DVD Quality

[bkersh1]

I have taken a VHS tape (Barely watched and in very good quality) and loaded it onto my PC as a WAV file and using VS11 I converted it to a MPEG file as well. When i watch either version on my PC, they both look very good in terms of clarity and quality. I then burned a DVD and the quality is not nearly as good. What advice and or recommendations do you have to improve the quality onto a DVD, i.e., settings, using the mpeg or wav, creating a disc image, etc???

Thanks

Bruce

[DVDDoug]

What are the properties of your MPEG file?

Higher bitrate = higher quality = bigger file size = lower compression = less playing time.

Lower bitrate = lower quality = smaller file size = higher compression = more playing time.

If your "original" MPEG is DVD compatible, you can check the box that says Do Not Convert Compliant MPEGs, and the quality won't be affected by DVD authoring/burning.

The general rule is to "compress once" as the final step before "publishing". (This isn't always possible, but it's the ideal.)

Any "real editing", such as transitions or color correction will require the video to be decomrpessed & re-compressed, which means you're getting an additional "lossy" compression step. If you use Smart Render, the video will only be re-encoded where required (i.e. during transitions).

For movie-length programs AC3 audio (compressed) will leave more room for less-compressed, higher quality, video than LPCM audio (uncompressed).

[bkersh1]

As much as i would like to say i understand, you've lost me. My first question is how do i know what the MPEG properties are? If you are referring to the settings i used when i created the video file i used NTSC MPEG2 720x480.

My 2nd question is when is the compression step taking place? Is it when I took the MAV file and created the MPEG? Does that mean if i want the most ideal quality i should reload the VHS tape?

Where do you find the AC3 audio option?

Thanks

[Ron P.]

I think first we need to determine how you got the video from your VHS onto your PC, a USB capture device, a digital camcorder using Pass-through conversion?

I'm not aware that WAV can also contain video. Could it be that you captured it to WMV (Windows Media Video) format? This is a more compressed format than that of MPEG-2.

With the higher compression formats, each time the file is recoded, it looses quality. With your workflow, assuming that you captured to WMV, it needed to be recoded to MPEG-2 to be burned to DVD, thus suffering quality loss. If possible capture or transfer video to your PC to a format that is the least compressed. So if you can not capture to DV (digital video, "avi"), you should capture to DVD Compliant MPEG-2.

The AC-3 audio option can be found on the Compression tab. It is accessed through the Share>Create Video File>Custom settings, choosing MPEG as the file type, and then pressing the Options button. Look at the bottom of the Compression tab for audio settings.

[bkersh1]

My fault, you are absolutely right, the file is a WMV. The way i transferred it was through a little device i bought some time ago made by avermedia, called a EZ DVD Maker. Connected to the computer with a USB and mic plug and to the VHS player using the standard av plugs.

I tried connecting the VHS player to my digital camcorder but for whatever reason I couldn't get it to work. I'm guessing this might be a better way?

How would you transfer the video?

And thank you very much for your help on this. Happens to be my wedding tape which i think we've watched maybe twice and its been 23 years!

[Black Lab]

What I did before I had a camcorder with pass-thru function, I actually connected the VCR out (via the Yellow/Red/White cables) to my camcorder's input and recorded the tape to the cam. Then I transferred the cam's tape to my pc via firewire. Now I know that is supposedly another generational loss, going from the VHS to the camcorder, but I thought the digitized footage actually looked better than the VHS footage.

[Ron P.]

I transfer my VHS tapes using my digital-8 camcorder, a Sony DCR-TRV120. I use a free program called WinDV. I'm not sure it will work with Vista or Win7, as I do all my transfers to my desktop which still runs WinXP. Once you have the video on your pc, you can then insert them into VS for editing.

[Black Lab]

I tried connecting the VHS player to my digital camcorder but for whatever reason I couldn't get it to work.

What kind of camcorder do you have?

[bkersh1]

I have a jvc gr-d750. i also have a sony trv460. Is it simply a matter of connecting the proper wires, then playing the tape on VHS and recording on the camcorder?

[Ron P.]

Yes it really is. You should have with your Sony a cable that has RCA composite connections on one end, and a mini-plug on the other, that plugs into your camcorder.

You may have to play the VHS tape for VS to recognize the connection. There's also a setting found on the Capture tab of the Preferences dialog. You might try to check the box beside Press ok to capture.

[bkersh1]

I may have lost you. Can you tell me what you are connecting with what?

I thought you were explaining how to record the VHS tape onto your camcorder. And then move it onto your PC?

[Ken Berry]

In the simplest terms, you connect the RCA composite plugs to the back of your VCR.

You insert the small stereo plug into the AV-IN socket on either your Digital 8 or mini DV camcorder.

You connect a firewire cable to the small firewire socket on your camcorder (4 pin) to the bigger 6 pin socket in your computer. Capture is via that into your PC. The video merely uses the camcorder as a bridge, and the VHS is not first recorded to the camera. In fact, some camcorders require that you do NOT have a tape inserted for this method to work.

[bkersh1]

Got it. When you do this do I assume you open up VS and capture it there?
And in terms of settings, what would you recommend for best quality?

Lastly, in your opinion, do you think the quality is better (or any different) using the camcorder as the intermediary versus using the analog to digital converter (Avermedia thing) that i have?

Thanks

[Ken Berry]

Using our method, and capturing via VS with the capture format set to DV/AVI, you will get the highest quality video in capture. You do your edits in that same format (DV/AVI). Then when the editing is done, you go to Share > Create Video File > DVD. That will create a DVD-compatible mpeg-2 file.

I am pretty sure that template uses a bitrate of 8000 kbps as default, which is high quality. However, since you are capturing VHS, the capture quality when converted to DVD probably does not merit using a bitrate of much more than 6000 to ensure its highest possible quality (I sometimes use 7000 kbs just to be safe!) So you could also use Share > Create Video File > Custom and make sure it is mpeg-2, but with properties such as Lower Field First, and set the bitrate to 6000 kbps. As for audio, you could choose high quality standard LPCM, but the file that produces is larger than you would get with either Dolby or mpeg layer 2 audio. Those are more compressed formats though still excellent quality.

As for your other question, yes, with your capture set up that way, you could use Video Studio for the capture. But I tend to use WinDV with the same set-up and it works fine too.

[bkersh1]

not sure what i may be doing wrong but a couple of questions. Do you keep the camcorder on and do you keep it in the play or record mode?

Is there any way to capture video like this directly into MPEG format?

What about using windows movie maker for capturing?