What Digital File Format To Use?

[Avagadro1]

What Digital File Format To Use?

I am brand new to video; as of yet I have no experience at all – though I’ve done a good bit or reading. I wish to convert some 1980s-made VHS tapes to digital format, edit them, and burn DVDs (so what else is new?). I assume that I’ll purchase Adobe Premier Elements shortly (as soon as I purchase Chuck Engels’ book).

Because of the age of the tapes, I thought I might have a professional service do the capture as they would have high-end Time Based Correction equipment – if needed. They would then generate “raw” digital files rather than a DVD, and provided them to me on my portable hard drive.

I called a couple such firms in my area. It seems that most individuals in the VHS conversion business are not “high end”, if you know what I mean. But then I spoke with the owner/manager of a high-end firm, a fellow who was extremely knowledgeable and who seems to have every piece of equipment possibly needed, and then some.

Of course he could do the capture with all of the bells and whistles I might ask for, but I stated that I needed just a DV-AVI raw file (I learned about DV-AVI on this website). He was quite surprised to hear this, stating that DV-AVI was the “bottom-of-the barrel”, low-end format, long ago succeeded by much higher-quality formats capable of much higher resolution. His firm’s equipment can produce almost any common file format that I might request. And, he believed, even though my VHS tapes are standard definition, by capturing in a newer/higher-quality digital format should produce a better end product, especially if the intention was to edit the video. After some discussion, he noted that for editing, his firm uses Premier PRO and it has the capability of working with these higher-end formats, but he wasn’t sure about Premier Elements, agreeing that whatever file may be provided to me, it must be appropriate to by video editing software.

I did not know how to respond.

Given my intentions (VHS>Capture>Premier Elements>DVD), and that I am brand new and haven’t yet even purchased editing software, the question remains open: what file format should I use? DV-AVI or other?

Thank you for any assistance,

Howard

[momoffduty]

DV-AVI is the format to edit from VHS tapes. I am not sure what he means by high end. You can't make SD into HD. Having the transfers put on an external Hard drive is a good idea. How much is he charging? I wonder if he is talking up high end to raise the price? I do transfers and have charged $15 to $20 per tape. (With discounts for multiple tapes or if there is only say 15 minutes on a tape.)

Welcome to Muvipix too! The best forum to get you started in editing. Steve's books are great too.

[Avagadro1]

DV-AVI is the format to edit from VHS tapes. I am not sure what he means by high end. You can't make SD into HD. Having the transfers put on an external Hard drive is a good idea. How much is he charging? I wonder if he is talking up high end to raise the price? I do transfers and have charged $15 to $20 per tape. (With discounts for multiple tapes or if there is only say 15 minutes on a tape.)

Welcome to Muvipix too! The best forum to get you started in editing. Steve's books are great too.

Thank you, momoffduty.

Agreed, of course SD can never be made into HD. But when he stated that DV format is inherently inferior to newer, more advanced, formats, I believe he meant the following:

If one uses a higher quality format, then editing and correcting does not degrade the file, and may allow for zooming without pixelation. Here’s my analogy. As a long-time user of the Full version of Photoshop (not Photoshop Elements) for purposes of photo restoration, there is no doubt that scanning at high-bit, which produces an image at 16-bit color depth rather an 8-bit, and correspondingly greater pixel density, allows for much greater image editing without degradation of the image. After editing and resizing, the image may be reduced to 8-bit for printing. Similarly, even though an old photo is not in great shape, one could scan it at a higher resolution and bit depth, thereby generating a higher-quality PSD or TIFF to work on in Photoshop, even if in the end it may he converted to a jpeg.

So I believe what the fellow meant when he stated that capture can be done using higher-quality formats, at higher-definition resolutions, even though the VHS image is SD.

Taking all of this into consideration, does the theory also apply to video? Or is DV-AVI simply the “only” way to go for VHS and Beta tapes?

Thanks,

Howard

[Bob]

Howard,

The vertical resolution of VHS is the same as the corresponding analog TV standard which has a fixed number of horizontal interlaced scan lines. For North American NTSC video, that's 480 visible lines. It's not like a continuous tone photographic print, negative, or slide that can be scanned at at higher resolutions. Capture at 720x480 and you match DV-AVI and the DVD specification exactly. It really doesn't make much sense to capture at a higher resolution in this case. You will need up uprez to go to the higher resolution and then downrez to get back to DVD. That's not going to help your image.

[Chuck Engels]

DV-AVI is one of the least compressed formats and ideal for editing.
Another option would be uncompressed AVI which for archiving and editing is another possibility but the file sizes are huge compared to DV-AVI. Today's newer formats are excellent for viewing and creating high quality video with small file sizes, those formats are not the best for editing however.

[Avagadro1]

Thanks to all for your help.

I now recall that the gentleman at the video lab stated that he could capture in an ENTIRELY UNCOMPRESSESED format, which is what he does for TV and film studios, though he definitely added that the file size would be large.

I here you all (Chuck, Bob and Cheryl). And Bob, thanks for explaining that it was NOT a good analogy to compare what I wish to do to a continuous tone image that may benefit from higher scan resolutions. I now get it: for someone like myself who simply wants to capture the video on my VHS tapes, the DV-AVI format is the way to go. Again, thank you all for your help.

[Chuck Engels]

I went through this exact same thing in 2004, ended up with the ADS Pyro Link and was happy in the end with the captures. Some dropped frames but nothing terrible from VHS tapes as old as 1987.
I only had a few tapes but wanted to buy equipment that I could use to help others do the same thing, I still use my Pyro Link on a regular basis

You've definitely come to the right place Howard, many people here were in the same situation at some point and we all remember very well, how overwhelming it could be