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Sunday, 15 October 2023 14:04

Capture VHS Video Cassette Tapes

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This article will cover capturing video cassettes to your PC using OBS but can be adapted for other sources.

This guide is aimed at capturing VHS tapes but can be adapted to other analogue tapes

TL;DR

  • Setup
    • OBS Studio
    • Windows 10
    • I-O Data GV-USB2 - Analogue Video Capture dongle
    • NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB
    • Panasonic DMR-EZ48VEBK (DMR-EZ48V)
  • OBS Method 3 - Minimal upscaling to a proper 4:3 resolution
    • Capture video analogue signal with OBS using the I-O Data GV-USB2 via the S-Video port with the following settings:
      • I-O Data GV-USB
        • WEAVE: On
        • Source: S-Video
        • Audio: BTSC
        • Colour Space: Rec. 601
      • Capture Frame Rate and Resolution
        • PAL: 720x576i (5:4) @ 25fps
        • NTSC: 720x480i (3:2) @ 29.97fps
      • Image Processing
        • Deinterlace: Yadif x2
        • Improve Scaling: Lanczos
      • Output
        • Video
          • Encoder: Hardware (AMD/QSV/NVENC, H.264)
          • Rate Control: CQP
          • CQ Level: 23
          • Frame Rate and Resolution
            • PAL: 768x576p (4:3) @ 50fps
            • NTSC: 720x540p (4:3) @ 59.94fps
          • Colour Space: Rec. 709
        • Audio
          • Sample Rate: 48 kHz
          • Channels: Stereo
        • Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)

NB: There are other settings which you need to look at.

My Setup

  • If you are going to buy kit, make sure your GPU or CPU can encode 1080p @ 60fps using H.264
  • You can use software encoder only if you have a fast enough PC.

Everyone's will be different, but this is mine.

My Equipment

Software

  • OBS (Open Broadcaster Software Studio) - The best open source streaming and capture software.
  • VirtualDub2 - VideoHelp
    • VirtualDub2 (former VirtualDub FilterMod) has all features of original VirtualDub, plus built-in encode/decode of H264 and other formats; open and save MOV, MP4, MKV etc.
    • Video capture software.
  • VLC Player - Everyone's favourite media player.
  • MediaInfo - A convenient unified display of the most relevant technical and tag data for video and audio files.
  • AviDemux
    • A free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks.
    • An editor that allows cutting footage without recoding the whole video.
  • MKVToolNix + GUI (gMKVExtractGUI or MKVCleaver)

 

 

Capture Video Cassette Tapes using OBS

There are many ways to sample analogue sources but by far the most used is OBS. These are my settings but can be adapted to match your hardware and setup.

OBS can be complicated for the amateur but once you have been shown around the GUI it is a very easy program to use to capture video and audio from various sources and is not just for Streamers.

  • Don't try to setup or use OBS over Remote desktop as it might causes issues with Sound and Video device mapping issues.
  • OBS only outputs in progressive (1080p, 720p). It will accept interlaced sources (480i, 576i).
  • Use MKV and not MP4. for storage. MKV is a much better format/container and if you need to change this after capture you can.

Setup the PC Environment

  • Update you Windows PC making sure you have the latest video card drivers (no just the ones from Windows Update)
  • Install VLC player
  • Install OBS

Connect up and check your Capture Kit

  • Connect up the capture kit
    • Remember S-Video is better than Composite/RCA
  • Edit the video player's settings for the following (if the option exists)
    • Disable the OSD (On-Screen Display)
    • Set to interlaced output
    • Disable any other image manipulation such as 'comb filter'.
    • Set audio output to Bitstream.
    • Make sure the video output is 4:3 and not 16:9 or auto.
    • Go through all other settings and check the are right for video capturing.
    • Panasonic DMR-EZ48VEBK
      • Menu --> To Others --> Setup --> Picture
        • Comb Filter: Off
        • Still Mode
          • Ignore this as this is just allows you to select wether you show a frame or field when you hit the pause button.
        • Seamless Play: ?
      • Menu --> To Others --> Setup --> Sound
        • Dynamic Range Compression = Off
        • Digital Audio Out
          • Y only need to set this when the using digiatal audio output (SPDIF)
          • LPCM = Audio is output as a left and right channel
          • Dolby Digital/BitStream = Audio is output as digital stream that external kit can decode into audio signal. Supports 5.1
        • PCM Down Conversion: 48KHz
          • Only need to set this when the using digital audio output.
      • Menu --> To Others --> Setup --> Display
        • On-Screen Messages: Off
      • Menu --> To Others --> Setup --> comedian ??????
        • TV Aspect: ? = leavge as is
        • Progressive: Off
        • TV System: PAL (or NTSC if required)

Run the OBS Setup Wizard

When you first open OBS you will need to run through the wizard. The wizard will test your hardware for optimum performance.

It is straight forward, just make your selections as follows:

Step 1 - Usage Information

Step 2 - Video Settings

Step 3 - Final Results

Don't worry if it does show what you expect, we will be changing all of these settings as required.

Create a new OBS Profile and Scene

Creating a separate profile and scene are optional if all you are going to do is capture your VHS tapes and then uninstall OBS, however it does not harm.

A profile is a settings group for OBS and a new profile starts with a lot of the settings at default. A profile also allows you to save your settings for individual projects and export/import them as needed.

  • Menu --> Profile --> New
  • Add Profile
    • Name: VHS Capture
    • Show auto-configuration wizard: unticked

This following just makes things clear and clean so if you are using OBS with other things for example that your scene won't conflict with other scenes.

  • Menu --> Scene Collection --> New
  • Name: VHS

Audio Mixer sources have disappeared

After you have created a new scene the Audio Mixer sources have disappeared, this is normal.

Before

You could have either of these depending what kit you have plugged in.

 

After

Recording Configuration

Encoding

Settings --> Output

There are two options for the 'Output Mode' (Simple' | 'Advanced') which defined what options are available for you to set and which will be left for OBS to set.

  • Simple requires very little configuration and gives really good results.
  • Advanced gives more control and the potential to get much better results.

You need to pick an option and then carry on with the instructions. If you are unsure, start of with using 'Simple' and then move to 'Advanced' when you know what the advanced settings do.

Option 1 - Simple
  • Settings --> Output --> Recording

    • Recording Path: H:\[Your OBS Captures Path]
    • Recording Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
      • This setting affects the compression level.
    • Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
      • Don't use mp4. Remux later or have OBS remux the mkv automatically when the capture is finished.
    • Video Encoder: Hardware (NVENC, H.264)
      • Always use H.264
      • If you have hardware encoding support (most modern GPU have this), then select this so your CPU does not need to do the work.
      • Some other possible hardware options
        • Hardware (AMD, H.264) = AMD
        • Hardware (QSV, H.264) = Intel = Quick Sync Video
        • Hardware (NVENC, H.264) = Nvidia = Nvdia Encoding
        • Hardware (NVENC, HEVC) = Nvidia = Nvdia Encoding = H.265
    • Audio Encoder: AAC (Default)
    • Audio Track: Track 1 only
    • Custom Muxer Settings: leave empty
    • Enable Replay Buffer: leave off
    • Notes
      • The bitrate is variable when using `Simple`. The rest of the meta information for the capture you can from the outputted file using MediaInfo.
      • Defaults OBS 'Simple' settings for reference: 
        Recording Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
Video Encoder: Software (x264)
Audio Encoder: AAC (Default) / (FFmpeg AAC)
Audio Track: 1
Custom Muxer Settings: {blank}
Option 2 - Advanced
  • Settings --> Output --> Recording Settings

    • Type: Standard
    • Recording Path: H:\[Your OBS Captures Path]
    • Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
      • Don't use mp4. Remux later or have OBS remux the mkv automatically when the capture is finished.
    • Video Encoder: NVIDIA NVENC H.264
      • Always use H.264
      • If you have hardware encoding support (most modern GPU have this), then select this so your CPU does not need to do the work.
    • Audio Encoder: FFmpeg AAC
    • Audio Track: Track 1 only
    • Rescale Output: leave off
    • Custom Muxer Settings: leave empty
    • Automatic File Splitting: leave off
  • Settings --> Output --> Encoder Settings

    • Rate Control: CQP
    • CQ Level: 23
      • The lower the level:
        • the higher the quality of encoding.
        • the larger the file size.
        • the less compression that is applied.
      • I have chosen level 23 but you might get better results with other values.
      • 15 is practically lossless
      • 0 is lossless
    • Keyframe Interval (0=auto): 0
    • Preset: P7: Slowest (Best Quality)
    • Tuning: High Quality
    • Multipass Mode: Two Passes (Full Resolution)
      • This option controls how and if the encoder pre-scans a frame so it can better compress it.
      • Default: Two Passes (Quarter Resolution)
      • If your GPU or CPU maxes out then you might need to reduce this setting as it can be resource intensive.
    • Profile: high
    • Look-ahead: enabled
    • Psycho Visual Tuning: enabled
    • GPU: 0
    • Max B-Frames: 4
  • Settings --> Output --> Audio --> Track 1

    • Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s
      • Some DVDs and DV use 384kb/s but OBS only goes upto 320kp/s

Advanced Video

The colour space and range need to be defined so the image looks right on modern devices. The defaults are the best but you need to know about these.

  • Settings --> Advanced --> Video

    • Color Space: Rec. 701 (default: Rec. 709)
      • Places like YouTube use 'Rec. 709'and this is the colour space of modern computing and devices. All H.264 stuff should use this colour space.
      • This configures the output, not the input.
      • VHS were recorded in Rec .601 but we are not bothered what they were, but what they will be stored as.
    • Colour Range: Limited (default: limited)
      • When using H.264 you should always use the 'Limited colour Range'.
      • PAL and NTSC only ever used the 'Limited colour Range'.

Audio Sampling

The defaults are the best and most widely used.

  • Settings --> Audio --> General

    • Sample Rate: 48 kHz (default: 48kHz)
    • Channels: Stereo (default: Stereo)

Consider your options

You need to makes yourself familiar with these terms before going further

We will define the properties of the canvas and output here. The following block of text will give you useful information on making your value selections for the different methods.

