I am having problems with the final product when transfering VHS to DVD. It is a cartoon, and I am getting a lot of motion artifacts. The Original VHS looks great. I need to know what process I should take:
1. Are these motion artifacts occurring because I am capturing straight to MPEG2? What should I capture to first for best quality in the end? AVI, MPEG2?
2. If AVI or MPEG2, what settings?
3. Does Frame-based, first, or second field order make a difference?
Thanks!
Please help get VHS motion artifacts.
Moderator: Ken Berry
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Terry Stetler
- Posts: 973
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:34 pm
- Location: Westland, Michigan USA
1. More likely than not. Realtime software MPEG capture is usually problematic because there is so little time to do proper motion compensation etc., which is why I seldom do it.
Once you have MPEG on the HDD you're then stuck editing in that format. The problem with this is that the MPEG profile used by virtually all software I've seen is Main Profile @ Main Level, which was never intended for editing. It's a distribution format.
As such adding effects, transitions etc. will never deliver the quality of edting in a good AVI codec then encoding the finished product to MPEG.
2. When I capture analog with a device that permits it (it has to be able to capture uncompressed video) I use software MJPeg codecs made by either Pegasus Imaging or Morgan Multimedia.
http://www.pegasusimaging.com/picvideomjpeg.htm
http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/technicalsV3.htm
Both deliver very high quality, are VERY fast and have lots of quality adjustments.
MJPeg (Motion JPeg) was the primary editing codec before DV came along and in most cases it's still a better, higher quality codec because of technical comprimises made when DV was developed. The uppance is that it's an excellent editing format.
Once in the VideoStudio (or MSPro) capture tool you first select the uncompressed mode in the Video Format menu. This is typically listed as YUV (also: UYUV or some other YUV variant) or RGB. Next select and set up the codec in the Compression menu.
Most times the setup just consists of setting a bitrate or quality setting as their other defauls are quite reasonable. For high quality edits I use settings at the high end of the scale (19-20 in PICVideo).
Individual licenses for Morgan run $20 USD while PICVideo runs $28 ($14 for competative upgrades). My personal preference is PICVideo, but in practice few will notice the difference.
3. The field order you use should match that used by your capture device. Some capture card makers document this in the manual, but others have the info on their support site.
In most cases it'll be Lower (also proper for DV) but some devices use Upper. Hardly any use Frame.
Once you have MPEG on the HDD you're then stuck editing in that format. The problem with this is that the MPEG profile used by virtually all software I've seen is Main Profile @ Main Level, which was never intended for editing. It's a distribution format.
As such adding effects, transitions etc. will never deliver the quality of edting in a good AVI codec then encoding the finished product to MPEG.
2. When I capture analog with a device that permits it (it has to be able to capture uncompressed video) I use software MJPeg codecs made by either Pegasus Imaging or Morgan Multimedia.
http://www.pegasusimaging.com/picvideomjpeg.htm
http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/technicalsV3.htm
Both deliver very high quality, are VERY fast and have lots of quality adjustments.
MJPeg (Motion JPeg) was the primary editing codec before DV came along and in most cases it's still a better, higher quality codec because of technical comprimises made when DV was developed. The uppance is that it's an excellent editing format.
Once in the VideoStudio (or MSPro) capture tool you first select the uncompressed mode in the Video Format menu. This is typically listed as YUV (also: UYUV or some other YUV variant) or RGB. Next select and set up the codec in the Compression menu.
Most times the setup just consists of setting a bitrate or quality setting as their other defauls are quite reasonable. For high quality edits I use settings at the high end of the scale (19-20 in PICVideo).
Individual licenses for Morgan run $20 USD while PICVideo runs $28 ($14 for competative upgrades). My personal preference is PICVideo, but in practice few will notice the difference.
3. The field order you use should match that used by your capture device. Some capture card makers document this in the manual, but others have the info on their support site.
In most cases it'll be Lower (also proper for DV) but some devices use Upper. Hardly any use Frame.
Terry Stetler
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mmtbb
Thank you for posting!
I played around a little with AVI's. Still has motion artifacts, which is crazy seeing that in theory capturing High Quality AVI, then giving the computer time to encode would do the trick.
I am surprized nobody jumped in and mentioned the Quality/Speed setting. I increased this to 100% and lost many artifacts, though there are still some.
Also, I have a ATI all-in-wonder card with hardware MPEG encoding. Wouldn't this make capturing with MPEG good?
I played around a little with AVI's. Still has motion artifacts, which is crazy seeing that in theory capturing High Quality AVI, then giving the computer time to encode would do the trick.
I am surprized nobody jumped in and mentioned the Quality/Speed setting. I increased this to 100% and lost many artifacts, though there are still some.
Also, I have a ATI all-in-wonder card with hardware MPEG encoding. Wouldn't this make capturing with MPEG good?
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Terry Stetler
- Posts: 973
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:34 pm
- Location: Westland, Michigan USA
If you have one of the AIW's with the Cobra encoding chip then you're not still not using 100% hardware MPEG encoding. All Cobra does is the DCT/ iDCT processing (discrete cosine transform and inverse DCT), which most codecs use and not just MPEG. In real terms DCT/iDCT are a small part of the whole MPEG encoding process.
ATI claims that Cobra actually takes about 20% or so of the encoding load off the CPU by doing the DCT/iDCT. It's Videosoap filters also help by reducing most noise in the hardware. These should make work easier for the MPEG software encoder, but in my experience nothing is "always" and some sources may well not work as well with Videosoap as others.
The other 80% or so of MPEG encoding is still done in software, which presents the problems noted above. As such the higher the setting you use the more CPU dependent the process is, meaning slower CPU's could drop frames and/or introduce pixelization when stressed.
Older AIW's without the Cobra chip were 100% software encoded.
ATI claims that Cobra actually takes about 20% or so of the encoding load off the CPU by doing the DCT/iDCT. It's Videosoap filters also help by reducing most noise in the hardware. These should make work easier for the MPEG software encoder, but in my experience nothing is "always" and some sources may well not work as well with Videosoap as others.
The other 80% or so of MPEG encoding is still done in software, which presents the problems noted above. As such the higher the setting you use the more CPU dependent the process is, meaning slower CPU's could drop frames and/or introduce pixelization when stressed.
Older AIW's without the Cobra chip were 100% software encoded.
Terry Stetler
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RonCrawford
I had a situation recently where I tried to capture VHS to the computer directly and the result was horrific. I captured some "store bought" VHS tapes and they worked fine. I finally hooked the VHS player to my hi8/beta camcorder and recorded the video to the camcorder. I then played the camcorder and captured that output to the computer. The result worked like a charm.
Hope this helps you!
Ron
Hope this helps you!
Ron
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Terry Stetler
- Posts: 973
- Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:34 pm
- Location: Westland, Michigan USA
Yup....bad sources will play heck with the MPEG encoder which is why I noted this in my comments about Cobras filtering.
Your camcorder cleanup trick probably works because it restores the signals colorburst and synch pulse. Another way to do that is witih a procamp (video processing amplifier) like the Elite Video BVP-4+, but that runs >$700 USD
Your camcorder cleanup trick probably works because it restores the signals colorburst and synch pulse. Another way to do that is witih a procamp (video processing amplifier) like the Elite Video BVP-4+, but that runs >$700 USD
Terry Stetler