How To Convert VHS To DVD Guide

Video Encoding

Software

There are many encoders, but for this usage I suggest this one:

TMPGEncPlus - http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tp.html

Source and output

As the videosource select the captured video stream. The audio source will be the wav from Magix audio cleaning lab. Then choose a filename for the mpeg2 that will be produced.

Settings

My current settings can be downloaded from here: VHS2DVD.mcf. To load them into TMPGEnc is the Load button, that's all. Now let's go through the settings (press the Settings button). You probably see almost all the settings disabled for editing. You can change it by loading another settings over the VHS2DVD.mcf. It's called unlock.mcf and it's located somewhere in C:\Program Files\TMPGEnc\Template\Extra. Next you can see something like this:

The basic settings are clear (although for NTSC it will be different), the one that matters is the »Rate control mode«. It would be the best to set it on 2-pass VBR, but it takes very long time. I had good results with Constant Quality with these settings:

TMPGEnc Plus - Constant quality settings

If you discover something better, please let me know. But it can't double the encoding time. The same problem is with »Motion search precision«. The »Highest quality« would be good but time consuming. I'm quite satisfied with the fast »Motion estimate search«.

Well let's look at the »Advanced« tab. There are filters, a very important thing in the whole process. If you didn't start or stop grabbing in the right time, you should check the »Source range« and select the proper beginning and end. Noise reduction is a very useful filter, like the audio cleaning removes noise from audio, this makes the same with the video stream. Test it a few times, but not move sliders too much to the right or check the High quality mode, unless you can let your computer encode it for a few days. The »Deinterlace« filter works well at »Double«. VHS has some distortion at the bottom and on the top of the screen. If you watch your DVD on the computer, it really doesn't look nice. So you have to clip the frame, on the top it's about 8 px and on the bottom 16 px. Because DVD-Video has different format than VHS (720x576 vs. 768x576) you have also crop the left and right side 24 px each.

Remember to check the top and bottom masks, otherwise the screen will be resized. The color of the mask can be selected in the »Mask color settings«.

The other tabs I keep as they are. If you want to, you can use »Audio edit« in the »Audio« tab for example and set a Fade in and Fade out.

Encoding

So now it's time to encode – press the Start button and wait. If the »Remaining time« shows a too high number, you'll have to change some settings (denoise filter etc.). To compare — on my Athlon XP 1600 one hour of video takes about ten hours to be encoded.

If you like it: