VHS to DVD Advice??

  • Thread starter Thread starter NIALLBRUCE
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NIALLBRUCE

I'd really like to convert around 20 home-videos onto DVD. However, despite
spending hours trying to find info about this on the net, I'm still really
confused.

I am looking for a new PC anyway so would like to take the opportunity to get
the correct hardware for the task. I already have Adobe Premiere on my dad's
computer and could use that on the new one (if that is the best program to
use?).

What graphics card should I use? I am considering buying the ATI All In Wonder
because it apparently has VIVO.

My dad bought a cheap grabber card (£30 from ebuyer) a few months ago for the
job. We also purchased Pinnacle 8. Nonetheless, despite being really easy to
use, Pinnacle crashed frequently and the audio and video were always out of
sync. I believe that this is a common problem with Pinnacle - and ruins what
could be a great piece of software.

I have tried to download the video using the grabber card's own software. This
solved the A/V sync problems but the quality wasn't great, file-sizes were
huge, and I still didn't have my home-videos on DVD.

This morning, I imported the .avi videos made with the grabber card software
into Adobe Premiere. This seems to work ok although the quality is still bad. I
also missed the great scene detect feature found in Pinnacle (although I'm sure
that Premiere must have it somewhere??). I'm going to try to learn how to use
Premiere over the next couple of days!!

In conclusion, how should I transfer the video from the VCR to the PC.
The VCR has scart outlets - can I connect these to the s-video port on the PC??
Is this the best option? My mum really wants the videos transferred (going to
make it her Chirstmas present I think) so I can get some financial backing from
my dad. Is a new VCR with more outlets required??
Which graphics card should I use? I'm going to get a new PC anyway so don't
need to consider any existing components.
What software is required? Adobe Premiere seems to be a complete solution but I
haven't properly looked at it yet. I noticed that the 'capture' window was only
interested in my fire-wire DV source - does that mean that it cannot capture
from an analogue source?? If this is correct, and I have to import the videos
manually using a 3rd party program, can I still use the 'scene detect' mode??

Copying videos from VHS to DVD sounds really easy but I'm having a lot of
difficulties with it. I would be very grateful for any advice!!

Thanks in advance
Niall
 
Ive just done tghis myself. I have a few videos Ive started to move onto
DVD.
I used a Winfast tv2000xp capture card. Using the component video out of the
VCR>to>VideoIn for VIDEO. And StereoOut to LineIn of Soundcard via 2xStero
Component to Single Stereo component cable.
Then the simple Winfast PVR program which does the job quite well. The
crashing you speak of is common - and theres a fix Ive stumbled across. The
crash happens due to codec encode/decode interference. If youve, for
example, got NERO installed - temporarily rename its encoding codecs. more
on that if you want to try this, but it worked for me. Stable as can be now.
I capture straight to Uncompressed files (both audio and video) and let my
dvd-authoring app do the rest. I use Pinnacle Studio 9, btw. With luck, you
should be able to put 2 vhs onto 1 dvd with a small amount of negligable
compression.
 
NIALLBRUCE wrote:

In conclusion, how should I transfer the video from the VCR to the PC.
The VCR has scart outlets - can I connect these to the s-video port on the PC??
Is this the best option? My mum really wants the videos transferred (going to
make it her Chirstmas present I think) so I can get some financial backing from
my dad. Is a new VCR with more outlets required??
Which graphics card should I use? I'm going to get a new PC anyway so don't
need to consider any existing components.
What software is required? Adobe Premiere seems to be a complete solution but I
haven't properly looked at it yet. I noticed that the 'capture' window was only
interested in my fire-wire DV source - does that mean that it cannot capture
from an analogue source?? If this is correct, and I have to import the videos
manually using a 3rd party program, can I still use the 'scene detect' mode??

Copying videos from VHS to DVD sounds really easy but I'm having a lot of
difficulties with it. I would be very grateful for any advice!!

Thanks in advance
Niall
Click to expand...

I'm using an ATI All in Wonder 9600 PRO, doing the capturing with the
ATI TV application. Afterwards I import that .mpg file in Pinnacle
Studio 8. Works great like this, including the scene detection. For one
or another reason, I cannot record directly from the ATI AIW in Studio
8, it has maybe something to do with the WDM driver.

