Project Templates for VHS to DVD

PunchNBurn wrote on 11/19/2003, 2:46 PM

This is a newbie question but does it make any real difference which project template to use in Vegas when converting VHS to DVD?

If so, which template is best? Can I go all the way up 720x486 if I set the capture "ouput size" accordingly? I guess what I'm actually asking is, does the capture app change the resolution of the source input via oversampling?

The capture app program automatically selects 320x240 when it connects to my VCR. Is that the right resolution for standard VHS?

Comments

farss wrote on 11/19/2003, 3:02 PM

Firstly just how are you connecting to your VHS?

And no that is definatley not the right resolution for VHS or any video.
Capturing will not change the resolution, it's a straight digital copy process.

You should be setting your project to either PAL DV or NTSC DV epending on where you are and you will not need to change any settings. I'm just wondering are you trying to capture via a ViVo type of connection?

If so then not a good way to go. You need to get the ViVo thingy to encode at full resolution I think, not sure how though. I have one but had so many problems with it I now just use straight firewire capture via an A/D converter (my D8 camera).

PunchNBurn wrote on 11/19/2003, 3:55 PM

I am using an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Radeon card. I go analog S-Video straight in to the card. I believe the ATI card is VIVO but I don't know what that is.

The "DV" templates are for Digital Video only (digital camcorders) correct? So that doesn't seem right for VHS. I am using the "NTSC Standard (720x486)" template and source capture doesn't fill the entire frame. I am surprised that SF didn't create a template for what I'm doing. Everybody I know is doing this.

johnmeyer wrote on 11/19/2003, 4:35 PM

I have an All-in-Wonder card too (the 8500 DV). You need to change the resolution and the capture codec in the setup properties. I too would recommend capturing using the DV codec at 720x480 resolution (if you are in North America).

Having said this, I have had some problems with their DV capture beccause it seems to capture with the fields reversed. You can fix this by changing the field order in Vegas. Test this before you start a big project by rendering a small sample in Vegas and then looking at it on your TV. If it jitters, the field order is backwards. Just change it from lower to upper (or vice versa) in the Vegas project properties (File menu).

RBartlett wrote on 11/20/2003, 12:10 AM

Although the bandwidth of VHS is poor compared to DV or DVD, there is benefit in capturing the pairs of interlaced frames.

If Sony Vegas Capture doesn't let you select a 720 or 704 pixel line format, then I'd tend to go firstly with the capture software.

If your card is video-in video-out (VIVO) your workflow might well be 720x486 capable, which in NTSC is full-D1 broadcast. However going to DVD, you need 480 raster lines. The field dominance (which interlaced scan comes first) is dictated by the mode in which your card derives its capture from.

Camcorder/converter/deck consumer DV is lower-field first by design. As such a project for broadcast video is, in some circumstances, going to need some care.

I personally use a $60 TV card with ShowShifter to capture 4:2:2 MJPEG (PICvideo quality=19) - I choose AVI for the capture format, PCM44k1 audio. For PAL, this is upper field first, but the MJPEG codec has private settings to allow all decoding to be field swapped. So I do that as the DV model suits me when then going through DVD-A to disc. These are only home videos from 1980s VHS-C but they come out fine. John Meyer's layered multi-pass capture with %age opacity seems like an excellent way of making up for the analogue playback foibles. Search for that guide on this forum.

The pixel aspect ratio needs to match your source, and as the raster resolution of VHs is poor, I sometimes scale it within a widescreen frame and add borders with a nice jumpback (like a screensaver). I don't think I'm losing a lot with this, as my and my family have widescreen TVs that tend to stretch 4:3 out of proportion/aspect otherwise (saves them selecting 4:3 mode on their Tv and/or player) - there is a right way of doing this, but my way suits me in a future proof fashion. (assuming 4:3 does in fact die)

So in Vegas, I use DV template and DVD-A widescreen.
I scale the capture within the 720 widescreen frame in Vegas for ratio (usually approx 14:9 as this suits everyone).
Most importantly, I capture at full frame rate of the capture device, Vegas won't itself let me do that, and I'd rather not go via DV from VHS, the quality is OK, but I'm fussy and my cables are good. (MPEG-2 for DVD uses 4:2:0 so NTSC (consumer DV) 4:1:1 and really 4:2:2 are not directly compatible, the latter is better mathematically).

Capturing 320x240, then you might aswell create an Mpeg-1 profile DVD, which with VCD parameters and a sympathetic authoring tool (not DVD-A) makes a nice full screen play(on most DVD players) with the advantage of a DVD menu and playlength over a CDR-VCD.