  • Base (Canvas) Resolution
    • This is the working area of OBS (Scene/Canvas)
    • In normal OBS use, this is the same as your monitor's resolution
    • This area allows you to add multiple streams/sources onto the same output stream/recording. You can move them around to suit your needs such as profile camera feeds/overlays.
  • Output (Scaled) Resolution
    • This is the output resolution of your stream or recording.
    • This has to be the same or larger that the Base (Canvas) Resolution otherwise clipping will occur.
  • Downscale Filter
    • This is the filter that will be used to convert between the Base and Output resolutions if they are different.
    • Bicubic (Sharpened scaling, 16 samples) = Default
    • Lanczos (Sharpened scaling, 36 samples) = Recommended by most people on the internet.

Select your Method

Method 1 - (Digital Source) (Video Downscaling) (Rullz HDMI) - Viewing

Here we are sampling an analogue signal which is then passed to a digital upscaler which is then optionally reduced down to a lesser resolution with 4:3 ratio maintaining the original source's aspect ratio. 

  • I have used this method with my Scart to HDMI Upscaler which takes care of interlacing and outputs a steady upscaled digital stream.
  • The upscaller will only capture at 1280x720p@60fps and 1920x1080p@60fps
  • My Scart to HDMI Upscaler (1920x1080@60Hz) = 1920x1080 @ 60fps
  • I am going to add my Rullz capture device into OBS, your device should add in just the same (except maybe the audio).
  • This alters the video stream because it gets upscaled and filtered, and therefore is no longer the same video stream.
  • Configure the Scene
    • Settings --> Video

    • Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
      • Set this to the resolution of your source.
    • Output (Scaled) Resolution:
      • 1440x1080 (4:3)
      • 1920x1080 (16:9)
    • Downscale Filter: Lanczos
      • Depending on your choice above, this might not be needed.
    • FPS: 60
      • or the FPS of your source.
  • Add Video Capture Device
    • Make sure the video is playing a cassette, or at least turned on because the device might auto detect the correct signal.
    • Sources --> Add Source (+) --> Add Video Capture Device
      • Create new
        • Name: Rullz HDMI
        • Make source visible: ticked
    • Set the Properties for 'Rullz HDMI'
      • Device: FHD Video-USB3.0
      • Use custom audio device: ticked

        This option will be missing if you do this over Remote Desktop.
      • Audio Device: Microphone (FHD-Audio)
      • Leave everything else the same

Method 2 - (Analogue Source) (Canvas Rescaling) (Upscaling) (I-O Data GV-USB2) - Viewing

The idea behind this method is to take an analogue source and upscale it to a larger resolution, in this case 1440x1080p (4:3).

  • Configure the Scene
    • Settings --> Video

    • Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1440x1080
    • Output (Scaled) Resolution: 1440x1080
    • Downscale Filter: [Resolutions match, no downscaling required]
    • FPS:
      • PAL: 50
      • NTSC: 59.94
  • Add Video Capture Device
    • Sources --> Add Source (+) --> Add Video Capture Device
      • Create new
        • Name: GV-USB2
        • Make source visible: ticked
  • Configure the Video Capture Device
    • GV-USB2 --> Source Properties --> Configure Video
      • General
      • GV-USB2 - Configure as follows:

        • Vid Deinterlace Method: Weave
        • Video Input: S-Video (or Composite if you only have that)
        • Audio Stereo Sys: BTSC
        • Video Decoder --> Video Standard:
          • PAL_I (UK and Ireland)
          • NTSC_M (North America)
    • Specify the capture resolution (remember, these settings are for the input stream only so they will not affect your recording options)
      • GV-USB2 --> Source Properties
      • Scroll down untill you see Resolution/FPS Type
      • Change the settings as outlined below:
        • Resolution/FPS Type: Custom
        • Resolution:
          • 720x576 (PAL)
          • 720x480 (NTSC)
        • FPS:
          • 25 (PAL)
          • 29.97 (NTSC)
        • Video Format: YUY2
          • The only option I have is YUY2 so Any would work just the same for this setup.
          • Setting this prevents unwanted Video Formats interfering later.
        • Colour Space: Rec. 601
          • This is the one used by legacy TV, Videos and things like that.
          • The OBS default is 'Rec. 709' and that is wrong for this input.
        • Colour Range: Limited
          • OBS default is 'Limited' but there is no harm in setting it here as it is easier to understand.
  • Deinterlacing
  • Resize the capture source to fit the entire Canvas.
    • GV-USB2 --> Right Click --> Transform --> Stretch to screen
  • Increase the quality of the stretch
    • GV-USB2 --> Right Click --> Scale Filtering: Lanczos
  • Filters
    • These are not really to do with cleaning up the video, but more handling green screens and preventing audio spikes, but they could be if the right filter was applied.
    • Filters Guide | OBS - OBS Knowledge Base. A guide to the various effects that can be applied using Filters

Method 3 - (Analogue Source) (Canvas Rescaling) (Minimal Upscaling) (I-O Data GV-USB2) - Viewing (Preferred Method)

This capture type should be used by most people as it keeps as close to the original resolution as possible but deinterlacing it and converting it to a native 4:3 aspect ratio resolution which is suitable for all digital devices.

Follow the instructions from Method 2, but instead use the following Base (Canvas) Resolution and Output (Scaled) Resolution:

  • PAL
    • Settings --> Video

    • Base (Canvas) Resolution: 768x576
    • Output (Scaled) Resolution: 768x576
    • Downscale Filter: [Resolutions match, no downscaling required]
    • FPS: 50
  • NTSC
    • Settings --> Video

    • Base (Canvas) Resolution: 720x540
    • Output (Scaled) Resolution: 720x540
    • Downscale Filter: [Resolutions match, no downscaling required]
    • FPS: 59.94

Additional Settings

  • Enable Monitoring
    • Menu --> Docks --> Stats
    • This will allow you to monitor your PC's resources and make sure they do not get maxed out.
  • Disable/Mute Desktop Audio
    • Do this via the dashboard by clicking on the speaker
    • This prevents notifications and alarms that Windows can generate being added to the recording.

Start Capturing

  • Insert your tape
    • When first inserting a video tape you should play it to:
      1. make sure the video players performs AutoTrack. This stops the process getting recorded in the capture.
      2. check the picture looks good and manually run tracking if required.
      3. you can see the picture in OBS
    • Rewind tape.
  • In OBS click `Start Recording`
  • Press play on the video player
  • When the cassette has finished playing, in OBS, click `Stop Recording`
  • Do a short recording (test run) so you:
    • can check everything is working as expected. You can also check to make sure OBS does not give you warnings about the encoding going faulty because the CPU, GPU or HDD is maxed out.
    • use the Stats Dock to monitor the system resources.
  • Test the recording plays and looks as expected in VLC Player.

 

 

Capture Video Cassette Tapes using VirtualDub2

I have not captured wuith VrtualDub2 so the instructions will be cut down. You need to use VirtualDub2 if you want to maintain the interlaced nature of PAL and NTSC.

Archivists will want to keep the format as close to the original as possible and this is not an issue for playback because interlaced modern TV ans PCs will deinterlace video on the fly.

Select your Method

Method 1 - (Analogue Source) (I-O Data GV-USB2) - Viewing (Preferred Method)

  • This stores the video in a modern format with minimal changes.

This is a modern way of storing your VHS cassettes.

  • Input/Capture
    • I-O Data GV-USB
      • WEAVE: On
      • Source: S-Video
      • Audio: BTSC
      • Video Format: YUY2
      • Colour Space: Rec. 601
      • Colour Range: Limited
    • Frame Rate and Resolution
      • PAL: 720x576i @ 25fps
      • NTSC: 720x480i @ 29.97fps
  • Ouput/Recording
    • Video Encoding
      • Format: AVC (Advanced Video Codec) (H.264)
      • Bitrate: CQP 23
      • Frame Rate and Resolution
        • PAL: 768x576p @ 50fps
        • NTSC: 720x540p @ 59.94fps
      • Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
      • Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0
      • Video Format: YUY2
      • Color Space: Rec. 709
        • The reason for these changes is that your standard definition video source was originally recorded in a 601 colour space (709 is for HD content and sRGB is for screen captures).
      • Colour Range: Limited
    • Audio
      • Format: AAC LC (Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity)
      • Sampling rate: 48 kHz
      • Channels: 2 Channels (Stereo)
      • Bitrate: 192kb/s (Some DVDs used 384kb/s)
    • Image Processing
      • Deinterlace: Yadif 2x (Top Field First)
      • Imaging Scaling: Lanczos
  • Post Processing
    • none

Method 2 - (Analogue Source) (I-O Data GV-USB2) - Archiving

  • This maintains the video stream except for changes due to compression by the CODEC (unless you use a Lossless CODEC).
  • The resolution and format will stay the same.

This will create a copy close as possible to the original video. There is no change in resolution or audio settings.

  • Input/Capture
    • I-O Data GV-USB
      • WEAVE: On
      • Source: S-Video
      • Audio: BTSC
      • Video Format: YUY2
      • Colour Space: Rec. 601
      • Colour Range: Limited
    • Frame Rate and Resolution
      • PAL: 720x576i @ 25fps
      • NTSC: 720x480i @ 29.97fps
  • Ouput/Recording
    • Video Encoding
      • Format: MPEG Video
      • Bitrate: Variable
        • Target Bitrate: 3500kbps
        • Max Bitrate: 9000kbps
        • These are a guess for VHS cassettes.
      • Frame Rate and Resolution
        • PAL: 720x576i @ 50fps
        • NTSC: 720x540i @ 59.94fps
      • Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
      • Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0
      • Video Format: YUV
      • Color Space: Rec. 601
      • Colour Range: Limited
    • Audio
      • Format: MPEG Audio
      • Sampling rate: 48 kHz
      • Channels: 2 Channels (Stereo)
      • Bitrate: 192kb/s (Some DVDs used 384kb/s)
    • Image Processing
      • Deinterlace: n/a
      • Imaging Scaling: n/a
  • Post Processing
    • Edit the MKV and and change the DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) to 4:3

 

 

Capture Video Cassette Tapes using a DVD-RW

This is one of the easiest methods if you have a 'Combi VHS DVD-RW Recorder'.

