Capturing VHS or Hi-8 for Archiving or DVD Playback

Capturing VHS or Hi-8 for Archiving or DVD Playback

PostBy: Richard S. On: Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:23 pm

Converting analog VHS or Hi-8 to a digital format is referred to as capturing, you're capturing the analog signal with a capable device and converting it to a digital format. This first initial step is the most important, many errors or problems cannot be fixed afterwards nor do you want to create any. There's many devices on the market for capturing and many methods. There is two distinct routes you can take, MPEG capture or AVI capture. Both have their pros and cons.


First a little background on the differences between MPEG and AVI. MPEG is the format of video found on authored DVDs such as the movies you rent, most DVD players will not play video unless it's MPEG within the DVD specification. Capturing directly to MPEG saves you the step of converting it to MPEG for DVD playback and has a much smaller file size but at the price of quality and edibility. On the highest quality setting within the DVD specifications it comes out to about 4GB's per hour. MPEG is designed to be a playback format and was not intended to be used as source material. That's not to say it can't be edited but I'd recommend not going the MPEG capture route unless you only want to get your video to disc as fast as you can with the least amount of effort.

Unlike MPEG, AVI is not a format. AVI is a container file that can contain many types of video. It can contain highly compressed video like Divx or lightly compressed video like DV-AVI or even uncompressed video. DV-AVI is the type of video found on digital video camcorders like mini-DV or Digital-8. DV-AVI or other lightly compressed AVI's are very editor friendly but do have a large file size and have to be converted to MPEG if you wish to play them back from DVD.

note: if your footage is on mini-dv or digital-8 you can stop reading now, it's already digital.

Hardware vs. Software Encoding During Capture

Converting analog video requires that it be encoded on the fly, this can be done through software utilizing your systems CPU or hardware where all the processing is done by the capture device. Ideally you want to use a hardware encoder for initial capture especially if you are using MPEG capture. MPEG requires a tremendous amount of processing power to be done on the fly if you wish to get good results, at least a 2.8ghz machine or better. Note that once the video is on your computer software encoding is fine as the machine can take all week if necessary. It's when it has to be done on the fly during capture where quality can suffer.

MPEG Hardware Recommendations

For capturing video directly to MPEG on your computer drive I'd recommend the Hauppage 150 or 250 hardware encoder. This device comes highly recommended from it's many users. I have not used one myself personally but having read numerous reviews so I feel I can recommend it. This device acts like a DVD Recorder except for your computer. You can also record TV or even watch TV with it. It captures directly to DVD compliant MPEG which can be directly imported into an authoring program with no further processing speeding up the process quite a bit.

Another alternative is to simply get a DVD recorder, be aware that DVD recorders do not all have the same quality. They can range from outstanding to absolute garbage. I don't have a recommendation for any specific models but you can find more information and reviews at . Research before purchasing, the recorder you buy can make a tremendous difference and in a lot of cases even improve your video as some come with filters which can slightly improve your video. Once recorded to disc you can rip the disc to your hardrive for further editing.

AVI Hardware Recommendations

Hands down winner in my opinion is the Canopus ADVC 110, it simply works and works very well. It is a bit pricey though. This device converts video to DV-AVI. It has a patented audio sync lock that will insure audio is synced over even long captures, a problem that many devices have. If your tapes are in poor condition this is a must have unit just for that reason. It's easy to use, plug and play. If you have ever transferred video using a digital video camera it works almost the same. The file size it creates is nearly 14GB's per hour but it's ideal for further editing and filtering.


The downside to either of these devices is of course the file size and the fact that it has to be re-encoded using software to MPEG if you want to make a DVD for playback on your standalone DVD player. Encoding times will vary depending on the amount of filters you have added, transitions, MPEG settings, the software encoder you are using and other factors but as an average a 3.0ghz machine will convert 1 hour of DV-AVI to high quality DVD compliant MPEG in about 45 minutes to an hour doing a straight encode with no filtering or other edits that have changed the video.

Software Encoding Capture Devices

There are other devices that utilize your Systems CPU for encoding, they will record to just about any format you want. As mentioned above you need a very powerful machine to encode directly to MPEG and even then quality can suffer because you are forcing the software encoder to do it real time. I'd recommend not using any of these devices unless you simply want to record TV programs or in situations where quality is not an issue. Many of these devices experience sound sync problems especially over long captures or if you have poor quality tapes. I have used a the Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Expert with some success. It's a very versatile device and even has a FM tuner and remote. At about $40 - $50 it's fairly cheap.

If you're on a budget it's ideal, I'd recommend using AVI capture for important footage using the Huffy codec.

Additional Hardware Recommendations

Probably the most overlooked step in getting analog video to digital is what you do before it gets to the converter. The best way to fix errors and improve analog video is to do it with analog equipment. Once converted to digital you have also recorded the error or whatever problem your tapes may have, in most cases this cannot be undone or done as well if you fix it before it's converted.

At the very least I would recommend getting a good VCR with S-Video, generally if it has S-Video it won't be cheap. They start in the $100 range. My personal recommendation is the JVC 9911, it has both a LTBC(more on this next paragraph) and noise reduction feature. The noise reduction feature on this unit can make a tremendous difference in the quality of your video if it has a lot of noise. It is not cheap and you may have trouble finding one as it appears they have stopped manufacturing them. There are other alternatives but not being familiar with any of them I won't give any recommendations. You may want to also research any of the older brand VCR's you may have, some are highly sought after machines if they were made in the heyday of VCR's.

