Capture settings from VHS

StewartTurner · Post by **StewartTurner** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:37 pm

Hello, I haven't visited this forum for a while, it took a while to remember my login!

I've got VS7 which I find mostly adequate for what I use it for.
I'm planning on borrowing a capture card from a friend to capture analogue video from some old VHS tapes.

I've got a fair number of tapes that I'd like to capture before I hand the capture card back so I'd like to keep the disc space to a minimum. I don't want to sacrifice quality too much but being a VHS source I doubt it is worth capturing to 720 lines! Can somebody advise on the settings I should use?

I was surprised that I was unable to find the answer to this by searching the forum.

Kind regards,
Stewart

GuyL · Post by **GuyL** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:10 pm

Here is a great resource for this information:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/cap ... source.htm

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 6:10 pm

I'm planning on borrowing a capture card from a friend...

Borrow his/her capture software too. Analog capture almost always works better when the hardware and software are made to work together. Borrow your friend too!

Analog capture is the trickiest part of digital video, and it would help a lot to have somebody there who knows how to use the particular hardware/software set-up.

Once you have a digital video file, you can use VS7.

I doubt it is worth capturing to 720 lines!

If you are making a DVD, the DVD's resolution will be 720x576 (for PAL video).

FYI - 720 is the horizontal resolution (columns). Vertical resolution is 576 horizontal scan "lines".

If DigitalFAQ.com doesn't answer all of your questions, another place you can learn about capture is VideoHelp.com

StewartTurner · Post by **StewartTurner** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:00 am

Thanks, that's really helpful.
I'll do some tests at capturing at 352 lines and creating a DVD at 720. This should minimise the file size while I'm working on the project.

I'll have a good look at the reference sites you suggested too.

Stewart.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:52 am

Hi

To capture to Mpeg select DVD from the capture format.
I would first estimate the length of each Vhs tape.
To reduce the file size to below 4.3 Gb, I would change the Bitrate to match the length of movie using the options cogwheel.
Using Mpeg audio rather than Lpcm will also help.

As a Guide
You will fit 90 mins to a dvd at 6000kbps
You will fit 120 mins to a dvd at 4000kbps (very good quality Vhs)
You will fit 200 mins to a dvd at 2500kbps

Use a bit rate calculator to estimate this
http://dvd-hq.info/Calculator.html

As a guide read Bit Rates and File Sizes from the link below.

I just ran a test and changing to 352 x 576 frame size made little difference to the file size, which surprised me.
Once I have captured to the correct rate to fit a disc, I would keep the settings through-out the edit to burn a disc.

All the Best

Trevor

StewartTurner · Post by **StewartTurner** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:29 pm

Thanks again.

I should clarify that my reason for wanting to reduce the file size is not because I have a fixed length of film to fit to a DVD, more that I have multiple tapes to capture in one go and limited storage space.

I'm borrowing the capture device so I want to capture all my tapes at once before I start the painfully slow task of editing!

Stewart