VHS Tapes to DVD

I will have to look tonight after I get home. I misstated when I said copy guard, it is for "macrovision" which is similar.

 

automch : That Distorted Line at the top or botton of the capture when captureing from VHS Tapes is actually allways there and there is No way to get rid of it accept to Crop it out of the Picture...
It is caused from the Tape Head on the VCR Makeing contact with the VHS Tape the only reason you don"t see it when you are watching the VHS tape on your TV is because your TV has an overscan area arround the Image so the Line doesn"t show up when watching on TV...
Generally you should not see the Line if you make a DVD From this captured file because of the Overscan area on your TV but if you want you can Crop the Distorted Line out of the Image but you would need to re-encode the File to do that, some Capture software will let you Crop the Image while captureing....good luck

 

Thanks for the reply Minion. You seem to be the most knowledgible on this subject! However this isn't just a line or 2 at the top or bottom, the top 2 inches will pull at 45 degree angle. It does show on the DVD and it is unwatchable. Tracking does nothing to change it other than add some snow lines at the bottom or top. Maybe this gives you more of an idea of what I'm experiencing. Thanks for the help.

 

Do you get the same effect when Captureing a TV signal??
Does it happen with every Video tape or just certain ones???
Have you tried useing a Different VCR???

 

I've tried 4 different VCRs. One was very old and predated the macrovision. I was told that it would do the trick but it didn't. I am considering a Sima CCS-2, but it's a lot of money to just try. I was hoping others had seen this same prob.

 

Well Macrovision will screw up the Vertical Sync so you get white lines going through the picture and the Image will go from dark to Bright....
For removeing Macrovision from VHS tapes you don"t need anything fancy, you can use a simple $20 Video Stabilizer for VHS tapes...If you were captureing from DVD or Lazer disk then something like the Sima Copy Master would be needed....
I have used the Same Defeat macrovision Patch for All In Wonder cards and it worked for me 90% of the time but on a couple tapes it didn"t work...
Make sure you have the device controlls on your card to capture the Correct type of signal, There is a setting that allows you to set the capture signal to either "NTSC, Or Pal or Secam" so make sure you have it set to the correct one for were you live.....

I have a ATI Radeon Card in my system that I use sometimes for Capture and I have owned a couple others and never had a problem with them and since you getting the same problem with all of the Capture cards you try it seems the Problem isn"t with the Cards but with either the tapes or Copy protection...well good luck

 

A Question for Walker. In a post on this forum on Jan52004 you answered a query about macrovision protection and at end of the first para. you mentioned a build-your-own kit for a video stabilizer from a Canadian outfit. Could you post the URL address of this site as there are about 118,000 adds on Google for vid/stabs, and with a dial-up connection it takes a coons age to search. Thanking you in advance.

 

Minion, i want to buy Canopus ADVC 100, since you said it was better than my BT878 tv tuner. Please tell me if there is anything better than ADVC100. I heard it has perfect sync and no dropped frames. I want to make DVDs from VHS tapes recorded from the TV.

 

There are Other Devices Simular to the ADVC-100 that will produce Better Quality Like the Canopus ADVC-300 or the ADVC-1000 but these devices are Extremely expensive and the Only real differance between the ADVC-100 and the ADVC-300 is that the ADVC-300 has a Bunch of Built in Filters that Clean up Backround Noise and Stabilize the Image but it also costs about $600 and the ADVC-1000 costs like $1500 and a Lot of the Filtering these devices do can Be Done in a Good Editing Program like Canopus Edius or Premier....

I actually prefer the Canopus ACEDVio because it is an Internal PCI card and has all the Same Basic Features as the ADVC-100 and uses the Same DV Compressor Chip and has the same Audio Lock feature so there aren"t any sync problems, The Canopus ACEDVio is actually a Bit cheaper than the ADVC-100 I have seen them on E-Bay for $169 US....
If you want to Capture TV Shows you will have to use the Tuner that is in your VCR or use a Cable Box to tune in the Chanells because these devices do not come with Tuners Built in but it isn"t that much of a Hassle to hook up....

You should have a Fast big Hard drive Just for Video capture because you "Can" drop frames with these devices if your Hard drive is Too slow and captureing to the same Drive as your OS and Programs are installed on might cause this to Happen....

 

I made a name error in my post of 9June2004. The name of the person for whom the post was intended should have been WATCHER, not walker. Sorry Mr. Watcher.

