Topic: VHS to DVD conversion questions

[mmadd29]

I have a project that I have to undertake.  I will be transfering some old shows from VHS to DVD. Here is the equipment I have:

Canopus ADVC110
UA5

My thinking is that I will run the video though the Canopus, and input via firewire in DV mode.

For the audio I was thinking that my UA5 would be far superior to the Canopus, so I would use that.  I will be getting an audio card will a digital input, so I run the digital out on the UA5.

I'm not sure what capture package I will use, but would have to believe any package would allow me to pick different source for the video and audio.

I will remaster the audio, and then send of the video and audio to someone who will resync it with Adobe.

Does this make sense doing it think way?

Thanks in advance.

[stevetoney]

There are many more qualified than me to render expert opinion, but I've always figured my $150 soundcard was plenty good enough to capture what's already there on a VHS tape.  I suppose you're converting an analog source to digital, so there could be some value added to having a high quality audio capture chain, but under the garbage in = garbage out concept, I've never personally felt it was all that important because all of the transfers that I've done have been are from less than master copies (1st or lower gen) of concerts and not...say purchased VHS concert tapes which probably have a far higher fidelity than the concerts that I converted from VHS to DVD. 

[gearscout]

mmadd29,

I use the Canopus 110 all the time.  Try it and see how the audio comes out.  I don't know what the original settings were, but it may be fine without the re-mixing.  I would make that my starting point.  If you want to try another import of just the audio, you'll be able to compare it.

Depending on your video editing software, you may be able to enhance or clean up the original audio on the timeline.

[mmadd29]

mmadd29,

I use the Canopus 110 all the time.  Try it and see how the audio comes out.  I don't know what the original settings were, but it may be fine without the re-mixing.  I would make that my starting point.  If you want to try another import of just the audio, you'll be able to compare it.

Depending on your video editing software, you may be able to enhance or clean up the original audio on the timeline.

Yes, this seems the easiest way to do it.  The UA5 probably doesn't make much more of a difference.  The audio and video will come through via the firewire cable correct??

I will be using either Vegas studio, or Adobe Preimere.

Thanks for the advice.

[stantheman1976]

If you're able to capture directly to DV-AVI you will already have 16 bit/48KHz audio to work with.  I know in the full versions of Vegas you can open your audio track in an external editor or save your audio track separately and remaster/edit how you please.  I assume Vegas Studio does this also but I don't know.  As long as you don't cut any of it out you can bring it back in and delete the original track.

[mmadd29]

If you're able to capture directly to DV-AVI you will already have 16 bit/48KHz audio to work with.  I know in the full versions of Vegas you can open your audio track in an external editor or save your audio track separately and remaster/edit how you please.  I assume Vegas Studio does this also but I don't know.  As long as you don't cut any of it out you can bring it back in and delete the original track.

Yes the Canopus does the output in DV, so what your saying is with Vegas, I could open the audio with Wave Labs, do what I need and save it back with the video.

This would be perfect cause there should be no sync issues.

[stevetoney]

Yup, that's essentially what I do, except I don't have all of the same software and hardware that you're talking about.  For example, I capture using the video card, but as I'm capturing I route audio through my external sound card...a Soundblaster Extigy because I'm just not aware of how well my video capture card processes audio.  Once captured, I'll use either Vegas or DVDLabPro to strip the audio off and save it as a .wav file.  Then I will use Audition to tweek the audio...add some bass, remove some noise, whatever.  Then when I author the DVD, I'll mux the audio back together with the video.  As long as you don't whack or add any length to the audio track, they're still perfectly synched.

This is also similar to how I synch a better sounding audio recording to a video with lousy audio.  I will just strip off the audio from the AV recording and then synch up the audio that is stripped off with the external audio source by either stretching or shrinking and accounting for any drop-outs on one or the other audio's.  Obviously, the key here is that you never touch the audio that was stripped out because that provides your reference.  Then on final muxing, just substitute the original audio with the new audio.

[guitard]

I know in the full versions of Vegas you can open your audio track in an external editor or save your audio track separately and remaster/edit how you please.  I assume Vegas Studio does this also but I don't know.  As long as you don't cut any of it out you can bring it back in and delete the original track.

I do this all the time.  I right click on the audio and select "open copy in audio editor."  I use CoolEditPro 2000.  After I'm done editing the audio, I save it, and Vegas automatically replaces the old audio with the new audio - you don't even have to delete the old audio.

[stantheman1976]

I know in the full versions of Vegas you can open your audio track in an external editor or save your audio track separately and remaster/edit how you please.  I assume Vegas Studio does this also but I don't know.  As long as you don't cut any of it out you can bring it back in and delete the original track.

I do this all the time.  I right click on the audio and select "open copy in audio editor."  I use CoolEditPro 2000.  After I'm done editing the audio, I save it, and Vegas automatically replaces the old audio with the new audio - you don't even have to delete the old audio.

I wasn't sure if Vegas Studio allowed you to open your audio track in an external editor or not.  I've always used the full version of Vegas since version 6 so I'm not sure what Studio lacks compared to it.

[willndmb]

i wouldn't waste your time with the audio and ua5
if you get dropped frames/glitches in either they will not match back up
i would just go with it together and call it a day

[Cools]

Does this make sense doing it think way?

Yes. I've used the Canopus to backup VHS tapes. I routed the audio through it as well and captured to DV through Final Cut Pro.

[Brian E.]

I need something that works with Mac to transfer old VHS family movies to digital.  Is the Canopus ADVC110 the way to go?

or is there a cheaper solution (<$220) that works fine?

I have 10 to start working on.  My grandma has tubs of them in Florida.  So maybe 100 or so.

[guitard]

I need something that works with Mac to transfer old VHS family movies to digital.  Is the Canopus ADVC110 the way to go?

or is there a cheaper solution (<$220) that works fine?

I have 10 to start working on.  My grandma has tubs of them in Florida.  So maybe 100 or so.

If you transfer them to your harddrive and encode them one at a time, that's going to take weeks (months...).  You'll be able to better control the file sizes this way and there might be some marginal improvements to quality.  But you could save yourself A LOT of time and work simply by getting a stand alone DVR/burner to which you can connect a VCR.  Just put in the tape, set it to capture to the DVR's harddrive, and walk away.  For typical family videos (that probably don't have a lot of fast movement) you could just set it to record in 2-hour mode. 

I would never do this for high quality video - but since these are old VHS tapes - the quality level is only so-so to begin with.

However, if you have to do a lot of editing (which is usually the case with family videos where people tend to shoot a lot of boring stuff that needs to be trimmed down or edited out), you won't have much choice but to capture to a harddrive.

If you think you have no choice but to capture to the HD and edit - then go with the ADVC-100 or 110.  Don't buy a new one - get one off of eBay.

[Brian E.]

Thanks for the advice. I have a DVD recorder, though a pretty cheap one. Maybe I'll try that. Is rather be able to color correct them a bit but that would save them and save a lot of space at the very least.

[willndmb]

I need something that works with Mac to transfer old VHS family movies to digital.  Is the Canopus ADVC110 the way to go?

or is there a cheaper solution (<$220) that works fine?

I have 10 to start working on.  My grandma has tubs of them in Florida.  So maybe 100 or so.

pvr 1212
reserch programs for it - but it does hd too and is on sale for 160 often