i have a P4 processor, 512MB OF RAM, 80 GIGABYTES HARDRIVE 7200rpm, a winfast A280 myVIVO videocard w/ built in video capture from LEADTEK, and uses U lead videostudio 7 editing software. My problem is that, when I capture my vhs to my computer and convert it to VCD format the quality is poor but if i convert it to DVD format it is much better. So what i did was, i capture my VHS to DVD format and later convert it to VCD format but sad to know that the result of the movie is also poor. what should i do to make a better quality VCD movie?

-- JERRY SUAREZ (josua73ph@yahoo.com), June 02, 2003

Answers

I know a guy who has reported good results by capturing to MPEG-2 at very high bit rates (10000 Kbps if you can do it - I would recommend at least 8000) and using TMPGenc to covert to VCD. VCD has a pretty low bit rate, so DVD quality is probably not a realistic goal, although you should be able to do better than you have. Also VHS is a very poor source to begin with and it makes things even tougher when going to VCD. If you try to capture MPEG-2, try using a resolution of 352x480 (NTSC) or 352x576 (PAL) for VHS source. 720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL will really show the flaws in your source and using a lower resolution might improve your captures a little from VHS.

-- Root (root@yahoo.moc), June 02, 2003.

The secret in any MPEG affair is the encoder. U seem to have a fairly uppity PC so put that aside. First find out in what format video is captured onto your HDD: is it captured AVI (then in what codec?) or straight to MPEG? Former versions of Video Studio have built-in Ligos LSX MPEG encoder which produces spastically bad MPEG-1, and not that much better MPEG-2 either. I'm not aware what MPEG engine ver. 7 has. If all u need is MPEG-1 for VCD then I suggest capturing in AVI with a codec recommended for your capture card, edit that, and output in the same AVI. If you're using WinXP and NTFS u should have no problems with filesize. Then get TMPGenc and encode the resulting AVI into MPEG-1. It sounds and is complicated which is why I've stopped making VCDs altogether and have just gone on to author DVDs for the same amount of work.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), June 03, 2003.

i think you will probably find the best way to convert is using lead studio to convert the vhs source to avi format, then use main concept encoder to convert the avi file to vcd,,,will take about 30 to 40 minutes to convert the whole movie with a relatively fast pc, i am sure you will look no further,,,,,,,,,,

-- steve wills (stevewills@zoom.co.uk), June 10, 2003.