Capture V/S 8

[paulwho]

Hi there guys,
I'm from Australia & I'm very new at all of this, but I'm trying to understand it. I've been reading comets & questions here as well as looking through the Ulead Video Studio 8 Manuals.
What I'm trying to do is capture some VHS 180 min Analog tapes & Sony 8ml Handycam 90 min tapes to Digital files and then edit them & Burn them down to DVD.
I'm capturing but am I using the right settings ? My finished project when burnt to DVD is of a poor copy of the tapes I captured off. The DVD image is a little fuzzy & when there are panning movements the recording breaks down.
The Captured file looks good but when burnt not so good. Do you loose quality when going from Analog tape to DVD ?
Paulwho.

[Ken Berry]

Can you tell us exactly how you are capturing the analogue video, and what properties is has once captured.

[paulwho]

Can you tell us exactly how you are capturing the analogue video, and what properties is has once captured.

Thanks Ken for your quick reply.
As I'm not in front of my home computer which has all the details you're after, I will be posting this info as soon as I finish work.
Paulwho

[paulwho]

Hi Ken,
You asked for some settings of Capturing & burning.
First of all my O/S is Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2, AMD Sempron 2600, 1.83 GHz, 1.00GB of RAM, 2 x Seagate 80 GB Hard Drive.
Capture Card WinFast TV 2000 XP Expert WDM,
Format:- DVD
Capture Options:- Tick in Capture Audio, Tick in Capture to Library.
File:- uvs 050629-001.MPG
720 x 576, DVD, VBR, 8000kbps.
Composite
16:20:02

Create Disc :- File Size :- 109.5KB (112128bytes)
Version 8

Project Template :- PAL (25fps), MPEG File, 24 Bits, 750 x 576, 25fps, Frame-based.
WinFast TV 2000 XP Expert WDM, LPCM, 4800Hz, 224 kbps, Joint St..
Realtek AC97 Audio.

Output Settings :- Tick in Record Disc, Recording Format :- DVD-Video

Disc Burn :- Drive :- TSSTcorpCD/DVDW TS-H552U US04 (ulead)
Recording Speed :- MAX

Burner Advance Settings :- Tick in Enable buffer underrun protection.

I hope I've got it all for you... paulwho

[paulwho]

Sorry Ken but I forgot to tell you how I was contecting VCR to Computer. I plug a video & a audio lead into back out jacks of the VCR deck & connect the other ends to the internal capture card of the computer.
I also do the same process with the Sony Handycam. Paulwho

[Ken Berry]

Well, the computers are different, but I also use the same capture card as you and have recently been doing some analogue capture from an analogue camera. I have found that using the card's 'DVD - Optimal Quality' setting, I capture lower field first and at 6000 bps. The lower field first was a personal surprise because normally, capture from analogue sources is Upper Field First. But it seems to work. This means that your project template settings would need to be changed. First, it should not be Frame Based but Lower Field First (though you might need to select Upper Field First if the lower one does not produce good results for you). I would also suggest lowering the bitrate to 6000 (or even 4000) bps as 8000 is simply a waste of space with analogue captures. You will not get any better quality past 6000 and 4000 will normally give you quality akin to the original VHS/analogue source.

Good luck!

[paulwho]

Thanks Ken,
Again I'm at work but will put your advice into action as soon as I get home.
Paulwho

[heinz-oz]

Does your digi camcorder have an AV input jack? If it has you may be able to capture your VHS material to either DV tape or, straight through the camera, via firewire connection, into your PC at only slight DV compression. The resulting file is AVI format with very little if any quality loss. These files can easily be edited, manipulated etc. and only after you have finished your editing do you convert them to mpeg for DVD.

Depending on your computer power and any processes running while you capture, the conversion to mpeg on the fly may give you inferior quality. This also depends on the type of encoder your captur card is using.

Sorry, I just re-read your post and realised that your camcorder is analog as well. The above does not apply then.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
VS 8 project settings change to reflect the first clip placed in the timeline.

As your project shows Frame Based I suspect you captured to Frame Based.(not what you want)

Right click the clip in the timeline and select properties, if the ‘video type’ indicates an Mpeg only and does not show a field lower/upper then you have captured to frame based.

Tell us the clip properties.

[paulwho]

Thank you all for helping me out with this problem. I've taken Ken Berry's earler advice in this post and yes I did have it wrong. 6000 kbps & lower Field First did the job.
Paulwho