Hi I have been trying alot of things to transfer my old vhs tapes to DVD and have great equipment, but still am not happy with the results! First here is the equipment I use or have used and the type of PC I am using. PC: P4 2.8ghz Prescott 2.0GB Ram 400GB of hard disk(200 SATA for Video) radeon 9800 pro lg4040b DVD writer Canopus advc50 and firewire card Sima video stablizer O.K. I can easily capture to my hard disk with my canopus card and it looks graet on my PC. I have used everything from mainconcept,windows movie maker and visedo studio 7 and also scenealyszer live to capture with. 2.) I then encode it with Mainconcept encoder ot tmpge usally into 16x9 because I have a 65inch TV.I also make sure to deinterlace. 3.) the authoring is not a problem i ussaly use tmpge dvd authorer. My main issue is the video seems to lose some color when on DVD and watched on my big screen.Also it seems alot grainer and lower quality than the orignal vhs tape. I expect a small loss of quality, but what I see on my Tv is significant. Is there any software that can enhance quality of a dv video file. Also does anyone know how to create AC3 audio or dolby digital from a vhs. Also the video seems to lose some texture. How do pro's get such crisp picture? What tool's can be used to enhance picture quality and filter the video? Why does my Tv display great vhs quality,but when put on dvd it looks terible? I don't care about editing I just need help on how to encode high quality and increase the picture crispness so it doesn't look so dull? An expert settings to use in Mainconcept would be appreciated or someone who would help guide me through trial an error. ex. I try a variety of different settings until I get it right, but the default on mainconcept doesn't seem to cut it. I have tried double pass encoding and it seems to be a waste of time because the quality is no better and it takes twice the time. Any help would be appreciated. I think I really need video enhancing software that cleans the dv file up. Thanks
Is your 65in TV a HDTV or is it just a Regular Big screen TV?? If it is a Regular Bigscreen TV and Not a HDTV then the Quality will Look worse on it than it would on a Smaller TV because you are Spreading the same ammount of Pixels over a wider area so the Quality will Look worse unless you are Sitting very far away from the TV... Another thing is that VHS Tapes have the Resolution of 352+240 and when you are Captureing to 720+480 the Image gets resized to 720+480 which reduces the Detail in the Image.... If the Captured Video Looks good on your PC but looks Bad after you have encoded it to Mpeg2 for DVD then the Problem could be that you haven"t set up the Encoder to encode to the Highest Quality... When useing the MainConcept Encoder Make sure you set the "Search Range" and "Search Method" to the Highest Settings, and Enable Line Filtering if you are Working with Interlaced Footage ,And you Might get a slightly better result if you Put the Gop Length from 15 frames down to 12 frames... If you know how to use AVI Synth you should use it to Add a Couple Noise Filters and maybe a Sharpen Filter to clean up any Backround Noise and Frame serve the File to the encoder.... You should Get a High Quality editing Program with a couple Effects/Filter Packages to help clean up the Image before encodeing to Mpeg2...I use "Vegas Video 5" or "Adobe Premier Pro 1.5" and I can clean up some of the Backround Noise and Sharpen the Image and Brighten or Darken the Image and adjust the Colors quite well with it but I still Find that AVISynth has better Noise Filters but it is Quite Complex to learn because it uses a Scripting Language to implement it"s features and this Language or Code is Hard to learn...... Well if you need any Help just message me and I"ll try to help out the best I can, I work as a Video editor when I am On contract so i know quite a Bit about digital video so I can help you out with some of this stuff.....Cheers PS: You might not want to De-Interlace because De-Interlaceing makes you Loose Half of the Video Information because it dropps One of the Fields.. (unless you are useing an Adaptive de-interlacer which only de-interlaces were there are artifacts)... So you might get better quality without it and any Interlace artifacts you see on your PC Monitor should not show up on your TV because your TV is Made to display Interlaced Video were your PC Monitor is Not... And if you Feel You must de-interlace then use a De-Interlace Filter that doesn"t Remove one Field Like an adaptive de-interlacer or a Field Blending De-interlacer..... _X_X_X_X_X_[small]It"s better to be Pissed Off than Pissed On!!![/small]
Thanks Minion I have a 65inch hitachi ultravision rear projection HDTV. It has 1080i and a 520p feature for viewing if that helps. I will try your advice with mainconcept encoder. I have tried to use av synth before, but it is hard is there any way I could get a template from you? Then all I would have to do is learn how to reference the file. Also do you know where there is any info on how to use avsynth? I would rather someone give me a template so I don't mess anything up. For now I will try to capture with scenalyzer and then use Main concept on the highest setting with line filtering enabled and deinterlacing off. Also I will fix the gob rate. If this does not work can i leave this thread open or private message you? I hope I finally can get to the bottom of this. Also is it ok to encode into 16x9 from avhs tape. The problem I have is my tv has a 4:3 expanded setting for tapes,but it does not work on DVD's. I really can't stand gray or black bars on the tv unless they are small and zooming in ruins the video. Thanks, I will try this later and get back to you