  • This is the easiest method for anyone and should give good results
  • The interlaced format from the VHS tape will be maintained as per PAL and NTSC formats.
  • These devices will use a Lossey CODEC but usually with a fixed bitrate so it knows how much data it can fit on a DVD.

Instructions

  • Set all recording settings to high
  • Initiate a VHS tape copy
  • Done

 

 

Post Capture Processing

You now have your validated capture you need to make it better.

  • Rename the video file OBS has created (unless you have already changes the output file naming syntax)
  • Trim the unwanted stuff at the beginning and the end using AviDemux.

 

 

Notes

Post Capture Processing

Trimming

MKV

Software

OBS Studio

  • Official Sites
  • General
    • Don't capture over remote desktop as it will mess things up
    • x.264 is the default 'High Quality, Medium File Size' in MKV
    • Can record in x.264/SVT-AV1/AOM AV1
    • x.265/HEVC is not and will not be supported because licensing complexities.
    • default x.264 CODEC settings 
      MKV
Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
Encoder: Lavf59.16.100
Codec: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a)
Channels: Stereo
Sample rate: 48000 Hz
    • interlaced output | OBS Forums
      • OBS does not natively provide deinterlacing, and can only record in progressive scan mode. If your capture card does not provide on-the-fly deinterlacing, you may have to record as progressive-interlaced, then use a video editor to either convert or deinterlace it.
      • Unfortunately OBS cannot output anything but progressive. It's primarily meant as a live production tool, with the secondary ability to record that live content. Many have started using it as an all-purpose recorder, but it is not.
  • Settings
    • To change the codec or output format:
      • File --> Settings --> Output
      • Under the 'Recording' section you can change the output filetype and a few other things.
      • To see more options, set Output Mode to Advanced (this is at the very top)
    • Change file naming convention
      • Settings --> Advanced --> Recording --> Filename Formatting
    • Advanced OBS settings: What they are and how to use them | by Andrew Whitehead | Mobcrush Blog - Ready to take the next step in knowing way too much about OBS? includes B-frames
    • Export Settings
      • Menu --> Profile --> Export
    • Input/Output Resolutions
      • The recording resolution will be the Output (Scaled) Resolution and not the sources input. This is because OBS can have many inputs.
      • Base (Canvas) Resolution = This is the work area, the canvas, where you can arrange multiple sources such as overlays, facecams and your main stream. This is usually the size of your monitors resolution or your primary stream of different.
      • Output (Scaled) Resolution = The resolution of the outputted recording or stream will be.
      • How to Change OBS Output Resolution for Streaming & Recording - YouTube | tech How - A short tutorial on how to change your OBS Studio output resolution for streaming and recording.
    • Remove the red border around the Preview/Canvas/Source window.
      • Question / Help - Red border around sources | OBS Forums
        • Q: When you select a source it shows the boundaries or borders with a red border around the source, is there a png for that or is it something else then a png
        • A:
          • The red border is for sizing the source..Just click on one side and drag it to the size you want..
          • To get rid of the border and lock the source so it's not accidentally moved click the padlock icon next to the source in the source list.
        • Q: I disabled the red borderlines so i cant move anything (it was an accident) But how do i enable it again so i can see the red borderlines so i can move my text again ?
        • A:
          • Click the padlock icon next to the source in the source list. ( unlock it) then it may be necessary to click in the preview window to get the red border to reappear.
          • Just worked it out, go to `Menu --> Edit --> Lock Preview` and untick it:
    • Simple Vs Advanced settings
    • Reset OBS to default settings
    • Automatically Stop recording
    • Colour Settings
      • I-O DATA GV-USB2 default settings sample - VideoHelp Forum
        • Using S-video and OBS right now.
        • Whether this is an issue with the codec, OBS or the card but chromo sub-sampling for NTSC should be 4:1:1. and not 4:2:0 which is PAL
        • Also the DAR appears to be 16:9 and VHS does not support that without letter-boxing.
        • Personally I would do another sample with AmarecTV or Vdub just to compare the output.
        • 4:2:0 colorspace in obs capture is not appropriate, should be 4:2:2
  • Best Settings
  • Capture Tutorials
    • Digitizing VHS Tapes Using OBS - Tim Ford Photography & Videography
      • Did you know you can digitize your VHS tapes using OBS for under $20? Well, you can, and this post tells you how to do it!
      • Has a YouTube Video.
      • Uses the StarTech USB Video Capture Adapter Cable (SVID2USB232)
      • A great tutorial but has a few issues:
        • Fixed bitrate rather than a variable bitrate. Tjhis means somes frames will have their quality reduced. I would recommend variable bitrate so the frame is encoded as required with no comprimise.
        • Uses 29.97 for capturing NTSC rather than 59.94
        • Uses Bicubic and not Lanzcos
        • To get rid of the black bars (overscan) he stretches the image. This will distort the DAR (Display Aspect Ratio). Just leave them in. All tvs (and some modern panels tvs) have overscan of varing amounts.
      • The article explains some other technical stuff including overscan (blackbars), colour profiles and more.
      • Resolutions
        • In the Settings menu, click on the “Video” tab.
          • For NTSC, change the “Base (Canvas) Resolution” to 720×480 (3:2). If you are in the United States, use this setting. The NTSC standard was used in most of the Americas (except Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), Liberia, Myanmar, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, and some Pacific Islands nations and territories.
          • For PAL, change the “Base (Canvas) Resolution” to 720×576 (5:4). The PAL region is a television publication territory that covers most of Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and Oceania.
        • If you’ll be digitizing your tapes for use on a modern device (like a computer or a phone) use one of these for the “Output (Scaled) Resolution” setting:
          • For NTSC, type in 720×540
          • For PAL, type in 768×576
        • The reason for this is that your old-school VHS tapes use a resolution that will not look correct when played back on a typical computer or phone screen (it will look a bit stretched). By changing the output resolution, you’ll be using a square pixel aspect ratio which will look correct on more modern devices.
      • Colour Space and Range
        • Go to the “Video” section at the top and change the “Color Space” to “601.” The reason for this is that your standard definition video source was originally recorded in a 601 color space (709 is for HD content and sRGB is for screen captures). The “Color Range” should be set to “Limited.” Press OK.
      • For lossless capture using OBS it'll be 4:2:2, which is technically better than 1394 dv transfers (those are 4:1:1).
      • Recommends
        • CBR
        • 3500 Kbp/s.
        • 48kHz / 192bits
    • Lossless 4:2:2 Digitizing of Video Tapes Using OBS - Tim Ford Photography & Videography
      • Did you know you can digitize your video tapes to lossless quality using OBS? Well, you can, and this post tells you how to do it!
      • Some of the information might not be correct.
    • How To Capture, Denoise, and Restore VHS Tapes - YouTube | TheBenCrazy
      • This video will show you how to record/capture/digitize your old home family VHS tapes or any VHS tapes onto your computer in HD. It will also walk you through using software to denoise and restore the the captured video.
      • This is very thorough tutorial using both Elgato and OBS devices to capture the tapes, it then moves on to showing how to trim the capture with Sony Vegas.
      • All settings are shown.
      • Explains CQP
      • Tells you the best Video Players to buy
    • How to convert VHS videotape to 60p digital video (2023) - YouTube | The Oldskool PC
      • This tutorial will teach you how avoid the most common mistake people make when trying to convert VHS/videotape to digital video -- and all it takes is a $50 piece of hardware and free software. Intended for pure beginners, this tutorial walks you through every step to produce perfect conversions every time.
      • This tutorial uses an Analogue to USB adapter which preserves a lot of the analogue attributes which then need to be dealt with, i.e. interlacing.
      • Explains interlacing
      • Why you should use 60fps
    • Standard Recording Output Guide | OBS - While OBS Studio is strong for broadcasting live to the internet, it is also a great tool for being able to record, either at the same time as streaming or solely for offline usage. 
    • Quick Start Guide | OBS - OBS Knowledge Base. A quick introduction to OBS Studio that guides you towards creating your first stream or recording!
    • Using OBS to Capture Videotapes with a USB Capture Device on Windows - YouTube
      • I have a few issues with this tutorial so do not take all of this process as correct.
      • In this tutorial, I cover the equipment, software, and settings needed in order to successfully capture video from your old, analog videotapes using OBS.
      • Uses the Startech SVID2USB232
      • Settings --> Advanced --> Video --> Color Space:
        • 601 is SD colour space
        • 709 is HD colour space
  • Full Tutorials
  • Misc Tutorials
  • Streaming Tutorials
    • OBS Setup Guide | Volume - A guide to setting up OBS for streaming.
    • How to Use OBS Studio for Professional Video Streaming in 2023 - Want to learn how to use OBS Studio for professional broadcasting? Explore powerful features like window capture in this step-by-step tutorial.
    • Getting started with OBS: A beginner's guide - Koytek Wattenberg Media - OBS is an amazing tool for creators, if you want to live stream; record your videos or even do both at the same time. This guide will focus on beginner advice, and a later guide will tackle more advanced advice regarding the use of OBS and the YouTube Live Dashboard.
    • Best TWITCH Stream Settings for Nvidia users! OBS 28.1 BETA PRESETS - YouTube | EposVox
      • The new OBS 28.1 beta is weird... it adds some new NVENC presets, but are they as magical as it seems?! In this video, I test P1 through P7 of the new NVENC H.264 encoder and test it across Lovelace, Ampere, Turing, Pascal, and Maxwell generations to see what the best settings for you would be.
      • The best settings for NVidia cards using H.264
      • Recommended for streaming
        • Preset: P6
        • Multipass Mode: Two Passes (Quarter Resolution)
    • Never worry about Twitch settings AGAIN! AV1 on Twitch | Nvidia CES News & More! - YouTube | EposVox - Twitch streaming will NEVER be the same! Today at CES, Nvidia helped announce a new Twitch feature called "Enhanced Broadcasting" which will allow the streamer to send their own encoding ladder of transcodes to Twitch instead of relying on Twitch's servers. This gives transcoding to streamers who aren't partnered and can help improve quality and reduce latency! Plus the changes that make this happen allow for Twitch to start leveraging HEVC and AV1 encoding and to start supporting 1440p and 4K streaming! Th
  • Desktop Screen Recording
    • How to Record Your Screen with OBS - YouTube | Guiding Tech
      • OBS, or Open Broadcasting Software, is a free and open source tool that is perfect for streaming and recording right on your desktop. If you’re ready to capture your next gaming experience, here’s what you can do!
      • Add Source --> Display Capture
  • Remux With OBS
    • OBS can remux files into MP4 automatically after recording
    • How to convert/remux mkv files to mp4 using OBS - YouTube
      • Not all video editing programs support mkv files, but OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) has a built-in way to convert (or, more accurately, “remux”) mkv files to mp4 files. Here’s how to do it: Open OBS, click File, then Remux Recordings
    • (OBS REMUX) - How to convert MKV Files with OBS - YouTube
      • Converting (or Remuxing) an MKV file in OBS is extremely easy. While this video is directed towards those who are using OBS to record their screen, the concept also applied if you have an MKV file (maybe from the internet) laying around that you need to change to MP4 format.
    • How to convert mkv to mp4 using OBS studio | Remux recordings OBS studio - YouTube
      • In this video I will show you how to convert mkv to mp4 using OBS studio
    • Standard Recording Output Guide | OBS - If you record in a file format that is not mp4 and want to convert it to mp4 for easy use in the video editing software of your choice or to make it easier to upload to social media, OBS has that built in for you. If you click on File then select Remux Recordings and press the … button to select which video(es) you’d like to remux. After that hit the Remux button and OBS will convert your videos for you, once completed it’ll provide a prompt saying so.
  • Resizing
  • Downscale Filter
    • Default downscale filter = Bicubic (Sharpened scaling, 16 samples)
    • Lanczos filter is the best
    • Best OBS Downscale Filter - The Ultimate Resize Comparison - YouTube | Tech Guides
      • Which is the best OBS downscale filter in terms of performance and video quality? In this video, I compare 9 different methods to downscale a live stream in OBS Studio: Bilinear, Bicubic, Lanczos, Rescale Output, and Canvas Resizing. By looking at gaming benchmarks and an objective assessment of image quality (PSNR) I am able to show that downscaling using the Video Tab and the Lanczos filter is the best choice!
      • Very detailed video on downscaling.
      • Use the Lanczos filter for downscaling, it is the best and is recommend by many.
      • There 3 different types of Downscaling are:
        1. Video Rescaling
          • Settings --> Video --> Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080 - This is your working area (Canvas) which should usually match your monitor's resolution.
          • Settings --> Video --> Output (Scaled) resolution: 852x480 - This is the resolution of the output used for making files and by making this less than your Base (Canvas) Resolution the output will be downscaled.
          • Settings --> Video --> Downscale Filter: Lanczos (Sharpened scaling, 36 samples) - This is the algorythm used to reduce the Base feed to the required Output resolution.
          • This always uses the GPU to downscale.
        2. Encoder Rescaling
          • Set Base and Ouput resolutions to be the same
            • Settings --> Video --> Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
            • Settings --> Video --> Output (Scaled) resolution: 1920x1080
          • Settings --> Output (in `Advanced Mode`) --> Streaming --> Rescale Output: 852x480
            • Select a lesser resolution and it will be downscaled.
            • x.264 = CPU
            • AMD HW H.264 (AVC) = GPU
        3. Canvas Rescaling
          • Set Base and Ouput resolutions to be the same. This resolution will be lower than the input source.
            • Settings --> Video --> Base (Canvas) Resolution: 852x480
            • Settings --> Video --> Output (Scaled) resolution: 852x480
          • This causes the video to be clipped on the canvas. So to fix this:
            • Right click on the canvas --> Transform --> Stretch to screen
            • The video now fits the screen.
          • You can select different filters, but we will select our favourite.
            • Right click on the canvas --> Scale Filtering: Lanczos.
          • This always uses the GPU to downscale.
    • Downscale Filter OBS | tips for efficiency
      • Are you looking for a way to downscale your video streams without sacrificing quality? In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to the Downscale Filter for OBS. We’ll show you how to set it up and how to use it to get the best results for your streams. So, keep reading to learn more!
      • The best downscale filter for OBS will vary depending on your specific computer hardware and internet connection. For most users, the “Bicubic” downscale filter will provide the best results.
      • Bicubic: This is the default filter used in OBS. It does a decent job at downscaling but can sometimes create blurry images.
      • Lanczos: This is the best quality filter, but can sometimes take longer to render.
      • What downscale filter should I use for my twitch streams? Generally, if you have high-speed internet connectivity and a good quality webcam, then using the bicubic filter should give you the best results. But if you have slower internet speeds or a lower quality webcam, then the bilinear or Lanczos filters may be better choices.
    • Getting your video settings right in OBS | by Andrew Whitehead | Mobcrush Blog
      • Upgrade your stream settings for visibly better results
      • We all have a basic grasp of terms like 720p and 1080p — the bigger the number, the better the video quality. But when it comes to streaming, sometimes lowering the quality in one area can help boost it in another.
      • This guide will show you how to set up OBS so you can make an informed decision about what video output resolution is best for your content. Other factors like bitrate (read about that here) and frame rate (full guide here) will also impact your stream quality, so be sure to brush up on those concepts too! Let’s get started.
        • Base (Canvas) Resolution
          • This setting determines the resolution of the space you use to layout your overlays in OBS
          • describes how to set
          • Put simply, the Base (Canvas) Resolution is your main video source that your recordings and streams will feed off.
        • Output (Scaled) Resolution
          • The Output (Scaled) Resolution is used when recording (not streaming) in OBS by taking your Base (Canvas) Resolution and flattening it down for the encoder.
          • If you find any of this confusing, and all you care about is live streaming, set the Base and Output resolution to the same size.
        • Downscale Filter
          • Bilinear and Area are the first two options, but at this point, they’re more like legacy settings that you can ignore. They’re very low quality and you lose too much detail using them.
          • The next two are Bicubic and Lanczos, which are both great options, but Bicubic is the better choice if you want to take a little strain off your PC, while Lanczos looks better looking but needs more CPU or GPU cycles.
          • If you stream using NVENC, you should use Lanczos as the filtering will be handled by your GPU’s onboard encoder and will look much better than Bicubic.
        • Why is this useful? Well maybe you have a Base (Canvas) Resolution of 1080p, and then you need to quickly change to a lower stream resolution for whatever reason, but you don’t want to have to resize ALL your overlays and video sources.
        •  This means:
          • use Lanczos where possible, Bicubic is less CPU intensive but does a worse job.
          • Downscale filters seem to be in order of greatness Bilinear --> Lanczos  in the GUI list.
    • Which downscale filter to use? | OBS Forums
      • The processing load difference between bicubic and lanczos is negligible on any hardware that isn't a complete potato with no business even trying to livestream. Ignore the performance delta as it's unspeakably tiny.
      • Normally bicubic is recommended. It's a standard rescale and provides good quality.
      • Lanczos is more of a personal-preference/situational thing; it's normally used for face-cams and other real-life video... it does have a higher sampling count, and OBS' implementation includes a sharpen pass; good for real video, not so much for synthetic video (like gameplay) where you may get some minor over-sharpen artifacting (like halo effects in solid color blocks). But you likely won't even notice unless you're specifically looking for it.
      • Default: Bicubic (especially for full-frame downscales)
      • Face-cam: right-click, Scale Filtering, Lanczos
      • Lanczos made my stream laggy as hell. Went back to bicubic and it works perfect. my upload is 30mbps and my hardware is AMD ryzen 7 3700x and gtx 1660 super. no hardware or ISP limitations so what gives? Lanczos is a turd do not use folks.
  • Misc
  • Troubleshooting
    • Get log files
      • Menu --> Help --> Log Files
    • No Audio
    • Cannot go full screen
      • Best Ways to Fix OBS Not Recording Full Screen - Being an OBS Studio user, you might have several times caught up with OBS not recording full-screen issues. Well, worry not! As we're here with the best solutions for that. Let's have a look at them.
    • Black Screen
      • OBS: Why Is My Screen Black? Try These Fixes - OBS isn’t immune to glitches, and there’s one particular issue that’s plagued Windows users. We’re talking, of course, about the infamous Black Screen. The error typically occurs during live streaming, and there are several possible causes. In this article, we’ll get to the heart of the matter while showing you how to fix it with step-by-step instructions.
    • Encoding Performance Troubleshooting | OBS - OBS Knowledge Base. Learn best practices to solve encoding performance issues