Most probably your VCR is a "normal (not S-VHS)" one, so it has no
S-video output. You will need a scart-to-composite video/audio cable.
Personally I use a Hi-8 videocamera with S-video output, and which I
connect to the pc with a straight S-video and audio cable.

Success!
 
If you have a digital video camera with a firewire connection to your pc,
you can use the video camera to convert the analogue output from the VCR to
digital output on your pc. The nice thing about this approach is that both
the video and sound are converted at the same time and sent to your pc.
Many capture cards only convert the video portion of the analogue signal and
the sound has to be routed through a sound card where it is muxed with the
video afterwards. The big drawback with this approach is that after about
15 minutes the sound is out of sync with the video. If you need to buy a
capture card, make sure that it has inputs for both the sound and the video
and converts both the sound and video at the same time.

My favourite video editing software is Sony's Vegas Movie Studio 4.0. It is
a consumer version of Vegas Video for professionals and has everything that
the home editor could want including a very intuitive interface. It's the
top rated editing software in North America. I tried Adobe Premiere, but
found it a little slow and difficult to learn. It's probably overkill for
what you need.

JK
 
Hello there

I use an all in wonder radeon 7500 to backup vhs tapes:
Format : .vcr better quality
input : composite cable
audio : stereo
size : about 5G for a 2 hours movie
 
I'd really like to convert around 20 home-videos onto DVD. However,
despite spending hours trying to find info about this on the net,
I'm still really confused.
Click to expand...

I just finished doing that exact same thing, about 50 DVDs worth.

To answer one of your questions, the graphics card is irrelevant,
perhaps what you should have said is "what capture device should I use",
which is really a different question.

With regard to the hardware capture aspect, there is one solution that
is so far above every other solution that it's not even a close call.
That solution is to record from or through a Sony Digital-8 Camcorder
with "pass through" A-to-D conversion capability. The camcorder will
then convert the analog video into a "Firewire" digital output. This
feature is present in most, but not all, Sony Digital-8 camcorders (it's
missing from the very low-end models - you can tell if it's present by
whether or not the Digital-8 camcorder can play back analog 8mm and Hi-8
tapes).

With this capability, the camcorder does the A-to-D conversion in either
of two ways: Option 1, you play back an analog 8mm or Hi-8 tape, but it
comes out of the Firewire port as AVI digital. The computer has full
transport control of the camcorder. Option 2, you feed video (S-Video
or just composite, with stereo audio) into the Camcorder's input jacks,
and it comes out as AVI digital in real time through the camcorder's
firewire port (there is no tape of any kind in the camcorder and the
camcorder is not "running" in a mechanical sense). The computer,
obviously, doesn't have transport control of the source.

If you don't have and are unwilling to acquire a Digital-8 camcorder
with this capability (you might be able to borrow or rent one), there
are external devices (both USB and Firewire) that will do the same
thing, but I've never seen one that does it as well, or as
straightforwardly, as a Sony Digital-8 camcorder. Be sure to get a
Firewire or "High Speed" USB 2.0 device if you go this route, because
USB 1.1's bandwidth isn't high enough to even allow a maximum quality
transfer. If you go USB, understand that USB 2.0 does not automatically
mean "High Speed" USB 2.0. And also that transfer speed is, of course,
not a measure of capture quality in any way.

The file sizes will be huge, you will need about 20 gigabytes of hard
drive space to do a one-hour video. Also, the encoding times
(converting uncompressed AVI to MPEG2) can be tremendous (as much as 8
to 16 hours for a one-hour DVD, in some cases with a relatively slow
CPU). This is primarily dependent on the CPU, but it's likely to take
hours no matter what CPU you have.

To get the best quality from very old VHS tapes made in the 1980's (I
was doing dozens and dozens of them), I bought a JVC HR-S9800U S-VHS
VCR. This is an Ultra high-end VCR with a 4 MB digital frame buffer and
digital video signal processing. This VCR has digital time base
correction, digital noise reduction and digital signal processing, and
it's by far the best VCR I've ever used, I have NEVER seen this kind of
picture quality from even an S-VHS VCR before. You can find these and
other similar high-end VCRs with digital TBC and signal processing on
E-Bay, do a search for "digipure", which is JVC's trademark for this
feature (you have to search the body of the auctions, not just the
title). By the way, I've not come across any VHS VCRs by anyone other
than JVC that are this high-end or that have these digital features. In
my case, because of the location of the equipment (different rooms, and
I didn't want to move things around), I actually elected to dub the VHS
tapes to Digital-8 rather than to use the "pass through" feature with
live video. Had the equipment have all been together, I would still
have used the Hi-8 camcorder to do the conversion, but not via an actual
tape dub.

