Computer - copying VHS to DVD

[101RRS]

One for the computer buffs.

I have a DV card in my computer to capture Video camera footage, analogue video (eg VHS) and audio.

I use PowerDirector Pro to convert the video to MPEG 2 - the MPEG2 is of good quality and the audio is synchronised.

I use either NeoDVD or Power Producer Gold to convert the MPEG2 into DVD.

The problem is that the audio is then out of sync with the video (it is in sync when in Mpeg2 format)

In a 3 hour video the audio can end up being about 4 secs out of sync.

Any thoughts would be appreciated from those of you conveting video of your trips to DVDs. Likewise if anyone knows of another specialist formum who might help I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Gazzz

[abaddonxi]

Is any of the audio set to 30 fps/60hz rather than 25fps/50hz?

That could cause a loss of synch in your audio.

PAL - Australia 25fps/50hz
NTSC -- USA 30fps/60hz

Or if your stuff is transferred or set at 24fps which is standard for motion picture cameras.

hth

Cheers
Simon

[incisor]

welcome to the land of burning video on pc's

i gave up capturing to mpeg.

i now always capture to DV on a firewair external drive

edit then burn etc

are you burning to dvd or svcd ?

svcd is very prone to loss of sync under nero...

when you say the disk is out of sync do you mean replaying on computer or replaying on tv style dvd player or both?

depending on the codec you use many good quality players will lose sync while cheap ones usually work great. for example some high end toshiba dvd units will actually play the audio in front of the pics by up to 15 seconds style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

mixing ntsc and pal source also causes loss of sync ie. look at your frame rates and sizing and encoding types, vbr etc etc and make sure you are encoding / burning in the right format

nero has it's problems and loss of sync can be one of them esp if you are using pirated copies of nero or codec packs.

me, i found the easiest way to beat it is buy a mac and something that actually locks audio and video during capture, such as the canopus black boxes style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

i went that way and havent had loss of sync in yonks .....

can be fun trying to get to the bottom of this sort of thing...

[drivesafe]

Interesting to see the same problems on both PCs and Macs.

The last time I tried to transfer a copy of a mates family tape, from VHS to DVD on a Mac, I had the same problem.

Loaded the tape via a Digital camera into Final Cut Pro, put a few markers in, no other editing and the transferred the whole thing to DVD Studio Pro and burnt a disk.

Just run the disk for a few seconds in a DVD player and it seemed to be OK but at the time, didn’t have time to play the whole thing and the mate wanted a heap of copies for the family so I waited till he had played the whole thing ( luckily ) and then when I had time, I was going to burn the rest.

He rings me a few days later and says the DVD starts out fine but by the end of the one hour DVD there is 4 seconds difference between the audio and video.

I spent any spare time I had over the next two weeks trying to solve the problem. The thing run perfectly in Final Cut Pro but no matter what I did, every DVD I burnt had the same problem.

He ended up going to another mate with a PC and got it done.

Seems to be some common problems with both systems and inc, I have other words for it and their nothing like the word FUN. :wink:

Hmmmmmm.

[p38arover]

I was going to buy a DVD recorder (Aldi have them next week for $179) and just play the video tapes straight into that.

Will that work OK?

Ron

[incisor]

very interesting

since i went the way of the canopus advc's and my power book the only time i get a stuff up is when i out smart my self style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

i know you have had enormous problems, but i have never seen them.

that said, the 4 sec loss of sync is a classic sign of a framerate missmatch.

will quizz one of my customers who does this stuff for a living and get his opinion and report back on what he reckons it may be....

[abaddonxi]

Originally posted by p38arover
I was going to buy a DVD recorder (Aldi have them next week for $179) and just play the video tapes straight into that.

Will that work OK?

Ron

Yeah, probably. Most likely a lot easier than pushing it through your computer as well, 'cos there's no settings for you to adjust.

Lucky DVD-R's are cheap now so wasting a few isn't too much of a worry.


Cheers
Simon

[Captain_Rightfoot]

If all else fails, a mate of mine has a commercial Pioneer DVD burner that seems to work well and doesn't have any issues like this. He did oiur video from the desert and just plugged the AV in from our DV camer and recorded it. Probably not the best quality but fine for watching on TV. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

[drivesafe]

Hi p38arover, I’ve had one for about 3 months now but can’t be bothered trying to burn one but my daughter has had one for the same time and she is having a ball playing with it including burning DVDs.

It’s a much cheaper way to go, now that these hard drive recorders have come down so much in cost.

Cheers.

[drivesafe]

Hi inc, I bet it is something as simple as buggery, but I can’t find it. :twisted:

Cheers.

[Ace]

Hi all, it isnt an answer to your above question, but i have a question. Mum and dad have an old Video camera, it doesnt take the VHS sized tapes, the ones smaller than that. My question is, can i somehow get the footage to the PC so i can edit it and then burn it? What do i need to do to get it from the camera to the PC, and then what soft ware is best? Matt

[incisor]

if the camera can display a picture on a tv it is simple style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

you need as a minimum a tv capture card and a decent bit of software to capture it with such as virtuadub . then you can import it direct into your burning software such as nero or you can use the like of movie maker to set it up etc...

