VS only showing 11 minutes of a 6 hour video. What is going on?

[jungleexplorer]

I seem to have the bad luck of finding weird never before heard of glitches in VS. LOL!

Let me give you the details of how I am getting this glitch. I am in the process of converting some old family VHS tapes to digital for archival purposes. I bought a capture device off amazon and it seems to work okay, but the software that came with it is extremely limited and only has the output options of Mpeg or WMV. Since the tapes are already low quality due to age, I want to preserve every bit I can, so I would rather convert to AVI or MP4. My first thought was to capture directly to VS2020 and then output from there, but VS simply will not work with the capture device. So I decided to use a little know function of the VLC media player to capture the video. VLC did a great job and outputs to 720x480 in the MP4 format. The problem is that, VLC does not stop recording when the tape ends. So, unless I sit there watching the computer until the tape ends so I can turn it off, I need to trim the video in PP. Easy right?

Here is where the glitch comes in. Last night I set it to record about midnight and went to sleep. I woke up around 6:00 am and stop the recording. When I play the video in VLC it shows to be over 6 hours long. The same is true for Windows Movie player, and Windows Media Player. The problem comes when I import the video into VS. In VS the video is shown as only being 11 minutes long. When you look at the video properties in Windows is shows it to be 30 fps but VS shows it to be 953 fps.

Windows Properties

VS Properties for same file

Anyway. VS once again coughs up another mystery. Everything else reads the file right, except for VS. Thanks Corel. LOL!

[asik1]

it looks as your file is not indexed correctly.
What mediainfo show?
I'm not at home with all my tools, but you can schedule in win10 VLC to quit.
Or to use virtualdub2 where you can set capture duration.
You can trim the end black with virtualdub2 as well.

https://www.videohelp.com/download/Virt ... _44282.zip

[jungleexplorer]

it looks as your file is not indexed correctly.
What mediainfo show?
I'm not at home with all my tools, but you can schedule in win10 VLC to quit.
Or to use virtualdub2 where you can set capture duration.
You can trim the end black with virtualdub2 as well.

https://www.videohelp.com/download/Virt ... _44282.zip

Thanks. I will look into that. Can you recommend a better software to do this with than VLC. I mean it would be great if VS would do it, but that is a no go. It does not like the digital converter (Video Grabber). I tried OBS, but it was clunky. The software that came with the device is great and super easy to use, it just has the limitation of recording only to Mpeg or WMV. I am not super knowledgeable about the compression algorithms of either, but I feel that MP4 is a much better format to preserve quality and not waste space. What do you say about this?

[lata]

I would try using the device software to capture to Mpeg2
Give it a go to check quality.
Take note of the interlacing which may be “lower field first”
I do not know what options you have regarding capture settings?

By the way if video studio were to recognise your device I believe capture would be limited to mpeg2.

[jungleexplorer]

I would try using the device software to capture to Mpeg2
Give it a go to check quality.
Take note of the interlacing which may be “lower field first”
I do not know what options you have regarding capture settings?

By the way if video studio were to recognize your device I believe capture would be limited to mpeg2.

VS sees the device, but when I try to capture from it VS says "Cannot start capture graph". I got it to work a couple of times but the resulting capture was all garbled. VLC has no trouble capturing from the device, as well as the software that came with the device, which is called Honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE. I tried a program called OBS Studio from OBSproject.com, but could not find a way to set the proper resolution to match the VHS input which is 4:3 and the OBS program would only allow 16:9 which was created a black border on either side of the video.

When I capture video from my 8MM tapes via Firewire, VS has always captured them as AVI files which I have always considered to be something equivalent to RAW with no compression. I could be wrong. I am not very studied in video compression formats.

I have tried using the VHS to DVD software that came with the program to capture and I think the video quality is okay, but the audio is out of sync. It just seems like this is WAY more complicated than it has to be. Maybe I need a different capture card or something.

[Ken Berry]

When I capture video from my 8MM tapes via Firewire, VS has always captured them as AVI files which I have always considered to be something equivalent to RAW with no compression. I could be wrong. I am not very studied in video compression formats.

If you still have your DV capture device and a DV/Firewire card in your computer, that could give you the very best quality capture. DV/AVI is in fact pretty well equivalent to RAW in photos. It is not uncompressed, running at around 13 GB per hour of video as opposed to over 60 GB for uncompressed. But it is lossless -- in other words, you lose no quality when you capture using it. The only thing is that you need to extra space to hold the large captured DV/AVI.

And VS does very well with DV/AVI. It converts it easily to DVD-compatible high quality mpeg-2. You just have to remember that DV/AVI uses Lower Field First and include that in your conversion properties.

Trevor/lata and I both started our digital video lives using DV/AVI and I at least then went on to HDV which also uses Firewire. Not sure about Trevor on that one. And a very handy capture program is called WinDV which allows you give the captured clips their own recognizable names. It splits the incoming video into scenes. It's free and you can download it from http://windv.mourek.cz/ (I remembered that from years ago, but on checking, found that it is indeed correct and still working...) So the idea is to capture in WinDV and then open the files in VS for editing and conversion to mpeg-2. Remember that with DVD's, you get the best quality making one hour or less videos using the high quality setting of a bitrate of 8000 kbps. If you have to make longer videos, you have to lower the bitrate which also lowers the end quality.