VirtualDub

  • Supports capture of interlaced videos
  • Capturing interlaced video as interlaced - Is it possible - VideoHelp Forum
    • I have been researching the best way to capture VHS to computer and the best minds say to capture the video as interlaced and to not deinterlace the video. Over the years I have been capturing VHS using a Panasonic DV camera, it captures as interlaced but the color space is 4:1:0. I just recently bought an I-O Data USB capture device and it will capture as 4:2:2, but I can't find any software that will capture as interlaced. I have tried VirtualDub and OSB and both seem to only capture deinterlaced (OSB is for sure that way). Vegas 13 Pro capture program does not recognize he I-O data device as a proper device for capture.
    • Likely you didn't configure VirtualDub properly.
      • Under "Video" -> "Capture pin..." you should select 720x480 for NTSC sources and 720x576 for PAL sources. Some devices like old tuner cards need 704 instead of 720 but 720 is the most common.
        Also select the proper color space here. You want YUY2 or UYVY (both are 4:2:2).
      • That should give you an interlaced capture, unless the capture device itself does something funky or the source is simply not interlaced (two fields taken at the same point in time make up a progressive frame).
    • Thanks for everyone's advice. As it turns out VDub was capturing interlaced video all along. I was using GSpot to determine whether a clip was interlaced or not and none of the field order indicators were set in GSpot, so I assumed the clip was progressive.
  • Capturing with VirtualDub [Settings Guide] - digitalFAQ Forum - My guide is a work in (eternal?) progress. Until then, sanlyn's guide is below. HOWEVER , important update to sanlyn's guide below.

VirtualDub2

This is the successor of VirtualDub and fixes a lot of issues. Instructions and other things out there for VirtualDub will be valid for this software.

