DVD Transfer & Authoring?

[cgskippy]

Master Thread for questions on VHS > DVD Transfers & DVD Authoring


'm going to be in possession very soon of a few low generation phish videos and would like to attempt a dvd conversion and authoring. I've done some research about capture devices and standalone burners but there seems to be potential problems with dropped frames and overall quality of the conversion. If someone could lead me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Please keep in mind that i don't have thousands of $ here to throw around. Thanks, cgs

info:http://www.digitalfaq.com/aboutus.htm

I second that recommendation. Email the guy that runs the site and you'll find very reasonable rates for VHS>DVD conversion done with great hardware. He did some tapes for me that I was having trouble with and followed my specs closely. It took a little while but for the price I didn't argue. Ironically enough, I upgraded both tapes in the meantime so I shouldn't have gone to the trouble! You will most likely need to do the authoring yourself to stay within your budget but I bet there are some people here who can help you with that for free.

PS - ask for LPCM audio (uncompressed).

[cgskippy]

so the general concensus is have someone else do it? I'm not opposed to that idea as long as the rates are reasonable.

any other thoughts?

[ssamadhi97]

hmpf.. the restoration/preprocessing guides on that page unimpressed me - same goes for the sample video clip on the front page, which is ridden with blended shit frames (ivtc errors I guess) and artifacts galore.

Capturing guides look very good tho, only slight (often irrelevant) inaccuracies here and there and lots of good and interesting information.

Haven't checked the authoring guides yet.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/restoratio...aqservices.htm

[mike1061]

Videohelp.com and cdfreaks.com are my 2 favorite sites. DVD makeing is still not an exact siance (mispelled) yet. Part of the question is how much time do you have, and how much do you want to spend on doing this. A stand alone unit seems to be the easiest cheapist way. This not as acurate as a computer only job. And then there is the combo way (which is what I'm trying to perfect). If you only have 2 shows to do it has to be cheaper to sub it out.
There are many differant things to consider, Stand alone way: Editing, menues, burn quality, media compatabilty. Computer way: re-encoding, burn quality, media compatabilty. Using both, you still have to have burn quailty, editing without re-encoding, and the media compatability issues to sort out.
In any choice you make all of the issues can be worked out, but you have to read, learn, and test. All take time and money.
Thanks Mike

[scottyb]

What shows are you converting? We should have a thread where people list their projects so we don't duplicate each other's work.

I'm working on 10/22/96 II.

[CMack1481]

I stick with my Canopus mmmmmm best gadget ever!

Originally Posted by CMack1481

I stick with my Canopus mmmmmm best gadget ever!

Which one do you have?

.

[cgskippy]

thanks for the advice. i have some time and some money to spend on this but i wanted to see what the right approach is. looks like there's a few different ones. i'll have to look at prices for standalones and see if it's worth it. maybe i'll sub these 2 out and try to do the editting myself and start with that. it's 8/16/98 and 12/30/98, both partials. and if all goes well, maybe 12/13/97 and 11/29/97 also. these probably aren't the most watchable videos but they are low gens of pretty rare videos. i guess i should watch them to see if they're worth converting first!

[outpostnorth]

you should send 12.13.97 and 11.29.97 to me once you get the video on dvd. i'll sync and author them for you. what gen are those two? those are the most rare by far and i would be happy to do them.

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by CMack1481

I stick with my Canopus mmmmmm best gadget ever!

Couldn't agree more... I have an ADVC-55, which cost me £145. It's very reliable and never drops a frame or loses sync (and my computer isn't the fastest). If you read through the reviews of Canopus products at Videohelp.com, very few people seem to have problems with them.

Originally Posted by cgskippy

I'm going to be in possession very soon of a few low generation phish videos and would like to attempt a dvd conversion and authoring. I've done some research about capture devices and standalone burners but there seems to be potential problems with dropped frames and overall quality of the conversion. If someone could lead me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated. Please keep in mind that i don't have thousands of $ here to throw around. Thanks, cgs

if you have a digital camcorder with analog-to-DV pass through, that will work, and provides excellent quality results.

if not, two words: Canpus capture card. i haven't personally tested their realtime MPEG-2 capturing cards, but any of their analog-to-DV capture cards work fabulously (i belive all of them have the same chip for converting analog video to DV, so there's not much sense in getting their most expensive model with all the bells & whistles, unless that's what you really want). their ADVC-100 is a very popular model. there's a device by a different company, which is basically the exact same as the Canopus ADVC-100, called the Datavideo DAC-100. the only real differences between these two models are this: the Canopus model has an "audio/video sync lock" switch, and the Canopus costs a good chunk more.

but don't be misleaded into thinking you need the audio/video sync lock... DV (Digital Video .AVI file format), inherently, keeps audio/video synchronized (provided it's in sync on the source video, of course). so i wouldn't say the Canopus ADVC-100 is worth an extra $50+ just for that feature. i used the DAC-100 to capture a good 30 VHS tapes, and never had any problems with audio/video synchronization.

in using these types of capture devices, all you do then is encode the video to MPEG-2 and extract the PCM (WAV) audio... then, if you must, convert it to AC3, and author the DVD. it's a several step process to go from VHS > DVD, but easy once you get your routine of it down pat.

if you only have a handful of videos you want converted, I'd avise looking around and seeing if someone's willing to do it for you. but if you have a ton of tapes, then i can understand putting close to $200 into buying a capture device and converting your VHS tapes.

hope this helps.

Originally Posted by h_vargas

Canpus capture card. i haven't personally tested their realtime MPEG-2 capturing cards, but any of their analog-to-DV capture cards work fabulously (i belive all of them have the same chip for converting analog video to DV, so there's not much sense in getting their most expensive model with all the bells & whistles, unless that's what you really want). their ADVC-100 is a very popular model. there's a device by a different company, which is basically the exact same as the Canopus ADVC-100, called the Datavideo DAC-100. the only real differences between these two models are this: the Canopus model has an "audio/video sync lock" switch, and the Canopus costs a good chunk more.

I use a Canopus ADVC-100, which is an external hardware converter. I like the idea of having a dedicated device outside the computer for converting the video rather than a PCI card. Connect your VCR s-video out to the Canopus box, which then connects to the PC using a firewire port. Free capture software is available or you can use several different applications to capture and render the video.

I would recommend this over a standalone burner due to the increased flexibility in editing and filtering when needed.

Another expense to consider is your playback deck - it is critical for getting the highest-quality capture. I bought a JVC HR-S9800U just for this purpose and it is a big improvement over your average VCR... you have lots of options to get the best possible output, and a built in time-based corrector, essential for encoding generated VHS tapes.