Then, as I previously posted, there are two distinct aspects to
"creating video", they are video editing and DVD authoring.

Video editing is the acquisition of video clips and the assembly of
those clips into what you really want to see as the final product. This
includes trimming the start and end points, order the clips in the
sequence that you want, transitions between the clips, possibly video
adjustments (color, brightness, contrast, etc.), and correspondingly,
all of the things that you can do with audio that plays while the clip
is showing, which might or might not be audio recorded "with the clip"
(that is, it might be the "live" audio, or it might be narration or
background music, or silence). Also, you might want to incorporate
"stills" into the video.

DVD authorship is the creation of a DVD, and that means primarily the
menu structure, the division of the total video project into "chapters",
etc. This includes things like background music, menu "buttons", menu
"backgrounds", etc.

There are some other considerations, things that impact the quality of
the project but not the actual content, for example the encoding rate
when the material is finally encoded into MPEG2 for the burn. If you
use the full DVD encoding rate, you get one hour of video on a DVD, but
if you cut the rate - which cuts the quality - you can get 2 hours; I
found about 80 to 90 minutes on a DVD was as much as I was willing to
tolerate in terms of quality degradation. There are also some other
issues, you can use an MP3 audio track instead of the "standard" DVD
audio track, it gives you more time on the DVD as the audio doesn't take
up as much of the disc but not all players will play it (most will,
however - usually, if they will play MP3 CD's, they will play a DVD with
an MP3 audio track).

Editing and authoring is a very complex subject, and there are literally
hundreds of programs out there. I just finished converting all of our
camcorder movies to DVD, and it was a 60 day project (it was about 50
DVDs, I could only do about one DVD per day). I also "produced" several
DVDs that were not from camcorder tapes at all. I tried about a dozen
products, and the bottom line was that I don't like any of them, and I
ended up using a combination of them.

I have to say, the bulk of the work ended up being done in Pinnacle
Expression, a now discontinued low-end program. I have a love-hate
relationship with this product. It's buggy and flakey as hell, and it
doesn't do much compared to most of the other products that I tried.
But it does everything that you need for most routine videos, and it
does it quickly, easily and efficiently with the shortest learning curve
of any of the products that I tried, if you don't try to go outside of
it's "envelope". As I said, I ended up using it for more than 80% of
what I did, all of it's many warts not withstanding.

Moving up, I have Pinnacle Studio 8 and I used it for several projects.
It's much more capable than Expression, and more stable (but still not
totally stable), however it has a learning curve like Corel Draw or
Photoshop; frankly, it's just a bitch to use unless you are willing to
spend dozens of hours learning to "master" this very complex program.

I tried lots of other programs, Ulead Video Studio, MGI (now Roxio)
Videowave, Ulead DVD Movie Factory and a few others. All had their
strengths, all had lots of weaknesses. One program that worked very
well for certain specific editing tasks was Microsoft's Windows Movie
Maker 2. There were times when I had to do some really gross things,
like create a video clip on the PC, and then send it OUT to a digital
camcorder so that I could "re-import" that same clip in a different
program, because for some reason the clip, created in one program,
couldn't be "read" in another, even though the format was "nominally"
the same. Since it's a digital camcorder, there is no loss of quality,
and Windows Movie Maker, which comes with ME and XP (be sure to get the
free Version 2 upgrade) works very well for this, as well as for some
video editing functions. In this regard, Movie Maker is somewhat like
Pinnacle Expression: Very easy to use, and while far less powerful than
something like Pinnacle studio, it still does "enough" to meet many
user's needs on many projects. But it doesn't do DVD authorship at all,
it merely creates the video, and you still have to use another program
to do the DVD authorship.
 
Thanks for all your advice!! It's extremely helpful!

I've decided to use my canon camcorder for the analogue to digital
conversion. I never thought that it would have the same, if not
better, capture qualities than the sole-purpose products available!

