Hey Guys -
I recently started a project to digitize all of our family's old home movies from various tape formats (mostly VHS). I used the software that came with my hardware to perform the captures and only when ~75% done capturing and exploring filters for post-processing did I come to understand that not only does it seem that I captured at a slightly wrong resolution, but that I captured uncompressed via MP4 where folters may not work as well.
As mentioned above, I'm planning to recapture most which I initially captured anyways as only after playing recently did I find that VHS seemed to default capture to 720x480 in
VirtualDub and mine were captured 640x480. Not a huge difference, but I could tell a difference side by side.
I put the project on pause to research and experimented a bit and now have a few questions, please. Below is a list of the hardware and configurations used for my initial captures followed by the questions. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
Initial Capture Hardware & Configuration
-
Hardware
-
AverMedia ExtremeCap U3 (External USB 3.0)
-
Samsung DVD-VR320 for tape playback -> above device via x3 video component cables & x2 RCA audio
-
Software
- AverMedia RECentral 1.3.0.116
(Came with hardware - Latest version compatible with hardware)
- Windows 10 x64
-
Capture Configuration
- Container: MP4 (H.264+AAC)
(Only option listed in RECentral even after additional codec installation)
- Resolution: 640x480
- Video Bitrate: 6.0Mbps
- Frame Rate: 30
-Audio Bitrate: 192Kbps
- Audio Quality: Average Bitrate
Note: Some of the questions below may/may not be
My Questions
Some questions may not be relevant depending on the answers to others
1. Which Software to Use
Overall, I plan to recapture everything uncompressed then run through filters to get the best possible result for each video. Since uncompressed isn't an option with RECentral, it's out. I'm tested with
VirtualDub, but having a issue (question #3 below). AverMedia offers plugins for Adobe Premiere Pro &
Sony Vegas, but they are from 2014 and couldn't get the plugs to work in the latest Premiere version.
So... Should I use a single software to perform the captures, filtering, and everything else or use different software for each part (capture, filter, etc)? I have access to licenses for both Premiere & Vegas
2. Capture to DVD First?
My VHS Player (
Samsung DVD-VR320) is capable of capturing VHS directly to DVD. Besides ease of use, is there any advantage to doing that then filtering as opposed to capturing using my U3?
3. Restoration / Filtering
I have researched and tried a few different filters (there are so many) and couldn't figure out others like avisyth. I had luck with Neat Video, but it's $75 and know there are free options out there. Most of what I'm trying to clean up are to reduce noise, deinterlace, etc. Attached is a before & after screenshot from one tape after running through Neat Video as an example
(example3.jpg)
4. VirtualDub Capture Issue
Only applies if you think I should use it to capture
After test uncompressed captures, I found that the media was somewhat distorted. I finally saw that they were captured at 50fps which I assume is the culprit. In VirtualDub within the "Capture Pin" settings, the FPS was set to 50fps. If I set this down to 29.970 or 30, I get "Signal out of Range" in my video preview window. The only way to get the video to re-appear is change it back to "50." I've tried all kinds of fixes without luck. Any ideas?
5. Would Different Hardware Make Huge Difference?
I'm not trying to do anything ground breaking nor have a budget for this, but would any of the following potentially make a noticeable improvement?
- Upgrading to better VHS Player
- Cleaning Heads of VHS with cheap cleaning tape from
Amazon (Don't see why they'd be dirty but it has been suggested)
- Upgrading capture hardware
6. Post-Processing
When videos are captured and filtered, I plan to store them on an external HDD and create smaller, lossy versions to host on my Plex server. Should I just use HandBrake for that or an option within the capture software?
That's really about it. Overall, I know the end results aren't going to be 4k and look like they were recorded on today's hardware, but just want something that preserves the media as best possible with what I've got to work with.
Appreciate your help!!