Hi-8 Capture

andyjamieson1 · Post by **andyjamieson1** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 12:44 pm

Should I ever get VS9 to work again (that's another topic) what bit rate/settings would I use for best quality transfer of Hi-8 tapes through Sony dv camcorder using S-video connection into camcorder and firewire connection out. I intend to burn onto DVD for watching on TV? I want to maximise time captured on a single dvd without compromising the quality of video.

AMD Athlon 64 3400+
170GB HDD

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 1:03 pm

Provided your connection scheme works and the DV camcorder does the digital conversion for you, there is nothing that you need to set up for capture. You will be transfering, rather than capture, the DV avi stream to your PC. How do you intend to get the sound? SVHS connection only carries the video signal.

Since you intend to get max video quality, please don't try to capture to mpeg, leave the encoding to mpeg to VS after you have done your edits. The bit rate to chose depends entirely on the duration of the video and the type of media used. Coming from an analog source, any bit rate above ~4000 kbps plus 256 kbps for the audio is likely to be a waste of disk space. That should give you 2 hours plus of as good a video quality as can be expected from an analog source (you cannot expect to get better out than what goes in) on a 4.7 Gb DVD blank.

andyjamieson1 · Post by **andyjamieson1** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 1:20 pm

Thanks for that.

I had in mind a figure of 4000 kbps for video as i had seen it mentioned elsewhere regarding normal vhs transfer. My concern was that since it was Hi-8 tape and I was using an s-video conection the bit rate should be higher?

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:05 pm

Hi Andy

Are you saying you have two camcorders one (hi8) connected to a digital camcorder as a throughput to Dv-Out to Firewire.
The footage is transcoded to Dv-Avi in the second camera and can be captured/copied as Dv-Avi. (13Gb per Hour).
Select DV as the capture format.
This should give excellent results, But I think you will need to use the A/V in/out connections rather than S-Video.

As Heinz said capturing to Dv-Avi you have no properties to worry about, no bit rate to select.
After editing you render to Pal-Dvd (mpeg2)

Trevor

andyjamieson1 · Post by **andyjamieson1** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:25 pm

Thanks Trevor,

That is exactly my set up. However I can and have used s-video (assuming it gives me better picture quality, I'm not really sure if it does) as i have a sony cable that connects s-video and composite sound into my sony cradle connection from my old Hi-8 camcorder. Rendering to PAL DVD would that then set the variable bit rate automatically to 8000kbs? If so is that not excessive for what is essentially a Hi-8 source. If not then great I'll do that.

Andy

p.s. It's an academic question at the moment as I still have to get VS9 to work again first. I will try your clean install suggestion this weekend

Thanks again

Andy

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Fri Sep 30, 2005 2:37 pm

Hi Andy

Again for best quality select DV as the Format option and capture to Dv-Avi, that would give you the best possible quality as VS does not have to re-code the footage during capture.

Caputring to Dvd format means that the footage has to be re-coded to Mpeg 2.

Your set up recodes the Hi 8 to Dv-Avi within the second camera only for you to recode the footage again using VS to Dvd.

You can copy the Dv-Avi signal to VS without the additional re-coding.

Rendering later after editing is not done in real time, and will produce better quality.

Trevor