5 replies to this topic

[Aaron J. Bossig]

Hi all.

I've been trying to convert some of my old VHS tapes to DVD.  I've been capturing them with an HP USB TV tuner, then editing them with Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 and then burning them to DVD with Sonic.  When I view the raw imported file on Windows Media Player, it looks fine, but after I'm done editing, the resulting output file looks blurry.  It's not choppy, as if the video is dropping frames, but it seems as if several frames are getting smooshed in together.  Naturally, the DVDs I make from these files look blurry as well.  The really confusing thing is that only some of the videos I've made have done this.... other videos look spectacular, even though I used the exact same process.

Here is my system, if it helps:

HP Pavilion dv1000 series laptop
Centrino Duo CPU, 1.83 GHz T2400
1GB (512x2) RAM
60 GB 5400 rpm HDD
Windows XP Pro

The computer is usually running on battery power when capturing video from the tuner, but is on AC when I am editing or exporting.  Any help would be appreciated, this is really frustrating.

[grandpabruce]

Aaron J. Bossig, on Sep 11 2006, 07:24 PM, said:

Hi all.

I've been trying to convert some of my old VHS tapes to DVD.  I've been capturing them with an HP USB TV tuner, then editing them with Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 and then burning them to DVD with Sonic.  When I view the raw imported file on Windows Media Player, it looks fine, but after I'm done editing, the resulting output file looks blurry.  It's not choppy, as if the video is dropping frames, but it seems as if several frames are getting smooshed in together.  Naturally, the DVDs I make from these files look blurry as well.  The really confusing thing is that only some of the videos I've made have done this.... other videos look spectacular, even though I used the exact same process.

Here is my system, if it helps:

HP Pavilion dv1000 series laptop
Centrino Duo CPU, 1.83 GHz T2400
1GB (512x2) RAM
60 GB 5400 rpm HDD
Windows XP Pro

The computer is usually running on battery power when capturing video from the tuner, but is on AC when I am editing or exporting.  Any help would be appreciated, this is really frustrating.

First, VHS in, is semi-garbage out.  I know, I have done a ton of them, and I don't capture via USB which can sometimes be a problem.

What part of EMC 8 are you using for editing?  Why are you not using MyDVD for burning?

[cdanteek]

Quote

The computer is usually running on battery power when capturing video from the tuner

I would think running on AC capturing video would be a better idea.

cdanteek

[Aaron J. Bossig]

grandpabruce, on Sep 11 2006, 06:25 PM, said:

First, VHS in, is semi-garbage out.  I know, I have done a ton of them, and I don't capture via USB which can sometimes be a problem.

What part of EMC 8 are you using for editing?  Why are you not using MyDVD for burning?

I know VHS is crap in the first place, but it's all I've got to work with.  And, like I said, it looks great when it's first captured... if I could maintain that level of "quality" I'd be happy.

I'm editing with VideoWave 8, and I'm using Sonic because I'm slightly happier with the way it lets me organize my menus.  I'm not married to it, though, and if switching to MyDVD solved the problem, I'd gladly do so.  BTW, I tried burning a DVD with MyDVD and got the same result.  The issue seems to start after I output my edited project to an MPEG-2 file.

[myguggi]

Aaron J. Bossig, on Sep 11 2006, 11:33 PM, said:

I know VHS is crap in the first place, but it's all I've got to work with. And, like I said, it looks great when it's first captured... if I could maintain that level of "quality" I'd be happy.

I'm editing with VideoWave 8, and I'm using Sonic because I'm slightly happier with the way it lets me organize my menus. I'm not married to it, though, and if switching to MyDVD solved the problem, I'd gladly do so. BTW, I tried burning a DVD with MyDVD and got the same result. The issue seems to start after I output my edited project to an MPEG-2 file.

Do not output your Videowave project to mpeg but bring the project directly into myDVD, that way you avoid one compression cycle which degrades the video quality.

[Aaron J. Bossig]

Okay, I've tried bringing the whole project right into MyDVD, and still see the blur.  Is there anything else I can try before I scrap the project and start again from scratch?