Quality Question

[Mark_ABQ]

Greetings! I have a few screenshots to share. The first one shows a portion of a screen without any artifacts...the image is very close to the original VHS screen.

The second shows a portion of a screen with some artifacts, the section in the box being blown up for clarity. The artifacting - horizontal lines - is visible during playback of the burned disc. When playing back the capture (MPEG) file, there are artifacts, but not nearly as noticeable. Also, the artifacting occurs most noticeably when there is a lot of movement on-screen.

I understand a little about the resolution of VHS versus the resolution possible in DVD...that is, VHS is roughly equivalent to 333x478 px in today's terminology. It seems reasonable that what I'm seeing is the natural result of making a higher resolution recording of a lower resolution source...

 

In my research, I have come across devices that claim to be able to create smoother copies, such as DVDO's iScan. Since the purpose of capturing my VHS to DVD is to reduce the cost of replacing my video collection, it would be counterproductive to spend $3k on such hardware...or even a few hundred on one from eBay (not to mention the risk of getting a lemon from an eBay source)...

 

So, I suppose the question really comes down to this: Are there controls within EVD to help reduce this problem? I'm using the default settings.

TIA!

[Jim_Hardin]

Reality!

 

Quality isn't there to begin with so the only way you can resolve these 'claims' is through software enhancing... And it does not work in the end because of "decisions" it has to make...

 

 

 

Here is HD Camcorder shot (1440 X 1080)

 

Here is a blow up:

 

And lastly at the pixel level:

 

Let's say that my 4 X 3 patch of pixels will become TWO pixels in the end output... Software can only assign ONE Color to those 2 new pixels...

 

Likewise if there are only 2 pixels to look at, as in the case of VHS to DVD, and you are making it a 4 X 3 patch, do you think it could ever create one that had the color depth you see here??? (remember Hollywood movie results are all fiction!)

 

We see the same results in Blu-Ray Players that claim to 'upconvert' DVD's... The don't look any better and often look worse

 

One trick I have used (8mm movies) is to place the captures onto a mask background so the captured movie is a reduced size... (like playing it on a smaller screen) The eye gets used to quickly and it looks pretty good

 

Of course that requires more software than EVD3 - I used Creator 20xx for that kind of work.

 

The only thing that might help some is to use S-Video for the picture and seperate audio lines.

[Mark_ABQ]

I see...essentially, it is similar to the way modern HD TVs "force" a non-HD signal into the appropriate amount of space by adding black bars at the top and/or sides... The resolution "looks good" because the display isn't trying to make those decisions about what goes on "unused lines"... I will play with it to see what I can make of my sources, short of going and trying to use one of those up-converters.

 

Over all, your answer is pretty much what I thought it would be, and thanks for confirming my thinking.

 

Edit: I'll leave this topic open for a while so I can play with some other software, then I'll close it when I have some results to share.

[Jim_Hardin]

OK we are open to discussion but when you start refering to 'other software' there are going to be some limits on what you are allowed to post here

 

Generally you are not allowed to permote any competing software that does the same thing... (anybody who doesn't understand that, think - Doh! )

 

Asking if Roxio Software has a feature like 'Super Magic Fix-it, in SuperEdit' would be OK

 

But don't hesitate to post something even if you aren't sure! ...we can always sort it out later.