I'm still having problems. The camcorder is only showing a black and
white image from the VCR. I've done some research though and think
that this is the luminance. It seems that not all VCRs are s-video
capable (just my luck!) so I'm going to have to find another in order
to get the chrominance data. The VCR is really old, and I don't to buy
a fancy capture card, so it's not too bad! I'm particularly interested
in those 'digipure' VCRs (will def. look them up!).

It looks like my video capture problems are almost at an end. Everyone
who posted has been a huge help!! Thank you!!!

Niall Bruce
 
From personal experience I can tell you that you are on the right track.
The camcorder is the best device to convert analogue to digital video. Get
yourself a good VCR because the conversion will just capture what comes out
of the VCR, it won't improve it. Garbage in, garbage out as the saying
goes.

JK
 
The very high-end JVC vcr's with "digipure" are the best playback
sources that you can get. I picked up an HR-S9900U on E-Bay, largely
just for my video conversion project (our famly tapes, about 100 hours),
and it is just wonderful. I've NEVER seen such great quality from VHS.
[For those not familiar with these models, they convert the analog
playback video to digital inside the VCR, then do digital signal
processing on it using a 4 megabyte frame buffer (some models have only
a 2 MB buffer). They do electronic time base correction (tbc), dropout
compensation, electronic noise reduction, etc., then convert the signal
back to analog for output as conventional S-Video and composite. These
models, which are all 4-head or 6-head S-VHS models, sold for $500 to
$800 or so new, but can be picked up on E-Bay for half that or less.]

In my case, because the equipment was in different rooms, I dubbed the
output of the 9900U to a Sony digital-8 camcorder, then captured the
now-digital video using firewire. Had the equipment been in the same
room, or had I been willing to move it, the same thing could have been
done without actually copying the analog tape to a digital-8 tape.
 
Have you noticed any degradation of the quality of the images on the tape?
In my case, some of the tapes were over 15 years old and the images had
degraded considerably over the years. Unfortunately there's not much you
can do except play them back on the best equipement you can to ensure that
no more quality is lost. One of the components I use is a SIMA Copymaster
that stabalizes the signals and boosts the weaker analogue signals before
the digital conversion process. It works pretty well. Sounds like you have
the Cadillac of VCR's so that much the same thing is accomplished.

JK

Barry Watzman said:
The very high-end JVC vcr's with "digipure" are the best playback sources
that you can get. I picked up an HR-S9900U on E-Bay, largely just for my
video conversion project (our famly tapes, about 100 hours), and it is
just wonderful. I've NEVER seen such great quality from VHS. [For those
not familiar with these models, they convert the analog playback video to
digital inside the VCR, then do digital signal processing on it using a 4
megabyte frame buffer (some models have only a 2 MB buffer). They do
electronic time base correction (tbc), dropout compensation, electronic
noise reduction, etc., then convert the signal back to analog for output
as conventional S-Video and composite. These models, which are all 4-head
or 6-head S-VHS models, sold for $500 to $800 or so new, but can be picked
up on E-Bay for half that or less.]

In my case, because the equipment was in different rooms, I dubbed the
output of the 9900U to a Sony digital-8 camcorder, then captured the
now-digital video using firewire. Had the equipment been in the same
room, or had I been willing to move it, the same thing could have been
done without actually copying the analog tape to a digital-8 tape.


Niall said:
Thanks for all your advice!! It's extremely helpful!

I've decided to use my canon camcorder for the analogue to digital
conversion. I never thought that it would have the same, if not
better, capture qualities than the sole-purpose products available!

I'm still having problems. The camcorder is only showing a black and
white image from the VCR. I've done some research though and think
that this is the luminance. It seems that not all VCRs are s-video
capable (just my luck!) so I'm going to have to find another in order
to get the chrominance data. The VCR is really old, and I don't to buy
a fancy capture card, so it's not too bad! I'm particularly interested
in those 'digipure' VCRs (will def. look them up!).

It looks like my video capture problems are almost at an end. Everyone
who posted has been a huge help!! Thank you!!!

Niall Bruce
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yes, absolutely, SOME old VHS tapes degrade seriously, while others do
not. The tapes that I am working with are mostly over 15 years old.
This is clearly an issue with the tape oxide itself, different
formulations, some have stood the test of time while others have not.
Nothing you can do about that at this point, really. But the fact that
the tapes do degrade means that if you want to keep these, they need to
be converted from digital to analog ASAP.

