Or what I do is render to PAL avi and print back to my dv cam which is hooked up to vcr, so it prints to camcord and vhs tape at same time.

I have noticed one problem with the VHS movies that I have made, and that is the edges of the movie or chopped off. Most annoying when I have lettering across the full screen. Is there an option or something that I am missing to fix this problem?

I suppose it could be the process in which I transfer it to VHS from the computer. I make the move, record it to DV, then hook up the DV camera to the VCR and record from that. Is this what is causing the problem?

Thanks!
Brian

Brian, this is because of the overscan area that televisions have. Some of the picture is outside of the visible area of the screen. This is done because as most televisions get older, the picture shrinks slightly. With the overscan area, the picture can shrink quite a bit before the edges of the frame are visible. Vegas has a grid overlay for the preview window to show you what will probably be visible on the television. You could plop this image on the timeline in VideoFactory to see a similar display: http://www.chienworks.com/media/safeareas.jpg Anything inside the inner line should be visible on most televisions. Anything outside the outer line probably won't be seen on most televisions.

shortylumber, in answer to your ? I didn't read it properly. I've found the best output for avi vhs is 'good', not 'best'. The latter is best (no pun) if the original is extremely good, as the 'best' does output a bit better than 'good' but also highlights any minor flaws to a greater degree. I hope this helps.

Original poster here (shortylumber)

Thanks for all the answers to my question.

One further thought: Is the S-Video connection on a DVD player the same as what some of you have called "S-VHS" connection?

Thanks

If you are referring to DaveCT’s post, I believe the answer is yes, he said S-VHS input/output but he meant S-Video input/output. (S-VHS is a tape format).

What I do is print my video back to a master DV tape. Then I use my camcorder to make a VHS copy from my DV camera. If both your DV camera and VHS tape deck have S-Video connectors, then that will be the cleanest signal. Using a DVD as the master to copy to VHS tape will probably give you great results as well as DaveTC suggested. I think I’m going to start using a DVD as my master in the future. This saves wear and tear on your DV camcorder.

~jr

shortylumber, no, S-Video and S-VHS are completely separate and unrelated things. It's just that usually S-VHS VCRs often have S-Video connections and regular VHS VCR's usually don't have them.

S-VHS (S stands for Super) is an improved version of VHS and is a way of storing video on the tape. The signal is higher definition and recorded at a stronger level. This makes S-VHS and regular VHS incompatible, although S-VHS decks are capable of playing back VHS tapes.

S-Video (S stands for Separate) is a way to connect video devices together for better image quality than composite. S-Video separates the luminance and chrominance signals into their own individual wires whereas composite combines them together into a single wire.

Thanks all for the responses to my questions.

Of course, questions lead to more questions.

1)When capturing my DV to Videofactory, what settings should I use? and
2)When outputting edited footage to DV or DVD as the master to record multiple VHS's, what settings should I use in Videofactory?

I am looking for the optimum settings, for example, the sound is mono, so I don't think I need CD quality audio, but I do want the highest quality video possible.

I am told that a DV master is superior to a DVD master. Is this true?

Thanks in advance.

If you are capturing DV, then there are no settings. DV is a fixed format (although it comes in either NTSC or PAL). You will have better than CD quality sound because the DV format is fixed that way. Ditto for outputting back to DV.

DV should be better quality than DVD. DV is only compressed about 5:1 whereas DVD is compressed 15:1 or even up to 30:1. More compression = less quality.