Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Hi. I've seen a lot of posts asking how to convert MPEG, AVI to VHS but
I haven't seen anything for converting VHS to MPEG, AVI. Maybe because
its obvious, I don't know, not to me.

My story is this, my uncle is a bassist and he was playing in Europe a
few years ago and brought back a VHS recording of a night he was
performing at a jazz concert. I told him I could convert it to dvd for
him so we could preserve it and show the whole family.

I hadn't really figured how I would do it but I see AVIs people
recorded from TV (Janet at the Superbowl for instance) all the time so
I figured it would be easy. Well I looked in the phone book and all the
services there were charging at least $150 for a straight feed.

I figured I could buy software for that much and do it myself but I
don't know how. I have a VCR, I figure I just need the right video card
and some third-party video software. Any suggestions are most
appreciated. Thanks!

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

On 21 Dec 2004 10:13:05 -0800, "Rapier" <rapier@gmail.com> wrote:
>Hi. I've seen a lot of posts asking how to convert MPEG, AVI to VHS but
>I haven't seen anything for converting VHS to MPEG, AVI. Maybe because
>its obvious, I don't know, not to me.

Here is one solution
http://www.videoguys.com/canopus.htm


John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith

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Rapier <rapier@gmail.com> wrote:
: Hi. I've seen a lot of posts asking how to convert MPEG, AVI to VHS but

Well, I didn't see any MPEG to VHS or AVI to VHS conversion here.

: I haven't seen anything for converting VHS to MPEG, AVI. Maybe because
: its obvious, I don't know, not to me.

Are you sure? Take a more careful look.

Anyway this should be a good start:
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/capture/start.html

And if you have a PAL VHS, you need to capture in PAL and then convert it to
NTSC or just have PAL DVD.

--Leonid

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

First the process is this. VHS to AVI for editing. If you don't want to edit
then simple VHS to MPEG-2 then process the MPEG-2 file to DVD proper.

You need a video capture card or conversion device for input. Such as the
Canopus ADVC models found on the link the other person left before. Your
biggest problem is the tape is PAL and your video standard here in the US,
if that's where you are is NTSC. PAL frame resolution is 25fps and NTSC is
29.97fps. PAL is 720x576 and NTSC is 720x480.

You may capture the PAL video using PAL settings, but you cannot use the
NTSC settings for capture or output. Even though a device for capture is
both NTSC and PAL compliant does not mean it will mix the two standards in
editing or output in any form.

You should have the tape run off to NTSC before you start banging you head
on the wall trying to do this project. $150 for straight feed as you put it,
is not really so much when you consider the people who can do it have a lot
of money invested in the equipment to allow the process to happen. Sure, you
can go buy some cheap capture option for that price. The thing is you still
have the stumbling block of the differing video standards. This is where
spending more money, in whatever area it may be - hardware/software or
services, comes into play. It's all very easy to imagine this is an easy and
inexpensive task when looking at the options with a layman's eyes. It's
really a little more technical than you think.

At one point in time Canopus had a software PAL to NTSC, NTSC to PAL
conversion software and would only convert Canopus encoded video files. I
don't know if it is still available or not. I can't remember seeing it there
the last time I logged into the registered user site. In any event, the last
I heard the software was around $300. My advice is to convert the tape first
and then embark on the capture/edit/DVD encoding process after that.

Larry Johnson
Digital Video Solutions
webmaster@digitalvideosolutions.com
http://www.digitalvideosolutions.com
877-227-6281 Toll Free Sales Assistance
386-672-1941 Customer Service
386-672-1907 Technical Support
386-676-1515 Fax

"Rapier" <rapier@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1103652785.427736.209920@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Hi. I've seen a lot of posts asking how to convert MPEG, AVI to VHS but
> I haven't seen anything for converting VHS to MPEG, AVI. Maybe because
> its obvious, I don't know, not to me.
>
> My story is this, my uncle is a bassist and he was playing in Europe a
> few years ago and brought back a VHS recording of a night he was
> performing at a jazz concert. I told him I could convert it to dvd for
> him so we could preserve it and show the whole family.
>
> I hadn't really figured how I would do it but I see AVIs people
> recorded from TV (Janet at the Superbowl for instance) all the time so
> I figured it would be easy. Well I looked in the phone book and all the
> services there were charging at least $150 for a straight feed.
>
> I figured I could buy software for that much and do it myself but I
> don't know how. I have a VCR, I figure I just need the right video card
> and some third-party video software. Any suggestions are most
> appreciated. Thanks!
>

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Digital Video Solutions <video@digitalvideosolutions.com> wrote:
: I heard the software was around $300. My advice is to convert the tape first
: and then embark on the capture/edit/DVD encoding process after that.