Hi ,You can Change the Gop Length in the MainConcept by going to the Advanced settings and under "Gop Structure" I frames is usually set to 15, Change it to 12 ,This just adds More I frames which are Less compressed but of Higher Quality.... You can get Info on AVISynth at "http://www.avisynth.org" it is a Bit complicated to learn... Here is a Sample Script that you can use for encodeing that will clean up some of the Noise... LoadPlugin("C:\AVISynth Plugins\undot.dll") LoadPlugin("C:\AVISynth Plugins\Convolution3d.dll") AVIsource("C:\Sample.avi") ConvertToYV12() Undot() Convolution3d("movielq") Sharpen(0.85) You will need to have the Latest Version of AVISynth Installed and the "Undot.dll" Plugin and the "Convolution3D.dll" Plugin in a Folder on your PC and you will have to edit the Script so that it Points to the Plugin directory and to your AVI file.. I will try to explain what each Line of the Script does... The First 2 Lines Load the Plugins that you are going to use, so make sure that they point to the Correct directory.... The Third Line Points to your Source AVI file... The Fourth Line Converts the Colorspace of your AVI file to YV12 cuz these Plugins need the source file to be in either YUY2 or YV12 Colorspace and if your AVI file uses a Different Colorspace Like RGB you will get an error... The Fifth Line enables the Undot.dll" plugin which cleans up any Static Dots or Noise that might appear.. The Sixth Like enabled the Convolution3D.dll Plugin which is an all Purpose Noise Filter.... The Last Line Sharpens the Image which is needed because the Other Filters have a Tendancy to Blurr the Image a Bit and this clears it up.... You just write the Script on to a Piece of Notepad and name the Notepad File with a ".avs" extention like "Movie.avs" and then Load it into your Encoder.. I just realized something, the MainConcept Encoder doesn"t seem to like AVISynth files, It will load them But only produce a Blank Mpeg file so if you PM me with your E-mail address I might be able to hook you up with a different encoder that will work with AVISynth files.... Cheers PS: Yes there shouldn"t be any problem encodeing your AVI Movies useing the 16:9 aspect ratio....Cheers
o.k. I have avsynth installed and the plugins referenced corectly. The only thing I am not sure of is do I change the name of my movie file to .avs or do I just reference it in the script and load the text file that I named .avs in to the encoder. The reason I ask is I have the file properly referenced, but it keeps saying script error line three. I was going to try it with tmpge encoder, and the plugins load it is the file I am confused about. thanks
Another question minion does avsynth work with DV type 1 files because that is what my canopus outputs. Also I read that to fix this you replace avisource with directshowsource. I tried this and it just about worked. Now it says unregonized exception line 6! I have line 6 the same as above so do I enter something other than "movielg" in this space. Also i have gotten the error of could not locate decompresser for fourcc dvsd? I am close to geting it to work, but it does not seem to like my dv1 file. Thanks
Well I don"t know if it will work on Type 1 DV Files..I know if you use Scenalizer Live to Capture it will give you the option to Capture Type 2 DV Files, you can also use something called the "Canopus Format Converter" to convert Type 1 to Type 2... If you are Haveing a problem with the "Convolution3d.dll" part of the Script then replace the Plugin with this one: LoadPlugin("C:\Plugins\FluxSmooth.dll") And use this Line for Line 6: FluxSmooth(7,7) You can also Try useing the line To load your Type 1/2 DV File.... OpenDMLSource("C:\Movie File.avi") If you have quite a Bit of Disk space and don"t want to convert the Type 1 to Type 2 because of the Possibility of Quality Loss then you can try Converting the Type 1 DV to AVI useing the "HuffYUV" codec...The HuffYUV Codec is a 100% lossless AVI Codec so there is Never any Quality loss going from one Format to the HuffYUV format, the Only Problem with HuffYUV is that it will suck up about 450mb of disk space for every minute of Video...You should also have a couple Type 2 DV Codecs and at least one VFW Type 2 DV Codec Like the MainConcept DV Codec, if you need one let me know and I"ll send you a couple... As for Createing Dolby AC3 audio files for DVD authoring you would need a Good Dolby AC3 encoder which are far and few between...What I use to Create Dolby AC3 audio files is "Vegas Video 5 with DVD Architect 2.0" it also creates Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound AC3 files...Another AC3 encoder I sometimes use but only creates Sterio AC3 files is "Tmpgenc Express 3.0" with the Dolby AC3 Plugin.... Cheers
ok minion I have got the encoder and think I got it set up. Is there a way to tell if an avsynth file is working before you load it into the encoder? The only problem I am having the avs not give me a error when I open it with ati media center or windows media 9 player. Also just to make sure I will capture my files in DV2 format and try.
To Check if your AVS files are working use Virtual-Dub... Virtual-Dub-Mpeg2 http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/stable/VirtualDub-MPEG2.zip Just Run Virtual-Dub and then Drag and Drop the .avs file into V-Dub and it is shows a Picture then you Know that it works....You can In see it in CCE also by Clicking the "Settings" Button at the Top of the setting screen and then double Click your Files name in the Window and a screen will pop up with your File Displayed in it and if you can see it then you know it will work.......Cheers
ok i am getting very close this time I figured out how to use the codecs you sent they work great thanks no more errors. There is only one problem I had to chand the convulsion3d to the flux plugin and now a avs file will load. The only problem is that is there is no video only audio. Also is dv 1 or dv2 a better format since they will both work now because of the codecs? Also I think I have an issue with cce because it has no setting tabs it just opens to a small screen that has File Options Template Help listed and once you load the file it has an encode button and exit button. If i missed something email me or is this all it looks like?Do you know why my video is completley black? Thanks Thanks
Yes!!!! It now loads in virtual Dub. Thanks if you have any more hints on filters to add to my avs files to clean them up like before please let me know. I finnally got the hang of this. Thanks a million
