capturing processes

[Guest]

I have tried a couple of differant ways of capturing VHS video of old family movies and would lke to know why one way comes out clearer than the other. When I "record direct to DVD" using My DVD the results are much better than when I capture with Showbiz or Movie Mill and then edit it with Movie Maker and then burn to DVD it using My DVD. Why is that? Am I going through to many differant processes using the second way? Is there a better way to capture it so I that I can still edit and get better results? I have also tried capturing with Showbiz and then recoding to DVD without menus and it still is not as good as "record direct to DVD" using My DVD.
Thanks,Tim

 

[Dave W]

Hello,

Your video is getting multiple compressions either during
capture, or during the saving process after editing with
MM2. The file is compressed again when you bring the file
into My DVD to burn your DVD.

Suggest that you capture the VHS video to MM2 using DV-
AVI option only. Note that you will need lots of hard
drive space, approximately 13GB per hour of video. Then
you can edit the video with MM2. Save to your computer,
again using the DV-AVI save option only. Then import the
DV-AVI file into My DVD. My DVD will convert the file to
MPEG2 format, but this will be the only compression
involed. This technique will give you video quality
results similar to "record direct to DVD".

Dave

-----Original Message-----
I have tried a couple of differant ways of capturing VHS

video of old family movies and would lke to know why one
way comes out clearer than the other. When I "record
direct to DVD" using My DVD the results are much better
than when I capture with Showbiz or Movie Mill and then
edit it with Movie Maker and then burn to DVD it using My
DVD. Why is that? Am I going through to many differant
processes using the second way? Is there a better way to
capture it so I that I can still edit and get better
results? I have also tried capturing with Showbiz and
then recoding to DVD without menus and it still is not as
good as "record direct to DVD" using My DVD.

 

[Bob [MVP]]

Tim,

Yup. Dave W is right on the money. Just to
add to what he said...

Your PC may not have the required hardware to
capture from an analog source such as a VCR
to DV-AVI video. The fact that you've used
Movie Mill tells me that your capture card
is MPEG-2 -- not DV-AVI.

If you happen to own a digital camcorder
with an IEEE-1394 port (FireWire/iLink),
you may able to use that in passthrough mode
so you can capture from your analog VCR to
your PC in DV-AVI format.

If your editing only consists of simple
cuts (no transistions or effects), then
there are MPEG-2 editors that you could
use that would allow you to edit your
movie without any additional quality loss.
I use TMPGEnc DVD Author to edit captured
MPEG-2 video, and burn to DVD.

--
-Bob
____________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
www.microsoft.com/ehome

 

[Guest]

I have tried to capture the VHS video with my Sony digital camcorder with an IEEE-1394 port (FireWire/iLink)
in passthrough mode with Movie Maker and My DVD and I keep getting an error that says "there is no tape in the Dv device" and then it will not capture the video.

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

Have you checked with Sony's site to see whether it suports pass through?
Not all do. If not it just means an extra step of actually recording it to
tape and then capture to MM2 from the cam.
As an extra piece of information. Encoding of mpeg2 for dvd has no std
settings (a range) and the variety of encoders that you can get is
considerable and this can also make quite a difference to the finsihed
product.

Graham

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.simplydv.co.uk

I have tried to capture the VHS video with my Sony digital camcorder with

an IEEE-1394 port (FireWire/iLink),

in passthrough mode with Movie Maker and My DVD and I keep getting an

error that says "there is no tape in the Dv device" and then it will not
capture the video.

 

[Guest]

Yes the camera does have passthrough, I checked that before I bought it. But I am still getting that error if I try to capture with it
Tim

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

MM2 doesn't support pass-thru. But Microsoft has a utility that will work
with it for that purpose. There's a link to it on the Problem Solving >
Checklist page of my site.... it's the 3rd paragraph in the section about
'.....Limitations....'

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..

Yes the camera does have passthrough, I checked that before I bought it.

But I am still getting that error if I try to capture with it.

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Most who use it report positive results.... I've only tried it once to
verify it worked.

I know that it's important that the camera settings are aligned.... per your
manual. And that you follow the right sequence of steps in setting up the
hardware and turning things on.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..

Thanks PappaJohn, I read that on your website and downloaded it a few days

ago and it didn't do anything to help. What is that utilty suppose to do
because I am still getting the same error message? I think the passthrough
is supposed to work with Showbiz but I am having the the same problem with
that also. Any idea how to get this to work?