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RSS feedsVideo collections often contain treasures that are well past their use-by date, as neither VHS tapes nor reels of Super-8 are suitable for the long-term storage and retrieval of film material.
Every time they are used their life expectancy declines. Even a single play mechanically reduces the picture quality, virtually unnoticeably - but over many cycles the degradation becomes obvious. The consequences range from loss of colour and sound to physical tears in the tape.
The prospect of not being able to view your videos in the long term is obviously unattractive. You can easily make copies of the tapes by using another video recorder, but by the time you make a third-generation copy, the picture quality will be noticeably worse than in the original.
Digitising your videos is the answer. The idea is simple and comprises three stages: transfer the analogue recording to a PC using a TV card, digital video converter box or DV camcorder, process it to enhance the quality, and save it on DVD or CD.
Optical media don't suffer from degradation via physical contact during playback, unlike mechanically read VHS or Super-8 tape. This means that, even after repeated playback, the picture quality on DVD copies remains as good as the original (optical media longevity is still a thorny issue, however).
In addition, the original and its digital copy are effectively identical. Each generation is as good as the first. And CDs and DVDs have further advantages: they're easier to handle and take up less space than VHS tapes.
So how do you digitise analogue films without paying someone to do it? In this two-part feature we'll explain each of the three stages of digitising your videos: capture, restoration and burning to CD or DVD.
Transferring the original video data to a PC is only half the story. Often the analogue sources are damaged, with a lot of noise, washed-out colours and picture interference. Once digitised, you can clean up the material using simple tools.
The best bit is that you don't even have to buy expensive, specialised software. Some powerful freeware or shareware programs are available that will help keep your costs down to a minimum. Of course, if you don't mind spending more money there are lots of dedicated hardware and software solutions available, and we'll touch briefly on some of these as well.
Digitising VHS on a budget
There are several methods of transferring analogue video recordings to a PC, but the cheapest is to use a TV tuner or all-in-one graphics card with an S-Video and/or composite video input. With a fairly powerful CPU - at least 1.5GHz - you can transfer analogue video to the PC in real time and at DV quality (a data rate of 3.6MBps).
Budget-priced but capable TV cards such as the Pinnacle PCTV Rave/PCI TV cost around £40, or an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon can be picked up for under £150.
However, if using this method the analogue sound track has to be captured separately using the line-in input of the soundcard (or onboard sound chip). If you're using a DV camcorder, both the sound and video data are transferred via the FireWire interface.
Alternative methods that save computer resources are more expensive. A suitable DV camcorder with a composite or S-Video input (these start from around £300 with a FireWire interface) or a specialised video-capture card or converter box (about £150 with a USB or FireWire interface) can be used to offload the capture process from your PC.
These devices convert the analogue video stream internally, so you just connect them to S-Video input from your VCR or camcorder (you'll need a Scart to S-Video adapter or composite video if your VCR doesn't have an S-Video output). The video is converted directly to DV format and streamed to your PC.
This takes the strain from the CPU, and enables smooth video conversion on under-powered PCs. DV camcorders are especially versatile; just like converter boxes, capture cards or TV cards, camcorders can record VHS via the S-Video input. You can also use them to copy Super-8 films.
To convert Super-8 films, you need first to record them off a screen using a DV camcorder. All DV camcorders have a DV-out socket that can be used to transfer recorded video material to the PC. Except on low-priced models, this connector is bidirectional and serves both as an input and output port.
DV converter boxes, which have either USB or FireWire connectors, convert analogue video material to the DV format. The larger the converter's maximum data throughput, the higher the quality of the captured video. This means if you're buying a USB model you should look for one with a USB2 interface which, at 480Mbps, is nominally 40 times faster than USB1.1's 12Mbps bandwidth.
USB1.1 models are adequate for transferring VHS material in real time without noticeable degradation. However, with DV material the slow data transfer rate leads to a visible reduction in picture quality. Only USB2 models can transfer DV streams without obvious loss of quality.
If all your PC's PCI slots are already in use, then DV camcorders and DV converter boxes can be an effective external video-capturing solution.
Codecs and programs
Using the right software and video codec is vital for good results. When it comes to video editing, VirtualDub is a great choice. This piece of freeware performs better than many commercial programs.
