VHS to DVD looking pixulated

[Craig Seeman]

[Olly Lawer] “1. Use elgato to convert a VHS to H.264 – which strangely comes out as a MP4…?”

Why do you find this strange? H.264 can be mov, mp4, f4v, m4v amongst other things. H.264 is a codec which can be in various wrappers.

[Olly Lawer] “2. Use toast to convert to DVD dual layer.”

Toast is not exactly a professional compression tool. It’s passible but that’s about it.

[Olly Lawer] “On a 42′ LCD TV, the picture looks very pixulated. The resolution appears to be 640 x 480. I guess this is standard VHS resolution? I cannot try on a smaller CRT TV unfortunately. “

A VHS which is low quality and standard def is compressed to H.264 and then compressed again to MPEG2 for DVD and then viewed on an HDTV is going to look very poor. Add to that the scaling to display on an HDTV it certainly would be horrid.

Ideally you should input the VHS straight to Apple ProRes if you can do save you the double compression.

[Brent Dunn]

You might also try breaking the footage down to 2 hr. or less blocks for DVD or 4 hr or less for DVD DL to limit the compression of trying to squeeze everything to a DVD.

Or to save yourself a lot of work. Spend $100 for a VHS to DVD recorder from your local electronics dealer, Best Buy, Walmart, etc.
My wife makes extra money just doing VHS to DVD transfers. We charge per VHS with a 2 hr. limit for each DVD. Easy Squeezy, especially if all your doing is transferring and not editing.

Red Giant offers a software for “UP Rezzing” which is supposed to give your better transfer rate. I’ve never used it. Magic Bullet Instant HD.
https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-instant-hd/

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1, V1U
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut Studio

HP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite

[Olly Lawer]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I thought that a VHS to DVD recorder wouldn’t go to dual layer DVD (or one would cost me a fortune if so).

How do I go straight from my VHS to prores? I take it I would bypass elgato and go straight into FCP? Not sure how to do this?

Always a great help, thanks.

PS- the picture quality is OK, maybe a little soft and pixulated, but OK. Will buying a professional VHS to DVD recorder improve the image noticeably? I.e. Is it worth the money?

[Brent Dunn]

I don’t know what your setup is, but If you are importing into Final Cut, you should be able to set up your importing settings. I haven’t done this in a while.

If you already have your VHS imported and you are using Encore. Just change the settings to your Dual Layer DVD and go to town.

I haven’t tried Dual Layer on my Sony VHS-DVD player. It’s not a professional setup, but you don’t really need to spend a bunch of money on it. I think they go for around $120. I can set mine to long play format, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d just break up my video into 2 hr segments for the best quality when going directly to DVD.

There are programs and plugins for uprezzing Standard Def footage. I haven’t tried any, but I know they are out there. Good luck.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1, V1U
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut Studio

HP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite