#1  
10-25-2011, 08:11 PM
carlthulhu carlthulhu is offline
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Hi,

I have a large collection of live concert VHS tapes that I want to transfer to DVD. The quality of the audio transfer is just as important as the video quality.

I'm looking for A/D transfer card & software recommendations.

I have a Mac Pro desktop running 10.6.8, with dual 2.66 GHz Dual Core Xeon processors.
13 GB of RAM 667 MHz
More than enough hard drive space.

I have Adobe Premiere Pro editing software.

I bought the Canopus ADVC-55, but haven't opened it yet.

I read this link

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ti-wonder.html

and now am considering this instead of the Canopus:

Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI/analog PCIe capture card

Is this card compatible with my Mac?

Is there a better option? I want to use S-VHS, and read that some folks had trouble with this on this card.

Can Premiere Pro be used to capture as well as edit?

Can this also master to Blu Ray DVD, for better sound resolution (maybe 24bit 48MHz)?

What codec is best, MPEG-2?

Thanks in advance,

Carl
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  #2  
10-27-2011, 01:13 AM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carlthulhu View Post
Hi,I have a large collection of live concert VHS tapes that I want to transfer to DVD.
Nothing unusual, standard home enthusiast type project.

Quote:
The quality of the audio transfer is just as important as the video quality.
Tip: Buy a good mixer. I suggest the Behringer Xenyx.
Very cheap, $49 + free shipping, from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B000J5XS3C
The EQ and gain is quite helpful. Add this between VCR and capture card.

Quote:
I'm looking for A/D transfer card & software recommendations.
Let's see what I can do to help...

Quote:
I have a Mac Pro desktop running 10.6.8, with dual 2.66 GHz Dual Core Xeon processors.
13 GB of RAM 667 MHz
More than enough hard drive space.
Yep, system specs look fine to me.

Quote:
I have Adobe Premiere Pro editing software.
Excellent choice.

Quote:
I bought the Canopus ADVC-55, but haven't opened it yet.
Eh ... it's a DV box. Nothing special. It can convert video, with expected 4:1:1 (assuming NTSC) colorspace loss.
Not horrible, but not great.

Quote:
I read this link http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ti-wonder.html and now am considering this instead of the Canopus: Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI/analog PCIe capture card
Is this card compatible with my Mac?
Yep.
And if you don't want to believe me, get it from the horse's mouth: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/

Quote:
Is there a better option? I want to use S-VHS, and read that some folks had trouble with this on this card.
I'd have to see specific complaints. Most often, video hardware complaints are PEBKAC or ID10T errors, aka user error. This is assuming it's known-good hardware, of course. There's quite a bit of not-good hardware out there. The Canopus boxes being somewhere between "not good" and "not worth discussing".

Quote:
Can Premiere Pro be used to capture as well as edit?
On a Mac, yes.

Quote:
Can this also master to Blu Ray DVD, for better sound resolution (maybe 24bit 48MHz)?
No, there's no point. You won't get better sound off a tape. And then video will look better non-upscaled (via software). Leave it as 720x480 max resolution. At best, encode to H.264 instead of MPEG-2. But even that's moot, assuming high MPEG-2 bitrates.

Quote:
What codec is best, MPEG-2?
You're really limited by the Blu-ray and DVD specs, as well as software used to author either format. Premiere is just an editor -- it won't do the authoring portion of your project. Put any thought into what you'll be using to edit yet?

Quote:
Thanks in advance, Carl
Glad to help. Welcome to the site.

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  #3  
10-27-2011, 06:09 AM
carlthulhu carlthulhu is offline
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Thanks for the tip on the mixer, it gets great reviews for low dough.

Regarding the Black Magic card and difficulty with S-VHS, this is from Amazon:

"4.0 out of 5 stars Good for most video, February 22, 2011
By JF - See all my reviews

Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI Editing Card with PCI Express
I use the Black Magic Design Intensity Pro to capture analog footage, mostly component video. That and composite work very well and I am please with the results. The included S-Video adapter gave diagonal "scan" lines waving across the footage. It was not terrible but definitely noticeable. However, I do not use S-Video much (or at all anymore to be honest) so for my purposes it is very good."

I'd like to use the S-VHS input, have you heard of this problem elsewhere?

Is there a better option than the Black Magic?

Regarding the codec, if I master to blu-ray I use H.264 encoding, and if I master for DVD I use MPEG-2, is that right?

You mention using a high bitrate for the transfer, what bitrate would you recommend?

My Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 comes bundled with Adobe Encore for authoring.

How necessary is a TBC? Assuming that the VHS tracks properly, can the Adobe software provide equivalent adjustments to color and contrast in post-processing?

Thanks for the help, great site!

Carl

Last edited by carlthulhu; 10-27-2011 at 06:22 AM.
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  #4  
10-31-2011, 09:25 AM
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Quote:
I'd like to use the S-VHS input, have you heard of this problem elsewhere?
Not yet, no.
The person with the problem is describing a power related issue -- meaning it's in their house or computer. Herringbone noise.

Quote:
Is there a better option than the Black Magic?
If you're making high quality standard definition MPEG-2 video, then an ATI 600 card or ATI AIW card would be excellent.
It's all mentioned here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ti-wonder.html

Quote:
Regarding the codec, if I master to blu-ray I use H.264 encoding, and if I master for DVD I use MPEG-2, is that right?
DVD = MPEG-2 only
Blu-ray = MPEG-2 or H.264 (AVC and AVCHD, actually, special subsets of H.264 parameters)

Quote:
You mention using a high bitrate for the transfer, what bitrate would you recommend?
A high bitrate MPEG-2 could be anything from 10Mbps (10000kbps) for cartoons, to 20-25Mbps for live action footage.
For something as dark and shaky as concert footage, I'd go up to 30-35Mbps.

Quote:
How necessary is a TBC?
Assuming that the VHS tracks properly, can the Adobe software provide equivalent adjustments to color and contrast in post-processing?
Adobe part of question: No.
Read what a TBC does here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...time-base.html

Not having an external TBC means your capture card cannot lock onto a signal. No locked signal, no capture. Or a lousy capture.
You want a TBC if you want a problem-free experience, and care about quality of the video.
Ideally you want a TBC in the VCR to clean the image, and the external TBC to purify the signal.

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