AmaRecTV

  • Supports capture of interlaced videos (i think)
  • This is good for showing games on PC in a window, you can deinterlace etc..
  • AmaRecTV 3.10 Free Download - VideoHelp - AmaRecTV is a simple and easy Direct Show Video Capture Recording and Preview tool. Requires the AMV Video Codec (trialware $30).
  • If you do try AmarecTV ignore the bit on the VideoHelp's download page that says it "Requires the AMV Video Codec (trialware $30)." The version on that page (v2.31) doesn't need the AMV Codec to run, you just need to press the 'Update Codec List' button on the 'Recording' tab of the 'Config' window to choose from a list of compatible codecs installed on your system.
  • If you're feeling brave (or can understand Japanese) there are a couple of newer versions available if you poke around on the Japanese AmarecTV website. Version 3.10 is the last version (as far as I'm aware) that doesn't require you to buy their AMV Video Codec. Having said all of that, I'm not sure what advantages v3.10 has over the v2.31 on VideoHelp's download page? Both seem to work well. I'd leave v4.?? well alone as it not only does need their Codec but I think I'm right in saying that you need to do a little registry cleaning after uninstalling it before you can install an earlier version again.
  • AmarecTV Tutorial - YouTube | Armaggedun_ - Quick tutorial on how to use AmarecTV. I hear a lot of people can't figure out how to use it, and/or don't know about it. Thought I'd make this video.

VOB/MPEG Header Editors

When you copy a VOB from a DVD make sure you update all headers.

  • DVDPatcher 1.06 Free Download - VideoHelp - (2003) DVD Patcher is a tool to change the video headers in mpg/mpeg2/vob video. Change aspect ratio, framerate, resolution/size and bitrate.
  • Restream 0.9.0 Free Download - VideoHelp - (2003) With Restream you can change many options of a MPEG2 Elementary Stream without re-encoding. Change Aspect Ratio, Framerate, resolution in the mpeg header, correct and remove sequence extension.
  • MPGPatcher 2020.08.14 Free Download - VideoHelp - (2020) MPGPatcher is a command line tool to change video basics (resolution/size, framerate, aspect ratio, bitrate) in mpg-video files. Patches the video headers only, does no reencoding.

Shotcut

HandBrake (might move to DV)

  • HandBrake – Convert Files with GPU/Nvenc Rather than CPU – Ryan and Debi & Toren - In this post, I’ll show how to use this feature in Handbrake and show some comparisons to illustrate the benefits and tradeoffs that result.
  • Tips for Encoding Videos using HandBrake
    • Tips for creating good video encodings or DVD/BluRay rips, specifically when using HandBrake.
    • The tips give concrete instructions for the program HandBrake, which is a freely available, popular, and good tool for encoding videos—if you use it correctly.
    • A very indepth tutorial and does not just apply to HandBrake.
    • Yadif or Bwdif vs. decomb
    • Denoise
      • In short: if you want to preserve film grain, you will need a very high bitrate. If you want a small file, apply denoising to get good image quality at a low bitrate. NLMeans works best.
      • Modern codecs like H.264 are pretty good at keeping quality acceptable even at lower bitrates. However, although these codecs do have a kind of denoising effect at low bitrates, below a certain point this breaks down and the codec makes a mess of it. If you have a noisy video source (e.g., low-quality VHS tapes, a DVD of an old TV show, a film with a lot of ‘grain’), and you cannot afford encoding it at the extremely high bitrate that will correctly preserve all the noise, then it is a better idea to filter out as much of the noise as possible before the actual encoding starts. The codec will then have a much easier job at producing a good image at a low bitrate.
      • Recent versions of HandBrake have two types of denoise filters: the old HQDN3D (has nothing to do with Duke Nukem 3D by the way), and the new NLMeans.
  • Deinterlacing
    • Most effective 2x deinterlacer? | Reddit
      • They are two different algorithms for deinterlacing.
      • I am a big fan of yadif. It is a much simpler deinterlacer, and much faster, and in motion, to me, everything looks as it would look on an actual TV. If it looks wrong in yadif, then it'll look wrong viewing it on an actual interlaced TV, IMHO.
      • But, decomb is an attempt to improve on it further, and it can sometimes get a slightly better result in cases where yadif (and real interlaced TVs) struggle like near-horizontal lines or repeated patterns of fine horizontal lines. Also, decomb is a bit "smarter" in the sense that it can switch into different modes depending on context. Visually to me, though, occasionally this means it leaves a little bit of "combing effect" in the picture where it is only slight, which yadif by its nature never does. On the other hand, yadif by its nature can tend to have a bit of a "smoothing" effect which you may or may not like.
      • Having performance/speed tested bwdif as implemented in the Handbrake nightlies, it's fast and/or parallelizes well with many cores, so it beats Decomb+EEDI2 by an order of magnitude or more. Hopefully, it ends up being the qualitatively superior option that some users are looking for, but that remains to be seen, I don't think I'm qualified to do that testing so I'll have to wait for somebody else to do it.
    • Best Deinterlace Settings? | Reddit
      • The safest bet if you don't know the source is Bob deinterlace, 2x frame rate (I prefer "yadif" to "decomb" but YMMV, decomb is much slower though) but you can do better with film source DVDs which will usually be telecined as 3:2 pulldown so you can do a detelecine first, in most cases auto will work, and then completely disable deinterlacing and it should be crisp.
      • thanks for sharing your knowledge. I got great results for deinterlacing an old interlaced sitcom from dvd source, went with yadif + bob + 2x framerate (59.94) and the motion is so smooth, picture looks great (although a bit softer), and no visible combing. I always thought "decomb + default" was fine, but I apparently didn't know what I was missing :) It's fantastic.
      • For me, I have found that decomb with the preset of EEDI2 Bob works great. Takes a long time though. I have interlaced detection at default and everything set to off.
    • A Complete Guide to Deinterlace Video with HandBrake
      • How to use HandBrake to deinterlace DVD or video? What's the difference of Yadif and Decomb? Is there a simpler tool than HandBrake to deinterlace video? All will be answered in this article.
      • Yadif is a popular and fast deinterlacer.
      • Decomb switches between multiple interpolation algorithms for speed and quality.
      • Interlace Detection, when enabled, allows the Deinterlace filter to only process interlaced video frames.
    • HandBrake deinterlacing settings? - digitalFAQ Forum
      • Use Decomb, EEDI2Bob
      • It's better than Yadif for AA (anti-alias), but still worse than QTGMC.
      • Yadif leaves % of jaggies, not pleasant to watch.
    • HandBrake deinterlacing settings | Reddit
      • When you use 'bob' you have to set the framerate in the video tab accordingly.
      • 50fps for PAL, 59.94 for NTSC, with 'constant framerate' selected
      • Should come out nice and smooth like watching it on a CRT TV.
      • Field order will be automatically detected.

Misc

  • Capture TV/DVD/VCR Free Downloads - VideoHelp - Download free Capture TV/DVD/VCR software. Software reviews.
  • Best software for capturing? - VideoHelp Forum
    • I was reading a post a week ago by someone on here that knows what he's doing. He recommended some program that was the best for capturing. unlike all of the garbage you get from big box mart. For the life of me, I can't find it.
    • For SD capture, you need a capture card that can pass uncompressed YUY2 to AmaRecTV.
    • VirtualDub
    • VirtualDub (or the VirtualDub FilterMod aka. VirtualDub2 fork) is very flexible as far as capture is concerned. But that can also make it more difficult to get set up properly some devices. Many people have good luck with AmaRecTV after giving up on VirtualDub.
    • Some hints for VirtualDub:
      • Do not play the audio while capturing (turn off Audio -> Enable Audio Playback). This cause A/V sync errors with most devices.
      • Do not compress the audio while capturing (audio codecs are usually single threaded and too slow).
      • Do not capture video uncompressed. Disk drives are too slow for this.
      • Do not use lossy high compression video codecs while capturing (MPEG2, Mpeg4 part2, h.264, h.265).
      • Use fast lossless compression codecs like huffyuv, ut video codec, etc.
      • If you still have audio sync problems play around with the sync settings at Capture -> Timing -> Resync Mode. Especially try enabling Do Not Resych Between Audio And Video Streams (which causes more problems than i solves for many devices).
      • And of course, there's all the usual things to try: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/104098-Why-does-your-system-drop-frames
    • If you do try AmarecTV ignore the bit on the VideoHelp's download page that says it "Requires the AMV Video Codec (trialware $30)." The version on that page (v2.31) doesn't need the AMV Codec to run, you just need to press the 'Update Codec List' button on the 'Recording' tab of the 'Config' window to choose from a list of compatible codecs installed on your system.
    • If you're feeling brave (or can understand Japanese) there are a couple of newer versions available if you poke around on the Japanese AmarecTV website. Version 3.10 is the last version (as far as I'm aware) that doesn't require you to buy their AMV Video Codec. Having said all of that, I'm not sure what advantages v3.10 has over the v2.31 on VideoHelp's download page? Both seem to work well. I'd leave v4.?? well alone as it not only does need their Codec but I think I'm right in saying that you need to do a little registry cleaning after uninstalling it before you can install an earlier version again.

