jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| Simple VCR quality for Comp playback?
Hi, all
I have been to site after site after site looking for a straight forward method of capturing VCR tape to playback in Media Player exactly as good as it does thru a VCR.
All I get is how to make a vcd or dvd. I don't need any of that, just a file I can burn to a disk (for transportation) to take to the site for install.
I have Dazzle Digital Creator 80, to capture the VCR tape.
It looks decent on capture, and worse on save. I have tried Movie Maker 2. Pinnicle 8.5. TMPGEnc 2.75 (free), and every other "go here", "down load that" program I can read about.
I have tried every setting I can come up with and every combination of setting I can think of.
The purpose, (and I have posted this before) is to take some training tapes on VCR, and convert them to files so they can be played back from the computer via Windows Media Player 9.0.
Now I have seen very good quality videos on the web, how can I do this with what I have? Is there an easy way of doing this? (none of the material is copy righted, and my company owns the tapes).
Here is a link to what I am talking about....
»www.angelfire.com/ga3/MOUSE/mov.wmv
It should look a lot better than that!
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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Brianv5
Low Level Functionary
Premium
join:2001-01-20
Keyser, WV
 ·Comcast
| I'm actually trying to do the same thing. I want to take VHS stuff and keep them electronic on my media server. Stream to whatever system on my network that I want. I can't seem to get the quality either.
I've tried encoding with Windows Media encoder, but that seems to take some serious horsepower, even for my P4 2.8 system.
I've gotten good quality tv episodes from BT, I'm just wondering how they do that!
I am getting an AIW 8500, maybe that'll work better than my capture card?
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Anything can be tweaked! |
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| I bought an svideo out VCR for my company and that doesn't help either.
Let me know how that card works. I have about $250.00 left in the budget for this project. I do not want to fail getting it done.
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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johnqpublic
Premium
join:2002-03-22
Xanadu
| reply to jmplep
I downloaded the video (and waffles sound good right about now). The quality itself doesn't look too bad, but it does look like there are a lot of dropped frames in your video. I can capture cable video through a hand-me-down Hauppauge WinTV USB 1.0 device and not drop that many frames.
What is YOUR chief complaint about the quality of the video (specifically), and maybe someone could offer advice as to how to improve your output?
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Due to budget constraints, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off. |
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johnqpublic
Premium
join:2002-03-22
Xanadu
| reply to jmplep
Some specifications on the computer you're capturing with may be beneficial, too. And, is this the capture device you're using?
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Due to budget constraints, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off. |
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| that is it.
I have the HP 751n
XP home
1.8g cpu
512mb pc2100
(Vertgo Nvidia geforce 4 ti4200 128mb)
I got a report of no lost frames when I made the video.
It is the "blockiness", that needs to go.
My boss wants it to look like it does playing from the vcr, so size of the file doesn't matter. (as long as I can get them from here to there with relative ease).
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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johnqpublic
Premium
join:2002-03-22
Xanadu
| reply to jmplep
It looks like mixed reviews on this capture device over on the other forum. The dropped frames I speak of seem to start right after Bob gets done with his spiel at the beginning. As for improving the picture, are you able to capture at any higher resolution than 320x240?
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Due to budget constraints, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off. |
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| I think I can, but 320x240 is default for Pinnicle Studio 8.1
I think Movie maker 2.0 will do higher.
What resolution should I try to capture at.
I want to play them full screen on 600x480 computer monitors.
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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johnqpublic
Premium
join:2002-03-22
Xanadu
| reply to jmplep
If file size is not an issue, the more the merrier I guess. 640x480? When you go to encode your Windows Media file with Studio 8, change the playback quality drop-down menu to "custom," then choose either video for broadband NTSC (1500 Kbps or 2 Mbps). Experiment with a small clip to have an idea what your final output will look like.
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Due to budget constraints, the light at the end of the tunnel will be turned off. |
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs: | I will give it a shot. File size doesn't matter as long as I can get it to the location via CD-R. |
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cailyoung
join:2003-06-30
Australia
 ·iiNet
edit:
December 8th, @11:37PM
| reply to jmplep
The DVC80 is a USB1 device and is thus limited to 320x240 capture size.
Give MPEG-4 encoding a try with Quicktime or similar; I have long been wary of the claims that Microsoft makes about their codecs.
Still waiting for the download, but 'blockiness' is usually a compression problem, not a capture problem.
EDIT: Okay, that blockiness looks like the internal downscaler in the DVC80 is just a POS. Sorry 
As to your dropped frames; are you capturing uncompressed and then compressing later? This will make sure you get a good capture.
Cail |
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| reply to jmplep
Niether one of my proggys will capture above 320x244
What do I need to capture at a higher resolution? (a very good quality piece of hardware or software)
If I understand right I need to capture at "7" something and save to output file of 600x480 to display a clear picture full screen on a monitor running 600x480?