I don't think this is a good idea. You're suggesting to record a PAL VHS to
an NTSC VHS and then capture NTSC VHS? The quality is lost here during the
conversion and during the copy from one to another. If you're suggesting to
find a VCR that can output NTSC off of PAL VHS, it's not a good idea either.
The quality suffers. I have such VCR called Samsung that converts on the
fly. The quality is not so good. The motions are jerky. My advice would be
to buy a multi-system DVD player that can handle both PAL and NTSC formats AND
I would also highly recommend buying a multi-system TV. But I guess it's all
expensive.

The second best option is to capture into AVI format in PAL. Then to use
AVISynth (see the link to the analog TV capture guide I provided) to convert
PAL to NTSC.

--Leonid

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

I´d suggest you get the DVD Xpress unit from ADS Tech. It´s USB 2.0
so any recent computer with USB 2.0 ports supports it. And for the
current below-$100 price, it´s quite a deal.

Second advantage: it´s a _hardware_ MPEG2 encoder, which means the
conversion from analog video to digital is done on-chip inside the
external device, rather than using your CPU (no re-encoding or
post-processing needed, the video arrives as MPEG2 before entering the
computer, the only task the recording software has to do is fetch the
data from the device and save it to hard disk).

Here´s the device:
DVD Xpress 2.0 (USB 2.0 version) by ADS Tech
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ [...] witem06-20

Third, I advise you to forget the bundled Ulead video editing program
and once you have the video captured as a MPEG2 (.mpg) file on hard
disk, you might want to give VideoRedo a try. It´s useful for cutting
any segments you might want to leave out, without re-encoding. See my
article below:

VideoRedo brings fast MPEG1, MPEG2 video chopping
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20305

Oh, did I say that the ADSTech DVD Xpress supports both PAL and NTSC
video as the input source? You´d only need a pal VHS player for
playback, and hooking video and audio-out from the vcr to the ADSTech
DVD Xpress device.

Works for me. I´m in the process of converting my vhs archive to
digital with this hardware/software combo. Once you have dvd-quality
MPEG2 (or vcd-quality MPEG1) files in your computer you can do anything
you want with the video. Burn to DVD-R, burn to cd-rom, convert from
mpeg to avi using any of the thousands of freeware or shareware
utilities out there, etcetera.

Just my $0.02
Regards
Fernando

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Sure, the ADS unit does what you say. The problem is PAL versus NTSC
standard. You cannot capture PAL and output that stream to NTSC whether it
is to DVD or any other video stream.

Whatever unit Leonid was speaking of did a terrible job of conversion. There
are professional decks, and not those Leonid spoke of which are consumer
grade, which do a very good job of conversion from PAL to NTSC.

<fcassia@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1103690920.698139.167090@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
I´d suggest you get the DVD Xpress unit from ADS Tech. It´s USB 2.0
so any recent computer with USB 2.0 ports supports it. And for the
current below-$100 price, it´s quite a deal.

Second advantage: it´s a _hardware_ MPEG2 encoder, which means the
conversion from analog video to digital is done on-chip inside the
external device, rather than using your CPU (no re-encoding or
post-processing needed, the video arrives as MPEG2 before entering the
computer, the only task the recording software has to do is fetch the
data from the device and save it to hard disk).

Here´s the device:
DVD Xpress 2.0 (USB 2.0 version) by ADS Tech
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ [...] witem06-20

Third, I advise you to forget the bundled Ulead video editing program
and once you have the video captured as a MPEG2 (.mpg) file on hard
disk, you might want to give VideoRedo a try. It´s useful for cutting
any segments you might want to leave out, without re-encoding. See my
article below:

VideoRedo brings fast MPEG1, MPEG2 video chopping
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20305

Oh, did I say that the ADSTech DVD Xpress supports both PAL and NTSC
video as the input source? You´d only need a pal VHS player for
playback, and hooking video and audio-out from the vcr to the ADSTech
DVD Xpress device.

Works for me. I´m in the process of converting my vhs archive to
digital with this hardware/software combo. Once you have dvd-quality
MPEG2 (or vcd-quality MPEG1) files in your computer you can do anything
you want with the video. Burn to DVD-R, burn to cd-rom, convert from
mpeg to avi using any of the thousands of freeware or shareware
utilities out there, etcetera.

Just my $0.02
Regards
Fernando

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

fcassia@gmail.com wrote:
: I?d suggest you get the DVD Xpress unit from ADS Tech. It?s USB 2.0
: so any recent computer with USB 2.0 ports supports it. And for the
: current below-$100 price, it?s quite a deal.

: Second advantage: it?s a _hardware_ MPEG2 encoder, which means the

Recording in Huffyuv AVI and then software conversion to MPEG-2 *afterwards*
gives much better quality than encoding to MPEG-2 on the fly be it h/w or s/w
encoding.

--Leonid