[By the way, I made two copies of each DVD, using two different brands
of media, one copy is in a bank safe deposit box, the other is at home.]

John said:
Have you noticed any degradation of the quality of the images on the tape?
In my case, some of the tapes were over 15 years old and the images had
degraded considerably over the years. Unfortunately there's not much you
can do except play them back on the best equipement you can to ensure that
no more quality is lost. One of the components I use is a SIMA Copymaster
that stabalizes the signals and boosts the weaker analogue signals before
the digital conversion process. It works pretty well. Sounds like you have
the Cadillac of VCR's so that much the same thing is accomplished.

JK

The very high-end JVC vcr's with "digipure" are the best playback sources
that you can get. I picked up an HR-S9900U on E-Bay, largely just for my
video conversion project (our famly tapes, about 100 hours), and it is
just wonderful. I've NEVER seen such great quality from VHS. [For those
not familiar with these models, they convert the analog playback video to
digital inside the VCR, then do digital signal processing on it using a 4
megabyte frame buffer (some models have only a 2 MB buffer). They do
electronic time base correction (tbc), dropout compensation, electronic
noise reduction, etc., then convert the signal back to analog for output
as conventional S-Video and composite. These models, which are all 4-head
or 6-head S-VHS models, sold for $500 to $800 or so new, but can be picked
up on E-Bay for half that or less.]

In my case, because the equipment was in different rooms, I dubbed the
output of the 9900U to a Sony digital-8 camcorder, then captured the
now-digital video using firewire. Had the equipment been in the same
room, or had I been willing to move it, the same thing could have been
done without actually copying the analog tape to a digital-8 tape.


Niall Bruce wrote:

Thanks for all your advice!! It's extremely helpful!

I've decided to use my canon camcorder for the analogue to digital
conversion. I never thought that it would have the same, if not
better, capture qualities than the sole-purpose products available!

I'm still having problems. The camcorder is only showing a black and
white image from the VCR. I've done some research though and think
that this is the luminance. It seems that not all VCRs are s-video
capable (just my luck!) so I'm going to have to find another in order
to get the chrominance data. The VCR is really old, and I don't to buy
a fancy capture card, so it's not too bad! I'm particularly interested
in those 'digipure' VCRs (will def. look them up!).

It looks like my video capture problems are almost at an end. Everyone
who posted has been a huge help!! Thank you!!!

Niall Bruce
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I'm making multiple copies myself and giving them to the kids for
Christmas as stocking stuffers. A few years ago I was asked if I had a fire
in the house and only had a few minutes to collect my belongings and leave,
what would I take with me. The answer came to me pretty quickly, my
photographs and video tapes. All the other "stuff" could be replaced.
That's when I decided to digitize my videos and my photos ASAP. They are
the only "things" that I have that are of any real value to me....well,
there are a few papers as well.

JK

Barry Watzman said:
Yes, absolutely, SOME old VHS tapes degrade seriously, while others do
not. The tapes that I am working with are mostly over 15 years old. This
is clearly an issue with the tape oxide itself, different formulations,
some have stood the test of time while others have not. Nothing you can do
about that at this point, really. But the fact that the tapes do degrade
means that if you want to keep these, they need to be converted from
digital to analog ASAP.

[By the way, I made two copies of each DVD, using two different brands of
media, one copy is in a bank safe deposit box, the other is at home.]

John said:
Have you noticed any degradation of the quality of the images on the
tape? In my case, some of the tapes were over 15 years old and the images
had degraded considerably over the years. Unfortunately there's not much
you can do except play them back on the best equipement you can to ensure
that no more quality is lost. One of the components I use is a SIMA
Copymaster that stabalizes the signals and boosts the weaker analogue
signals before the digital conversion process. It works pretty well.
Sounds like you have the Cadillac of VCR's so that much the same thing is
accomplished.

JK

The very high-end JVC vcr's with "digipure" are the best playback sources
that you can get. I picked up an HR-S9900U on E-Bay, largely just for my
video conversion project (our famly tapes, about 100 hours), and it is
just wonderful. I've NEVER seen such great quality from VHS. [For those
not familiar with these models, they convert the analog playback video to
digital inside the VCR, then do digital signal processing on it using a 4
megabyte frame buffer (some models have only a 2 MB buffer). They do
electronic time base correction (tbc), dropout compensation, electronic
noise reduction, etc., then convert the signal back to analog for output
as conventional S-Video and composite. These models, which are all
4-head or 6-head S-VHS models, sold for $500 to $800 or so new, but can
be picked up on E-Bay for half that or less.]

