VHS Video Capture

[mj12]

I have an old VHS video with a couple movies I made in school many years ago I'd like to turn into an mpeg, avi or such onto my PC for archival. What is the best and/or most cost effective method?

Thanks

[Dr Mordrid]

I guess the obvious question is what kind of capture hardware you have, if any?

If you don't have a card then there are plenty of options, but which you choose depends on a lot of factors including what display adapter you have in your system and your system specs (CPU, installed RAM, HD space etc).

As far as encoding the video to an MPEG (the most compact way to store the video) you can get an excellent MPEG encoder for free. It's called TMPGEnc 12a and you can get it here;

http://www.jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/

Just make sure you also download and install the English translation patch and the VFAPI plugin.

Once you get started and its time to decide what MPEG format to use, just holler.

Dr. Mordrid

[KRSESQ]

Doc:

Please explain the purpose and correct installation of the VFAPI plugin.

I've been playing with TMPGEnc for nearly a month with fine results without it!

Thanks

Kevin

[Dr Mordrid]

The primary purpose of the VFAPI tool is to provide a set of file import and filter plugins for TMPGEnc.

These not only allow file format importation, but also provide many of the manipulations that can be found in the Configure/Advanced menu.

Later versions of VFAPI also have a user interface & tool (VFAPIConv) that converts video files to a VFAPI compatable format.

Installation is simple. Depending on the version there is either a *.bat or *.inf file that is used to install VFAPI.

Unfortunately the readme.txt is in Japanese, but you can get more help with TMPGEnc, VFAPI and the use of AVISynth (frameserver and video manipulation software) at the TMPGEnc forum on Delphi;

http://forums.delphi.com/tmpgenc/start/

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 01 January 2001).]

[mj12]

Thanks for the reply Dr. My system is a Thunderbird 1 ghz, 256mb ram, GeForce2 GTS 65mb video and 18gb ultra 160 HDD. I'd like to be able to capture a 5-6 minute video and have it compressed down to 700mb so I can fit it on a CD.

Thanks

[mj12]

So what do you recommend Dr. Mordid?

Thanks

[JerryH]

Interesting thread...I'm glad I read it, now I can try that encoder.

If you want to make a VCD, you can try the encoder below:
http://www.mnsi.net/~jschlic1/

it's called avi2vcd

[wkulecz]

I recommend TMPGEnc on wondows 2000 with NTFS partitions.

I encoded a ~16GB 75 minute file to VCD format. Just load it up and go away for half a day :-) No need to mess with Avisynth etc.

I guess I'm not using VFAPI as I didn't do anything other than unzip it and run the english patch program. What am I missing?
The crop filter on the Advanced tab certainly works.

On w2k TMPGEnc is a very well behaved application that runs at "idle priority" when minimized or in the background. On New Years Day TMPGEnc ran as I surfed, burned a CD, read Email and Usenet, edited with photoshop etc. I had all day to putz around on the computers since the wife had a little too much fun on New Year's Eve :-)

Just remember that its painfully slow startup appears to me normal, it has not "locked up" after you've browsed to choose the input file, hit ENCODE, or are waiting to get the preview for the crop filter.

--wally.