So I have decided to restart my project to digitise my VHS tapes before it's too late.
Once again, I have fallen down an information rabbit hole and the worst part is, I am unsure where to start. I have already captured my first VHS tape by following some guides but following guides can only take me so far: doing things blindly without understanding too much is never a good thing. The questions rush into my head and the more I look for answers, the more questions arise. So this is why I am asking here:
1. I've read somewhere that the source (VCR) in OBS should be set to 720x576, while the output file should be 768x576. But then again, I think the guide who mentioned that was about NTSC, while my tapes are PAL. So not sure which option I should choose. I did make two separate short recordings using either options but to be frank, I barely notice a difference. And I am not sure which is the "real" resolution I should be going ahead with.
2. I also want to know more about deinterlacing. I am using OBS to capture (though I hate the UI, some settings have repeating buttons while others are separate from the main preferences page, it's just a mess but I digress), if I right-click on my source, I get the submenu to choose a method of deinterlacing, so I did select Yadif 2x, which produces a buttery smooth video at 50i fps while capturing. If I choose not to use a deinterlacer (because for example I want to use QTGMC at a later point), I get a 25fps interlaced video (even though I have selected 50fps in the output settings of OBS) which then cannot be improved to 50i fps, even if I reload said exported video as a source in a new project and select the same Yadif 2x from the context menu for the source (the same way I captured "correctly").
So: is it better to deinterlace while capturing the video, or do that at a later point, and if it is the latter, how do I get all 50 frames so that movement doesn't seem blurry at the 25fps output? I know that it's not a true 50fps due to how those frames are recorded, but then again it seems Yadif 2x somehow manages to produce a true 50fps clip.
3. After capturing everything recorded on the VHS tape, roughly around two and a half hours, the size is more than 150 GB, which given the fact it is lossless, is understandable. Normally, I want to compress it, but that is not the scope of my third question. Instead, before doing anything to squishing the quality, I want to split the video into several different segments. However, I am not sure what software I can use. I tried a
VEGAS Pro free trial, but it has trouble loading the large file in the first place, giving errors saying it cannot open it.
Normally, I would have more questions once I start post-processing the video, but at this point it is still too early to think of that.
Basically, I want to know whether I should use 768x576 as an output or stick with 720x576; whether I should use deinterlacing during the capturing process or after that (and how to make it true 50fps); and how to trim the video without converting it or compressing it, that is, *before* I start post-processing it.
My setup is nothing special: a JVC HR-V510 and an old PCI TV Tuner card (Terratec Cinergy 600 with a SAA7134 chip) under Windows 10.