In my case, because the equipment was in different rooms, I dubbed the
output of the 9900U to a Sony digital-8 camcorder, then captured the
now-digital video using firewire. Had the equipment been in the same
room, or had I been willing to move it, the same thing could have been
done without actually copying the analog tape to a digital-8 tape.


Niall Bruce wrote:


Thanks for all your advice!! It's extremely helpful!

I've decided to use my canon camcorder for the analogue to digital
conversion. I never thought that it would have the same, if not
better, capture qualities than the sole-purpose products available!

I'm still having problems. The camcorder is only showing a black and
white image from the VCR. I've done some research though and think
that this is the luminance. It seems that not all VCRs are s-video
capable (just my luck!) so I'm going to have to find another in order
to get the chrominance data. The VCR is really old, and I don't to buy
a fancy capture card, so it's not too bad! I'm particularly interested
in those 'digipure' VCRs (will def. look them up!).

It looks like my video capture problems are almost at an end. Everyone
who posted has been a huge help!! Thank you!!!

Niall Bruce
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
That's good as far as it goes, but once you get them digized, make
copies of the CDs and DVDs and put them in a safe deposit box.
Actually, I've gotten to the point where I'm digitizing absoutely
everything. It's amazing what you can do with scanner that has an
automatic document feeder and Adobe Acrobat (full product, not just the
"reader").


John said:
Yeah, I'm making multiple copies myself and giving them to the kids for
Christmas as stocking stuffers. A few years ago I was asked if I had a fire
in the house and only had a few minutes to collect my belongings and leave,
what would I take with me. The answer came to me pretty quickly, my
photographs and video tapes. All the other "stuff" could be replaced.
That's when I decided to digitize my videos and my photos ASAP. They are
the only "things" that I have that are of any real value to me....well,
there are a few papers as well.

JK

Yes, absolutely, SOME old VHS tapes degrade seriously, while others do
not. The tapes that I am working with are mostly over 15 years old. This
is clearly an issue with the tape oxide itself, different formulations,
some have stood the test of time while others have not. Nothing you can do
about that at this point, really. But the fact that the tapes do degrade
means that if you want to keep these, they need to be converted from
digital to analog ASAP.

[By the way, I made two copies of each DVD, using two different brands of
media, one copy is in a bank safe deposit box, the other is at home.]

John Hall wrote:

Have you noticed any degradation of the quality of the images on the
tape? In my case, some of the tapes were over 15 years old and the images
had degraded considerably over the years. Unfortunately there's not much
you can do except play them back on the best equipement you can to ensure
that no more quality is lost. One of the components I use is a SIMA
Copymaster that stabalizes the signals and boosts the weaker analogue
signals before the digital conversion process. It works pretty well.
Sounds like you have the Cadillac of VCR's so that much the same thing is
accomplished.

JK



The very high-end JVC vcr's with "digipure" are the best playback sources
that you can get. I picked up an HR-S9900U on E-Bay, largely just for my
video conversion project (our famly tapes, about 100 hours), and it is
just wonderful. I've NEVER seen such great quality from VHS. [For those
not familiar with these models, they convert the analog playback video to
digital inside the VCR, then do digital signal processing on it using a 4
megabyte frame buffer (some models have only a 2 MB buffer). They do
electronic time base correction (tbc), dropout compensation, electronic
noise reduction, etc., then convert the signal back to analog for output
as conventional S-Video and composite. These models, which are all
4-head or 6-head S-VHS models, sold for $500 to $800 or so new, but can
be picked up on E-Bay for half that or less.]

In my case, because the equipment was in different rooms, I dubbed the
output of the 9900U to a Sony digital-8 camcorder, then captured the
now-digital video using firewire. Had the equipment been in the same
room, or had I been willing to move it, the same thing could have been
done without actually copying the analog tape to a digital-8 tape.


Niall Bruce wrote:



Thanks for all your advice!! It's extremely helpful!

