Capture setup, workflow validation?
 

Hi everyone,

I have been reviewing this forum and working with Lordsmurf for about a year now. I am just getting around to posting to get some confirmation and validation of my setup and workflow. Goal was to create a setup and workflow to convert client (and personal) analog videos to digital format. Plus, other formats as I receive them.

I do appreciate the help and advice from Lordsmurf along the way especially when it came to the equipment.

Current hardware:

• 4-channel Datavideo TBC-4000 (3 working channels per Lordsmurf)
• Three ATI 600 USB cards from Lordsmurf
• Two A+ S-VHS players with TBC [SR-MV45 and HR-DVS3 (aka SR-VS30)] from Lordsmurf
  
• Two Digital 8 camcorders with TBC
• One 8mm camcorder with TBC (used for mis-aligned tapes)
• Two MiniDV camcorders
• VHS-C tape adapter (use most versus the VHS-C camcorders)

Current capture system:

Dell Optiplex MT Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.9GHz, 4 GB RAM running Windows 7 (no internet)

Will be adding two more machines soon in order to run three individual conversions at the same time.

Analog tape workflow:

• S-VHS VCR with TBC > Datavideo TBC-4000 > ATI 600 USB
• Capture with VirtualDub 1.9 using Huffyuv compression onto removable SSD
• Then on my MAC convert to ProRes (640x480) to be able to edit.
• Edit in Davinci Resolve
  • cleaning up the footage a bit
  • adding a black border to clean up the edges
  • add fade in/out before
  • export as h.264 mp4 for client delivery

Digital tape workflow:

• transfers via FireWire to PC using WinDV
• Edit in Davinci Resolve
  • cleaning up the footage a bit
  • adding a black border to clean up the edges
  • add fade in/out before
  • export as h.264 mp4 for client delivery

Question about resolution - 720x480 or 640x480?

I do capture at full resolution (720x480) but have been delivering 640x480 to the client. Is the workable? Most of my clients are viewing these on their computers or TV via flash drive. Should I just keep it at 720x480 and make sure the pixel ratio is set to 4:3 (rather than 3:2) when converting to ProRes?

Since I don’t do heavy editing I am considering purchasing a separate PC that I can edit the AVI files rather than converting them to edit on a Mac… Probably will just run FilmoraPro. Does this make sense?

Any other advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris