VHS to file codec recommendation

[Roland Smith]

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 10:47:53AM +0200, Polytropon wrote:
> Dear list,
> 
> I've built a system to digitize content from VHS video tapes.
> The setting consists of a 2 GHz P4 with a BrookTree based
> video grabber card (supported by bktr driver) and a C-Media
> sound card (supported by cmi driver). The video card does
> only have mono sound input, so I'm using the sound card's
> line in for stereo audio. A proper cable from a SCART to
> a Cinch connector and a 3,5mm TRS connector has been created.
> 
> I can already play on screen and through speakers with this
> command:
> 
> mplayer tv://0 on:driver=bsdbt848:device=/dev/bktr0:norm=PAL:noaudio:input=2

Use the '-dumpstream' and '-dumpfile foo.dump' options to save output to disk.
 
> I am intending to use mencoder for the whole process.
> 
> Which codec would you recommend for encoding?

If you want to stick to mencoder, use x264 with mp3 audio. I've got the following in
~/.mplayer/mencoder.conf: 

    [hqmovie]
    profile-desc="High-quality movie encoding."
    ovc=x264=1
    oac=mp3lame=1
    x264encopts=subq=6:partitions=all:8x8dct:me=umh:frameref=5:bframes=3
    x264encopts=weight_b:qp=18:threads=auto
    idx=1

Ecoding the movie is done with:

    mencoder -profile hqmovie -o foo.avi foo.dump
 
> I'm searching for a solution that doesn't introduce too
> much loss of quality (as the tape's quality usually is
> considered "bad enough"), and the resulting files should
> not be too big. 

Bad tape quality will mean bigger files, I'm afraid. You could try some of the
filtering options of mencoder. See the VIDEO FILTERS section of
mencoder(1). Which filter to use is a bit of trial-and-error depending on the
quality of the material you've got. Use mplayer to cut a short but relevant
section from your material, and experiment on it with different filter
parameters. Start with e.g. '-vf pp=de/-al' or '-vf hqdn3d'. Using the
'decimate' filter might reduce filesize as well. Using the 'unsharp' filter
might help as well.

> If possible (but not needed), they should
> be playable by hardware DVD players (given the situation
> when a digitized video is put into a ISO-9660 image on a
> DVD).

In that case you should stick to MPEG2 video with AC3 audio. This will not be
the smallest file, though. This combo should work on all players, I
believe. Other than this, the capabilities of hardware players varies greatly.

Using Ogg Theora video with Ogg Vorbis audio in a Matroška container usually
gives the smallest files for me, when encoding good quality material;

    ffmpeg2theora -v 8 -a 2 foo.dump
    mkvmerge -o foo.mkv foo.ogv
    rm foo.ogv

Hope this helps. :-/

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
[plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated]
pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914  B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 196 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20100529/16119f30/attachment.pgp