oh cool, it sounds simpler than I thought. I read so much that I got inundated on what steps to take (formats, etc) that I just had to ask for basics.

Some last questions before I dive in:

When I go to capture in vegas4, it gives an error box "bt848: no directdraw overly provided" (then it goes into the vid cature stuff.
Is this normal and will happen until I hook up the VHS\camcorder and start playing? or is this another error?

So what resolution should I have it set to? With this capture card I can choose "image size" of either 320x240 or 640x480, or custom (where I can set my own size).

Also with the osprey options, which is the best image format for this:
- 32, 24, or 15 bit rgb(rgba for 32 bit
- YUY2
- BTYUV
- YUV9
- YUV12

I have lessons on vhs I want transferred to dvd so this will be cool if it works out.

Yeah, the osprey is all I have and I can't spend much more on system stuff so I guess I'll have to live with what I got. It should do what I need it to do though right?

thanks for the step by step too!!!

The questions I have is, does VidCap4 even see the Osprey 200 card? - My guess no -

I went to the web site, was going to download the manual - HA - wanted me to login. So I'll ask what type file formats can you save as?

Hunter

it does see and list the card in vid capture, but I'm not sure what settings to set it to for my purposes.
Please see my latest reply, maybe I'm screwed as far as doing any of this?

thanks for any help

jetdv, as always, has it right. I would add a 4a step, which is to put markers on the Vegas timeline before you render to MPEG. These will result in chapter stops when you create the DVD in DVD Architect.

If you want to render the MPEG2 and AC3 files in one step, you can use this script:

Batch Script

Also,If you want to get rid of video noise, you can use VirtualDub and various filters. This is disucssed here:

My "ultimate" VHS tape restoration recipe

You can ignore my advice in the first few posts in this thread -- you do not have to do multiple captures -- I was just trying to create an "ultimate" restoration recipe for those once-in-a-lifetime video tapes.

Here's a streaming clip showing what you can do with really bad footage, in this case a wedding shot with first generation VHS equipment at EP speed, in low light, with the color correction completely wacked. The color couldn't be totally corrected without making everything green, but the chroma noise reduction was nothing short of magic.

Restoration.wmv

Other VHS ideas

Huh???? Help???
I know everyone is gung-ho posting about V5 and stuff as it's the new news, but can you help this newbie with video capture and Vegas4 wth DVD arch 1.0?

So I am capturing video from my vhs with the osprey-210 (spdif) using the steps described in jetdv's reply (thanks jetdv).

But at about 30 minutes into capturing it stops saying I have run out of disk space on my 80 gig drive (unused, ful 80gigs on it). It is indeed true, all 80 gigs were used up just 30 minutes into an hour or so long vhs video.
The video is about an hour or an hour 1/2 long at most....how can I do this if it's eating 80 gigs at only 30 minutes into it?

Is an 80 gig drive not enough? Seriously? I'm hoping something is wrong here.
I'm just trying to capture the vhs show, edit it and create a DVD of it as these tapes are getting overplayed and I want to get it on dvd (music lesson videos).

The project in V4 settings is:
standard NTSC standard 720x486, 29.970 fps, audio 44.1khz (or i can choose 48khz as well) 16-bit stereo.
Field order = upper field first
Pixel aspect ratio = 0.9091 (NTSC dv)
Full resolution rendering quality = best
motion blurr type = gaussian
deinterlace = none

Osprey settings:

SPDIF input. RGB24 (although I heard i420 might be the better option as the source is only vhs - should I choose this instead?...or is there something better?)
**The Capture size max for osprey is a setting of 640x480 (although the website states it's highest can be 720x486 ....???? I'm confused how to change it to 720x486 so it's set to 640x480 as for the osprey-210 settings).

On top of this...how can I have room on the hard drive to convert it to mpeg-2\ac-3 for dvd arch when it eats 80-gigs in a half an hour of a 1 hour show?

Is there any way to compress while encoding with my setup? All i see in v4 is .avi files whenever capturing. Anyway to capture as an mpeg-2\ac3 and keep filesize down and make things managable?
Eating up an 80-gig drive in 30 minutes (obviously uncompressed A\V .avi file) seems ridiculous. I'm hoping I'm just not doing it right or have wrong settings.

Will buying an Canopus ADVC-50 help in these matters at all (transfering my anaolog vhs and hi-8 camcorder stuf to DV for making DVD's of them)?
Does it automatically compress these files as it transfers to the hard drive?

Sorry for the newbie questions, but any help would be sweet.
I guess i should have asked for best settings for V4 and the osprey along with step-by-step "how to".

PS: although the video\audio is capturing, I can't seem to get any viewable video "preview" working. I can't see anything but a blue screen in the preview window.
The final capture plays fine however...just no preview at all.
Normal?
Yes, device control is unchecked as well.

I also had NO dropped frames for all 30 minutes of the capture (which is cool I think...rihgt?)

thanks

If it's capturing into DV format, the disk usage is about 13 GB per hour. Is your hard disk formatted with FAT32 or NTFS? If it's FAT32, you've got a 4 GB file size limit, which would correspond pretty closely to your half hour captures.

