vhs tapes to computer / digitizing

[chiwa]

I didn't expect an improvement, but hoped to maintain what I have at a decent file size. I have cut out a few scenes, and people are downloading them, so they can't that bad. The original tapes are long gone, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have copied everything in 2hr mode. Shit, at one time I tossed over 100 DVD's in a move, but I kept all the best. Mostly late 90's euro girls which get moved when I post them. The date may not be right, but girls mostly have bush, real tits, and the guys can cum w/o a CUT, jackoff on her face.

[control840]

If I may throw in my two cents: has anyone here tried Dazzle? It's a CD w/software and a hardware device that connects your VCR to your comp. Anyone? I got a TON of movies I want to post.

[digipixz]

Hi
Im new to your excellent site, so hi to everyone from me! I was wondering what the best way is to convert VHS tapes into avi or mpg or wmv files. It seems like there must be some experts here, some are very good quality. I have tried using a USB capture thing, but I end up with either enormous files (about 8gb an hour!) or rubbish quality.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Many Thanks

Paul

[profquatermass]

You typically digitise the footage at a reasonable rate, say no more than 320x480 as VHS is only about 250 lines in quality.

Then once you've captured it, convert it to a space saving format like DivX, this'll make your .avi file pretty small.
(Look up DivX site on Google)

Sounds like you're capturing at far too high a quality setting.

Even SVHS tape is only 400lines on a good day.

[haldane4]

I found the best and least complicated way is simply to invest in a standalone DVD Recorder and copy my tapes to DVDR. Then I can rip them to my PC as avi or mpg using free ripping software which you can generally find online.

This method pays for itself in time and effort because ripping directly to a PC via USB or TV card can throw up all sorts of problems, especially with sync, and unless you know exactly what you're doing and exactly what you want, it can be infuriating.

[illuminated]

I have a DVD/VHS combo, so all you have to do is to insert a blank DVD and the VHS you want to rip.
Press record to DVD on the remote control.
When you are done with that, take the DVD to your PC and start with the convertion.

I get VOB files and start with converting them with a program called MPG Streamclip. So now i have one large mpg file.
Now there's only one convertion left (to avi) and for that i use AutoGK, with that i can set the size of the movie (i make them 700mb).

And you are all done

[crandy]

i would say capture in avi as uncompressed as possible then convert your file down with multiple pass encoding that is the correct way to do it to keep as much quality from the original source as possible ... even if the source is low quality
only downside to this is you need lots of hard drive space

having an 8gb file for an hour of video is perfectly normal in fact when i capture video from my dv cam (dv tape) 720x576 the files are around 14gb an hour (dv codec/uncompressed pcm audio)

if i wanted to convert the dv down to standard sized avi files (8 to 10mb a min)
i would do at least a 2 pass encode with a bitrate of around 1000kbps (depends on resolution, bigger need more bits) obviously you can increase the bitrate to a higher level but you are talking about vhs captures here so 1000kbps should suffice

to do a multiple pass encode is easy .... most video programs have advanced codec settings that allow you to set what type of encoding you want to do with a codec
for example xvid's options have several options 2 of which are "2 pass 1st pass" and "2 pass 2nd pass" (divx has the same except "2pass 2nd pass" says "2 pass n'th pass")

what you would do is load your captured video in a video encoding application
select the video options and look for codec/compression settings
select xvid or divx and then look for a codec settings button
select "2pass 1st pass" first and start the encoding ......

once that has finnished you would then go back to the codec settings and change the setting from 2pass 1st pass to 2pass 2nd pass .... set your bitrate and start the encoding process for a second time......(you can overwrite the first pass file as its not needed)
this method takes twice as long to do as a quick encode but the quality is much higher, this is standard practise for those that "know" and even more passes will result in better quality/file size.... but only if your a bit anal about it

dont forget to also compress the audio as well on the second pass

to make things easier grab mediacoder (free) that has a setting for 2 pass encoding
so it does all the steps needed in one go... its not the easiest begginer tool to use but it can be set up in a "simple mode"

and last but not least the time it takes to encode a video depends on your cpu speed as well as other factors ...... allow at least the time it will take to play the file to encode it with a single pass for computers running single core around 2ghz ...... for me with a quadcore @3.4ghz and a hd 5870 it takes around 15min per pass (1hr30min of video)

[digipixz]

Brilliant! Many thanks for your replies, ill get to work!

[XavieraHolland]

Originally Posted by digipixz

Brilliant! Many thanks for your replies, ill get to work!

Same here
it was infuriating

[Denaniel]

Originally Posted by illuminated

I have a DVD/VHS combo, so all you have to do is to insert a blank DVD and the VHS you want to rip.
Press record to DVD on the remote control.
When you are done with that, take the DVD to your PC and start with the conversion.

I get VOB files and start with converting them with a program called MPG Streamclip. So now i have one large mpg file.
Now there's only one convertion left (to avi) and for that i use AutoGK...

I agree with illuminated, except that he seems to have an extra step in there that is IMO unnecessary.

After using the DVD/VHS combo (i.e. a DVD recorder = standalone player that plays VHS and DVD, recording from one to the other), I rip the DVD onto my hard drive using DVD Decrypter (freeware), which creates a VIDEO_TS folder with .ifo, .bup and .vob files. You can then open this VIDEO_TS folder in AutoGK and convert directly to AVI, using XviD. There is no need for the intermediate conversion with MPG Streamclip.

One caveat: most DVD recorders offer a choice of video quality, e.g. (from highest to lowest quality) XP, SP, LP, EP. You should use the highest quality setting that will allow your vid to fit on a single layer DVD (4.7 GB). For a vid over one hour but under three and a half hours, this usually means SP mode. I have used XP mode for hour-long films with a noticeable improvement over SP.

If you don't want to play your vids on a standard DVD player that plays DivX and XviD files, or if you have a bluray player, I would recommend using Handbrake and encoding with x264 instead of XviD (Handbrake and x264 are both freeware). The x264 codec has much higher compression than XviD or DivX, so you either get a smaller file with the same image quality, or an improved image for the same size file. For example, a 700 MB vid encoded with x264 will nearly always look better than the same size file encoded with XviD or DivX at the same resolution. On the other hand, x264 takes more CPU power to encode and decode, so older machines have a harder time with it, and as mentioned earlier, x264 will not play on standalone DVD players that play AVI files.

See my tutorial on encoding DVD to x264 here:

http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/t94...d-to-x264.html

The tutorial is catered to using MeGUI, which is not as easy as Handbrake, but allows more tweaking and the option of producing bluray compatible files, so you can put a few dozen movies on a bluray disc and play them on your HDTV.