VHS transfer - wait for DVD?? or CDR okay

[l333]

Want to transfer video tape to cdr with my All IN Wonder - then dispose of these bulky VHS tapes - But of course I want as close to original VHS quality as I can get -

best format {highest quality} to transfer to now?? - or should I wait for affordable DVD recorders and then possibly a better quality transfer format.

Thanks

 

[rh71]

I was in the same boat. I simply cannot wait for DVD recorders to get cheap. Even the DVD-Rs are still up there in price. Burning onto DVDr doesn't even mean any better quality. You should only be concerned with capacity then. Do you really need 4.7GB on 1 disc? Or can you make due with 2 hours of VHS video turning into 2 CDRs at MPG quality?

I weighed those options and I'm not going to spend money on a DVD burner just to buy larger capacity discs that I don't need for my purpose.

If you're going to spend any money, make sure you have the best capture card instead and get your VHS tapes captured at the best possible quality instead.

 

[Jeff7]

Divx seems to be the preferred codec. Problem is, you can't fit all that much high quality video on a CD. I recorded a 2 hour show off of TV with my WinTV-PVR card. I removed the commercials, trimming it down to 88 minutes.
I compressed it using Vidomi, and 2-pass Encoding with Divx, first pass to 4000bps, second to 2000kbps. (yes, there is a point to this description) I also reduced the video to 480x358 pixels; and it's in Stereo sound, 128kbps MP3. Well anyway, those 88 minutes would require 2 CD's.
If you compress it too far, you get lots of funky compression artifacts. If the actual video size is reduced too far, then it gets fuzzy. And doing both will result in just plain bad video.
Using a lower bitrate for the audio, and mono sound would save a little space, but not really enough to matter.
So really, the only ways to get those tapes onto optical discs is either to use a good number of CD-R's, higher compression ratios (low quality), or get a DVD writer. With a DVD writer, you go from about 0.63GB to 4.7GB - you can fit much higher bitrate files on, with better audio quality. True, you can't have "DVD-quality" as the original isn't, but you can fit more tape per disc.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Using a lower bitrate for the audio, and mono sound would save a little space, but not really enough to matter.

Use the Radium MP3 Codec for sound. It is a god-send for file size. If ya need it, PM me.