Best way to capture VHS to digital on Mac/FCPx?

[sibealhill]

I am very sad that I didn't find this forum earlier when I started my VHS-transfer project. I have already gone out and bought a Mac Pro 2008 (tower), an ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphic card, an ADVC-110, and Final Cut Pro X. Only now am I reading that Mac is not ideal for VHS capturing...

My capturing directly into FCPX is working fine and the quality looks fine to me, though I have nothing to compare it to. But I'm concerned that if I only store it within FCPX, that I may one day run into trouble. I would like to have the raw data stored on external harddisks in a format that I know is good quality and is the best format for later being able to edit. I would also like the projects to be playable on Windows.

In this forum I have read about lossless video codec, Huffyuv, and virtualDub, and I was wondering if these can be used at all with the set-up I have right now, or if it would make a large difference to the quality.

I am willing and considering to recapture all the videos again in another program as a safety back-up (even on windows if necessary) if it doesn't mean that I will have to spend an incredible about of money investing in all new hardware and software.

Is VirtualDub and Huffyuv something I could use easily and inexpensively? On my Windows computer at the moment I only have AVS Video Editor and I don't have much space or a specially good graphic card, but if it came down to it I could invest in a new windows computer if you all really think it would be worth my while. Otherwise I would love any advice you have about how I can optimize the transfer process I am working with now. Thanks!!!

[lordsmurf]

It's not the end of the world. True, yes, DV is lossy. And a Mac workflow is not built for restoring or capturing -- a typical requirement of VHS transfer. But you can often/sometimes/maybe still get passable or even excellent results.

What matters most is your source. Can you attach a tiny under-100mb clip to a post?
Perhaps two samples: best and worst clips.

[sibealhill]

Thanks Lordsmurf for your speedy reply! I'd love to send you a small clip, but am not quite sure how to go about it. I'm guessing I should pull at very short clip into the editor in FCPX and then produce it? Which format would be best?

[msgohan]

I don't think FCPX will smart-render DV.

MPEG Streamclip should be able to cut a sample without re-encoding, if you carefully choose the right options. I think it's "Save" rather than "Export".

http://kb.thayer.dartmouth.edu/artic...peg-streamclip

Then attach to the forum via the Advanced reply form.