Converting old Video

[DWaldie]

I'm about to start the mammoth task of editing my old movie collection created with a VHS camcorder. I'd really welcome some tips on how to improve the clips before I spend an eternity putting them all together.

I have used the autoexposure and hue/saturation to brighten and colour things up a little. Is there any worthwhile effects I can use to try and improve the apparent "low resolution" of the clips?

[lata]

Hi

The quality of the video should be as good as the VHS tapes, are you saying the captured video is lower quality than the VHS tapes?

What properties did you use to capture the VHS tapes?
If you are intending to create a DVD then i would opt for Mpeg2 with a data rate of 5000kbps ish
This will allow for approximately 2 hours of video, well nearly. so how long are your tapes.

Can you give the properties of the captured video files.?

[DWaldie]

The clips are mpgs which are rips from some old DVDs I created. The original capture was probably no more than 640X480. I can't check the resolution as the (right-click) properties will not list it. Either way, the playback resolution is spoiled by the sort of blockiness you get when using low colour-depth images. It'd this that I would like to get rid of, and it's definitely created by Videostudio. Any help would be great.

[skier-hughes]

How did you rip them?
Your mpegs will be 720x576 or 480 epending on where you are and if you use PAL or NTSC.
At what stage do they become blocky?
After saving to mpeg and making another dvd?
What settings did you use to make this dvd?

[DWaldie]

I've just connected my large screen TV to the computer and the original input (on the old TV card) is the culprit. The quality is poor on the original DVD files. Not that created by VS. I'm now debating whether to buy a new Video-in card.

Thanks for your help.

[canuck]

I've just connected my large screen TV to the computer and the original input (on the old TV card) is the culprit. The quality is poor on the original DVD files. Not that created by VS. I'm now debating whether to buy a new Video-in card.

Thanks for your help.

Your post is confusing. In your first post you said you are converting from VHS now you state that the video on the original DVD is poor quality.

If the source is bad quality then it will look even worse on a large screen TV. A new video card will propably not help.

[skier-hughes]

Canuck is right, once you have poor quality, there is very little you can do to make it good quality, unless you soend a lot of time and patience, and the more you blow it up, the worse it'll get.

[DWaldie]

Apologies for the confusion.

Some years ago I converted some Hi8 video into Mpgs via a cheap and nasty TV card. From these clips I created the DVDs (they were actually SVCDs). As I no longer have said TV card, I ripped the SVCDs to hard disk using DVD:RIP. It is with these files I have created the new project and hence new DVD. The original ripped clips looked OK on my monitor, but once transferred to DVD they looked poor. I now realise the original created Mpgs were of poor quality, and with all the subsequent conversion, they look worse. I have now dug out my old camera and original tapes. As I have no TV card I will need to consider another one. I notice ebay have many USB based input devices. Has anyone tried these? I am reluctant to shell out £100+ for a TV card I will use for about 10 hours of tape.

[canuck]

Apologies for the confusion.

Some years ago I converted some Hi8 video into Mpgs via a cheap and nasty TV card. From these clips I created the DVDs (they were actually SVCDs). As I no longer have said TV card, I ripped the SVCDs to hard disk using DVD:RIP. It is with these files I have created the new project and hence new DVD. The original ripped clips looked OK on my monitor, but once transferred to DVD they looked poor. I now realise the original created Mpgs were of poor quality, and with all the subsequent conversion, they look worse. I have now dug out my old camera and original tapes. As I have no TV card I will need to consider another one. I notice ebay have many USB based input devices. Has anyone tried these? I am reluctant to shell out £100+ for a TV card I will use for about 10 hours of tape.

It has nothing to do with a video card. The SVCD video is not DVD quality video. You will never get back the quality you lost when you converted the orginal VHS video to that low quality video format. In those days of course SVCD may have been the only video format available since it predates "home made" DVDs.

You will need some capture device not necessarily a new video card. Roxio (now part of Corel) has such a product/program. This is the link: http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/creat ... rview.html

[DWaldie]

Thanks canuck. At that price it's going to be worth the effort. I still have the original TV-in card, but Windows 7 will have none of it.

[skier-hughes]

As I see it you have two choices, by a decent capture device, such as one of the canopus grass valley ones, here is the cheapest,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/canopus-ADVC- ... 3a74badceb

Input via your s-video lead from camcorder, don't forget the audio as well, as s-video only takes video signal. S-Video is higher quality than the composite yellow lead.
Connect canopus unit to your pc via firewire, use video studio to capture as dv.avi, edit, make your dvd.
When finished put teh unit back on ebay.
Here's another one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Advanced-Anal ... 2c657116f5

You don't get better quality from moving up the range, just more facilities for inputting and outputting.


Second option is pay someone like me that does this for a living to do your tapes for you, sending them back as dv.avi's or mpegs on a flash disc/dvd's for you to edit and make your dvd. Cost is about £15 per tape, so cheaper to buy something good and do it yourself, but I don't mind extra business

[Ken Berry]

An alternative to the Canopus is to buy a (second hand) Sony Digital 8 camcorder which offers passthrough for both analogue 8mm and Hi8 tapes i.e. it will play both sizes. Those camcorders have Firewire ports and so can be connected direct to your PC's firewire card if it has one. If not, they are cheap these days. But you need to make sure about the Sony model having passthrough as not all of them did. I have a Sony DCR-TRV 480 which does a marvellous job. And capturing and editing in DV/AVI also virtually guarantees as good a quality as possible, given the original quality on the Hi8 tapes...

[canuck]

Isn't there a problem in W7 when capturing with the Firewire ports? Do you not have to reset the drivers to use the "Legacy" drivers?

Here is a link showing the problem and solution" http://www.studio1productions.com/Artic ... wire-1.htm

[skier-hughes]

only with some camcorders or firewire connected peripherals.