 

Hey Minion,
I been away for a while, mainly reading the Premier 6.0 User's Guide...and ripping/shrinking and burning backups of DVD's...
Well, first of all, we bought the acedvio..nice to see you again state its praises
Tonight, my comment/question is: I demuxed the 28 minute segment/VOB file from wife's DVD, and it created .m2v files...wondered if it's MPEG2 video's initials/file type...but then i tried to import that file into Premiere...and it didn't even see it..indicating it is not importable/compatible with Premiere?
I looked in the manual and it does not seem to say anywhere it can import .m2v.
Is this MPEG2 or not? What am I missing..something basic I'm sure.
I know you'd said I'd need to convert o avi files, edit in Premier, then reencode to MPEG2 using TMPEGEnc or similar (downloaded 30 day trial..how much is full version?), but did younot also say Premier can edit MPEG2? Is ist not same as .m2v file i demuxed?
Thanks in advance,

 

Yes a M2V file is just a Video Only mpeg2 File....
I don"t know about Premier 6 but I know Premier 6.5 and Premier Pro 7 and Premier Pro 1.5 do accept Mpeg2 files ...
You also must have a Mpeg2 decoder installed on your System for Premier to be able to read Mpeg2 files...

I have the MainConcept Mpeg Pro Plugin for Premier Pro installed which allows for Native Mpeg editing in Premier but I could load Mpeg2 files into Premier before installing the Plugin....

So make sure you have a Mpeg2 decoder installed and if you still can not load the File into Premier Try renameing the M2V file to Mpg and see if that works and if it still doesn"t work then it could be that Premier 6 doesn"t support Mpeg2 files so you might have to upgrade to a Newer version of Premier...
Premier 6 is 3 or 4 years old and there have been at least 3 new versions of Premier since that version came out so it is Entirely possible that it will not support them....
You could Frameserve the M2V file to Premier 6 which would work...All you need to do this is a Freeware program called "DVD2AVI 1.77" to make a D2V project file out of the M2V file and then use another Free program Called the "VFAPI Converter" to convert the D2V file to a Psudo AVI frameserver file that Premier will accept, and it would only take a couple minutes to do......Cheers

 

I've been converting Old B&W Videos onto DVD Archive and have been putting four movies onto one DVD, thamks to the help here. I was surprised to see that my sound files were bigger than my video files (thanks to information provided by DVD Shrink--which I didn't need after all). Lowering the Audio quality, gave me the room I needed.

I tried to cut a VCD for a test during the learning curve, but it wouldn't auto-start. I added a menu--but it wouldn't execute the viseo file. In fact, the menu was the only thing that would play.

Does the VCD format not support Menus?

How do I get a VCD to autoplay in a DVD player?

bob

 

Hey Minion,
I did as you said; used DVD2AVI, followed the guide on this forum, and it gave me an .d2v file and a BIG .wav file.
Then, I used VFAPI converter to turn the .d2v file into the _d2v_vfapi.avi file, which windows sees as a media clip.
Premiere 6 was able to imort the wav file, but for the video, it sees it, but when trying to import, it says "the file is of an unsupported compression type", and so it doesn't import.
I thought I saw in dvd2avi that the file was "uncompressed", and that I could've chosen "MPEG4" or "Windows Media" which Premiere seemed to have, but I could not see where I could re-do it and choose that kind of compression in DVD2AVI??
any ideas?
Thanks

 

You have to first have to install the VFAPI Codec before your PC will be able to read the Psudo AVI file..
To do this go into the VFAPI Converter Folder and double click the "VifpSet.Bat" file and that will install the Codec and thien Premier will read the File......Cheers

 

Minion, you are THE MAN!
That did it; that drew the pseudo avi file in, and now we have the video and audio files.wow! seems to play, though seemed to "choke" in a couple places..is that what you call dropped frames? or is this the sync video with audio issue we discussed way back?
so far so good. Thanks for getting us this far!

I guess she'll clip the video as needed, but how do we clip the audio at the same exact places, so the result is synced? i dunno, we'll see

Also, once we finish the edits, we'll see about encoding back to VOB, to reburn back on a DVD?
The guides on here are great (better than what i saw in VideoHelp.com) but i don't seem to know enough yet to pick the right guides/tools; that's where you helped by delineating the "steps"; from there I can read and learn.
Thanks, and if you have opinions on which guides on here explain the encoding and authoring that to a burnable iso or vob file, please let me know..
..btw, where are you located...UK?
Thanks

 

