Captured the videos, now what's next?
 

Hi all,

Basically I've captured most of my videos now, yet I'm thinking what's the next step? I captured in HuffyUV, and looking at the files they are very large, and as VHS tended to be(30-90gb), there a lot of different scenes/events.

Question:

1. Should I perhaps break up the old files first into small files/scenes/events?
2. And if I use the virtualdub directstream, I assume it's a 1-1 copy with no degradation of quality?
3. Is there a better way than virtualdub directstream if I just want to split up, but not degrade quality?
4. What should I do about the videos where I just want the basic restoration, and then put them into my personal plex library for viewing? Which encoding would be best suited and which program to use(Money not a issue)

I am thinking I keep the orginal small clip files, trim what's not needed and after that I can start looking at restoration of videos.

1. Yes, I would.
2. Yes.
3. No.
4. Plex assumes H.264, and I'd use Hybrid. Deinterlace may be required, testing needed. You'll probably want to resize the video from 720x480 to 640x480 (NTSC, right?)

4) No, PAL :) - Live in Denmark.

Is there some basic restoration that's always needed that can run somewhat automated, or is that usually a bad idea?

PAL 4x3 resize for interlace would be 768x576. You cannot resize the x480/x576 value, or it will break interlace.

PAL resize for deinterlaced is better as 720x540.
NTSC still 640x480.

All video tapes have
- chroma noise - fixed with line TBC in VCR, LSI chipset (for DVD recorders), Camcorder Color Denoise (CCD) filter in VirtualDub (for captures)
- overscan noise - mask with black, 2-pixel increments, and it re-centers remaining image
- grain - generally only a mild NR is used, so as low value Temporal Smoother (VirtualDub)

That ignores all color issues, which all homemade camcorder tapes tend to have.