Recommendations maximizing capture quality with limited resources
 

I have a few questions about capturing NTSC VHS tapes (around 30-40). Any help would be appreciated. Some tapes were provided from major television broadcasters, others are live recordings from camcorders. A lot of it includes music.

I’m a bit nervous asking here, because I appreciate how much time, effort and funds many of you put into achieving the best quality possible. I know my setup will probably feel like someone running their fingernails on a chalkboard. I’m unfortunately on a bit of a low budget and for now at least, I’m looking to maximize the quality given my budget. If these questions are too basic or if they should be split into multiple posts, please let me know.

My setup:

• VCR: JVC SVHS HR-S2913U with S-Video
• TBC: None
• Converter: Honestech VHS to DVD 5.0 (USB 2.0 VIDBOX NW03)
• Machine: Windows 10 21H1. Intel i5-4570. 16GB RAM. SSD HD. Intel HD Graphics 4600. I kill as many tasks as possible when doing the capture.
• Capture Software: VirtualDub 64-bit
• Compression: Lagarith lossless v1.3.27
• De-interlacing (for internet): VirtualDub yadif + Double frame rate. But I plan to try QTGMC + Hybrid as per this post

From reading here, I now know my Honestech isn’t the best the device. Easycrap, if I’m not mistaken.

I also borrowed a Roxio VHS to DVD 3 and its quality via Virtual Dub was worse than Honestech. From reading, I see it was an embarrassing newbie trial :)

I’m in Canada. My budget is around $150.

I might be willing to buy/resell a high-end VCR, but there aren’t any of the recommended VCRs for sale in my area. (http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...ing-guide.html). And shipping/duty from the US kills resale on ebay ones.

Back in 2005, I borrowed a VHS/DVD recorder unit and converted many of these VHS tapes to DVD. I believe the unit was a Pioneer, but I don’t know the model. I’ve copied the .VOB files from the DVDs to my computer. MediaInfo says 704x480, 29.97fps (interlaced), MPEG, CustomMatrix/BVOP, audio 256 kb/s AC-3. I can convert these to mp4 using Handbrake. VirtualDub won’t work with a .VOB.

My questions:

1. Does it matter if I plug my Honestech converter/capture device into a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port?
   
2. Could my current setup yield better results than the DVDs I captured in 2005? Or is it hard to say without knowing the model of my 2005 recorder.
   
3. I noticed the VOBs from DVD are 704x480. I’ve been capturing AVIs in VirtualDub at 720x480. Would it be better to capture at 704x480?
   
4. When converting my 2005 DVD footage to mp4 using handbrake, do both of the following yield the same quality? Or is one better than the other?
   (1) Converting directly from the DVD vs
   (2) Copying the .VOB from the DVD to computer and converting on the computer.
   
5. With a budget around $150, would a Pinnacle USB for Win 10 (for sale by lordsmurf) make a difference even without a better VCR or TBC? http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/mark...ati-600-a.html .
   

Thanks again for any help!

I wouldn't convert your VOBs/MPEGs if you are playing them on your computer or on your smart TV. Disk space is cheap, and a conversion to MP4 is another re-encode which will (maybe you won't notice :wink2:) reduce quality.

If you do convert them to MP4s, it won't matter if you use the DVD itself if Handbrake will read the disk. I would prefer to bring them onto a hard drive though as one MPEG, then convert. To get your DVDs into MPEG format, there are various options/apps about but I use DVDVOB2MPEG.

Comments on the other points:
If your capture software can see your capture stick ok on the USB 3 port, I would say not.

The generally-accepted wisdom is that a direct DVD transfer is not as good as a lossless capture with post-processing. The only way to really know is to compare. You may find the good tapes don't need much work and that the earlier DVD copies (converted into MPEG 2) are fine for your purposes, so you don't have to go through the rigmarole of lossless capturing and post-processing.

