Forums > Personal > What do I need to convert VHS to mpg?

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Let's keep it simple. What do I need to buy to my computer that is 1 GHz fast, does not have a video card and not much free disc space?

I know that I need a video card and free disc space. How much free disc space for the process to be confortable? The format I want to convert to is MPG (VCD). Anything else I need?

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Thanks for the warning.

I have been searching the net for guides and stuff and all say the same thing: huge files before you compress them. So now I ask: Is there a program/device that compresses directly to MPG with good quality. Deacon Fan, I understand that this is exactly what you had tried with bad results.

Since I want to make lots of small MPG files of music videos, I would be interested in a fast way of converting directly to MPG. Encoding a huge file with lots of separate videos in one piece and breaking them free one by one seems too diffucult and takes too long.

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First tell how much money you are willing to spend
on the necessary hardware...

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Well, for 200 euro, you can't really get a capture card that would support hardware mpeg1 or mpeg2 encoding (well not around here atleast). If you insist on direct mpg captures, with that money you're best in getting any PCI slot based analoge-in capture card (tv-tuner for example) that supports Btwincap generic drivers

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/

Then *steal* a copy of MainConcept Mpeg Encoder 1.4
and use its direct mpeg capture feature, but don't
expect anything THAT good in svcd and vcd resolutions from it. Around 352 x 576 with 5000bitrate it does acceptable footage, but still not really up to the quality gained with Avi capture ->mpgeg encoding.

To connect your VHS recorder to a capture card, you are best of using the composite input (unless you have an s-vhs recorder), for this you need a cheap scart adapter, if your vcr does not have an ouput for composite. Also a separate output for audio to your soundcards line-in is usually needed, if the capture card does not have one.

http://www.vandenhul.com/other/scart_s-vhsL.jpg

If you want quality, get any card supported by Btwincap drivers, tweak your system (Xp is best for this), use Virtualdub Sync for capture, capture to AVI using Huffuyv compression at full resolution, then encode the AVI to desired format using Virtualdub as a frameserver (applying necessary filters - or not) to Tmpgenc. This method however takes time, lots of it and lots of disc space (I have 40gb reserved, 80gb recommended). Unlike a direct mpeg capture. But the quality is worth the wait, you can maintain the quality of your source with inexensive software and hardware this way.

For quality hardware mpeg1/2 captures..well
a Canopus DV Storm2 is around 1000 euro and
upwards.

Of course it might be helpfull to read
reviews of capture cards on DVDRHELP.COM

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/capturecards.php?CaptureCard=&Submit=Search&mpeg1=1&searchconnection=Any&price=200&orderby=Rating&Search=Search

above search lists cards under 200$ (US prices though)
that support hardware mpeg1 capture.

Oh and if you really do insist on direct mpeg1 capture, you don't need much much disc space. It depends on how long the footage is of course. 1 minute of vcd standard footage
is roughly 10mb in size. I'd recommend however using other methods.