Capture Hardware Troubleshooting

Rullz

  • No sound when capturing using the Rullz (solution will apply to other hardware)

I-O Data GV-USB2 - Analogue Video Capture dongle

  • Missing capture resolutions
    • The v112 driver has issues and is missing various capture resolutions. You need to use the v111 driver instead.
  • Blackbars on the left and right side of the capture stream
    • This is normal and part of the NTSC and PAL specification.
  • Corruption at the bottom of the capture stream
  • Driver
  • Misc
  • Example Captures (move to top)
  • Blue instead of my capture source picture (based on OBS, but will apply to other software)
    • You are supposed to see a blue screen when the GV-USB2 doesn't have a video input signal. If it wasn't working, you wouldn't be seeing that blue screen.
    • Blue screen usually means no signal. Not exactly the same as no device recognised.
    • When just connected by the S-Video cable this might present as a black screen.
  • Black instead of my capture source picture (based on OBS, but will apply to other software)
    • This can be cause by one or more things listed below
    • Have you got the correct source (S-Video/Composite) selected in the GV-USB2 settings?
      • OBS --> GV-USB2 Properties --> Configure Video --> Custom Properties --> Video Input
    • Have you got the "Video Standard" correctly selected i.e PAL_I or NTSC_M for your region?
      • OBS --> GV-USB2 Properties --> Configure Video --> Video Decoder --> Video Standard
    • Have you set the capture resolution?
      • In OBS you need to specify the resolution because (i think)
        • OBS cannot auto detect it,
        • or when not using NTSC, the default resolution for the device is 720x480 (NTSC)
      • So for your settings should look the image below, but for purposes getting an image on screen we are only concerned about the resolution being manually set.
    • Windows Camera Permissions
      • Streaming / Recording / Equipment forum - GV-USB2 Capture Card Stopped Working in OBS - Speedrun
        • I finally figured out that the capture card stopped working because of an update to Windows 10.
        • As of the Windows 10 April 2018 update, version 1803, you need to change a setting to get this capture card to work. With Win10 (and I assume 11) is that the O/S often blocks access to video capture devices, treating them like cameras. You have to give apps access to cameras in the Privacy Settings. 
          • Start Menu -->Settings --> Privacy --> Camera --> App permissions:You need to toggle "Allow apps to access your camera" to on. If it is already on, turn it off and then back on.
        • After that, the GV-USB2 capture card should show up in OBS, or any streaming program.
    • Check your video player is outputting a signal
      • Check your video player is outputting a signal to a TV so you can rule that out. Start off with the composite signal as this is the most robust.
      • It might not be the usb capture device, it could be the video player itself not outputting a signal. try another video player.
      • The video player might also need to detect the TV at the other end of a cable (S-Video, in particular) or it's firmware does not know what to do or where to output the signal? This might only apply to some of the connections such as S-Video.
      • On your video player, only 1 SCART socket might output the signals.
    • The GV-USB2 is not initiated correctly
      • The usb capture device needs to be receiving a signal when it is hooked up for the first time (I think) so it can correctly established the proper protocol to use.
        • Once you have established your video player is working, connect it by Composite and see if it is now fixed!
        • When testing with the VCR, make sure you have a tape playing. The internally-generated menus & "blue back" of most VCRs is a non-standard signal that many capture devices can't recognize.
      • The video player might not start sending a signal until it sees a TV, the GV-USB2 might not turn on until it gets a valid signal.
        • This is more likely to be an issue when using the S-Video rather than composite, but you never know.
        • The solution is to bring the adapter to life using the composite and then switch to the S-Video. The composiote signal should be fully dumb with no device handshaking.

Panasonic DMR-EZ48VEBK (DMR-EZ48V)

  • Maintenance
  • Troubleshooting
  • Please Wait Error
    • This can be caused by a faulty power supply
    • Can indicate a particular section of the video player not powering up correctly, such as the dvd player.
    • Panasonic DVD Recorder DMR-EZ45VEBS - when I switch it on I get either a "Hello" or alternating " Please Wait" message! | justanswer.com
      • Nothing else happens and I cannot get machine to function with either handset or machine control buttons. It won't even eject or power on/ off. I unplug it form power overnight and same thing happened.
      • Several technical options discussed here.
    • Problem with Panasonic DMR-EZ45V — Digital Spy
      • Q:
        • Over the last week when i finalize a disc it has been making a grinding noise, but would work ok.
        • But today it wouldn't finalize, so i switched the machine off at the mains.
        • Now when i turn it on, the display, just says PLEASE WAIT.
        • It has been doing this nfor more than an hour now.
        • Is there a reset button or maybe something i could do to get it to work!!
      • A:
        • I presume a disc is still in it.
        • It will be stuck in an endless loop struggling to initialise a disc it cannot read, so your priority is to try to get that disc removed so the machine can finish booting properly.
        • So - try again from mains switch on. - Wait 2 minutes. DO NOT press any buttons. If it will not get past the 'please wait'.. press and hold the power switch for 12 seconds.
        • This will hopefully switch the machine off.
        • WHEN it is OFF, press STOP and Channel Up buttons on the unit at the same time and hold for about 5 seconds.
        • Dispose of that disc... but examine the recording surface first... Look for evenness of dye distribution. Look for any obvious surface dirt. Look for any obvious surface damage at the point at the end of the burned area - if there is any. [ Discs are burned from the inside first toward the outside of the diameter. ] ... and note which make and batch it came from.
        • You will very likely find that if you can rescue this situation that most of the disks from that batch will behave similarly.
    • Help with "PLEASE WAIT" message on Panasonic DMR E85H | AVS Forum
      • Replace the HDD
      • Try holding the Channel Up and Down buttons on the unit at the same time. If you can get it to reset, set your clock manually and turn DST OFF.
      • I recently had my first problem with my Pana 85 in a couple of years. This came after one of those very brief power outages. I was getting the "Please wait" and U99 messages, and the unit would only stay on for a minute at a time. The advice from the manual didn't work, so I thought I'd try to track down something from this forum. I found this thread, and sure enough, holding down these two buttons did the trick!
    • Panasonic DMR-E85 Locks Up on Please Wait - ecoustics.com
      • I fixed my DVD Recorder, it turned out to be a power supply issue. There are two capacitors that fail in the power supply (the power supply is located under the hard drive holding bracket). I easily observed the failed capacitors because they appeared slightly bloated, with a slight leakage of substance on the top.
    • Panasonic DMR-ES15 - Please Wait !! | Electronics Forums
      • A guide to diagnosing the power supply and diagnising dodgy capacitors.
    • HOW CAN I FIX ERROR CODE U99 IN PANASONIC DMR-EZ45VEBS? | how to mend it .com - Panasonic dvd players
    • This works on my DMR-E100 so may work on the DMR-ES10.
      • Press & Hold the power button until the machine shuts down
      • Then with the machine off press and hold "stop" & "channel up" buttons on the recorder front panel for over 5 seconds. Release both buttons, the machine should turn on and eject the disk.
    • panasonic DMR-EZ45VEBS U61 error code? | how to mend it .com - Panasonic dvd players
      1. It's working checking the capacitors in the power supply and by the DVD drive and under it, if these have popped tops they have cooked and will allow ripple on the supply lines that cause all sorts of problems including U error codes.
      2. Disconnect from mains, remove metal case cover (four silver screws on sides and three black screws on back) Remove metal plate/cover off top of dvd drive (another four silver screws which are tight !). Clean the dvd spindle with isopropyl alcohol and several cotton buds until the buds come away clean. Do the same for the cap (on the inside of the lid) that rests on top of the spindle if it looks dirty. While you are at it, give the laser lens a GENTLE rub with another clean cotton bud. Be carefully on reassembly the edges of the metal cabinet are SHARP ! After re-assembly and subsequent switch-on insert unformatted Panasonic RAM disc abfpd format it.
      3. I put the disc in shiny side up ie upside down and that worked I then put the disc in the correct way and it worked good Luck
      4. After reading this page I tried inserting a blank unformatted dvd and it cleared the recurring error U61 message.
      5. U61 can be caused by a bad laser.
      6. I was frustrated with this U61 error code until I read the comments on this site. I put in a new DVD-R and the recorder reset itself immediately.
      7. I also solved the problem by opening the front flap and pressing the channel up and down buttons at the same time. Machine went into RESET mode, automatically retuned all the stations and it then worked fine.
  • Reviews
  • Manuals
  • Owner ID Pin
    • How do I reset the owner ID on a Panasonic DMR_EX77 please? | justanswer.com - Unfortunately, you cannot unregister the Owner ID on any DMR player. That information is stored on a NAND flash memory chip, and it cannot be reset or erased in any way. You can reset the player to its factory default condition-with the instructions provided in my previous answer-but unfortunately, the owner ID won't be reset.
    • Panasonic DMR-EZ27EB Owner ID & PIN Number reset | AVForums
      • Once the PIN number has been set, you cannot return to the factory preset
      • The Pin number cannot be reset by button pushing.
      • The reason it would cost for such an operation is that it would involve connecting equipment to erase and reprogram an 'eeprom'.
    • Panasonic DMR-HWT130: PIN problem | AVForums
      • This unit has two pin numbers associated with it: The owner identity PIN, and a separate parental control PIN.
      • You probably put a pin number in on original setup for owner identity...but it seems likely that you have never input a parental control pin, so it should still be at the default 0000, albeit you say you have tried that.
      • The parental control pin is only required for titles that have a 'G' next to them in the list of recorded titles. Is it possible that you have encountered such a title for the first time?
      • The requirement for a parental pin can be turned off for all titles (see page 70 of the manual)... but the pin number is required to change this setting (Catch 22).
      • Reset the parental Pin number by:
        1. While the unit is on, press and hold [OK], the yellow button and the blue button at the
          same time for more than 5 seconds. 
          “00 RET” is displayed on the unit’s display.​
        2. Repeatedly press (right) until “03 VL” is displayed on the unit’s display.
        3. Press [OK].
          • “INIT” is displayed on the unit’s display.
          • The PIN number for parental control returns to the factory preset (“0000”).​

Toshiba DVD Video Player / Video Cassette Recorder SD-23VB

  • Tracking issues
    • Auto-Tracking can be turned of in the OSD/Menu.
    • Manually adjusting VCR tracking function. - The Official Dynabook & Toshiba Support Website provides support for various models.
      • Some of Toshiba’s VCRs will attempt to auto track when a tape begins playing.
      • If the tracking point the VCR chooses is still incorrect, or the VCR did not auto track, the tracking can be adjusted manually.
      • On the VCR itself or on the VCR’s remote, there should be two tracking buttons, a plus (+) and a minus (-). Using these buttons, adjust the tracking until the image is to your liking.
    • I have a toshiba vcr/dvd combination macine. There is no tracking button. Is there a way to automatically adjust the tracking? | Fixya
      • Usually VCRs do not offer specifically labelled tracking buttons as such, however they may incorporate tracking into their channel UP/DOWN buttons, both on the front of the main unit and/or remote. Some brands also offer V-LOCK (vertical lock or still image adjustment) (in pause mode during playback) to stabilise the image, reducing vertical jitter, which again can be adjusted as required using the same buttons as used for tracking. In most cases, pressing both CH UP and CH DOWN together while the tape is playing should centre track (revert back to auto tracking) the unit.
    • I am sure if your VCR has channel buttons on it, try pressing either one while a tape is playing. See if it affects the tracking at all. If it does, press both buttons together for 5 seconds or so, then release - auto/centre tracking takes over.
  • Buying Guide
    • auto tracking ?
    • S-Video is for DVD player only.
    • Can turn of OSD.

