVD.

The maximum bitrate for a DVD is about 10,000kbps (audio & video combined). Most people recommend keeping it down to 8,000 for "burned" DVDs, because some players have trouble with high bitrates on burned DVDs.

At 6,000kbps you can get 90 minutes of good quality audio and Dolby audio. (A lot of commercial DVDs seem to be recorded around 6000.) You have to use a lower bitrate to get 90 minutes with LPCM audio. When I've squeezed more than 2 hours of video on a DVD, I really start to nitice the quality-loss.

Here's a Bitrate Calculator.

Here are the DVD resolution & bitrate specs. (It says 352x288 is allowed for PAL, but that's 1/4 of the pixels you get with 720x576.)

...when I play made DVD onto my large TV the picture doesn't look near to the original picture on VHS tape.

To some extent, this is always true. Although a "DVD quality" MPEG is "better" than a VHS tape, they have different weaknesses. And, the video on the DVD has to go through an analog-to-digital conversion, and then a digital-to-analog conversion when it's played-back. These conversions are not are perfect. That said, I've generally been satisfied with the results.


* This is especially true if you want to edit your video. MPEGs are not meant to be edited, and you can get some nasty problems if you try.

[paparazzo79]

You haven't still answered on my question,is it better to capture VHS on lower or higher resolution and which bitrate should I use??My tv card is quite old and on some old manual I found that it only supports capturing in uncompressed AVI format.I've used UDMF 3.0 and the largest video data rate I can get with 384x288 using custom MPG capture is 2209Kbps.When I switch to higher resolution I'm havin problems with missing frames.Dunno if it's malfunction of my tv card,don't think so,coz it happens rarely, or something else.My configuration is AMD Athlon 2000+XP 768MB of DDR RAM,120GB HDD,I'm capturing directly to MPG-2 on my third partition with 20GB of free space(50% of partition).Why am I missing frames on larger resolutions then 352x576 I dunno.

[maddrummer3301]

Hi,
I don't think your capture card is cutting it.
It's similiar to my old Matrox card. Nice for making VCD's (Video CD's).

For the best transfer to view on a large screen TV you would want to capture full D1 which for PAL would be framesize of 720x576.
Everyone has different opionions on the video bit rate.
The higher the bit-rate the better the quality.

But, some users say to capture Half D1 which I think for PAL is 352 x 576 framesize. You need a descent capture card usually with hardware compression built into the card to do that with good results.

I think you will have to decide on purchasing a better capturing card. Because your processor is a 2000 and unless your upgrading your machine then I would suggest a capture device that has hardware compression built into the capturing card.

All my captures for VHS transfer to DVD are:
FULL D1 720x480 (ntsc), 720x576(pal).
Variable bit rate 7000 - 8000 ( I also use Constant Bit Rate alot)
Mpeg or Dolby Audio

Hope this helps,

MD