Going to DVD first is a pretty bad idea. The MPEG encoding on the DVD is a poor format for editing (because of time based compression) and is substantially lower image quality compared to DV AVI .

Here are the two least expensive ways to "digitize" video/audio:

1) Buy a Canopus ADVC-100 to convert video and stereo audio to DV on a firewire output, and connect it to a firewire input on your PC.

2) Use a mini-DV or "Digital-8" camcorder in pass-through mode to convert video and audio to DV. Connect the camcorder's firewire output to a firewire input on your PC.

In general terms, don't convert to any time compressed format before you start editing. Formats to avoid: MPG, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, RM, MOV. Format to use: AVI.

Have fun getting started,

John.

Hello -- thanks for your reply,

Could you please tell me how I could retrieve the stereo audio content from the DVD (in a digital transfer mode), and proceed to edit via Sound Forge. Furthermore I am very new to video editing via Vegas, so could you also offer a few comments as to how to edit the digital stored video data from the dvd.

Thanks again,
Kevin
******

"
Going to DVD first is a pretty bad idea. The MPEG encoding on the DVD is a poor format for editing (because of time based compression) and is substantially lower image quality compared to DV AVI .

Here are the two least expensive ways to "digitize" video/audio:

1) Buy a Canopus ADVC-100 to convert video and stereo audio to DV on a firewire output, and connect it to a firewire input on your PC.

2) Use a mini-DV or "Digital-8" camcorder in pass-through mode to convert video and audio to DV. Connect the camcorder's firewire output to a firewire input on your PC.

In general terms, don't convert to any time compressed format before you start editing. Formats to avoid: MPG, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, RM, MOV. Format to use: AVI.

Have fun getting started,

John
"

Thanks John, the advice is well taken. I am only trying to relieve some of the burden on my digital audio work station. So perhaps I should then acquire another PC, and arrange the setup that you described. Once more I persuing all of the advice that is available.

Thanks,
Kevin
******

Working with material from a DVD will be *much more* of a burden on your computer and also vastly more time consuming than using the computer to capture DV through one of the methods that John mentions.

"Eventually my goal would be to rip the audio and video components off of the DVD and then proceed to edit via Vegas and Sound Forge?"

The problem with this is that unless you convert the video to .avi, it's going to bog down your processor. Mpeg formats take up a lot more CPU power to be decoded than .AVI, and therefore are much more CPU intensive. So if you're going to edit the files ripped from the DVD's.... pretty much, you'll regret it. It would be much better to convert the files to .AVI as you play them through the something like an ADVC-100 or a camcorder that has passthru. That is if you're bent on using DVD as a storage medium for the video and audio. (my advice would be to simply buy an external case for Internal HD's and then just store on there.

Dave

Thanks -- I am not bent on any one method, but rather on the best work flow possible. I just figure avoiding the pc as the primary archiving tool, might improve the process. I have a heap of VHS and Analog Audio to convert. Therefore I am considering some type of offl line system to make the process more time effiecient.

Thanks again,
Kevin

Hi Kevin

My method of transfer is (and no doubt it could be done a thousand other better ways):

1) Play the VHS video and record it via the Sony DVD recorder onto DVD
2) Take the disc and rip it onto my computer using Smartripper
3) Convert the VOB file to AVI using DVD2AVI. That then gives me a video file in AVI format (encoded with DivX) plus a stereo audio stream in either AC3 or PCM depending on your taste.
4) The audio stream can be edited in Sound Forge or a fair aount of audio FX can be done direct in Vegas (EQ, noise gates, compression). Synch isn't a problem as long as you remember to group the video and audio together in Vegas having first ensured you have got the two files lined up at a known reference point - the start of the files being the most obvious place.

I also have a Canopus ADVC110 and would agree that it's quicker and more efficient way of getting VHS video into a digital editing environment. But I wouldn't always be looking to transfer everything to hard disc so it's horses for courses. Plus it's an easy way of capturing stuff from TV programmes recorded to DVD- of course, that would only be for personal research and analysis of the video techniques involved, you understand.

Cheers

gordyboy

I have a SONY Mini-DV camcorder and an HP computer/DVD burners with plenty of zip. The computer came pre-loaded with some basic Sonic-MyDVD and ArcSoft/Showbiz.

I have fiddled around and made about 20 DVDs that are kind of crude. I want to create interesting DVDs that combine stills (JPEGs) and Video in a picture in picture configuration. I want to be able to pull digital content from the camera and other external sources as well as "lifting" material from other DVDs.

Will Vegas 5 be enough ? Or will I need additional software as well.

Let me know.

Mark

If you want to create DVDs I'd go for Vegas5+DVDA (The Vegas+DVD Production Suite).
(If you created 20 DVDs with MyDVD, you deserve a medal).

Vegas is very powerful… you’ll be able to do to very advanced editing. It will be able to do everything you want and much more. DVDA is also very good, but if you want to do really fancy things on the menus themselves, there are other packages that do more. But still it is quite powerful, easy to use, and integrates well with Vegas.

You should be able to play most external sources through your MiniDV camcorder to convert to DV. Importing photos is not a problem. If you want to include material you have “ripped” from DVDs directly, there is lots of free software to do this… if you are talking about commercial DVDs then this is all illegal of course…

Plus this forum is great, there are a lot of very knowledgeable and helpful people here, many professionals as well as keen amateurs.

Mark

You know, if you just want to make DVDs out of videotape, not use the videotape for a critical project, I have a workflow that works pretty well:

1/ capture video in mpeg2 format with AC-3 audio using WinDVD Creator.
2/ trim the ends with MPEG VCR from womble.com
3/ DEMUX (separate the video from the AC-3 audio ) using DEMUX function of MPEG VCR.
4/ author DVD in DVD Architect.

I've done quite a few tapes this way. There is no rendering done other than that done simultaneously during the capture, and it's the quickest way I've found to do a transfer that still has nicely trimmed ends and manually placed chapter marks. You can do the whole thing with WinDVD Creator, but it's a lot slower.

If you want to spend even less time, you can capture directly to DVD using WinDVD Creator, but the beginning and end won't be trimmed and you can't manually place the chapter marks.

I do this with a Canopus ADVC-100, but I'm pretty sure that any capture device that works with Vegas will work.

Surprisingly, the on the fly mpeg2 encoding looks fine for capturing videotape. At the "good" setting it looks the same as the source (which isn't all that great since it's videotape).

Thank you all - for the advice, it seems like getting a Canopus unit, is the optimal way to go. I will acquire information from Canopus and then return to the forum with a more questions.

Thanks - again,
Kevin
******

The Canopus ADVC-100 was my third capture device purchase. The Dazzle one kept losing sync and did not do high quality captures. I could get it to preview video either. The Pinnacle one would lose sync between audio and video on long captures. I am totally happy with the Canopus however. I use it both for capturing and previewing video. The quality of the captured video is superb.

If your principal source of video is VHS, then you should seriously consider getting the Canopus ADVC-300 instead of the 100. The built-in TBC will do more for your video quality that you can imagine. Unless, of course, your VHS player comes so equipped, then the 100 will do just as well.

Having recently purchased the ADVC 300 I haven't had much time to really test it. Any recommendations as to which settings give the best overall noise reduction for a "typical" VHS tape?