Daewoo DF-8150P Video Cassette Recorder/DVD Recorder

  • Connection Procedure - This makes sure the video supplies a video signal.
    1. Make sure you connect th video player to a TV via composite (scart might be ok) before you power the unit on. This allows the video to boot correctly.
    2. You can have the S-Video left Connected to your GV-USB2 device. If you are still having issues, make sure the S-Video cable is disconnected from the video player.
    3. Once the video player has been initiated correctly it will work fine. It might only be after a full disconnection from the power that this needs to be done.
  • Troubleshooting General
    • Daewoo DF8150P VHS/DVD Combo - Locked | AVForums
      • A: The display now show the word "LOCK" when we power up the machine or attempt to use it. There is no mention of how to deal with this in the user guide.
      • Q: With some older Daewoo VCRs to unlock required you to push and hold for 5 secs the power button on the front of the machine...with other models you had to do the same but this time using the power button on the remote control.
    • You need to use audio button on the remote to enable HiFi audio. It will stay on mono until you do this. it will reset back to mono when you eject the tape.
    • The options in the menu are limited.
    • When the RGB option is selected, the video player will do the de-interlacing.
  • Get rid of OSD
    • Using the display button on the remote is the only way to get rid of the OSD
    • turn off/disable VCR On Screen Display for capturing - VideoHelp Forum
      • On pretty much every VCR I've ever used turning off the OSD was a matter of hitting the "display" button on the remote of few times to cycle through the OSD options until it all disappears.
      • You did mention the tracking bar which probably means you have some sort of automated tracking turned on. With that enabled anytime there is a jitter in the tape the VCR wants to adjust you'll see the OSD pop up. There should be an option somewhere in the setting to turn off automatic tracking.
    • A Comprehensive Guide to Learn about OSD Timeout - If you are wondering what does OSD Timeout exactly mean? Here's a Comprehensive Guide to Learn about OSD Timeout.
  • Tracking
    • Auto Tracking
      • The automatic tracking function adjusts the picture to remove snow or streaks. It works in the following cases:
        • When a tape is played for the first time.
        • When the tape speed (SP, LP) changes.
        • When streaks or snow appear because of scratches on the tape.
    • Manual Tracking
      • If noise appears on the screen during playback, press the [TRACKING +/-] buttons on the remote control until the noise on the screen is reduced.
        • In case of vertical jitter, adjust these controls very carefully.
        • Tracking is automatically reset to normal when the tape is ejected or the power cord is unplugged for more than 3 seconds.
  • Green tint on picture
    • Green tint on Daewoo DVD recorder with new tv | AVForums
      • Check to see what output the Daewoo is providing.
      • It sounds like it is outputting S Video... Either change it to RGB [preferably] or plug into a socket in the TV that will take S video and switch / configure the TV input as necessary.
      • It turned out the vcr was set to s-video and not rgb , so a quick menu change improved the picture no end
      • A fully wired scart cable can carry an RGB signal - but only if the scart connector at one end is told to output an RGB signal (as opposed to composite) and only if the scart connector at the other end is told to expect an RGB input (as opposed to composite, or s-video).
      • I would guess that your Daewoo PVR was set to only output composite, the TV is set to expect input composite, so the colours were fine (if not particularly clear). The Daewoo DVDR is set to ouput RGB, the TV is not set to expect input RGB (or can't accept RGB on that particular scart socket), so the colours are poor.
  • Buying Guide
    • cannot turn of auto tracking, when triggered causes OSD
    • S-Video works for VHS and DVD
    • cannot turn OSD  off fully, but can cycle it with the remote control
    • output options are great
    • can copy VHS to DVD

PAL/NTSC/SECAM on VHS, DVD and DV Technology

We need to go over some of the technology so you know why you are selecting certain values and will allow to make changes where necessary.