The higher the resolution the clearer it will be played at a lower setiing correct? The ones I have made made look good at the default size, but they are just too small to see.
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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cailyoung
join:2003-06-30
Australia
·iiNet
| reply to jmplep
You will need a different capture device; one that's either a direct PCI card, or a USB 2.0 or FireWire bus device. USB 1.1 is not "fat" enough for full-size video of any kind; so any USB 1.1 capture device has a squash it down.
Aside from that, your existing hardware and software will be plenty. And yes, you capture at 720x480(ish, depends on software) for NTSC, and then resize down to your desired size.
Cail |
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Rimi
Premium
join:2002-03-05
The World
| reply to jmplep
For my video capture setup, I use a ADS USB 1.1 Instant DVD capture box. I capture at DVD quality 5Mbps CBR with stereo audio at 48Khz/384Kbps. This keeps the video quality at a fairly high level. The system is a XP Pro, Athlon 1.4Ghz 133FSB with 1GB of SDRAM and a 100GB HD (formatted NTFS to allow for file sizes larger than 2GB). Even with the "slowness" of this system, I can capture at full 704x480 (D-1 broadcast quality), 30fps without any dropped frames. Then I take that generated CBR MPEG-2 clip and run it through Virtualdub using the Divx 5.0 video codec and the MP3 audio codec, and save it to a AVI file. The quality is pretty good (since the original MPEG-2 file was of good quality) and the file is small (due to Divx compression) compared to original MPEG-2 file. If I want to stream the video clip over a Windows Media Encoder stream, I convert the AVI to WMV, then stream the WMV file. If I want to save the MPEG-2 file to DVDR, I can burn it directly (since it is already MPEG-2) but I usually run the file through TMPGEnc to convert it to VBR so reduce the size of the MPEG-2 file so I can fit up to 4 hours of DVD quality video on a 4.7GB DVDR. forgot to mention, CBR is Contant Bit Rate, VBR is Variable Bite Rate.
The "problem" with the Dazzle 80 is that it can only capture at the VCD quality level (320x240, 1150Kbps) so the capture quality is low to begin with. Then when you save the file using a compression method, it will get worst (most all compression methods are lossy). You can try saving the file as uncompressed video/audio, then use the other encoders to allow for more control of the compression, but the file will be VERY BIG for a short clip. So to get better compression quality, you need to get a video capture device that can capture at a high bit rate and at a higher resolution (like 640x480).
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| I understand now.
I am looking at a firewire capture device running $250.00. It captures at 740x480.
I'll let you guys know if it works and if I get to do it as we have almost talked the makers of the video into giving us digital copies instead of VHS.
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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unutt
@comcast.net
| 
I have been having reasonable luck in my effort to convert VHS to full DVD. I bought a Canopus ADVC100 converter this time. In my first attempt, I used an ATI All-In-Wonder board, with very poor results, including loss of synch between audio and video.
Using the ADVC and Windows Movie Maker (of course I hate to admit I am using it!). I can capture VHS at very high quality. You can definitely tell it is not the original, but it is much better than if you copy from tape to tape, and the audio and video are always in synch. The ADVC captures at a full 720 x 480 at up to 9500 kbps, though I cannot tell any difference in output quality from 2500 to 9500 kbps. Once again, I am reluctant to admit it, but I CAN tell a difference between .wmv and .mpg. The .wmv definitely makes a smaller file with similar (usually better) quality. One other suggestion, analog cable quality was the most important improvement I could make after I bought the ADVC. I was amazed how much difference a $20 set of RCA component cables made (vs. the cheap set I received with the VCR). I am considering spending more bux and buying a much better set.
I have tried other capture proggy's but I keep coming back to Windows Movie Maker.
My captures have absolutely no dropped frames, and the animation is as smooth as glass. Improved cables got rid of most of the grain.
As I said, my captures are not as good as the originals, but they are very close, and my captures will not deteriorate over the years.
Converting from .wmv or .mpg to DVD was another whole education in itself..............
unutt |
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jmplep
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-22
[BBR]_JMPLEP
clubs:
| Canopus is a name I am starting to see alot, while we were trying to hold out for the igital originals, it looks like we are going to have to purchase our own equipment.
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First Lieutenant, 1st Platoon [BBR]JMPLEP America's Army |
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Mick1
join:2001-04-22
San Jose, CA
edit:
December 27th, @09:57PM
| reply to jmplep
I got a HP computer that came with an ati all in wonder 9000 card. It got a slot to connect the video/audio inputs from TV/VCR/DVD.
The software let me select different kinds of formats to save the movie.
Here's a sample of what it can do.
»members.aol.com/mickey8637/priva···ovie.wmv
the quality from the VHS tape wasn't good to begin with. I think I must have recorded it more than 10 years ago. |
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