Ripping VHS video to disk - what software?

N

neuby

Registered
I have several videos that I would like to 'convert' into DVD's using my dvd burner. I have never done it, but the school I work at has the necessary cables etc. and can capture via imovie, but the tech there says the resolution is crap - 640X480.

Is it possible to capture the video stream without suffering compression losses, and resolution losses? Do I need a better software product, or is this a bust?

ADVthanksANCE
 
If you have a DVCamcorder you can pass it through there and then to your computer through firewire. Use iMovie to pull it on to the computer and then ffmpeg to convert it to mpeg2 and create the dvd.
 
Hmm - we do have the equiptment, but I thought imovie would only 'grab' it at low resolution. Is this not true? Can Imovie grab it at a resolution that will allow playback without gross looking losses/artifacts?
 
I never used iMovie, I can't imagine the quality being bad, unless it is something like FCPs feature to capture low quality, do your editing, then recapture only the footage used after your editing later. I did the bypass to capture from television, but honestly, it will look like crap anyway. It's not as sharp as what you will capture direct from a camcorder, it might be worse than what you will capture from TV. Actually vhs has a 320 X 240 resolution, you will notice it on a monitor, not as much on a TV. I plan to start capturing my favorite Seinfeld shows, because I'm tired of waiting for the dvd collection to be released.
 
640x480 is actually a decent resolution for video capture. VHS is not very good quality to begin with.

I think Hugheba's idea to use a camcorder with video/audio in and iMovie is a good one. Of course, FinalCut Pro would be much more powerful. It's also $1000.

Doug
 
Ok, am going to give it a whirl with the DV camcorder tomorrow. Will post back how it goes.

So what will Final cut offer that imovie doesn't? Will the native capture algorithms be 'better' different, or is it $1,000 for feature bloat? All I am lookiing for is a simple capture, then import to iDVD, then burn em. I want to be able to break the video stream down into chapters in the DVD, but that is about it.

Will post back when I have one completed - just to let you know how it turned out.

Thanks for your input.

PS, can iDVD do prgressive burns, or is it a one time shot - ie one 'project' per DVD?
 
FCP offers a whole hell of a lot more than iMovie. It is a professional product, with many advantages over iMovie. Check out the features on the official FCP page, listed above.
 
iMovie captures video and stores it in DV format. This is a very high bandwidth format and very little quality is lost.

There are several exports formats that change the file size and quality of your final iMovie project.

If you're using iDVD to create your DVD's, just choose the export to iDVD feature, otherwise choose export to Quicktime with the Full Quality DV setting. This will give the minimal loss of quality before you convert to MPEG2.

FCP is a bit different, there are several capture profiles that can be set. You want to choose an NTSC DV capture format ( if in North America ). This will save your captured video in DV format. You can also use the latest FCP to export to MPEG2.

Using the guidelines above the real quality is going to depend on the source VHS tape. Behind that the bandwidth settings of your MPEG2 compressor will also affect the quality of your final DVD.
 
640 x 480 is actually the standard resolution for most tvs (excluding HD and newer 16:9 ratio sets). I didn't believe it either, until I ran a 640 x 480 .mov on my tv screen - it plays at full screen, and looks perfect...or at least as perfect as the tv screen can look, compared to your computer display.

really, it's all about the quality of the original tape itself.
 
well I was saying vhs has a quality of 320 X 240, which is lower than TV, not what the actual resolution for TV is, if you transfer it to VHS, it will lose quality, which is very noticeable.
 
NTSC video is an (analog) waveform, not a digital bitmap. I believe it has 525 vertical lines, interlaced. So, 640x480 + overscan (filling out the whole image all the way to the edges of the TV) is a good fit when converting to television video.

I've heard that if you use a USB 1.1 video capture product, the limited bandwidth slaughters the video quality. But I've never used anything like that.

neuby: Is it possible that your school has USB capture equipment?

Doug
 
Neuby, you may be interested in Final Cut Express. It offers many of the features of FCP at a much-reduced price of $300. And it can import VHS easily.
 
Finalized the project last night. Ripped through the DV to imovie, then parsed it and passed it do idvd. Burned it overnight, and showed it in class today. No problems, and the quality was fine. Audio was a bit weak, but I have a good amp, and could turn it up enough to be heard.

The only issues I noted were that idvd has a limit of 90 minutes on a dvd - I don't know why - many dvd movies on a single disk are longer than that, and at a higher resolution (HD). Must be a copy protection thing. Also, the burn time was a limiting factor, it declared 232 minutes to burn, so I did it overnight. Not a big deal, but it does take some management.

Off to my next project.
 
Good to hear your project went well. As far as the DVD, the one you used are not like the ones you buy with your favorite movie on them.
 
That i don't know, but you have to consider the movie DVD are pressed, not burned, a totally different process. DVD reads very tiny bits, which a burner might not be able to accurately reproduce. Thats my guess. But the new blue laser DVD might change all that as soon as they agree on a standard..
 
iDVD will compress the .mov to mpeg2 for a 60 minute DVD. It will use a higher compression mpeg when you exceed that length (up to 90 minutes). It will not do any higher compression so >90 minutes is out of the question for iDVD. You'd need DVD Studio Pro or another app that has a higher compression available. You could also use a double-sided DVD and burn your project as "two half-length" projects on one DVD.
 
CORRECTION! I just visited our Yahoo iMovie group site and discovered almost the same question. Here is the message with the question -and- the answer how to hack a file in order to set whatever encoding bitrate you need:

I have a 65 minute iMovie which I hope to use in iDVD3's "60 minute" mode.

I remember others mentioning to hack the ProjectData file in TextEdit,
I cannot locate the part of the ProjectData file (it is huge) that allows
me to alter the setting nor the emails that others have shared to
specifically do this.

I know iDVD encodes "60 minutes or less" movies at 8mbs, and I am hoping
that I can lower this bitrate slightly for my 65 minute movie or perhaps
use the 90 minute mode (5 mbs) but raise the encoding rate to get better
quality for this length of movie.



To: "Macintosh Digital Video List"_ <MacDV@lists.themacintoshguy.com>


From: Erica Sadun <erica@mindspring.com>




Subject: Did it. (Encoding iDVDs at a lower bitrate)
Cc:


Bcc:




Attachments:


So, out of curiousity, I decided to take a break from
writing and see if I could make iDVD encode at the
bitrate I desired.

I edited the ProjectData file from the project (without
iDVD running)

_<key>Bit Rate</key>
__ <dict>
___ <key>Is modifiable</key>
___ <string>1</string>
___ <key>Max value</key>
___ <string>9800000</string>
___ <key>Min value</key>
___ <string>2000000</string>
___ <key>Order</key>
___ <string>20</string>
___ <key>Property name</key>
___ <string>Bit Rate</string>
___ <key>Property persistent name</key>
___ <string>Bit Rate</string>
___ <key>Property type</key>
___ <string>3</string>
___ <key>Value</key>
___ <string>2000000</string>
__ </dict>

I enabled background encoding, adding a short movie and
sure enough, (after extracting the file from the project
file MPEG folder):

/Users/ericasadun/Desktop/MPEGS/try1.m2v
_ Mpeg 2 Video File
_ Estimated Duration: 06.15s
_ Aspect ratio 4/3 (TV)
_ Interlaced, chroma format: 4:2:0
_ Video Format: NTSC
_ Size [720 x 480]____ 29.97 fps___ 2.00 Mbps


I got the 2.0 Mbps that I requested.

-- Erica
 
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