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Activity Forums VEGAS Pro Render Settings for Old VHS Footage

  • Render Settings for Old VHS Footage

    Posted by Jeff Andrews on November 20, 2010 at 4:12 am

    Hi, first time poster here. I’ve got lots of video clips in .mpg format that I converted from VHS to DVD, and them from DVD to .mpg using VOB2MPG. I’d like to edit these clips in Sony Vegas Pro 9, in addition to graphics and animated text I’d like to add in Vegas to spice up the old videos. The video clips are from the early 90s.

    The goal is to create high quality DVDs with this footage and graphics. Not HD (since the footage is old), but high quality standard definition DVDs.

    What project properties and render settings would you recommend I use? What file type do you recommend I save the rendered file as? And yes, I’ll likely use DVD Architect to create chapters with markers.

    I’ve done some research online, but none of the solutions I’ve found seem to address this particular situation (old VHS clips converted to digital). I’ve rendered in the past with programs like DVD Flick, but I’ve since become interested in video editing and have since started to learn about Sony Vegas Pro. Thank you.

    Jeff Andrews replied 15 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Mike Kujbida

    November 20, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    You’ve already converted the original footage to mpg which is a lossy format.
    IMO, your best bet would be to make each new DVD no more than 75 min. long.
    This would let you use the maximum recommended CBR bitrate of 8,000,000
    Anything longer and you have to lower the bitrate which means lowering the quality which, as I already said, has been lowered to begin with by the first DVD conversion.

  • Jeff Andrews

    November 20, 2010 at 4:29 pm

    Thank you, Mike. How would you have suggested I convert the DVD footage originally? It’s not too late and I can still re-convert the original media I have.

  • Mike Kujbida

    November 21, 2010 at 3:31 am

    Capture it into Vegas as it becomes a DV-AVI file wil a lot less compression than going the DVD route.
    Hopefully you have or can borrow a miniDV camcorder that has the pass-though feature.
    Even if the tape transport section is broken, that’s OK as you only need the electronics to work properly.
    By pass-though, I mean that it has analog inputs for your VHS player and a firewire output to connect to your computer.
    If that isn’t available, look into buying an ADVC-55 or ADVC-110 (devices that take an analog signal in and give you firewire out.
    Once you get it transferred into your computer, add whatever graphics and animated text you want.
    My recommendation about no more than 75 min. on a single layer DVD to maximize quality still stands.
    Remember to use good name brand blank media such as Taiyo-Yuden or Verbatim as the cheap stuff has been known to break down in as little as 6 months.

  • Jeff Andrews

    November 23, 2010 at 9:01 pm

    Those devices would work well, but with over 30 hours of tape I’d have to convert, and at that price, I’ll probably stick to what I have. The quality of the VHS footage isn’t that bad in mpg format.

    I’m more concerned with the ideal settings for this kind of situation, both for project properties and rendering in Vegas. I’ll try to do some trial and error and see what works best. Thanks.

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