I've decided to use my canon camcorder for the analogue to digital
conversion. I never thought that it would have the same, if not
better, capture qualities than the sole-purpose products available!

I'm still having problems. The camcorder is only showing a black and
white image from the VCR. I've done some research though and think
that this is the luminance. It seems that not all VCRs are s-video
capable (just my luck!) so I'm going to have to find another in order
to get the chrominance data. The VCR is really old, and I don't to buy
a fancy capture card, so it's not too bad! I'm particularly interested
in those 'digipure' VCRs (will def. look them up!).

It looks like my video capture problems are almost at an end. Everyone
who posted has been a huge help!! Thank you!!!

Niall Bruce
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You're a man of many ideas. I have a scanner and Adobe Acrobat. Good idea
digitizing those documents.

JK

Barry Watzman said:
That's good as far as it goes, but once you get them digized, make copies
of the CDs and DVDs and put them in a safe deposit box. Actually, I've
gotten to the point where I'm digitizing absoutely everything. It's
amazing what you can do with scanner that has an automatic document feeder
and Adobe Acrobat (full product, not just the "reader").


John said:
Yeah, I'm making multiple copies myself and giving them to the kids for
Christmas as stocking stuffers. A few years ago I was asked if I had a
fire in the house and only had a few minutes to collect my belongings and
leave, what would I take with me. The answer came to me pretty quickly,
my photographs and video tapes. All the other "stuff" could be replaced.
That's when I decided to digitize my videos and my photos ASAP. They are
the only "things" that I have that are of any real value to me....well,
there are a few papers as well.

JK

Yes, absolutely, SOME old VHS tapes degrade seriously, while others do
not. The tapes that I am working with are mostly over 15 years old. This
is clearly an issue with the tape oxide itself, different formulations,
some have stood the test of time while others have not. Nothing you can
do about that at this point, really. But the fact that the tapes do
degrade means that if you want to keep these, they need to be converted
from digital to analog ASAP.

[By the way, I made two copies of each DVD, using two different brands of
media, one copy is in a bank safe deposit box, the other is at home.]

John Hall wrote:


Have you noticed any degradation of the quality of the images on the
tape? In my case, some of the tapes were over 15 years old and the
images had degraded considerably over the years. Unfortunately there's
not much you can do except play them back on the best equipement you can
to ensure that no more quality is lost. One of the components I use is
a SIMA Copymaster that stabalizes the signals and boosts the weaker
analogue signals before the digital conversion process. It works pretty
well. Sounds like you have the Cadillac of VCR's so that much the same
thing is accomplished.

JK



The very high-end JVC vcr's with "digipure" are the best playback
sources that you can get. I picked up an HR-S9900U on E-Bay, largely
just for my video conversion project (our famly tapes, about 100
hours), and it is just wonderful. I've NEVER seen such great quality
from VHS. [For those not familiar with these models, they convert the
analog playback video to digital inside the VCR, then do digital signal
processing on it using a 4 megabyte frame buffer (some models have only
a 2 MB buffer). They do electronic time base correction (tbc), dropout
compensation, electronic noise reduction, etc., then convert the signal
back to analog for output as conventional S-Video and composite. These
models, which are all 4-head or 6-head S-VHS models, sold for $500 to
$800 or so new, but can be picked up on E-Bay for half that or less.]

In my case, because the equipment was in different rooms, I dubbed the
output of the 9900U to a Sony digital-8 camcorder, then captured the
now-digital video using firewire. Had the equipment been in the same
room, or had I been willing to move it, the same thing could have been
done without actually copying the analog tape to a digital-8 tape.


Niall Bruce wrote:



Thanks for all your advice!! It's extremely helpful!

I've decided to use my canon camcorder for the analogue to digital
conversion. I never thought that it would have the same, if not
better, capture qualities than the sole-purpose products available!

I'm still having problems. The camcorder is only showing a black and
white image from the VCR. I've done some research though and think
that this is the luminance. It seems that not all VCRs are s-video
capable (just my luck!) so I'm going to have to find another in order
to get the chrominance data. The VCR is really old, and I don't to buy
a fancy capture card, so it's not too bad! I'm particularly interested
in those 'digipure' VCRs (will def. look them up!).

It looks like my video capture problems are almost at an end. Everyone
who posted has been a huge help!! Thank you!!!

Niall Bruce
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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