best VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Is there a guide around that will lead me through the steps of getting a VHS tape converted into a long playing (120 minutes) NTSC VCD using the KVCD templates.
What I'm looking for is:

What AVI capture program to use

What capture program settings and resolution settings to use

How to get the AVI capture into TMPGEnc for encoding - Do I frame serve or just open up the AVI with TMPGEnc?

Are there any settings in TMPGEnc that have to be made that the KVCD template does not make?

The guides that I've seen deal with ripping DVDs and I'm not interested in that.

Thanks,

Joe

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Hi Joe :D
Use VirtualDub, and capture to AVI with the Huffy CODEC.Capture at least 352x480 Use an AviSynth script to process your captured file. Here's a sample script, which I have included Inverse Telecine, assuming your VHS tapes are movies:


Links to the filters are here: http://www.kvcd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2553
With the settings above, you can use the KVCD 352x240 or KVCD LBR and fit your 120 minute movie on one CD-R. Make sure you use file size prediction: http://www.kvcd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2102

-kwag

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Thanks for that very quick reply!

Question: Is the file size prediction step absolutely necessary to the process? What if my movie is well under the 120 minute length spec?

Thanks again,

Joe

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

You should use file prediction, specially if it is a VHS capture, because the source is much noisier than a DVD. If you don't use prediction, you won't know what the final output file size will be :wink:

-kwag

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Thanks again.

In the Avisynth script that you kindly supplied there are references to a number of "dll" files. Do you know of a place where these files are listed by their file names? I followed the link that you recommended but they seem to be shown by function (which I am not familiar with). For instance, under what function would I find "dustv.dll" ?

Thanks,

Joe

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Hi Joe,

GripFit_preview.dll Houses GripCrop(), GripSize(), and GripBorders()
Dustv5.dll houses PixelDust(), SpaceDust(), FaeryDust(), and GoldDust().
Decomb.dll houses Telecide() and Decimate().
TemporalCleanerOLD.dll houses TemporalCleaner()

-kwag

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Thanks again!

I've tracked down all of the DLLs except:
temporalcleanerold.dll

Can you please point me toward it?

Thanks,

Joe

for all the stuff you need...

http://www.kvcd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2553

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

Thanks,
The name of the zip file that the link leads to had me fooled.


Joe

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

What are the consequences of simply loading the AVI file into TMPGEnc with the KVCD template loaded? Will the MPEG file be bad in some way?
The VHS tapes that I am converting contain old black & white films, if that make a difference.

Thanks,
Joe

KVCD Templates - VHS (TV)
 

Hi,

Is it possible to fit 120 minutes on one CD using the KVCD template when your VHS captures are not movies but rather TV show episodes?

Thanks!

HH

Re: VHS to KVCD Guide?
 

You should process your movies with an .avs script, specially if they are VHS, and use some filtering. Maybe FluxSmooth, SpaceDust, etc.
If they are old b&w tapes, 99.9% they were shot FILM, and you should also "Inverse Telecine". Read about IVTC and the decomb.dll which houses these functions.

-kwag

Re: KVCD Templates - VHS (TV)
 

Yes, but probably only at 352x240(288) with KVCD LBR template. And you also need to "IVTC" just like I posted above for VHS captures :wink:

-kwag

They are TV shows from the 90's, so I am pretty sure they are not film. What are my options as far as non-film goes?

Thanks!

What episodes are they? I do IVTC on my "Stargate SG-1", and those are from the 90's :D

-kwag

It was a short-lived sitcom called "Stark Raving Mad".

What capture fps
 

Since I am capturing films shot at 24 fps that are on a tape that plays at 30 fps (I think?), at what fps should I set my capture software? 24 or 30?

Joe

Hi Joe,

You capture at 29.97. Then you inverse telecine, and encode at 23.976.
Use decomb.dll in a .avs script with the functions Telecide() and Decimate()

-kwag

Why do IVTC instead of capturing at 23.976:

http://www.geocities.com/ksong1222/rmtelecine.htm

Some nice guides:

http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/avtech/

Hi again,

That sounds great, but (and I am still rather new to such advanced video topics) I have been under the impression that if your source is video and not film it has to remain at 29.97, as it was never 23.976 to begin with. Won't that produce questionable results?

Thanks for your assistance!

If your original source is 29.97fps, you have to capture at 29.97fps and also encode at 29.97fps. If the original source is 23.976 (actually 24 FILM ), you still capture at 29.97fps because it has been telecine'd to 29.97fps, but then you Inverse Telecine back to 23.976fps AND encode at 23.976fps.

-kwag

Kwag....I almost got it
 

I have been able to burn a disk that plays in my Apex 1200 player but it is not quite right yet. Here is what happened:

I captured a short clip from an old b&w movie at 352 x 480 AVI. I used AVI_IO and the PicVideo codec.

Using the script that you so kindly supplied earlier in this thread, I frameserved the clip to TMPGEnc 2.510 using the template named KVCD-CQ-352x240-_NTSCFilm_-PLUS. All seemed to go well, no error messages.

I burned with VCDeasy. Again, no errors.

The problem is that the image on the TV screen is compressed horizontally. There is a tall thin image in the center of the screen with a black area on both sides.

When I first loaded the script file into TMPGEnc, the box where the source type is shown said that my clip was 704x480. This seemed strange to me since the clip is 352x480.

Do you have any ideas where I might have strayed.

Thanks,

Joe

Hi Joe,

Something went wrong 8O
Please double check your captured AVI properties and see if it is indeed 352x480. If it is, something bombed in GripCrop that didn't detect the film size of your avi. Maybe a CODEC issue with PicVideo and GripCrop :idea:
Could you capture a small file with Huffy CODEC instead, and open it with your script to see if it sets TMPEG to 352x480 :?:

-kwag

Kwag....I almost got it
 

The media player plays the clip at 352x480 and if I don't frameserve and feed the clip directly to TMPGEnc, it is identified correctly.
I'll try the other codec tonight.

Joe

Huffy didn't fix it
 

Well, I tried capturing with the Huffy codec and I got the same result. Once again, if I load the AVI directly into TMPGEnc it looks right. If I try to frameserve via an AVS file the picture is tall and narrow in the center of the screen. No error messages when opening and processing however.

Some possible causes:

1. What config settings should I use in setting up the Huffy codec?

2. Can you verify the sample script that is in the earlier message of this thread? I did a cut and paste to avoid any typing errors on my part.

3. Perhaps I have a wrong version of one of the dll files that the script calls. Can someone email the known working versions?

My email: joeven@pacbell.net

Thanks,

Joe
PS : Or perhaps I should be using a different KVCD template?

Huffy didn't fix it
 

Would it make sense to remove one of the "GripXXX" parameters from the script? If so, which one?

Thanks,

Joe

GripFit was the problem
 

Some success has been had by removing all references to GripFit in the script file. With GripFit out of the picture TMPGEnc shows the picture sized as it should look .
I took a 10 minute clip and processed it and burned with VCDeasy. The 10 minute clip came out to be a 51 MB MPG file. My Apex 1200 liked the disk and it played fine. I was impressed with the quality of the picture, at least in the old black and white movie that I used.
What am I missing out on by not having GripFit in the mix?

Question: Is there a way for me to capture or process so that the entire captured image is visible on the TV screen. I captured using an unregistered copy of the Picvideo codec and when I watched the disk on my TV so much of the picture was hidden that very little of the PIC watermark was visible. I'm guessing that I need to compress the image a bit and put some black bars on the edges of the picture. How does one do that?

Thanks,
Joe