Now what do I have ?

• DVDs – Videos imported from old VHS cassettes and old VHS-C Camcorder cassettes – Mpeg-2 / AC3 audio (720×480)
• miniDV cassettes (DV format – (720×480)
• Mpeg-1 videos on Digital Camera – Mpeg-1 / MP2 audio (640×480)

What do I want the output format to be? I have chosen mpeg-2 as my universal output format. AVI is out of question (will take too much storage space), mpeg-4 DivX or XviD..? hmm.. not sure, it is more for the web and there is too much compression there.

Anyways, so I looked at the following:

• MPEG_Streamclip : Works if you choose “Convert to MPG with MP2 audio” or “Convert to Headed MPEG” which gets AC3 audio. It is Free!
• SUPER from eRightSoft : Too technical but does its job. And it is Free!
• TMPGEnc XPRESS : Too expensive ($99). Did not try.
• AVS Video Converter : You have to pay $59. I have read mixed reviews
• OJOSoft Total Video Converter : Did the job well. You have to pay $26.99 however. If I feel like buying something, I might go for it.

I vote for MPEG_Streamclip or SUPER obviously because they are Free! Still working on finding the easiest and fastest solution for this.. will keep updating this post I guess.

In the meanwhile, anybody has any other suggestions/comments?

1. You can’t find the video you want quickly
2. You have to buy a new tape when you are out of blank tapes
3. Tapes can get damaged / tangled overtime (has already happened to me and I am using a professional repair shop to get my tapes fixed – Pacific Video Repair)

I was thinking of backing up my camcorder videos to external hard drives. Backup to DVDs is not so attractive – although I have done it before, since, again, finding a video quickly is an issue and DVDs can get damaged too. I have already moved my old VHS-C videos to miniDVs and then to DVDs long time ago.

There is a question about the right format too. If I back them up in an uncompressed format like AVI, I know it will take a huge amount of storage space. Hundreds of Mb’s will just fit a few minutes of video. Also if you have your hard drive in FAT32 format, then you have the 4GB / file limit. Of course, now-a-days it is usually NTFS. But on the other hand, is it wise to use compressed formats such as mpeg2 – DVD / mpeg4 – DivX/XviD etc. ‘coz you will lose some detail there in the compression? How will the resulting video look on a 50+ inch TV? Well, DVDs look good, so it should be okay?

To prevent unauthorized copying of prerecorded VHS tapes (especially Disney), Macrovision came up with this scheme of copy protection. Came into existence in 1986. When a Macrovision-enabled VHS is played back, it looks normal. However, when you try to copy it using 2 back-to-back VCRs, the electronic pulses added by Macrovision in the non-visible part of the VHS tape (vertical blanking interval) make the copying VCR think that the signals are too strong. So the copying VCR tries to weaken the signals which basically rolls the picture, loses color or brightness randomly or suffer from flashing.

Ways to prevent this:

• Use a very old pre-macrovision VCR
• Use a RCA RF Modulator
• Buy special hardware like GoDVD (there are several out there to remove this copy protection)

Macrovision is an analog copy protection and hence there is no software solution to get rid of it.

DVD (DVD-R,DVD-RW,DVD+R,DVD+RW,DVD-RAM)

DVD-ROM Drive: Means a read-only drive where you can play your DVDs.

DVD+R/DVD+RW:
Alliance: Dell, HP, Verbatim, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, Yamaha, Thomson

Links:

http://www.DVDPlusRW.org

http://www.dvdrw.com

DVD+R DL is the double layer DVD+R that can fit upto 4 hours of high quality video. This format is also widely supported in all DVD players. The capacity is whopping 8.5GB!!

DVD-R/DVD-RW: Has a slighly more compatibility percentage that the plus alliance.
Alliance: Pioneer, TDK

Links:

http://www.dvdforum.org

DVD-RAM: Less compatible with DVD Players/ROMs
Writable DVD but works as a virtual hard drive. Random RW access (unlike DVD-RW which is sequential)
Alliance: Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi

Links:

http://www.dvdforum.org

MiniDVD/cDVD: Like a mini-CD.

