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-   -   Satisfied until I watch the vhs original (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/51-satisfied-watch-vhs.html)

Hampton80 05-11-2004 02:43 PM

First off, this is a great service you offer and a wonderful site, so thanks. Hope you can help me out. I’m relatively new to getting serious about vhs to dvd conversion. I’ve been reading posts on vcdhelp.com for about a year waiting for prices to drop a little bit before getting into this hobby – so I’m ready to go!

I am working on converting some family videos taken around the mid-80s to the present and putting them through my AIW Radeon card (purchased about 4 years ago) and creating the best quality dvd I can. I’m pleased with my results when I watch the video on my dvd player until I put in the vhs tape and look at the original tape. The edges seem so much cleaner and crisper on the original and the picture clarity is good. The dvd picture on the other hand seems pixilated around the edges. I can definitely tell a difference between the two pictures. I compare it to the difference between scanning in a picture and comparing it to one taken from a nice digital camera. The image is crisper on the digital picture much like the image produced by the vhs while the scanned picture’s clarity isn’t all there.

So, could you give me some suggestions? Do I need to change my settings? Am I working with low quality hardware (old AIW card, non-svhs)? I’m willing to upgrade if I can reproduce the vhs’s image. Are my expectations too high? Let me know if you need any other info…thanks!

Settings in MMC that meet my liking:
MPEG-2 DVD
720 x 480 (I’ve tried 352 x 480…it might just be me, but it seems like 720 looks a little better)
Encode Interlaced
P frames 2B frames 2 - GOP
VBR Max 4.0 MB/secTarget 3.90 MB/sec Estimation 98
Sharpen 28%

Asus A7V8X motherboard with Athlon XP 2600 processor
512 MB RAM (2700 DDR)
ATI All in Wonder Radeon
NEC 2500 DVD Burner with Nero 9
80 GB Hard Drive (I know, I’ll need a larger one)
Windows 2000 SP4, Direct X 9, MMC 9.0
Sharp VC-H914 Hi-Fi VCR with gold composite cables from Radio Shack
Toshiba SD-3750 DVD player
- JonnyyB

admin 05-12-2004 12:47 AM

Well, I wouldn't sharpen. That'll just bring out noise. Maybe 15% at max if you insist.

Also, check out the capture guides at digitalFAQ.com, the top 4-5 guides that covers the theory and not how to use software.

For 720x480 (which will be overkill for VHS source), use closer to 7.0-9.0 bitrate. For 352x480 use 3.5-5.0 bitrate.

Your setup looks quite good. Nero 6 I think, not 9. And then the AMD would normally concern me, but if the hardware all works, then it's fine. The capture card, VCR and DVD player are all quite nice choices, thing I have too (though models somewhat different).

The pixellation is most definitely a result of inadequte bitrate. I made out a bitrate curve chart (look near bottom of page for images) on this forum in the past few weeks. I'm adding a more complex version to the site guides, but the update is still lcoal on my PC, waiting until it's done before full upload (end of this week I hope).





bigroy 05-12-2004 12:53 AM

I see that you use MMC 9.0. Did you upgrade from the ATI site? Did you have any install problems? My ATI AIW 8500 Radeon card came with MMC 7.6 and I am having problems trying to update.

admin 05-12-2004 01:14 AM

I would still jump onto 8.7 ... I use 8.7 and 8.9.

Installing 8.9 was an adventure nobody should have.


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