PAL tapes to MPEG2 DVD and x264 MPEG4 - Suggestions?

[bithog1]

Lordsmurf,

Firstly, thanks for all your posts over the years on all things video. Invaluable and so helpful!

I am planning a project to capture hundreds of family video tapes and would appreciate your advice confirming a practical and efficient workflow before beginning. I've read heaps but am mindful that lots of articles/posts are pre 2005 when storage and CPU power was lesser and lots more expensive. So trying to work out what I should be considering now.

I know this is a BIG question I am asking so am happy for you to point me to most recent articles or resources that may be relevant. I've paid for premium subscription but acknowledge that's a pittance for good advice.

Objective:
To capture mostly PAL VHS, VHS-C, Hi8 and a few standard 8 videos. (Mostly mixed family home movies, i.e. birthdays, sports, Xmas etc.
1. Copy to MPEG2 for burning on DVDs
2. Convert using x264 to MPEG4s - possibly stream in future to iPad etc.
Most will be stored on my big NAS (15TB in Raidz2 ZFS system).

Equipment:
I have acquired and been experimenting with the following:
1. Canopus ADVC 300
2. JVC HR J777MS VTR (I got two - playback looks fine).
3. Lenovo Laptop with Intel Core 2 CPU, 2GB, 60GB HDD and firewire, GBit NIC
4. 2 i7 2600K with 8GB RAM 1TB RAID0 and HD7950
5. GBit network
6. NAS - 15TB in Raidz2 ZFS system
7. Primera Bravo Pro I burner

Software:
1. WinDV to capture AVIs on Lenovo laptop to
2. VirtualDub and AviSynth
3. Premiere Elements 11
4. Handbrake
5. Sorenson Squeeze 8.5
6. PTPublisher (DVD burning)

Assumption:
1. Capture in AVI.
2. Process in AVI.
3. Only convert to MPEG2 or 4 when happy with the final AVI.
4. The above assumptions will be faster/better quality.

Approach:
1. Balance quality with labour (my time).
2. If it requires too much of my effort will never happen and will eventually loose our presciou tapes).
3. Identify innovative balanced options.
4. If I can do a few tapes a day, a couple of days per week, spending a few hours a week labour it'll get done.

Budget:
1. Modest.

Questions:
1. I'm generally happy with the quality of my JVC VTR and the Canopus. Considering how poor most tapes are seems overkill to seek higher quality hardware. Would you agree?

2. What in your view is a practical workflow using above hardware/software.

3. What set of filters should I apply to all captured tapes. i.e. deinterlace, noise, deshake, etc

4. Do you know of any software to manage automated DVD burning using a Primera Bravo I (just inherited this from a friends office and looks pretty good - not had time to play with it).

5. Any other workflows out there I can look at for reference?

I've read lots of material on the net but given we now have really fast i7s and huge storage available new solutions are no doubt superior now.

Thanks in advance.

Bithog

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[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bithog1

Lordsmurf,
Firstly, thanks for all your posts over the years on all things video. Invaluable and so helpful!

Thanks.

Quote:

I've read heaps but am mindful that lots of articles/posts are pre 2005 when storage and CPU power was lesser and lots more expensive. So trying to work out what I should be considering now.

When it comes to hardware and capturing, nothing has really change since 2004 -- not for quality methods, at least. (The crappy all-in-one methods have changed 2-3 times, and then died out. Good riddance!) The only things that have changed are software filtering, like Avisynth.

Quote:

Most will be stored on my big NAS (15TB in Raidz2 ZFS system).

ZFS, huh? You obviously know your stuff. Don't hear that often.

Quote:

1. Canopus ADVC 300

You're PAL, so that's fine.

Quote:

2. JVC HR J777MS VTR (I got two - playback looks fine).

Does that model have image filters + TBC? I forget.

Quote:

3. Lenovo Laptop with Intel Core 2 CPU, 2GB, 60GB HDD and firewire, GBit NIC
4. 2 i7 2600K with 8GB RAM 1TB RAID0 and HD7950
5. GBit network
6. NAS - 15TB in Raidz2 ZFS system
7. Primera Bravo Pro I burner

Good.

Quote:

Software:
1. WinDV to capture AVIs on Lenovo laptop to
2. VirtualDub and AviSynth
3. Premiere Elements 11

Good.

Quote:

4. Handbrake

I've never really liked Handbrake. What are you planning to use it for?

Quote:

5. Sorenson Squeeze 8.5

MainConcept (Rovi) looks better. I've never liked Squeeze, and looked versions 5,6,7 and 8. It was crap in my opinion. The MainConcept SDK encoder that came embedded with Adobe software was better, even is slightly crippled compared to the full version.

Quote:

6. PTPublisher (DVD burning)

Not familiar with this. It looks more like a proprietary Primera burning tool, not for authoring.

Quote:

Assumption:
1. Capture in AVI.
2. Process in AVI.
3. Only convert to MPEG2 or 4 when happy with the final AVI.
4. The above assumptions will be faster/better quality.

Correct.

Quote:

Approach:
1. Balance quality with labour (my time).
2. If it requires too much of my effort will never happen and will eventually loose our presciou tapes).
3. Identify innovative balanced options.
4. If I can do a few tapes a day, a couple of days per week, spending a few hours a week labour it'll get done.

Convert the cooperative tapes first. Set aside PITA tapes for later. I've always done this, all the way into my pre-digital days on the 1990s. Save problem ones for later. I'm still working with my personal problem tapes 10+ years later. But you know what's good there? Some of what used to be impossible is now possible. I'm getting a lot of good personal stuff done these days. A few more years, and I'll be done!

Quote:

Budget:
1. Modest.

Put a number on that.

Quote:

Questions:
1. I'm generally happy with the quality of my JVC VTR and the Canopus. Considering how poor most tapes are seems overkill to seek higher quality hardware. Would you agree?

It really depends on the errors. For example. chroma noise and chroma shifting is crappy to watch. I just cannot enjoy something with those errors. Same for audio hiss and buzz. I'd rather just not see or hear it. That all said, PAL doesn't really have chroma errors.

Quote:

2. What in your view is a practical workflow using above hardware/software.
5. Any other workflows out there I can look at for reference?

Standard workflow applies.
VCR > TBC > proc amp (optional) > detailer (optional) > capture device
The Canopus may or may not exclude the need for a TBC in PAL. It depends on what sort of dropped frames issues you're running into.

Quote:

3. What set of filters should I apply to all captured tapes. i.e. deinterlace, noise, deshake, etc

Never deinterlace, aside from shared video using Youtube/etc. The filters need to be run to counteract errors, which can vary. I'd have to see samples. Some tapes need almost no filtering, while others need a stack of filter and multiple programs.

Quote:

4. Do you know of any software to manage automated DVD burning using a Primera Bravo I (just inherited this from a friends office and looks pretty good - not had time to play with it).

Not for authoring, no.

Quote:

I've read lots of material on the net but given we now have really fast i7s and huge storage available new solutions are no doubt superior now.

Some of the doesn't really matter. New CPUs can encode video faster, and restore audio/video faster, but that's really it. None of this matters to capturing, video workflows, etc.