DVD Regions:

DVDs come in PAL/NTSC formats and they also have an additional thing called the Region code. Motion picture studios in USA release the movie DVDs all over the world. In order to prevent unauthorised export of DVDs which get released in USA before the rest of the world, they introduced the region codes. A DVD released in one region does not play in DVD Players in some other region.

There are 6 regions defined as follows:

Graphics courtesy: Sony

• Region 1 - The U.S., U.S. territories and Canada
• Region 2 - Europe, Japan, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Greenland
• Region 3 - Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong
• Region 4 - Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean
• Region 5 - Russia (okay, former Russia), Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa, North Korea, Mongolia
• Region 6 - China

Courtesy: Wikipedia
Legend: Yellow: PAL, Green: NTSC, Orange: SECAM

Two main differences:

1. PAL has better resolution
2. NTSC is a higher framerate (29.97 fps vs 25 fps for PAL) so less flicker

(Blank) VHS cassettes by themselves do not have any format attached to them. It is when you record video on them that they get that assigned to them.

A NTSC cassette usually works fine in PAL systems but not vice versa.

Solutions:

• VHS to DVD/VCD
• Audio Cassettes to CDs
• Analog camcorder to Digital MiniDV/other media
• PAL to NTSC

Television Types

• CRT
• Projection TV
• Flat Screen

There are two types of high-definition televisions:
1. HDTV: Also known as high-definition TV. These have a built-in high-definition receiver that allows the TV to receive over-the-air high-definition broadcasts. These TVs require either an indoor or an outdoor antenna to receive high-definition over-the-air broadcasts (such as CBS or NBC).
2. HDTV Monitors: These are capable of displaying a high-definition TV signal, but require the separate purchase of a high-definition receiver and antenna to receive high-definition broadcasts.

Basically they still fall under the “Rear Projection TV” category – which means the projection cathode ray tubes, commonly known as CRTs, are found within the set and behind a plastic projection screen. The light from the CRTs strikes a mirror and is reflected onto the rear of the screen, where it forms an image you can see on the other side. Instead of the traditional direct view TVs you’re used to, where you view the picture directly on a single tube, rear projection TVs use CRTs, a series of focusing lenses, a mirror, and a display screen.

The screens on the TVs most of us are still watching today (referred to these days as “analog” or “traditional”) are roughly square and have an “aspect ratio” of 4:3. That is, they’re just slightly wider than they are tall. But widescreen HDTVs have an aspect ratio of 16:9. As you can see, they’re much wider than they are tall. So, what’s the advantage? We thought you’d never ask.

Movies shown at a theater have pictures that are wider than your TV’s screen. By the time a movie is released on video tape or shown on TV it has been “modified to fit your screen.” Unfortunately, they “modify” it by chopping off the sides of the picture. Widescreen TVs use the entire TV screen to let you see the whole picture.

The resolution for traditional TVs is of the order of 200,000 pixels whereas for HDTV it is ~2 Million. There were several resolution standards that were approved by FCC in 1996 and the most popular ones are 480i (regular analog TV), 480p, 720p and 1080i. The number is number of horizontal lines and how they are drawn (i-nterlace scanning or p-rogressive scan). The traditional TVs actually use 525 lines but some of these lines are used for things other than picture and the number is close to 480 and hence the name 480i instead of 525i. Interlacing means constructing the picture using odd-even lines and Progressive (which is only found in HDTV and HDTV Monitors since only digital broadcasts and digital sources like DVD players send the signal this way) is like computer monitors – from top to bottom in the order of lines.

The audio is CD quality sound as compared to analog sound which is like FM Radio. It supports Dolby® Digital sound that can recreate surround sound effects from five different speakers with the right kind of home theater equipment.

Source: Circuit City Knowledge base