S-VHS to DVD best quality ?

Tafflad · 22-11-2009

I want to convert S-VHS tapes to DVD.

I have a Panasonic NV-HS800B S-VHS recorder and a Panasonic DMR-E95H DVD Recorder
I do not have a DV Camcorder so can’t use pass through function, therefore the way I am intending to do this is plug my S-VHS Player into my DVD recorder, create DVD RAM discs at maximum record quality and use these discs to get ‘video & audio’ into PC for editing.

Initial task is to get S-VHS tapes onto PC Hard drives (have 2TB Q-Link DNS drive) so no shortage of space

Assume best Hook up will be S-Video lead and separate L+R RCA audio leads between S-VHS deck and DVD recorder.
I also have option for switching S-Video over SCART AV1 but don't see it adds any benefit, as it's same Y/C signal.

Should I record straight to DVD-RAM disk (in DVD recorder) or to the HDD disk in DVD Recorder and then transfer to DVD-RAM ? not sure which is best form Analogue to Digital conversion.

One on PC, probably keep at MPEG2 when I want to do only basic editing (without re-encoding) and convert to AVI files running through Virtual Dub if I need to do any colour correction, de-noise video etc.

Is what I plan logical ? welcome advice.

Also if anybody knows of good (free) packages to colour correct and remove noise (video & audio) let me know, Virtual Dub is very powerful, but not the easiest thing to use.

**olyteddy** · 22-11-2009

AVI DeMux also does filtering, is free and can handle MPEG2 natively.

*midders* · 22-11-2009

For best quality, I would recommend that you purchase a video capture card; however it may not be worth the money for the number of tapes that you want to convert. This would also allow you greater customisation of the capture process (framerates, resolution etc.) to get the best possible result.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tafflad

Also if anybody knows of good (free) packages to colour correct and remove noise (video & audio) let me know, Virtual Dub is very powerful, but not the easiest thing to use.

Yes, VirtualDub is not the easiest to use, but once you get used to it, you'll find it worth the effort and there are lots of guides (and plugins) out there.

It's also worth looking at AviSynth (using DGMPGDec) to frameserve your mpeg2 input to VirtualDub. I prefer this method even though VirtualDubMod supports mpeg2 input and I think it may give slightly better performance. AviSynth can also be complex to get started with, but there is a good Wiki page and again loads of plugins for every occasion.

Visit MYCE's cousins at www.videohelp.com for loads more help on this topic.

Slainte

midders

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Tafflad · 22-11-2009

what does 'Frameserve' mean .. and do I need to take care of this ?

ignore that Q ... just looked it up, I understand now.

*midders* · 22-11-2009

When you re-encode a video stream, such as converting from mpeg2 to divx, the encoder takes as input a series of complete frames as if it were watching the video. A frameserver is a piece of software that builds these complete frames from the compressed input and makes them available to the encoder.

VirtualDubMod acts as its own frameserver for supported files, but can also use AviSynth and this allows you to access the full functionality of AviSynth including, but not limited to: resizing, cropping, adding borders, rotating/flipping, denoising, changing framerate, changing colour space and balance, etc.

Quote:

ignore that Q ... just looked it up, I understand now.

Too late!

Tafflad · 22-11-2009

Thnx ...
If AVIsynth can do all the tuning & tweaking, why would you then use Virtual dub as well ? ... or do you need to use them together ?

**olyteddy** · 22-11-2009

Quote:

If AVIsynth can do all the tuning & tweaking, why would you then use Virtual dub as well ? ... or do you need to use them together ?

The simple answer is AVIsynth is a scripting language of sorts and VirtualDub and AVI DeMux both use a graphical interface.

*midders* · 22-11-2009

You need to use VirtualDubMod (or another encoder) if you want to do anything with the output from AviSynth other than watch it. AviSynth will make your video look how you want it, Vdub will then encode that video to the desired format.

Tafflad · 22-11-2009

OK ... I follow that, I'm reasonably used to using VirtualDub, guess I need to get hold of AVIsynth and start learning a bit about that.

*midders* · 23-11-2009

If you're going to start with your DVD (Mpeg2) video, then a useful utility is DGIndex; check out this guide for the conversion, but use AviSynth in place of VFAPIReader. Sample AviSynth script:

Quote:

loadplugin("D:\avtools\dgmpgdec\DGDecode.dll")
mpeg2source("5mintest.d2v")
crop(0,76,0,-76)
LanczosResize(720,436)

There is also an AVC version of DGindex, DGavcdec which is useful for HD sources.

Tafflad · 23-11-2009

Ok … a slight addition (or change) I noticed that on several posts members were advising that best way to convert VHS to Digital and obtain best you can from the tapes was to use an ADVC-300

As luck would have it there was one on eBay .. so I just picked on up for less that ½ price.

When using one of these, I would feed Audio and S-VHS video (via S-Video) into one side and then it provides me with several output options.
Is it sensible to stick with original plan and feed output into my Panasonic DVD Recorder, and as before then transfer converted digital files to PC using DVD-RAM disks.
(I know that I could also feed direct to PC using ‘FireWire’)

Or now having the ADVC-300 is there a better step ? or different workflow.

**olyteddy** · 23-11-2009

The ADVC will put the vid on your computer directly as a DV format AVI. Much better if you plan to edit or filter. You can keep it in DV until you want to make a DVD out of it. Downside is DV is about 13 GB per hour.

Tafflad · 23-11-2009

I just bought a 2TB Q-LINk DNS box, so plenty of disk space

So to check it's best to 'edit' on the AVI file convert to MPEG2

Once I have finished with edits, tweaks & cleanup ... then convert to MPEG2 and author a DVD?

Does the file arrive in an AVI standard format (720 x 480 ?) or do I have to set the format up in the ADVC-300 options ?

Never done any of this so excuse beginner Q's

I have done some vide post rocessing with Virtual Dub, so have a little experinec with that.

**olyteddy** · 23-11-2009

The main editing advantage of DV is that every frame is an 'I' frame, meaning you can cut on any frame. It is also better supported by editors that have effects such as fades and wipes and titles. As to converting it to MPEG, most authoring programs will handle that quite nicely. I recommend AVS2DVD as it's free and uses the HCEnc encoder.

Tafflad · 26-11-2009

Got my ADVC-300 ,,, arrived today.
A question on Audio hook-up ........... the ADVC-300 has RCA connectors for L&R audio out ...

My PC (Dell 9200) has a 3.5mm stereo 'Audio Line-In' - This is sperate to Mic in ... and manual states it's for connecting VCR etc..
Is this going to be good enough or should I be looking to add a sound card ?

Tafflad · 26-11-2009

Ooops been straightened out on this seems audio is combined with video so won't need separate audio connection.

S-VHS to DVD best quality ?

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