What is (are) the best process(es) of getting a good rendered video quality? Thanks

Bigoj wrote on 5/19/2004, 3:17 PM
First of all, I'll want to appologize if this topic has been on b4. Just couldn't find specific answers when I did a search. Anyways, I'm doing my first project for a client and they want the final product on a VHS. Since this is my first payed project, I would want the client to feel good about it and maybe lead to more business. Nyways, my question is What is (are) the best process(es) of getting a good rendered video quality on VHS? Mostly, what I do is, Render the final project to an avi NTFC, settings to best, preview on Vegas Capture 2 through my Sony Hi-8 Camera and capture it on a VHS through an input setting from my JVC Video Deck. I just want to know different ideas and thanks for your help.

Comments

farss wrote on 5/19/2004, 4:53 PM
Well you don't want to use preview to print to tape!
Use PTT and turn off device control.
Biggest issue though might be getting a good recording onto VHS.
First of all use the best tapes you can buy. I use pro grade dub stock and it does make a difference. Secondly I feed S-Video to SVHS machine even though I'm only recording VHS, every little bit helps. If you can get hold of a really old VHS machine that only records in SP you may get slightly better results as well, they write a wider track.
And lastly make certain the video is broadcast legal. VHS machines seem to happily record well outside BC legal but the results on playback can be nasty depending on the TV etc.
Mandk wrote on 5/19/2004, 6:25 PM
I have had good luck (and a lot of people will give me grief for this) at burning a DVD and then dubbing it from the dvd player through svideo to the vhs deck. Quick, efficient and gives results equal to or better than print to tape.

I have had terrible luck with print to tape. Camera stopping in middle of dub, quality just not the same and longer times required to make additional copies. Once the DVD is burned and is acceptable, subsequent copies are a snap.
AudioIvan wrote on 5/19/2004, 7:49 PM
@Mandik,

Yeah, that is what I do for SHORT projects that are encoded with high bitrate,but for long (over 2 hours) projects it is better to PTT because you are not limited by 4.7 media, therefore even if the project is over 3 hours and more just encode with best bitrate and your only limit is how big is your HD.

In another (long time ago) thread SPOT was asking or explaining that rendering from timeline to MPEG2 gives the best quality because DV codecs have issues with 4:2:2 , 4:2:0....etc.
PICvideo codec has an option for every colorspace and therefore the actual statement does not hold-->meaning if you render to codec that can do exactly the same colorspace processing as MPEG2 from timeline THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE if you render to AVI or MPEG2.

AudioIvan
craftech wrote on 5/20/2004, 7:16 AM
1. What kind of a camera did you shoot the video on in the first place and what were the lighting conditions? Those will be the biggest factors.
2. Which model JVC deck do you have? If it is one of the older SVHS decks JVC made go to the menu set the dub setting ON and Digital R3 OFF and everything else OFF. Set the SVHS to ON even though you are recording to VHS.
3. The tape you buy makes absolutely no difference except that some VHS shells are sturdier than others.
4. What you do in Vegas in terms of filters, etc will be determined by the answer to question 1.

John
Couldbe wrote on 5/22/2004, 6:18 PM
Could someone explain why it's important to follow this procedure as farss said;
'Well you don't want to use preview to print to tape
Use PTT and turn off device control.'

Caruso wrote on 5/23/2004, 2:36 AM
The "correct" procedure (and the way Vegas was designed to work) is to PTT through firewire to your digital camcorder. If you want to go straight to VHS or SVHS, you would want to pass that firewire signal on from the camcorder (whether you are actually recording with the camcorder or just using it as a pass-through device) to your VHS/SVHS deck.

Back in the Vegas Video 2.0 days, I used to have headaches with my Win98 setup and vidcap when I used PTT - and capturing the Preview to external device route was one of the work arounds that I tried.

I'm not sure what you give up technically (in the video signal) when you do that - someone else might want to comment on that - but certainly, you are passing an analog audio signal to your destination deck rather than a digital signal, as preview to external device passes only the video over the firewire, not the audio.

In my VV20 days, Preview was less reliable than a properly functioning PTT and subjected my final result to glitches - albeit all of that may have been more a function of my Win98 setup. My problems went away when I upgraded to VV30 (actually, I think there was an update to vidcap2x that set things straight), and vanished forever when I updated my OS to WinXP. I still run the same meager hardware setup today that I had when I started down this video editing trail - a 0.9 GHz processor, 284 mb ram/100 Mhz - although I've added some 700 GB of disc storage via a combination of internal/external drive additions.

I guess my short response to your "why" question is because Vegas and vidcap were designed to work that way - and, while not as critical, vidcap will pass a digital copy of your audio over the firewire, why not use it rather than hooking up analog audio cables to capture the preview audio.

Other than that, as I think about it, if you are pleased with the results you're getting, I suppose there is no reason why you can't just capture the preview.

For that matter, if you prerendered every single edit point and FX added to the timeline, you could "skip" rendering altogether and just preview the "unrendered" timeline, capturing the video via firewire and the audio via analog cable - of course, editing would take considerably longer as you performed all those selective pre-renders.

Caruso
Couldbe wrote on 5/23/2004, 10:55 AM
Thanks for the detailed reponse Caruso, most appreciated.

Couldbe