[lata]

I used an Ezcap device to capture analogue vs to the pc, I think the same type of device as the Honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE.
To overcome audio issues I could connect the audio cable directly to the main board audio-in rather than using the usb connection.
So the usb device captured video with audio directly from vhs to the sound card.
Of course we have to set the audio source as line-in not usb.

[jungleexplorer]

When I capture video from my 8MM tapes via Firewire, VS has always captured them as AVI files which I have always considered to be something equivalent to RAW with no compression. I could be wrong. I am not very studied in video compression formats.

If you still have your DV capture device and a DV/Firewire card in your computer, that could give you the very best quality capture. DV/AVI is in fact pretty well equivalent to RAW in photos. It is not uncompressed, running at around 13 GB per hour of video as opposed to over 60 GB for uncompressed. But it is lossless -- in other words, you lose no quality when you capture using it. The only thing is that you need to extra space to hold the large captured DV/AVI.

And VS does very well with DV/AVI. It converts it easily to DVD-compatible high quality mpeg-2. You just have to remember that DV/AVI uses Lower Field First and include that in your conversion properties.

Trevor/lata and I both started our digital video lives using DV/AVI and I at least then went on to HDV which also uses Firewire. Not sure about Trevor on that one. And a very handy capture program is called WinDV which allows you give the captured clips their own recognizable names. It splits the incoming video into scenes. It's free and you can download it from http://windv.mourek.cz/ (I remembered that from years ago, but on checking, found that it is indeed correct and still working...) So the idea is to capture in WinDV and then open the files in VS for editing and conversion to mpeg-2. Remember that with DVD's, you get the best quality making one hour or less videos using the high quality setting of a bitrate of 8000 kbps. If you have to make longer videos, you have to lower the bitrate which also lowers the end quality.

Thanks Ken. I tried WinDV out and like VS it sees the capture card, but cannot record from it. I downloaded the free version of Cyberlink PowerDirector and unlike VS it read the VLC created 6 hour video properly, but the audio is out of sync. I have never understood the audio out-of-sync thing. How can the video and the audio tracks be the same length, but the audio be out of sync. It seems like the audio track would have to be longer or shorter. But they are not. The audio and videos tracks start and end at the same point. This is confusing to me.

[jungleexplorer]

I used an Ezcap device to capture analog vs to the pc, I think the same type of device as the Honestech VHS to DVD 3.0 SE.
To overcome audio issues I could connect the audio cable directly to the mainboard audio-in rather than using the usb connection.
So the usb device captured video with audio directly from vhs to the sound card.
Of course we have to set the audio source as line-in not usb.

Thanks lata. I will try that out.

[Ken Berry]

For the record, I wasn't asking about your current capture device, but your original one which originally worked with DV/AVI and Firewire...

[jungleexplorer]

I understood you Ken. My 8mm capture device is simply an 8mm camcorder with a FireWire out port. Works like a charm with VS. My VCR only has RCA out, so I have a digital converter capture card to use with it. Wish it had FireWire

[canuck]

I seem to recall that (many years ago) I used the digital camcorder as a pass-thru device. That is, I connected the output from a VCR or analogue camcorder to the input of the digital camcorder and then used the Firewire output port to capture. This way I was able to capture "analogue video" without having a converter device.

[jungleexplorer]

I seem to recall that (many years ago) I used the digital camcorder as a pass-thru device. That is, I connected the output from a VCR or analogue camcorder to the input of the digital camcorder and then used the Firewire output port to capture. This way I was able to capture "analogue video" without having a converter device.

Hmmm...? Never thought of that. I will see if that is a possibility. I order an RCA to 3.5 Audio splitter to try Lata idea of running the audio through the Line-in port on the PC rather than through the USB converter card. I may try your idea until that gets here. I appreciate the idea. I am having to manually resequence the timing of the audio and the video on the tapes I have already converted and it takes time. The audio track is about 0.05% slower than the video track, but VS only allows speed adjustments of 1%. So about every 20 minutes of video, I have to split the audio and adjust it to line up with the video trap. It's a good thing I can read lips. LOL!

[Ken Berry]

Like canuck, I also used a Sony digicam which could play 8mm tapes and had a mini firewire outwards port. I connected it to my VHS player, I think via RCA, which played the VHS tapes or the original 8mm analogue tapes in the digicam itself (which were better). Playing either directly from, or through, the digicam and capturing in VS (version 7, a long time ago) via Firewire worked well and I never had out of sync problems. Oddly enough, I still have that Sony digicam, though no longer use it.

[jungleexplorer]

Ken. I actually still have my original Sony Video8 Handycam CCD-M8u (first model of Sony 8mm Handycam) that I bought in 1985

I also have the Video8 8mm tape player I bought with it. I can't remember the model number. I used these in the Amazon during the 1980s. Those 8mm tapes hold up much better than VHS tapes. I never used anything but 8mm until digital got good enough to switch over. Unfortunately, not everyone thought like me and now I have a bunch of old archive VHS tapes to convert (just found them in my parent's storage), and, well, let's just say, the quality could be better, a LOT better. But they are still worth preserving. I was sup unit 2:00 am last night working on a tape that I found that I never heard of before. It contained footage of my father's trip through the Sonoran Desert in an old 1970s Ford Bronco. In one part he became stuck in a dry lake bottom he thought he could cross many miles from nowhere. After days of futile effort to get his bronco out, he ran out of water and was facing death. He tore one of the mirrors off the Bronco and began flashing at mountains that were tens of miles away. By some miracle, some native tribal people saw it and came to his rescue with horses and an old tractor. Stuff like this, I cannot lose.