Those little Chokes are because the AVI file doesn"t actually have any Video information in it, the AVI file just points the Editor to the D2V file which points the editor to the M2V file so it can take a while for this to happen which causes the little delays you are talking about....
If you drag the AVI file to the Timeline in premier and then Drag the audio to the Timeline the 2 Files should be in perfect sync when editing...
You can not Encode your project to VOB because what Makes a Vob file a Vob file is the IFO and BUP files in the Video_TS Folder so without these the Vob file is Just a Mpeg2 file, so you will have to encode your Project to Mpeg2 and then Use a DVD authoring program to Create a Video_TS Folder out of the Mpeg2 files and author it to DVD....
You could have avoided all of this Stuff and the Loss of Quality from re-encodeing the Vob/Mpeg2 files and Kept the audio in the Original Dolby AC3 Format if you would have used a Proper Mpeg2 editor to do your Editing, Something like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" or "Womble Mpeg Video Wizard" because these Program can Losslessly edit Mpeg2 files and add effects and Transitions without re-encodeing the whole File therefor not decreaseing the quality and the Rendering of the Project would only take Minutes as Compared to Many Hours like when useing Premier....

Cheers

 

Thanks Minion. That makes sense.
So, what you're saying is, that's the logical way to go if one wants to edit MPEG2 files: to do it in an editor that will edit and "clip" and add transitions,etc witha video editor that actually handles MPEG2, so one does not have to go through those transformations, which take time and lose quality.

So then, Premier is a video editor more logically used when? I now think it's suitable more for editing CAPTURED VIDEO, ideally DIGITAL video, from a DV camera/camcorder, correct? Makes sense....now

That is why her producer (who has Premier PRO) records her with his digital camera, captures that video into Premiere, cuts/splices, edits, then takes the edited video and...how does he get to the final VOB files in the _TS folders, which yes, are .IFO and.BUP files? (got familiar with those through DVD rips and then compiling/burning backups with Nero, etc)
Surely, he uses some kind of MPEG encoder like TMPGEnc to encode video .avi into MPEG, with accompanying sound into ac3(dolby), to then author VOB's, correct???
whew! I think/hope I'm getting it.
what it comes down to is, using Premiere was not the simplest/most direct way to do the editing from her finished DVD's.
If producer sends us captured footage as .avi clips, THEN we can edit on Premiere withoul losing anything, right? And then, the finished .avi's could be encoded as above into finished AND EDITED VOB's, correct?

Thanks again; helps so much having a "mentor" to bounce things off of and discuss as one learns...makes ALL the difference.
md

 

Hi ,Yes you seem to get the Drift..
Premier is More for editing DV AVI files like those From a Digital Camcorder..
There is a New Plugin for premier that allows for Native Mpeg editing in Premier, it is called the MainConcept MpegPro Plugin and it also allows you to Capture directly to Mpeg useing Premier but it is Very expensive ,Like about $300 I think but the one thing is that you will not be able to edit Vob files with it that have Dolby AC3 as the Audio Format cuz it doesn"t support it like most editors...

You can render your Projects in Premier as Mpeg2 files You just need a Premier Mpeg Plugin I believe for Premier 6 and Premier 6.5 and Premier Pro both come with a Built in Mpeg encoder....

When useing an editor like Mpeg2VCR or the Womble Mpeg Video Wizard it will only re-encode the transitions and the Effects but will leave the rest allone so there is No quality loss and they both support the Dolby AC3 Format..
And because there is Very little or no encodeing the time it takes to render the edited file is minutes as compared to Premier were it can take many hours....

After you have edited your Vob files and finally have the Finnished and edited Mpeg2 file you just use a DVD authoring Program to add your Menu"s and Chapters to the Mpeg2 file then the DVD Authoring program will format it into Vob,IFO and BUP file in a Video_TS folder and Burn it to DVD....

There are hundreds of different DVD Authoring Programs out there offering different levels of complexity and features and some are very expensive even up to $50,000 for something like Scenarist 3.0, but I think one of the Best ones for the Regular Joe is DVD-Lab as it makes verry nice looking DVD"s and has Lots of menu features and it is only $79,
You can download a Fully working 30 Day demo version of it at "http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/"....

Cheers

 

OK. I took the advice from in here and bought/installed a leadtek winfast tv expert card. After about 2 hours of fiddling around I finally got the audio to capture.

I have captured a 2 hour home movie using (doh I forgot) with the Huffy codec. Now I have a 50 gig avi movie.

Do I now use tmpgenc to get it to mpeg2 ? How do I then get it to a DVD. I assume this will shrink the file more maneagable size. Correct ?

Thanks,

Succorso