IMO the biggest upgrade would be investing in a dvd-recorder for passing the video through for stabilization. Most commonly used one is the Panasonic DMR-ES10 and ES15 (I think the Canadian variant of it is ES16). The difference should be quite notable. There are some other alternatives though if those are hard to come by. That will give a much larger quality bump than swapping out the capture card. As long as the capture card is somewhat decent (i.e not $5 ezcap clone) the quality differences between capture cards from a stable output like the DVD-recorder are quite small. (direct from vcr there's more difference which may explain the result you got with the Roxio.)

As for the older dvd transfer it's hard to say without knowing what dvd-recorder you used and what bitrate/quality level they were recorded at. The later pioneer models have pretty decent tbc/stabilization functionality (though not as good as the panasonic ones), and as far as I know a middle of the road mpeg2 encoder. The earliest ones were not so great. There is only like one or two VHS/DVDrecorder combo decks and they're quite rare so I don't know how those perform, though I the digitizing part would be similar to the standalone variants as afair they used similar hardware.

An equivalent lossless capture will always be preferable of course, though dvd-recorders tend to also do a better job at stabilizing the video (hence people use some simply by passing the video through.), than a capture card on it's own so it depends.

Don't forget free: you can always store the tapes a while longer until more resources become available. Vertically oriented, non-rewinded in a non-humid dry safe dust-free environment. :2cents:

My budget was less than yours, but I waited. I got a great deal on an ATI AIW AGP card on eBay, and then about a year later, a low mileage Panasonic Pro VCR at my school. Already had the Windows XP PC. My output is DVD, already had the burner & software for that as well.

In between I was capturing Video8 with an existing camera. I waited on capturing VHS until obtaining the right VCR because I know the tapes would need a quality VCR to capture (even though I had other VCRs) and that some tapes degrade a little each time they're played.

The camcorder tapes can have a strong signal, and on a good, working, quality VCR to a good quality capture device not need a line and/or frame tbc, ymmv. Anything recorded from OTA or dubbed tapes will need tbc or passthrough to correct the instability. I don't know about the broadcast tapes, those sound intriguing - I wonder if those have a really good signal on them.

Sounds like you know what you're doing based on your list. :congrats:

@Hushpower, thank for the suggestion of DVDVOB2MPEG. My VOBs don't play well in VLC media player, so thanks to your input, I now realize it would be better to convert to MPEG instead of MP4. Thank you!

I'm also considering getting a Pinnacle 710 like you picked up last year.

@hodgey Thank you for this suggestion. I'm going to look for the Panasonic!

I've seen posts from LS that Honestech uses low-end hardware similar to easycap, so I'm considering upgrading the capture card too.

The bitrates of the VOBs seem to vary, but seem high to me. 1597 Mb/s, 106 Mb/s, 610 Mb/s, 244 Mb/s, 309 Mb/s, 129 Mb/s, 429 Mb/s, 189 Mb/s. But yeah, that's about all I know unfortunately.

The Honestech NW03 is according to linuxtv wiki Empia + SAA7113H video decoder - afaik that setup is similar to older versions of the pinnacle dazzle (DVC90 DVC100 etc) and various other brand name usb dongles from the early 2010s, not what the easycap ones used. There are some comparisons between a DVC100 and hte pinnacle 710 in this thread. (Granted there may be some differeces between the honestech and dazzle both hardware-wise and driver-wise so YMMV.)

Thanks for this. Interesting! Sounds like my converter device may be "right on the edge in not-bad territory". lol. :laugh:

I noticed in a Post by LS that for the Pinnacle 710 it is recommended to use LS's setup for VirtualDub (and not VirtualDub2). If I stick with my Honestech device, is it best that I use LS's VirtualDub?

Never mind... I found my answer:

I thought I'd follow up on this. Definitely appreciated the input. In my case, using the Pinnacle 710 USB capture device made a big difference when capturing with VirtualDub, both in audio quality and video quality. The Pinnacle 710 USB is one that LordSmurf approves of for Windows 10: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/mark...ati-600-a.html

The DMR-ES15 provides an improvement with tearing, but it does change the colour, as described here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...#ixzz7BLqLo4Hb