VHS -> HV20 -> Vegas -> DVD

[Jim Browning]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to digitize a bunch of old VHS-C tapes, edit them in Vegas Pro 8.0c and render them to DVD. I followed the HV20 manual for Analog to Digital conversion, trying to do it without writing to a tape and then playing it back. So I have the VHS deck connected to the camera through the A/V port, the camera to the computer via 1394, and Analog to DV set to on. My HDV workflow has been via CineForm, however CineForm generated error messages no matter what I did. So I tried to capture directly into Vegas and it wouldn't even recognize the device. It would recognize HDV tapes fine, but not DV, regardless of whether it was converted or shot with the camera. I did some searching and found a recommendation "enable the popup" that asks you whether you want to capture DV or HDV. The only way I could 'enable a popup' was to specify external capture software (Sony version 6.0). Doing that got the device recognized and I've managed to do some capturing, but:

A. I have to record the VHS to the camera and then do the capture from tape(doubles the time required) because the Sony external app insists on controlling the camera tape drive instead of simply recording what it is being sent. It sees what is being sent and starts capturing that, but then it starts the tape and it sees that instead. Stopping it on the camera just shuts the capture session down.

B. The sound is horrible! There is a loud hum/buzz over the top of everything.

So.. Is the external capture software what is intended in the FAQ, or have I just not found the right Vegas option? Has anyone gotten this combination to work without writing to tape in the camera? Is there an option to get rid of the buzz? I've been using the default 12 bit audio in the camera settings during the conversion.

Thanks in advance for any tips on this... I'm doing it for my wife's birthday, and I'm really struggling. I could just dub the tape to DVD using a standalone VHS player/DVD Writer, but that would preclude editing.
--
Jim Browning

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Jim Browning

...I did some searching and found a recommendation "enable the popup" that asks you whether you want to capture DV or HDV. The only way I could 'enable a popup' was to specify external capture software (Sony version 6.0). Doing that got the device recognized and I've managed to do some capturing, but:

A. I have to record the VHS to the camera and then do the capture from tape(doubles the time required) because the Sony external app insists on controlling the camera tape drive ...

The external app is for DV. Sounds like you've got it basically working. (It's possible your earlier problems with the internal app were camera related, the HV20 probably won't upconvert SD to HDV.) The external app has a pref for "enable device control", you want that disabled. That should get you down to a single pass.

There's nothing in this chain that should produce a loud buzz. Is it possible you have a bad cable? Usually, you'll not want the 12bit default, but the 16bit.

If the sound is important and using a different cable doesn't clear it up, you could capture the audio separately into Vegas by hooking up the VHS-C player's audio output directly to the line input of your sound card, and enabling a Vegas audio track for recording - it's fairly simple, there's a place to select what device you're recording from. Then, you'd resync the audio with the video in a vegas project, group them... and you'll (finally) have a good capture.

[Jim Browning]

Thanks Seth... much appreciated.

[Harold Schreiber]

Hi Jim,

You don't say if you simply want to cut parts out, or maybe switch parts around (simple editing), and/or add titles.

If only the first two, then you can go with a DVR with an HDD. Dump tapes direct to the HDD, do the simple edits, and then burn to DVD's.

If you want to add Titles, then you can make them on your computer, dump them to your Cam, then to the DVR HDD, then add them to your DVD at burn time.

If you use the Philips DVR HDD units, you can also dump the Titles to a DVD on the computer, then the DVR can copy the Titles to the DVR HDD from the DVD, and you can go from there.

I've used both these methods very sucessfully, and it is faster than putting your tapes to a computer, editing, rendering and putting to DVD's.

It all depends on how fancy you want your DVD's to be.

Harold

[Jim Browning]

Thanks Harold. Turns out my DVR doesn't let me record and edit, at least not that I could figure out. And I do want to do some some more involved editing. It's a 50th birthday present for my wife.

Seth, the noise was there on anything from the VCR, regardless of the cable. And video shot to the camera and run through the same cable didn't have the noise. So I went ahead and spent $100 on the project to get a new VCR and, voila, no more noise. Audio is fine and I'm redoing the noisy captures I had done, this time at 16 bit.

It will be time consuming, but I can do the capture in one pass while I'm doing something else, and I'll have full Vegas editing capability this way. DV renders don't take much time compared to HDV. The test one I did only took about 8 minutes.

All is well now.. thanks for the help, guys!
--
Jim