GOOD QUALITY DIGITAL video from analog video - IS IT POSSIBLE?!

[berezner]

I'd be very thankful if someone can help we with this ....

Last year I bought sony digital camera and PC with pioneer dvd burner for just one reason - to convert my 10y old good quality analog video tapes to good quality DVDs. Then I


1. copied analog tape to a digital tape

2. played this digital tape from digital camera to TV - there were virtually no deterioration of quality, it was almost as good as the original

3. copied converted analog2digital signal to my pc via firewire card

4. played it on my pc - the quality was by far inferior to TV quality (less sharp, poorer colours, worse resolution, etc.) - whereas if I copy digital tapes that were taped as digital there is no loss of quality when playing on the PC

5. edited converted analog2digital signal (cut certain scenes, added titles, etc) and recorded it to the digital camera tape; then played it on TV - the quality was as good as the original

6. yet, when I burned that same edited converted analog2digital signal to DVD and played it from my dvd to my TV the picture quality was as bad as on my PC


Not being an expert I tried to work this out. My guess is that there is a good match between analog tape signal and analog TV, therefore quality is good when analog signal is send to analog TV. But when I make digital signal out of analog and then try view it as a digital (on a PC or on TV via DVD) then I get a mismatch and poor quality as a result.

Am I right?

Is there any way out (I mean - is there any way that I can get DVD's from my analog tape that will produce the same picture quality?)

Will appreciate any hints/advices/etc

Please reply to berezner@acer.edu.au

Thanks in advance
Sergei

[alcskid]

Well. The main problem was the original source of movies resolution.

As you know that Analog tape can only produce resolution to 352x288 (PAL) or 352x240 (NTSC)

If you convert this into higher resolution 640x480 to match DVD resolution, then the picture will be very choppy and far beyond expectation.

The best way was to keep the resolution, and just burn as VCD format that have the same resolution as analog tape.

You will see that the result (VCD) of course you can not enhance and compare to DVD film that originally recorded at higher resolution. But it will the same quality as analog tape does !

[kimomakano]

Can be done.

I have been playing around with converting old vhs tapes to digital format for a little while now and found a way to get some pretty decent quality.

I use an ATI All-In-Wonder capture card to import the source from my VCR to my PC. What I have found is that it works best to capture the source as an AVI file first using VirtualDub. Then I convert the file MPG using TMPGEnc.

At first I had used the capture software that came with my capture card (ATI MultiMedia). It wasn't until I finally tried VirtualDub that I was able to get a quality that matched the original source.

So, yes, it can be done. It takes some time, but if you want it, it is worth it.

[shiny#3]

as a matter of fact a video tape
normally produces a resolution of
352x576 in good standart and even higher on supervideostandart!...
thats why it is regarded between
VCD and SVCD
of course you have to determine between
pal and ntsc standart

but I have to say that the pal standart
is getting more and more important because of its close framerate and resolution to real movies
it is 720 x 576 at a speed of 25 frames per second.

only that stubburn american dvd producers use that strange format of
640x480 at a framerate of 29.something
or 23. something.

noone else does!!
thats why the movie plays a little faster on TV (check it) than in cinema!

it is always possible to get the same result out of a low resolution movie by capturing on a higher resolution

but it is never possible to get a better result out of an analog movie keeping the "original " resolution.

resizing it to almost the double resolution does not do the job.... no matter what buyable resizer you have!!


better capture at a higher res. and change aspect ratio ... than blow up the picture by "resizing " it.

[shiny#3]

and also i rcognize
that we are way out of discussion...
did you put ( if possible)
that ld video tapes in your camera and then transmitted it to the pc?

if the tapes are of analog type and vhs standart better use a vcr and an analog link ( tvcard or ad converter to capture these
old tapes
of course you can still use your camera
if it is able to play that old tapes.
important then is if you capture analog...or if your camera is able to create a digtal steam out of the analog tape!!