best way to convert VHS footage to use in pro project

[Paul Buhl]

Francisco,

It’s not as complicated as it sounds. The VHS footage is the quality it is, you can’t improve it by capturing to a higher quality codec, you are just increasing the file size. BUT it is important to capture to a format that is friendly to your work flow in FCP, so ProRes is the best bet.

One question on quality before getting to the capture.

Given this is a RED project, are you finishing, grading and mastering from FCP with HD ProRes or are you going back to the R3D files in a higher end environment like Smoke, Lustre, etc?

If you are eventually going to do a real online outside of FCP, then capture the VHS to 10 bit Uncompressed, because that will be friendly to the online environment. You can edit with the 10bit Uncompressed in FCP along with your ProRes, but depending on your system, it may bog down.

If so, from the 10bit captures, you can create ProRes copies to edit with, and the online can use the 10bit set later. Just be sure the ProRes copies are made from the captures and the file lengths stay the same on both the 10bit Uncompressed and the ProRes versions.

If you are finishing in FCP, then capture the VHS to the same format as the RED footage is now, in your FCP sequence. Hopefully ProRes 422 HQ or the newer 4444 version. If you are just working in 422 (not HQ) that’s fine as well. Either way, just capture the VHS to what you are using for the RED in FCP if you’re finishing in FCP. DO NOT use h264!
That’s NEVER a good idea for editing and mastering.

To capture directly to your Mac, you can simply use a number of inexpensive devices that have composite / analog in, and firewire out.
About 5-6 years ago these were running around $200, could be cheaper now.

OR, find a post house that has a PRO VHS deck and have them capture it to ProRes. You will get a better result this way because they will use component analog out instead of composite. So not because of the codec, but really due to component vs composite out from the deck.

You also may be able to borrow a prosumer VHS deck from somebody that has component out, but then the converter you need for firewire has to have component in, to firewire out, so could be more expensive than the composite in, to firewire out models.

Best of luck with the Doc!

Paul Buhl
Feature Editor
https://www.paulbuhl.com