[drivesafe]

Hi Ace, sound like 8mm or Hi8 tape. It will have one of those labels printed on the side of the tape cassette.

If so then the video camera will most likely have the standard RCA output plugs on the camera. Depending on how old the video camera is, there will be one video output ( yellow RCA plug ) and one or two audio outputs ( red and white RCA plugs ).

If your computer does not already have it, you will need a video input card.

Incisor can tell you more about that.

One more point about the tape, it could also be Digital8 tape, they are all the same looking tape but if the camera is a Digital8 video camera then it will have a Firewire output ( NOTE if it is a Sony video camera, the firewire output is called iLink but is exactly the same as Firewire )

Your computer, depending on how old it is will most likely already have a Firewire in/out port, but again you can get a Firewire card fairly cheaply for your computer and again Incisor can give you more info on that.

Cheers

[101RRS]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

To answer some of the questions - burning to DVD not SVCD or VCD - when capuring to MPEG 2 the video and audio is always in sync- it is the process of converting the MPEG 2 to DVD is the problem - and sometimes using the same procedures it does work with th audio in sync.

Unfortunately I don't believe analogue can go through the DV port to be burned straight to disk.

I think I will borrow a mates DVD recorder to copy the VHS - it seems to be quicker and easier.

Thanks for the help.

Gazzz

[abaddonxi]

Another tack at the same problem. Is it based on what your computer is doing when you're buring DVD's?

Depends on how old your burner is and your computer.

My old dog, P3 and slow Burner with no onboard ram would trash disks at a great old rate if I was running anything else.

If that were the case, amount of ram, speed of hdd, processor, all of that guff could be the culprit.

hth

cheers
Simon.

[101RRS]

Originally posted by abaddonxi
Another tack at the same problem. Is it based on what your computer is doing when you're buring DVD's?

Depends on how old your burner is and your computer.

My old dog, P3 and slow Burner with no onboard ram would trash disks at a great old rate if I was running anything else.

If that were the case, amount of ram, speed of hdd, processor, all of that guff could be the culprit.

hth

cheers
Simon.

Computer should be up to it - P4, 3 ghz - 512 dual ram, serial 7200rpm 120g hard drive - the burner is a new LG dual layer burner. when burning the CPU is never over 20% usage.

I know what you mean about trying to do this on old systems - even on my system when I have bumped the frame rate over 30fps it starts to struggle.

Cheers

Gazzz

[abaddonxi]

Originally posted by garrycol

Computer should be up to it - P4, 3 ghz - 512 dual ram, serial 7200rpm 120g hard drive - the burner is a new LG dual layer burner. when burning the CPU is never over 20% usage.

I know what you mean about trying to do this on old systems - even on my system when I have bumped the frame rate over 30fps it starts to struggle.

Cheers

Gazzz


Hmmm.

Sounds like that isn't the problem.

Oh, another old chestnut like that is do you have the burner and the hard drive on the same ide channel?

Shouldn't make enough difference but does affect speed when you're trying to access both heavily.

Cheers
Simon

[101RRS]

Serial ATA hard drives do not run on the IDE channels - they have their own special SATA channels - so the DVD drives have their own individual IDE channels.

If I burn the DVD files to the hard drive rather than to a disk - the voice is still out of sync.

I think that this is one of those things that are in the lap of the gods!

[abaddonxi]

Yeah, I thoght you might say SATA. Think your right, mystery of the universe.

Cheers
Simon

[101RRS]

Originally posted by abaddonxi
Yeah, I thoght you might say SATA. Think your right, mystery of the universe.

Cheers
Simon

Seems most have experienced the problem and not solved it - a borrowed DVD recorder is the go I think

[Maggot4x4]

I use some dinosours but have never had a problem, vhs player connected via creative video blaster, and edit and burn using video studio 8. Never had a problem.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Interestingly, I was doing some research on archival life of optical media for work last week. It would appear that optical media should have a life between 20 and 100 years depending on the quality.

Picking the quality is hard though. Buying a brand name doesn't always guarentee success. I have a good link on this that i'll put up next week when I get to my work favourites.

Also of interest was that they said that people should re-fresh their media as often as possible. So, once it's on DVD doesn't mean it's safe forever. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif

[Grizzly_Adams]

Originally posted by Captain_Rightfoot
Also of interest was that they said that people should re-fresh their media as often as possible. So, once it's on DVD doesn't mean it's safe forever. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif

As horrible as this thought is - this also applies to purchased DVD's. Though they are pressed instead of burnt so they last longer, they still have a limited life span.

I would *like* to burn all my DVD's onto HDD somewhere, but that would mean I'd need something like 2TB of (preferrably raid-protected) HDD space and I just don't know if I'll be able to convince my wife I actually need it 8O :oops: 8)

[abaddonxi]

Burn spare copies, put 'em in an airtight box with silica gel to make sure it's dry. Put the box in the cellar and forget about it.

Burn another half dozen copies send it to your friends.

My experience is that if you don't use them they last fine.

All problems I've had with optical media have been scratching or delamination from over handling.

Cheers
Simon.