OK, i think i figured out the workflow of VHS capturing, filtering, and DVD authoring in part thanks to the help on this forum. The last night VHS-C capture looks good after overnight filtering with Neat Video (at lower than default filtering settings). I'll burn DVD from this sometime this weekend after chopping this into chapters and rearranging. I assume 1 hr per single layer DVD is reasonable, right?

But, i also want to keep the digital files on other media than MPEG2 DVD for backup, playback directly in PC/modern TVs, and to avoid future DVD ripping. My initial plan (circa 2008) was to use Divx compressed AVI files as i was well familiar with that and my DVD player supported it. I was also going to burn either CD-R or DVD-R discs with those files. Now there are many other options and sounds like H.264 and either MP4 or MKV are popular these days.

Now, there are also options of archiving on hard drives/SSD, flash drives, and cloud.

Can someone advise if i should go ahead with my initial Divx/optical media plan or modify? Should this backup be deinterlaced?

Thanks!

update:
i just found this similar thread below (it didn't see it when i did a search) and I'm chewing all the info. there could be an answer in it already:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...archiving.html

See also: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post17575

I'm still not a fan of NeatVideo. It's a lumberjack using machete when you need a surgeon with a scalpel. Avisynth can almost always give better results, though using it does have a learning curve.

Formats:
- Divx = not archival, not even that good at distribution (the reason it exists)
- MPEG-2 @ 15mbps is a very good balance for an archive. (Pros use the MXF container with MPEG inside.)
- H264 is not archival; it's also distribution
- Lossless Huffyuv is a good intermediary, but a beast for long-term archives

Wrappers (containers):
- AVI is fine for lossless
- MP4 containers are best for streaming
- MKV is not very compatible
- MPEG has no wrapper

Media:
- CD-R is terrible archive media.
- DVD-R and DVD+R is best.
- Bluray is terrible as well.
- Hard drives are second best.
- SSD/flash is terrible.

thanks lordsmurf. i'll be digesting all that info over the weekend but looks like i will stay with the DVD-R media for a time being.

regarding NeatVideo, since i paid for it (way back when it was ver 2.0 and $50 IIRC) and it's very easy to use, so i'm using it. the noise removal (both luma and chroma) is excellent, but one has to keep the luma noise reduction at low levels (i use 40%) to avoid picture softening. on the other hand, full power chroma noise reduction creates no negative effects (that i can see).

my second VHS-C capture last night had very low noise despite being recorded at LP (don't quite understand that). Because of that the neat video filter made little difference. it is very selective for noise in my experience.

I use NeatVideo myself from time to time, but it does have limitations. It has little or no effect on VHS noise such as rainbows, chroma shift, halos, color bleed, spots, border stains, etc. Grain and tape noise aren't the only problems with VHS.

very true, but i lack knowledge and experience to deal with that (except for the border masking that you showed me how to). are there some guides that you recommend?

I'm working on writing some. I was doing in this past spring, but was derailed this summer (good stuff, however!), and I'm back at it again. It's essentially Avisynth work. Not hard, but it has a learning curve.

There must be around 25 or 30 Avisynth plugins that address those various issues. But better to wait for lordsmurf's guide or this will be a really really looooong thread! Best quickie way is to look over forum threads that work with videos having those problems, or post an unprocessed short sample that has them to get an idea of how it works.

In VirtualDub, one filter that helps with rainbows or color stained areas somewhat is Camcorder Color Denoise. FlaXen's VHS filter has a color shift panel (the rest of the panels don't work so well, so turn 'em off). But Avisynth still has a wider choice, and it's best cleaned up in the original YUV before applying other filters or getting into RGB for VirtualDub. I have some old forum samples somewhere. I'll dig around for something short and sweet. Working with your own videos would be better, though.

You can also attach a small sample to a threads -- but not this one, open a new one -- and we can give quick suggestions.
Installing Avisynth 2.5 is simple, and you also need the AvsPmod GUI.

I'll have my preferred versions in a guide, but one at a time. Guides like this are time-consuming, and don't pay the bills. So it's slow going. I have to acquire lots of samples, and the "guide" will actually be about 25 guides to cover standard VHS problems.

I did share my huge multiscript: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/news...-avisynth.html

I need to update it again, as it is outdated. I wanted to work on it in 2014, but had a relapse, and did almost nothing from mid 2014 to early 2015. I restarted in spring, got sidetracked by good things finally happening to me, and I'm now back at it.

Sanlyn and Lordsmurf,
thanks for your generous offer of help. it's not a big deal. so far i'm pleased with my results (like 90% pleased), as i simply edited out the worst segments with "snowing" bands or bad recording transitions.
i did notice some chroma shift, but it's minor. BTW, i tried the VHS flaxen filter in the past and i haven't noticed any benefits. I guess my preference is to keep the filtering process simple and concentrate on editing and DVD authoring now, as it's a major time hog.