VHS digitization, which filetype for Mac edit in Premiere Pro?

[icebears]

Hello!
I have been reading many posts on this amazing forum over the last few days trying to figure out my best bet for digitizing my vhs collection (and VHS-C, video8, super8). I have come to the conclusion that I need to pay someone to do this as I'm obviously not as tech as the experts. I'm wondering if someone could suggest what file type I should request from the service I use? I have a MacBook pro and will be editing in premiere pro.

I am using cinepost (posthouse.com) for my super8 digitisation and they recommended ProRes file.
I don't know if I can afford them for all of my VHS tapes (and VHS-c, video8) so I am looking for other slightly cheaper options. The ones I have found offer avi, mov, mp4, or H.264 mp4. Is there a big quality difference between .mov and mp4? I also considered just doing straight VHS to DVD and then ripping the video files off to edit from there but have a feeling that is a dumb idea.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated! This forum is such an amazing resource, I just wish I understood more of it!

Last, anyone know if @lordsmurf still offers digitisation services?

Thanks!

[lordsmurf]

Yes, Contact Us about the project.

Mention your forum username.
Request LS.

How many tapes?

What will work best is ProRes422 here as well, and we can provide that output.

H264 is a delivery/output format, you don't want that.
ProRes is an intermediary.

Anybody offering "AVI" or "MP4" or "MOV" are idiots, and you need to especially avoid such services. Why, you ask? MP4, AVI, and MOV are just wrappers. The files can literally contain almost anything, compressed or not, quality or not. By not specifying the exact contents of the container, they have revealed themselves to be low-knowledge users. You want a service that truly knows video, not somebody that knows as much as (or less) than yourself.

VHS to DVD, no TBC/etc between, generally has issues, often major issues. Both quality and even captureability. This would be a mistake. This can work on a narrow type of homemade source, master/1st-gen recordings only (and from higher quality recording deck used, like S-VHS decks).

[themaster1]

Your tapes need a video codec that support:
1: interlacing (that's the way pictures are stored/ displayed for vhs,video8 etc...)
2: intra coded frames only (preferably) = less compressed / bigger files but can be further edited if needed (ads removed, garbage footage etc...)
3: 4.2.2 chroma subsampling (preferably)
Hence, ProRes seems to be just about right

Audio: PCM uncompressed (not mp3, aac or other audio codecs), same reason as for the video: can be further edited if needed without major issues

As far as cheaper option:
The best video codec to date for compressing videos is H265/HEVC (used in 4K blurays), i don't think it support interlacing though

Second best is H264/AVC (it does support interlacing i recall as well as 4.2.2 chroma subsampling), just make sure to ask for all these options to the company an also ask for a high video bitrate (above 10Mbps) otherwise keep your money and stick to plan A (ProRes)