VHS to DVD

[ormonde]

"I just see no reason to dick around with software, codecs, and other crap just to try to get something done that is so easy with a digital cam."

Well, to each (his/her) own. I respect your dedication to quality, but I think "Cost" does come in to play for most people. I did indicate in my earlier post that "I agree with your method if you are dealing with "High Quality" video source material". I certainly would capture in "AVI" if the source video quality is high, but for old VHS tapes where you have so many flaws and artifacts in the source, you won't gain any greater quality in your output to digital. I don't own a camcorder–if I needed to do "High Quality" captures, I would just borrow one (for the particular isolated case in which I might need it) If you already have one, then yes by all means use it (as a pass through for VHS).

[nwg]

I have used my Panasonic E50 DVD RAM recorder to digitise VHS. I then add menus, chapters etc on the computer.

It actually can make the VHS look a bit sharper when done at a good enough quality setting.

[ormonde]

"I have used my Panasonic E50 DVD RAM recorder to digitise VHS."

How much does that machine cost?

[nwg]

How much does that machine cost?

It was £250. I haven't recorded anything onto VHS since.

[troyy01]

The goal, IMO, is to capture at the highest quality you can and edit down from there. You can use encoders and such to process the video to hide some flaws and such, but it is most effective if you have the best source to deal with that you can get. You can only do so much to improve a bad source, so to have the best starting quality you can get is a good idea.

[Quality's Proof]

troyy 01,

It is self-apparent about most of the posters choosing good quality back-ups or none of us would be backing up dvd's to dvd-r's.

There are actually some videos which I might spend several hundred or even a $1.000.00 or more to back-up onto a dvd-r, but such back-ups would be of a "home movie" and not a Hollywood release.

DVDRHELP.com has lots of postings about what you are trying to do and has lots of posts about lossless codecs, etc. But, then, by spending so much money on such expensive equipment, have you searched for a commercial solution which would guarantee you the kind of quality you are after?

@ the very least, such quality as you are attempting, with some freeware, is very time-consuming.

You might be surprised @ the leads dvdrhelp.com has.

[troyy01]

I'm not sure why you are directing me to dvdrhelp.com...I was posting in response to the original poster of this thread to some tips that he asked for. I'm getting pretty much the best quality you can get with the solution I'm currently using, which is a Sony Digital8 camcorder connected via Firewire. I either convert my current Digital8 or my analog 8mm tapes or I use it as a pass-through device for any other video source such as VHS. I have found that the method I'm using is much more effective and gives better quality (and stability) than any capture device for only a couple hundred bucks more, not to mention the other uses it has. I then use Adobe Premiere to edit the videos. I'm not the one that needs the tips, it's some other people here....

[Quality's Proof]

You, me and many others prefer high quality, you may find the best method is to sen the output from your source straight to a standalone dvd recorder for that 700 + lines of resolution. Others do and, it is the best @ quality, unless you want to spend more than a $1,000.00 for hardware, software, etc. and lots of time. If you don't have the correct physical hookups, there are converting devices available that are much cheaper.