Go into the capture program's preferences. On the Disk Management tab, set a maximum size per DV clip; capture will then automatically start new files as required.

I'm not an expert, but I'm going to take a shot in the dark here.

Is it possible that vegas isn't really capturing the video, (as indicated by the blue screen) but some drivers for your Osprey card are doing the actual capture?

Since I started doing this 2 years ago, I've used a Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge, a sony Camcorder and the Canopus ADVC-100 to convert S-video to AVI files on my PC. All of these are external devices that connect via a firewire card. All of them look like a DV camcorder or VCR to windows/vegas. In all cases, the external device creates the digital stream (file) and Vegas simply does a real-time file copy to the hard disk.

If you can't get the Osprey to write the bits in a DV compliant stream (.AVI, 13 gigs/hour) then you are going to be in trouble down the road, either with way too much data, or with a file type that doesn't edit well (MPEG2, etc.)

If you have the ability to borrow a DV camcorder or a Canopus converter, I would strongly recommend you do that before starting work on your project.

You wouldn't really want to do it twice, would you?

Best Regards,

John.

thanks for the help.

the 80 gig drive is NTFS (winXP pro btw).

The osprey drivers are all i have to use to do the capture so yes, I guess it is doing it (the osprey 210 is a vid\audio capture card and that driver is all I can select.). Should I be seeing or using another driver?
I guess, as for audio, I can use my sb pci 128 to capture audio...but I don't think audio is where the problem lies and it's probably better to use the osprey for both a\v anyway....right?

Are you saying that this osprey isn't delivering a DV compliant stream?
Shouldn't it be?
How will I know? It is in fact an uncompressed .avi file in the end...just HUUUGE (80 gigs for the first 1/2 hour of the vhs tape - nowhere near your specs you stated).
I'm using the latest wdm drivers for winXP found here on the viewcast.com website ( http://www.viewcast.com/driverdownload.asp# ).
Not the VFW (video for windows drivers - should I be using these? The VFW drivers have more limitations).

I tried using the capture app that came with the osprey as well (forget the lame name) and it allowed me to add and select from different compression schemes - but all those comp schemes did was throw the a\v out of whack when I tested the short clips I made.
In one test, NO compression and using i420 (instead of RGB24) for the format made it smaller, but I don't think this is the answer as it didn't look as good.

Ok, so i'm learning why this osprey-210 capture card blows I think.
Question is...will going with the ADVC-50 solve everything? Will it deliver a smaller filesize (and how does it do that and osprey cannot)?
I don't want to buy things and find out later it's not necessary (just converting some tapes as everything else is on dvd already).

Another friend just said to borrow a standalone dvd recorder and make dvd's out of it. Good idea in a way but that's gonna be tough finding a loaner(plus, i'd like to use my v4 and addchapter selections, etc). They cost big $.

You're right, I only have 6-10 tapes I'd like to convert and I'd like to do it as painlessly as possible but still be able to edit, make chapters, use my v4, etc. Just wondering how another piece of hardware is going to differ from the osprey-210 (eg - advc-50 or 100)...it's still analog (VHS) ecoding to DV.

But I'm getting frustrated...sorry. Hope you can help

Does your Osprey card give you an AVI option with a compression type of MJPEG? If so that would probably be your best bet for reasonable compression for editing. The compression will probably be variable so you'll need to experiement a little to see what's acceptable to you.

I know nothing about the osprey so I'm just guessing here from my previous experience with an analog capture card. Back before the days of DV.

Oh and by the way, going to a Canopus ADVC 100 through firewire would likely solve all of your problems

JBJones

Just follow the advice given by jetdv in the original post. Skip the Osprey and use the DV pass through of your camcorder, or a DV input device. I have done a LOT of VHS to DVD, and I have tried analog capture through my ATI Radeon 8500 DV. Bottom line: I could never match the quality I got through the DV (despite DV's more limited 4:1:1 colorspace). Given the limited quality of even S-VHS (much less standard VHS), this limitation of DV won't show up at all in the final product, and the speed of your workflow and lack of any of the problems you are experiencing will make it quite clear that this is the way to go.

Just go do it!

You're not capturing a DV signal. jetdv suggested using a canopus box via firewire. The canopus box would convert your analog video to digital video, then feed that video to vidcap4 as a DV stream, 13GB/hour. Instead, you're capturing a composite stream into vegas, and having it do the conversion. Hence, it captures UNCOMPRESSED DV, and 10 minutes can be a HUGE file. You should really get a new capture program if you can't afford a canopus or other analog to digital converter. If you have a digital video camera, see if it has a pass through feature, then feed the VCR into the camera, and the camera into Vegas via firewire. I've captured some analog feeds w/ Vegas, and the results aren't that great (renders take a while, and there is sometimes a chopiness during high motion shots). There are a ton of free video capture programs that will better suit your needs, or get a dedicated converter, or use your camera w/pass through.

The osprey card just has RCA input jacks, I'm sure, so that's why it doesn't deliver a DV stream. I don't think the osprey card sucks, Vegas just isn't made to do what you want it to do. Scenalyzer might work better, but I don't know since I've never used it.

Jon