Query On Optimizing Video Quality

[Alf2011]

Hello, I'm a long-time user of Roxio products and finally decided to start converting old VHS tapes to digital format. The 'Easy VHS to DVD Capture' for Mac version 1.0.5 works fine on OS 10.12.2, but I had a general question about vidieo quality: While quality with this approach is reasonable, it's definitely not as sharp as playing the VHS directly to my digital (plasma) TV. I have an old Formac studio dv with firewire connection but video was no better and frankly a bit worse than with Easy VHS to DVD Capture. So is there any other approach that will give sharper video or is this just the price one pays for converting analog to digital? If price isn't the issue, what other options are there? I think the output on the High Setting captures using 6.0 Mbps MPEG-2 video. Since MPEG has some compression features, I wonder if there is some kind of RAW file that would give sharper video using some other more expensive product??

 

I've seen reviews of (Grass Valley) Canopus ADVC300 Advanced Digital Video Converter but it's discontinued and have no idea if video quality would be better.

 

An acquaintance told me that he thinks using a VHS-DVD combo-recorder for direct transfer to DVD works a bit better. I suppose if this is the case, I could then then convert the DVD to a .ISO file. I can't tell the difference in video quality between a typical DVD and an .ISO file that I rip from it -- so I assume they're equivalent in quality.

 

Thanks!

[bimicher]

An iso file is not a video file, it is basically just an "image file" of what is on the DVD and therefore is the same quality.

 

The quality of the DVD video depends on the time length of the video you are trying to burn to the DVD. A standard 4.7GB DVD can only hold 60 minutes of best quality video and would have bitrate of around 8000kbps. A bitrate of 6000kbps would indicate more compressed video and hence lower quality

[Alf2011]

Thanks for the clarification and obviously I'm not that knowledgeable in video issues. My problem is that video flie (MPEG) from Easy VHS to DVD Capture is definitely less sharp than just playing the VCR tape on my TV. I assume that quality of a subsequent DVD would be limited by the quality of the input which is my lees-than-ideal MPEG file. What I want is to get a better digital video file off of the VHS output. Burning to a DVD is not a priority. As I wrote above I suspect I'm losing some video quality when it goes through the Roxio USB device (Easy VHS to DVD Capture). There are a variety of higher-end video analog to digital converters (for a lot more money) to choose from, and even spending hundreds of dollars would be less than having a commercial service transfer from a lot of VHS tapes to digital of some sort. thanks again