The TBC... A Time Based Corrector can be a miracle worker. If you have tapes that skew when playing, are jittery or generally appear to have tracking errors this is usually due to timing errors. If it's a timing error a TBC should fix it. Timing errors occur because of tape stretch from heavily viewed video and other issues along those lines. Errors such as these cannot be fixed once you have converted the video to digital, they record what they see and once you convert you now have a perfectly timed video with the error included. Analog video has scan lines, these scan lines are timed. If time correctly the edges of objects will have nice clean edges, once the timing is off you get vertical skew or horizontal jitter. What a TBC does is stores each full frame of video in it's memory, strips the timing out then retimes each scanline. The LTBC mentioned above in the JVC unit is similar but it only stores a few lines and cannot do much for horizontal jitter, a LTBC is no replacement for a full frame TBC. Datavideo makes a prosumer full frame TBC which can be purchased for about $300+

Storage and Archiving

Unless you're using MPEG storage space can be an issue due to the file sizes. Personally I would recommend not using MPEG for archiving, it's a compressed format and is not suitable for future use. High quality lightly compressed DV-AVI is probably the most practical method.

As always it's best to have two copies. DV-AVI can be stored on a external hardrive and tape. Drives can be purchased fairly cheap and although not 100% reliable they are about the best alternative at the moment. If you have a digital cam you can can also record to tape during capture or even capture, edit then send it back to cam from your computer.

Making a DVD

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here but once you have a video captured if you want to play it back on DVD player with menus and other niceties you need authoring software. For that there is many choices, you may already have some software that is capable of doing this. Most DVD burners come with software for this or Nero's or Roxio's DVD authoring programs included. Along the consumer lines two decent products are both from Ulead. Movie factory and Video Studio both provide authoring abilities. Video Studio also has many editing features. Both work well with MPEG.

If you are using MPEG capture, make sure you are using a program that does not re-encode your MPEG. The product should only re-encode what you have edited. To do otherwise will reduce quality and pretty much negates the benefit of using MPEG capture to begin with.

As a final note some DVD players support playing videos burned directly as files. Generally either Divx or DVD compliant MPEG. Check your manual or look your player up here,
Richard S.
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

PostBy: Richard S. On: Sat Jan 13, 2007 1:25 am

Well doesn't look like much interest in this subject from the views count but just thought I'd let you know if anyone has any questions about video I do have quite a good background.
Richard S.
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

PostBy: Mike Wilson On: Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:30 am

Well, I just read it, and thank you for the information. I have a bunch of 8mm videocam stuff from the early 90s that I wanted to get onto a DVD. I'll have to look into this stuff...

-- Mike
Mike Wilson
Stove/Furnace Make: Keystoker 90 DV
Stove/Furnace Model: Jøtul Kennebec Wood Insert

PostBy: Richard S. On: Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:44 am

Most of the above is in reference of getting you video to a computer for editing for DVD or archiving.

I'll assume the footage is family material so I'll make this clear since I didn't above, MAYBE EVEN YELL... :lol:

No matter what method you use DO NOT store the only copies you make on DVD. Burned DVD's are completely unreliable even if you are using high qulaity media. Burned discs are not like the retail ones with movies that you purchase in the store. These are physically pressed much like a record is made. Even these are not foolproof and can break down, do a search for "DVD Rot" .

Burned discs on the other hand are just that, the layer that holds the data is a chemical dye. The data is etched into the dye by a laser, as with any chemical it will eventually break down. Some of the manufacturers are claiming ridiculous lifespans but I've already seen posts on a video forum where they are becoming unreadable even a few years after they are burned....

Get an external hardrive for archiving.
Richard S.
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite

PostBy: europachris On: Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:53 pm

Nice information! I dabble in video, but have a digital camcorder, so it makes the entire process rather easy. I even use (gasp!) Windows Movie Maker to do the editing and burning to DVD. I'm sure it's not the best software, but for simple family videos it seems to work fine.

DEFINITELY good info about the DVD not being reliable. I've not experienced that yet, but I don't erase the original tape, either. I can always go back and pull the original video if needed. Tape is cheap.

Stove/Furnace Make: EFM 350/Iron Fireman
Stove/Furnace Model: Custom bituminous burner

PostBy: Richard S. On: Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:44 am


If you have any old VHS or Hi-8 I'd suggest looking to see if your cam has the pass thu feature I mentioned in the original post.


For getting video to your computer it's really irrelevant what you use, DV cams record in DV-AVI. When you transfer over firewire as DV-AVI it's a bit for bit copy of what's on the tape. Not much different than copying a file from one folder to another on your computer, only difference being is your computer has to be able to write the data fast enough in real time which is quite easily accomplished by any recent computer. The reason firewire is underlined is most DV cams also offer the ability to transfer over USB, on 99% of cams this is a very low quality video that is in no way comparable to the original. Note that this doesn't apply to cam that record to DVD or a internal HDD.

By burning to DVD I'm assuming you mean you are just burning the video to disc as a WMV for computer playback. If you want to make standalone compatible DVD's with menus I'd recommend Either Ulead's Movie Factory or Video Studio. The first is about $50 and the second one is about $100. They differ in that Movie Factory has emphasis on authoring discs such as menu creation, Video Studio has emphasis on editing such as adding titles and transitions. Both have a free 30 day trial...

Free option is ConvertXToDVD,

Edit your video in WMM export as DV-AVI, it's important that you export as DV-AVI to maintain quality. Open ConvertXToDVD, find the file and it will create the files required for a authored DVD. Open your burning program and burn away.

There's literally hundreds of free tools available to accomplish just about anything, most do have a learning curve though and are single purpose tools.
Richard S.
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite