Clean up VHS footage

cian1500ww

I've imported some footage taken on a VHS-C camera, the quality is quite poor so I'm wondering is there anyway to clean up the footage in Premiere Pro ?? Its quite grainy, typical vhs quality basically

SouperComputer

The video is only as good as its source, so after the video itself its down to how you went about capturing it. What hardware did you use?

cian1500ww

SouperComputer wrote: »

The video is only as good as its source, so after the video itself its down to how you went about capturing it. What hardware did you use?

I used a Hauppage WinTV 900H TV Card, it has component inputs and I used it's software to capture the footage.

SouperComputer

Do you have just one tape to do, or a few? A TV card like that compresses to MPEG2 on the fly in a manner suited for TV viewing/storage rather than video editing. Ideally you should be using something like a Canopus ADVC 100 or later. They are purpose designed for this kind of work. You can always sell the capture device when you are done. Personally, id get the gear and do it right the first time. I learned the hard way when I captured 50+hours of old footage and had to re-do it because I didnt get the right gear the first time around...

TV Capture card is fine and all, but if you want the best results you need to get the right gear. A pro VHS desk mightn't be a bad idea either. I know it sounds overkill. At the very least, start with a proper capture device and use SVideo if you can rather than composite. These measures technically wont "improve" the quality, but they will reduce the amount of degredation that you see from the capture process.

Another alternative is to use a "framebuffer" TV card that will allow you to capture raw, uncompressed video. This takes a lot of fiddling to get right though.

cian1500ww

SouperComputer wrote: »

Do you have just one tape to do, or a few? A TV card like that compresses to MPEG2 on the fly in a manner suited for TV viewing/storage rather than video editing. Ideally you should be using something like a Canopus ADVC 100 or later. They are purpose designed for this kind of work. You can always sell the capture device when you are done. Personally, id get the gear and do it right the first time. I learned the hard way when I captured 50+hours of old footage and had to re-do it because I didnt get the right gear the first time around...

TV Capture card is fine and all, but if you want the best results you need to get the right gear. A pro VHS desk mightn't be a bad idea either. I know it sounds overkill. At the very least, start with a proper capture device and use SVideo if you can rather than composite. These measures technically wont "improve" the quality, but they will reduce the amount of degredation that you see from the capture process.

Another alternative is to use a "framebuffer" TV card that will allow you to capture raw, uncompressed video. This takes a lot of fiddling to get right though.

Ah ok, would I be able to capture straight into Premiere Pro with the Canopus ADVC 100 ?? According to the descriptions of it, it converts the video to DV streams, and Premiere Pro captures DV streams. Something like that would be ideal/

SouperComputer

cian1500ww wrote: »

Ah ok, would I be able to capture straight into Premiere Pro with the Canopus ADVC 100 ?? According to the descriptions of it, it converts the video to DV streams, and Premiere Pro captures DV streams. Something like that would be ideal/

Yep, thats the whole concept. Basically its seen as a DV camera. Dont forget to use SVideo if you can.

Amalgam

I own the Canopus ADVC-300 myself, it works fine for what it is, but will not magically improve grotty source footage.

cian1500ww

SouperComputer wrote: »

Yep, thats the whole concept. Basically its seen as a DV camera. Dont forget to use SVideo if you can.

Amalgam wrote: »

I own the Canopus ADVC-300 myself, it works fine for what it is, but will not magically improve grotty source footage.

Well the footage looks decent enough when played on a tv, I'll have to double check it though. Is there anywhere in Ireland that sells that card ??

Amalgam

Big Bear Sound (http://www.bigbearsound.com/) will get Canopus products for you, that's where I got mine, but it is going back to 2005.

Umm.. also, if you're set on that particular unit, it *does not* have a Full Frame TBC (time base corrector) inside, which some reviews assume, it has a Line TBC, there is a difference.

I suggest visiting:

http://www.videohelp.com/

and

http://forum.doom9.org/

For user opinions and general video advice.

Lurk on ebay for the Canopus ADVC-100, it does pop up, as well as the various Canopus rebrands (same hardware sold under a different brand).

Dr Kamikazi

I'm using a Sony DCR TRV 320E camcorder to capture as DV AVI stream. Certainly Premiere does handle that quite nicely and keeps audio/video in sync even when capturing over 2 hours, but wouldn't recommend going over that by much.
The next important step is encoding it to the next format, Adobe for DVD or a Divx encoder to turn it into a compressed AVI to play on the PC or through the DVD player via memory stick (saves on having millions of disks littering the place).
You can adjust brightness, contrast, hue saturation and sharpness in most editing programmes, but if the source is cr*p the end result will be too.
There is also no substitute for a decent VCR, most modern 30 quid sh1t boxes, even though advertised as "image stabilisation" and "6 head NICAM" are cheap and nasty inside, better off getting something older but solid, Mitsubishi are near indestructible.
The best way is to use the best possible hardware and software and use them right. The patience of a saint and an understanding of various types of hardware and software is essential.

And don't forget: Cleaning the video heads between tapes is the best way of getting the best possible footage. And don't use cleaning tapes (nasty), open the VCR and get in there with a rag and some alcohol. And the first time cleaning, be extra thorough, it will make a difference!

cian1500ww

I see it's available here: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.ie%2FA-D-DV-Wandler-canopus-ADVC-110-ADVC-110-NEU-NEW_W0QQitemZ180326147516QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDE_Technik_Computerzubeh%25C3%25B6r_Multimedia%3Fhash%3Ditem29fc46a5bc&sl=de&tl=en Little dear, anywhere cheaper ??

Amalgam

How long do you need the unit for?

As an ongoing tool, or a one off project?

If you were closer to me, you could use mine, but you're not.

cian1500ww

I could have a lot of use for the device as we have a lot of vhs tapes that need converting. Anyone know anyone thinking of selling theres ?? I'd prefer to get one secondhand to save a bit of money. When I say a lot btw, I probably have close to 100 hours of tape to convert, everything from christianings, communions, bithdays, christmas etc. It's all footage my father took with his VHS-C camera, it was top of the line in it's time

SouperComputer

cian1500ww wrote: »

I could have a lot of use for the device as we have a lot of vhs tapes that need converting. Anyone know anyone thinking of selling theres ?? I'd prefer to get one secondhand to save a bit of money. When I say a lot btw, I probably have close to 100 hours of tape to convert, everything from christianings, communions, bithdays, christmas etc. It's all footage my father took with his VHS-C camera, it was top of the line in it's time

Get on eBay, buy a pro VHS deck, a proper capture tool and a couple of HD's. Capture\archive the whole lot and sell the deck and capture tool when you are done.

You could also go the route Dr Kamikazi has suggested using a Digital 8 camcorder. Checkout my thread HERE for some suitable cameras. Not all of these have an Svideo in, so check before you buy/bid. Adverts is worth a try too. I have a D8 camera (Its PAL) that I could sell, but shipping might be a bit of a killer...

Dr Kamikazi

Another way of getting cheap cams for the job is to buy them defective of ebay or wherever you can find them.
I was given a DCR TRV 22E MiniDV camcorder (no A/D conversion though through it), because the CCD had blown.
Since I use it to only play tapes back, it's now my main tool for converting MiniDV.
You could get a camcorder that does what you want for very little as long as the fault is in something like the CCD or tape mechanism.
It won't work as a camcorder, but should still digitize footage.
It'll be hard find the exact right one that way and no guarantees it'll work, but defective camcorders can be cheap or free and it's worth a shot.