VHS to MPeg-4

[Guest]

Most of the articles Ive read concern how to go from
DVD to MPEG4/Divx. What about us lowly scrubs with
VHS videos?

Since the audio and video quality arent that great to begin
with, what data-rate/audio-sampling/etc would be
sufficient?

Thanks,
Erich

 

[lakedude]

It depends on what you are trying to do. DivX/mpeg4 gives better results at medium to higher resolutions of at least 320by240. At 640by480 video and 112kbs mp3 audio you should get around an hour and a half or two on a cdr using divx fast at 6000. A better way is to use nandub because it lets you pick a target file size and adjusts the bitrate automaticly. See <A HREF="http://www.doom9.net" target="_new">http://www.doom9.net</A> and <A HREF="http://www.divx-digest.com" target="_new">http://www.divx-digest.com</A> for more info. LD

Remember if you ain't Muslim you ain't Shiite.

 

[Guest]

I use bt878 based card for video capture from TV Tuner & VHS.
1. Capture 768*576 (PAL), MJPEG codec PICVideo Q=18..19. Rate is 3,5 Mbytes/s. Sound 48000 PCM, 16, stereo(mono).
2. Using VDub with filters deinterlace and resize (to 512*384 bicubic A=-0.75) convert to MPEG-4 (bitrate usually about 900 kBit/s for 1,5 hours on 1 CD, or 1300 for 2-2,5 hours on 2 CD). Sound 48000 MP-3, 96 kBit/s, stereo(mono).
Program resize gives better quality (imho) then capture in lower resolution.

 

[lakedude]

How do you plan to get the video form your VCR to your HD? Do you alreay have a capture/video input card?

Remember if you ain't Muslim you ain't Shiite.

 

[Guest]

I have a Dazzle DVC II that can capture NTSC video to
MPEG2 with a resolution of 720x480 with an audio sampling
of 48kHz.

The reason I wanted to stay with Flask instead of NanDub,
is that I can do both Video and Audio in one shot, whereas
with NanDub I would have to do them seperately and merge
it later. Is Nandub whats used for best quality/size?

 

[lakedude]

"Is Nandub whats used for best quality/size?"

Yes.

Nandub is a two pass conversion. The first pass analyzes the video and makes a stats file. The second pass uses the stats file to maximize quality while staying within the chosen file size. I won't lie, Nandub is a lot harder to use then Flask but the results are a lot better. If you are happy with Flask results then there is no need to go to Nandub.

For converting DVDs I like Fair Use the best. The video part is actually a lot easier then Flask and the results are superb. FU is my favorite for DVDs but it will not work with captured video. The problems with FU are that sound must be done seperate (like Nandub) and also FU is very slow because it does 4 (or how ever many you pick) full encodings at differtent bit rates and then automaticly picks the best combo between the 4 encodings. Nandub is a lot faster but is a lot harder to use.

In your original question you were comming from tape. How long of a video were you talking about? Are we talking home movie clips or full lenght movies? Also what is the playback system? If you are going for a stand alone DVD encode to MPEG1 VCD. If the playback unit is a slower computer then a lower resolution and bitrate will play a lot smoother. If the playback system is a fast computer then use the bigest resolution and bit rate that will fit on one cd-r (assuming cd-r is your storage).

I'm jealous of your capture card. I have a Radeon AIW and it is ok but not the best for capture. I've made a few movies from tape and the funny thing is that a clean DVD is actually easier on the codec then a fuzzy speckled tape. The codec needs to work extra hard to code in all the moving noise cause the codec don't know that it is noise.

Some folks say to put a movie on 2 disks for max quality. I usually find that unless a movie is well over 2 hours a single disk will do just fine. I have my computer hooked up to a 32" TV and single cd movies look great. The TV blends the errors and makes a movie look great. If you are using a monitor the coding errors are a lot more noticable and you might go for 2 cds per movie.

I've used Flask, Nandub, and FU. I used Flask until I had trouble getting good quality out of some tougher movies and then I learned how to use the others. Sometimes if I have trouble getting the sound back together with the video I still fall back on Flask (not very often).

OK I've gone on long enough. If you have any questions ask.

Remember if you ain't Muslim you ain't Shiite.