Window Movie Maker said:
I am not getting good audio or video qualitly recording from my vcr to my
hard drive using Window Video Maker. I do get good video when recoding a
tv
program though. I have watched these vhs videos on my tv and they look
great. I have tried all the options with Windows Movie Maker with no
luck.
Could you please help me with this process as i would like to record all
my
home vhs movies and and make DVD's.
Thank you Ronald J. Maruska
It's a known issue with any capture software and the transcoding
of VHS. Have a read here of the basic's of VHS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS#VHS_vs._Betamax
The bottomline is that though the NTSC system is 525 line's.
and PAL/Secam is 625 line's, only a max of 486 lines (NTSC)
and 576 lines (PAL/Secam) actually carry video content.
The VHS format then in turn can only result in an absolute max
line resolution of 240 scan'd line's. (and dispite mythology neither
Betamax nor V2000 performed any better.)
That's the end line, VHS does not transfer well into the digital
world. The Hi-Res digital format only serves to show up the
short comming's in the VHS format.
Whatever method you adopt, the result will always be low
resolution and a washed out jaded appearance.
VHS is best left to be played back on VHS machines.
If it is a valued personal video clip collection that you want
to preserve, there are numerous professional "upscaling"
services - none are cheap. And the results at best are
only a marginal improvement on the results you already get.
The only tweaks that you can perorm with any viabilty are
the connections you use, S-Video is better than composite
for transfering signals. If you are Stateside, then you do not
benefit from Scart/Peritel 21 pin connection.
But anyone in Europe, there is Miglia's Director's cut device:
http://www.miglia.com/products/video/dcscart/index.html
This is based on professional kit, it takes the pure analog
feed from the scart/peritel output and converts to DV, and
connects to the PC's firewire port....... But it ain't cheap!
Alternatively, if you own a DV camcorder you could use
"pass through" to convert an S-Video or composite feed
to DV, and capture via PC's firewire input.
Again, the caution being.........the source is VHS!
Another alternative is to invest in a VHS/DVD recorder,
I've only posted this link to this specific unit as it is currently
the cheapest of the ilk in UK: ALL the major brands produce
such kit - check forums for others opinions on the results:
http://www.daewoo-electronics.co.uk/gb/products/av_dvd_combiplayer.htm