Digitizing Hi8 video tapes for PTE

[goddi]

Greetings,

I recently purchased the 'Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus' device to digitize a bunch of tapes. I have a lot of old Hi8 tapes that I want to convert to be able to put them in PTE shows. I am a bit confused as to the better settings to select. I know I can discard the PAL choices, since I am in North America.

I have attached two screenshots of the possible choices. The choices are the Compression, the Resolution and the Frame Rate. Depending on the Compression that is chosen (H.264 vs MPEG2), you get to choose different Frame Rates and Resolutions.

I believe the Hi8 is 4:3 aspect ratio, so I'd think that the proper selection would dictate selecting the Resolution of '640x480' (or does it not matter?), which forces the selection of MPEG2 with the Frame Rate of 29.97.

But I wonder if it makes any difference to select H.264 so that I can choose a different Frame Rate, but the Resolutions are not 4:3. Any increase in quality?

Which Compression does PTE prefer?

So I am a bit confused as to which group of setting will be the best for later insertion of the videos into PTE.

Any ideas???

Thanks.... Gary

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Gary

Long time ago I converted over 50 VHSc 30 minute tapes to DVD by connecting the video camera through a video capture device connected to my DVD recorder. It was a long & painful process with many wasted discs. Things have moved on now & I would imagine the Roxio software has much more sophistication than what I did. I can only suggest you Google your tape types to find the tecnical stuff, then transfer to that to your Roxio software. BTW are you shure the Roxio VHS is compatable with Hi8, I'm not sure but I think VHS is analogue & Hi8 digital :unsure:/> :unsure:/> :unsure:/>

Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Gary, just did a check & Hi8 is analogue also, this link may help. http://www.ehow.com/how_5875657_convert-hi8-tapes-dvd.html

Eric

Yachtsman1.

[goddi]

Hi Gary

Long time ago I converted over 50 VHSc 30 minute tapes to DVD by connecting the video camera through a video capture device connected to my DVD recorder. It was a long & painful process with many wasted discs. Things have moved on now & I would imagine the Roxio software has much more sophistication than what I did. I can only suggest you Google your tape types to find the tecnical stuff, then transfer to that to your Roxio software. BTW are you shure the Roxio VHS is compatable with Hi8, I'm not sure but I think VHS is analogue & Hi8 digital /> /> />

Eric

Yachtsman1.

======================

Greetings Eric,

Both are analog. I've converted VHS tapes with this Roxio device and now I want to do it with my Hi8 tapes. Same process, same connections to the PC. I am just wanting now to be sure I am selecting the best settings. As a test, I converted a section of a Hi8 tape using the H.264 compression and using the MPEG2 compression. I put them both in PTE, side by side. It seems the H.264 is a bit less blurry. To get them side by side in PTE, I set the Zoom for the MPEG2 at 50% and the H.264 at 45%, to get them the same presentation size.

So, if I use the H.264 (seemingly less blurry), then I get several Frame Rates to choose from. In my test, I used 'NTSC (29.97)'. But I am wondering what the effect would be if I used 24fps, or 30fps, instead. I could run a bunch of more tests, but it comes down to what will work best when put into the PTE and then 'converted'. My eyeballs are not calibrated too well so I am wondering from a technical point of view, which selection of settings should be better.

And, if I use H.263, the available Resolutions (480x270 and 720x480) are not 4:3, as I think the Hi8 tapes are. Won't I be 'stretching' the image? It is just hard to tell which is right.

Gary

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Gary

Hi8 is 4-3ar

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6398642_difference-between-hi8-minidv.html

[goddi]

Greetings,

I exported a small Hi8 video clip 4 times using the 'Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus' device. Each export was exported in a different format it offers. I brought each image into PTE (each Zoomed at 50% to make all 4 to fit on one screen).

It looks like the Clip #1 (MPEG2-720x480.mp4) is the better result. But I don't understand why Clip #1 and Clip #3 do not show up in PTE at the same size when they are both 720x480. Does an export as MPEG2 (mp4) give a different result size than H.264 (mpg)?

It strange that the Clip#1's 720x480 (1.5) looks better than Clip#2's 640x480 (1.33), since Hi8 is 4:3 (1.33). Is it just my eyes??? But they appear the same size in the attachment.

Gary

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Gary the 4th image looks squashed to me.

Eric

Yachtsman1.

[PGA]

Gary,

If you use a frame rate that is different to the original frame rate, the software has to either remove frames it doesn't want or add in frames that were never there. Either way you risk degrading the visual quality. I would find out what frame rate the original material is and stay with that.

MPEG2 and H264 both involve compression routines (as do all video formats). Therefore you must expect there to be different output files sizes (when expressed as KB, MB or GB. That fact that one is larger than the other does not imply that the result, when viewed via a media player, will be better.

And, provided that PTE does accept the input file, it doesn't matter whether you have the best format for PTE to use. If it isn't, PTE will offer you the chance to convert it using PTE's own converter.

regards,

Peter