The choice of codec (an algorithm for compressing and decompressing multimedia files) is important because it determines the audio and video quality of the digitised material. In hardware capture devices the codec is embedded in the hardware, whereas if you're using a budget TV card the compression is done in software - this is why you'll need a higher powered PC if you choose this route.
Most codecs offer you a choice of the amount of video compression to use; the less compression, the higher the quality but the greater the file size. You should choose the compression based on the original source material.
For example, the Super Video CD (SVCD) format (576 x 480 pixels, mpeg2 encoding) is OK for medium-quality archiving of VHS recordings. But for archiving DV or DVD films (720 x 576 pixels), neither Video CD (VCD, 352 x 288, mpeg1) nor SVCD resolutions are sufficient.
For such higher quality source material, it's best to keep the original data rate if possible. The disadvantage is that even a 60-minute mpeg2 video encoded at 0.8MBps needs 2.8GB of storage. Regardless of the digital format you use, videos should be captured with as high a data rate as possible. Remember you can reduce the quality later, but you can't improve it.
VirtualDub is a powerful alternative to commercial video-editing software. It works with most current codecs and gives access to a large range of video-processing filters (also free) via its import function. In this feature we'll concentrate on using VirtualDub.
Commercial video-editing solutions that offer a comparable range of features include Magix Video 2.0 and programs from Ulead (DVD Powertools, DVD Movie Factory), Serif (Movieplus, DVD Plus), Pinnacle (Studio 9) and Dazzle (DVD Complete). In some ways these are easier to use than VirtualDub, but they are really intended for high-quality source video and are only suitable to a limited extent for use as restoration tools.
In principle, all software codecs will produce good-quality images if the right settings are used. However, if the film is to be further processed on the PC, you need a codec that allows frame-by-frame editing. The most suitable candidate for this is DV, a codec with a data rate of 3.6MBps, which is used by camcorders.
Professional video-editing systems make use of the DV codec for PC-based editing. The commercial Motion-jpeg (mjpeg) codec also supports frame-by-frame editing. Files created with this codec take up only 25 per cent of the space of those created with DV.
VirtualDub doesn't support mpeg2 files natively, only avi; you need to use the utility DVD2AVI to save the mpeg2 source file as a new file with the extension.d2v, and then use the Vfapiconf utility to save this as an avi file. Both Vfapiconf and DVD2AVI can be downloaded from www.doom9.org.
An alternative to DV, mjpeg and mpeg2 is Huffyuv. This free lossless codec also compresses videos in real time, even on slow 500MHz PCs. However, you'll only get around a 50 per cent file size reduction with this codec.
VirtualDub supports the DV codec, but works using the older Video for Windows standard. After installing the codec and modifying the Registry as detailed below it will open Type 2 DV-AVI files, which have separate audioand video streams.
In Type 1 DV-AVI files, audio and video data are combined in a single stream. Type 1 movies will have to be converted to Type 2 before they can be opened. A suitable piece of software for this job is Pure Motion's Edit Studio. You can obtain a DV codec from several sources. One can be downloaded from www.mainconcept.com for $49 (£27).
There is also a free Panasonic DV codec available, which you can download here. This Video for Windows-compatible software is installed in two steps. If you're using Windows 2000 or XP, copy the 259KB file pdvcodec.dll into the Windows System32 folder.
Next, create and import a Registry file with the following contents:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
drivers.desc]
"pdvcodec.dll"="Panasonic DV Codec"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
Drivers32] "vidc.dvsd" = "pdvcodec. dll"
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control\ 3
MediaResources\icm\vidc.dvsd]
"Description"="Panasonic DV Codec"
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control\
MediaResources\icm\vidc.dvsd]
"Driver" = "pdvcodec.dll"
These settings will then allow VirtualDub to process Type 2 DV files without problems.
See also:
There's more to digital cameras than higher resolutions, so don't be fooled by the marketing hype 22 Dec 2004
Most people haven't considered the benefits of taking a computer outside the house. We explain what you're missing and how to get started 14 Oct 2004
DVDs offer loads of advantages when it comes to storing data. We expain all the ins and outs of writing DVDs, disc compatibility and DVD-writing software 30 Sep 2004
Tape and film degrade each time you play them, but there is a way to convert your analogue memories into digital format. We show you how 24 Sep 2004
Buying branded recordable CDs and DVDs could hit your pocket hard. We ask whether it's worth paying for a name 14 Jul 2004All Software Applications
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