General

  • PAL
    • Phase Alternation by Line
    • Native storage resolution is 720x576 @ 25fps which is not 4:3.
  • NTSC
    • National Television System Committee
    • Native storage resolution is is 720x480 @ 29.97fps which is not 4:3.
  • NTSC vs PAL
    • What's the Difference Between NTSC and PAL? - The differences between NTSC and PAL are significant, and we're still dealing with them. But both are vanishing from new TVs.
    • NTSC vs PAL - Difference and Comparison | Diffen - NTSC and PAL are two types of color encoding systems that affect the visual quality of content viewed on analog televisions and, to a much smaller degree, content viewed on HDTVs.
    • PAL and NTSC are interlaced. This means that it puts up half a picture every cycle (alternate lines), so you only get 25 full frames a second but because method the picture appears as 60 frames a second. (PAL and NTSC have different timings).
    • You need to capture at the de-interlaced FPS and not the standard frame rate this is because a 30fps interlaced delivers a frame rate of 60fps and if you dont then the video will appear choppy.
      • (PAL 50fps, or NTSC 59.94fps)
    • What is the difference between PAL_B, PAL_D, PAL_ G, PAL_ I | vegascreativesoftware
      • There are various versions of PAL, most commonly used method is called PAL B/G, but others include PAL I (used in the UK and in Ireland) and PAL M (weird hybrid standard, which has the same resolution as NTSC has, but uses PAL transmission and color coding technology anyway). All of these standards normally work nicely together, but audio frequencies might vary and therefor you should check that your appliances work in the country you're planning to use them (older PAL B/G TVs can't decode UK's PAL I audio transmissions even that the picture works nicely).  
      • PAL_I (UK and Ireland)
      • NTSC_M (North America)
    • NTSC vs PAL: What are they and which one do I use? - Corel Discovery Center
      • In PAL regions, the standard household outlet uses a 50Hz current, so the default FPS rate was 25. The other primary difference in the two signals is that PAL signal uses 625 signal lines, of which 576 (known as 576i signal) appear as visible lines on the television set, whereas NTSC formatted signal uses 525 lines, of which 480 appear visibly (480i).
  • Misc
    • Both PAL and NTSC effective display resolution is 720x540 when presented on a TV (cathode ray tube - CRT)
      • PAL has overscan = some pixels get cut off to fit this resolution.
      • NTSC has underscan = the image needs to be stretched to fit this resolution.
    • Each horizontal scan line can be sampled at any resolution becasue it is analogue. 720 is seen as the accepted max resolution you can scan the horizontal after this there is no improvement so not many devices will do above 720.
    • There is aways a set number of vertical scan lines.
    • DV videos are 720x576 (SAR) but have a DAR 4:3 set.
    • DVDs are 720x576 (SAR) but have a DAR 4:3 set.
    • super vhs is best + nicam
      • nicam might only be present on commercial tapes and requires another head on the video player.
    • There is a video player head for each field, so 2 heads for a full frame.
    • A square is a square, so when you strect the captured video stream to 4:3 it will look right as this is all the CRT screen does, takes a weoired resolution and stretches it to 4:3 which is the original ratio of the captured image.
  • To change SAR to DAR
    • Stretching or reducing the NTSC/PAL source to a 4:3 resolution on OBS will correct the view ratio to allow saving the image in the correct ratio
    • You can just add a 'Display Aspect Ratio' (DAR) of 4:3 instead which is how DVDs and DV formats do it. This is only possible when stored digitally and in a format that supports DAR.
  • Terms
    • Glossary of Audio & Video Media Terminology | Media College - Definitions and explanations of audio, video and general media terminology.
    • Storage aspect ratio (SAR)
      • The dimensions of the video frame, expressed as a ratio.
    • Display aspect ratio (DAR)
      • The aspect ratio the video should be played back at.
    • Pixel aspect ratio (PAR)
      • The aspect ratio of the video pixels themselves.
      • A Pixel aspect ratio (often abbreviated PAR) is a mathematical ratio that describes how the width of a pixel in a digital image compared to the height of that pixel.
    • Anamorphic
      • I think this is where the DAR does not match the SAR, or the output resolution is not the same as the stored resolution.
      • HandBrake Documentation — Anamorphic Guide
        • Anamorphic in HandBrake means encoding that distorted image stored on the DVD, but telling the video player how to stretch it out when you watch it. This produces that nice, big, widescreen image.
    • Underscan / Overscan
      • How to Fix Overscan and Underscan Between a TV and Computer - Make Tech Easier
        • When you connect your desktop to your TV, you might encounter an overscan problem. Here are some ways to fix the overscan issue on a TV.
        • But there’s a good chance you’ll encounter problems with overscanning, which is when the monitor or TV cuts off the edges of your desktop. The opposite problem is underscan, where the image is too small for the screen.
        • This tendency of TVs is a relic from the olden days of CRT TVs, but thankfully, it can be fixed using a number of methods we have for you here.
      • How to Properly Crop the Overscan in VirtualDub [GUIDE] - digitalFAQ Forum
        • As anybody converting VHS tapes to DVDs/Youtube quickly discovers, the video signal contains a lot of junk on the edges of the screen -- noise not seen when it was played on a television. This is actually an intentional "feature" of traditional video signals, as it allowed broadcasters to hide non-video signal functionality which did present itself as noise. Closed caption data, for example.
        •  That concept has been explained in depth here: https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/315-errors-edges-converted.html
      • Question about capturing VHS and overscan - VideoHelp Forum
        • Q:
          • I was reading this website about overscanning. According to the source, overscanned ares are not visible when you are watching the content on a TV.
          • So should I crop/add black borders (mask) to cover up a few pixels on the edges (and remove head switching noise) or not?
        • A:
          • All about taste, really up to you. If you do, I would fill the boarders with pure black instead of cropping to a weird resolution, assuming you want this on DVD. And replace the head noise at the bottom with pure black is you want.
          • When you burn it to DVD, it will shrink it to 720x576. Then when played on an HDTV, a 4:3 video will be stretched to 788x576 (for 4:3 PAL Material). So keep this in mind, and maybe just keep your VHS captures at 720x576 when you burn them to DVD. Just don't want you taking my advice from your other thread and upscale the video to 788x576 and then put it on DVD which will just shrink it down again, only to be upscaled again.
        • An in-depth discussion about AR (Aspect ration ) and blackbars (overscan)
        • I know of at least two softwares (AviDemux and VirtualDub *with BorderControl plugin) that can add black over top of your overscan without the cropping/adding hassle.
        • Nobody in the industry cares about this small AR difference and it's common practice to just encode the 720x480 frame when making DVDs from analog video tapes.
        • Just about every 4:3 DVD I come across comes with black bar padding to follow ITU.
        • All DVDs that I know include bars for 4:3 content
        • The amount of overscan varies from TV to TV. In the day of CRTs it could be as much as 10 percent at each edge. So of a 704x480 active picture area as much as 70 pixels at the left and right edges, and 50 pixels top and bottom would be cut off. More typical was about 5 percent. This was because CRTs were not good at keeping the picture the right size and centered. They also suffered from many other geometry problems which were less obvious when you couldn't see the edges of the frame. And all these problems varied from TV to TV, with temperature, age, orientation of the TV, etc. Modern fixed panel TVs don't suffer from these kinds of problems but still overscan by 2 or 3 percent at each edge by default.
      • Black Borders / Black Bars
        • Leaving them in fine and normal
        • This is normal
        • The picture in the middle is the coprrect ration
        • The black bars (Overscaling is to allow old TVS (CRt's) that never couls show thefull picture becasue they were curved and this eased that situation)
        • You can remove the black bar by selecting the area, using shift expand it to cover the whole capture area.
        • Some people post-process and cover the sides with a 'real' black bar and then some devices know to remove them from the picture they display.
        • Why Vmix 22 video with black bars at both right and left 
          • The vmix video both input/output screen has black bar at both left & right end. Even the recorded file. Please Can it be cleared?
          • Let me guess - that "SMI Grabber" is an analogue capture device, and what you're seeing is fact that the active line width in traditional PAL/NTSC video is less than the total line width that is captured (eg 720x576 for PAL).
          • Some cameras fill the entire line with picture content, some don't. Consumer cameras often do, and broadcast cameras typically don't.
          • This area at the edges is usually lost in the "overscan" area of a traditional CRT TV, but the way you're using it (as a source in vMix) you are going to see it.
          • The easiest solution is to zoom in very slightly on the X axis (value >1) so that your active picture fills the width of the screen. To summarize, this is an issue caused by a combination of your camera and capture device - not an issue with vMix.
  • Interlacing / Deinterlacing
    • General
      • Modern screens and devices can only show complete frames, they cannot show individual fields. One frame is two fields.
      • All DVDs are interlaced. This is so they match the NTSC or PAL standards.
      • Interlaced sources are only good on CRT Tvs as they will show artifacts on flat panel TVs or monitors, especially in high movement scenes.
      • When you Deinterlace a source, the frame rate needs to double to match the field rate.
      • Understanding Interlacing: The Impact on Image Quality - DigitalGadgetWave.com - Interlacing is a technique commonly used in television and video to display images.
      • Progressive Vs Interlaced Video Encoding: A Complete Guide - Muvi One
        • Progressive vs interlaced video encoding - a complete comparative guide. Know the differences between progressive vs interlaced video encoding.
        • Once the frame is divided into fields, the encoding process involves the sequential transmission of these fields. Rather than transmitting the entire frame at once, interlaced encoding transmits the odd field first, followed by the even field. 
        • This transmission pattern ensures that each field is displayed in rapid succession, creating the illusion of a complete frame to the viewer’s eye.
    • Interlacing Explained
      • Interlaced video - Wikipedia
      • What is deinterlacing? The best method to deinterlace movies | 100fps.com 
        • A great part of this site deals with interlacing/deinterlacing which introduces some of the nastiest interlacing problems like these.
        • Weave/Do Nothing = Show both fields per frame. This basically doesn't do anything to the frame, thus it leaves you with mice teeth but with the full resolution, which is good when deinterlacing is NOT needed. 
        • Bob (Progressive scan)
          • There is also this way: Displaying every field (so you don't lose any information), one after the other (= without interlacing) but with 50 fps.
          • Thus each interlaced frame is split into 2 frames (= the 2 former fields) half the height.
          • As you see, you won't lose any fields, because both are displayed, one after the other.
        • This article discusses many key facts
      • Video Capturing Concepts: Interlacing Examples – The Digital FAQ - Here are some examples of interlaced and non-interlaced video.
      • Welcome Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity - See interlacing explained with animated GIFs.
      • A Guide on Interlaced Video - This blog post guides anyone looking to learn about interlaced videos. It covers topics such as what Interlacing is, how it differs from Progressive Video, and the benefits of Interlacing. Furthermore, it also talks about deinterlacing and how to deinterlace a video for streaming.
      • Deinterlacing in OBS Studio with GV-USB2 - YouTube | Fizztastic
        • This video gives the best example, side by side, of the different deinterlacing filters.
        • Capture settings: GV-USB2 (S-Video), 8:7 Aspect Ratio (Point Scaling), 512x448 Output Resolution.
        • The Filters
          • Left column are control inputs [Bizhark (RGB) and Raw footage].
          • Blend2x is visually incorrect because of the missing flashing of the Dash Bar and in other various places.
          • Linear2x produces a flickery image between the two fields.
          • The best filters is in my opinion Retro followed very closely by Yadif2x.
          • The Retro filter produces a very stable image in flickering condition whereas Yadif2x switches fields producing a slight wavy effect in flashing parts. It also leaves artifacts on the next frame of a disappearing sprite.
        • All the other filters in OBS studio (Blend, Discard, Linear and Yadif) all produce a 30 FPS video.
      • Learn interlacing and field order in Premiere Pro - Learn to convert progressive to interlaced video in Premiere Pro.
      • Field Order - Who's on First? by Chris and Trish Meyer - ProVideo Coalition - If you thought most NTSC video ran at 29.97 frames per second, that's only half the story – literally. It actually runs at a speed of 59.94 fields rather than 29.97 frames per second (fps), with pairs of fields “interlaced” to form a complete frame (see the illustration at left). When you shoot footage with [...]Read More... from Field Order – Who’s on First?
      • Interlace, Interleave, and Field Dominance | mir.com
        • This document presents an overview of the features of interlaced video streams which are essential to understand for working with digital video.
        • All DV streams are lower-field-first.
        • If you are ever going to use a DV source for any of your material, you'll want to choose lower-field-first for all of your material.
      • Digital Video Fundamentals - Frames & Framerates (page 2/3): Progressive and Interlaced - AfterDawn: Guides - There are two basic formats for video, progressive and interlaced. Film is a progressive source because each picture fills the entire frame. That means the framerate is the number of individual pictures. Analog video, on the other hand, uses interlaced, or field based, video.
    • Frames / Fields
      • Fields are not complete images.
        • They are only half of an image at a particular point in time.
        • They are not a half resolution full image. Information is missing.
        • Alternating fields will capture odd and then even rows of an image which looks like a comb.
        • 2 fields make a frame.
      • Fields (Top / Bottom)
        • Which field first? When transcoding or just capturing a video with interlacing, you need to know which filed comes first, but they usually are as follows:
          • VHS: Top Field first
          • DVD: Top Field First
          • DV: Bottom Field First
      • Identifying Top/Bottom field in interlaced video | Mistral Solutions - This paper elaborates an approach that can be adopted to determine top/bottom fields in an interlaced video. Knowing the top and bottom field is important if the video is deinterlaced using Field Combination, Weaving + Bob, Discard and other algorithms based on motion detection.
      • All About Video Fields - Lurker's Guide - lurkertech.com
        • This article explains with the help of diagrams fields and frames.
      • Larry Explains Video Interlacing & Deinterlacing - YouTube - This is an excerpt of a recent PowerUP webinar called "Ask Larry Anything." In this short tutorial, Larry Jordan illustrates what video interlacing is, why deinterlacing is necessary and why deinterlacing always degrades video image quality.
      • Fields & Interlacing Part 1/7: Explained - YouTube
        • The first part to an old but still useful course Chris & Trish Meyer created on the subject of fields & interlaced video. This one covers why interlaced video exists, how it is created, and the difference between fields and frames.
        • At the beggining it shows uyou a great example of fileds and frames.
      • Interlaced vs. Progressive Scan - 1080i vs. 1080p - YouTube | Techquickie - What's the difference between 1080i and 1080p? Does it actually matter?
      • How to view fields
        • It is not always easy to see unless there is a lot of movement in the image, but a sign it is there is the combing artifacts
        • Load the video in AviDemux and do a frame by frame scan and it should show you.
        • VLC Player
    • Deinterlacing
  • VHS Resolution
    • What is VHS resolution? — Digital Spy
      • I am trying to find out what the resolution of VHS and S-VHS is. I know that VHS is 250 lines and S-VHS is 400 lines but I don't fully understand this.
      • The VHS recorder is a two head device with the tape wrapped around just over a half of rotating head assembly (the drum);
      • the odd fields of the interlaced 625/525 video are recorded/played back by one head - the even fields by the other;
      • there is a brief period during the recording process when both heads are in contact with the tape.
      • and more technical information......
    • The VHS Format | Media College - Information about the VHS format, including history, specifications, etc.
    • What is the frame rate of VHS? – VideoAnswers
      • Old school cameras that shoot on VHS and Hi8 formats tend to be 29.97fps and motion pictures shot on film tend to be 24fps.
      • Some other video formats have a frame rate of 23.98 to approximate the film look.
    • What is the Resolution after Converting VHS Tapes? | Legacybox
      • When converting a standard VHS videotape to digital video, the quality will resemble that of analog video. This is a breakdown of all the elements that determine video quality.
      • For the short answer, most tapes are digitized at 480p and about 24-29fps. What does that mean? That means each VHS is digitized at about half of the resolution of high definition, and the frame rate is much lower than most TVs’ max refresh rate is.Reddit - Dive into anything
  • Audio
    • LPCM (from my video manual)
      • Select this when connected to a 2 channel digital stereo amplifier. The DVD Recorder+VCR's digital audio signal will be output in the PCM 2ch format when you play a DVD (or VHS tape) recorded with a Dolby Digital (only for DVD) or MPEG soundtrack. If the DVD is recorded with a DTS sound track then no sound will be heard.
    • Bitstream (from my video manual) = USE THIS ONE
      • This is a didigtal stream straight from the tape.
    • PCM
      • Bitstream Vs. PCM For Audio – Which Is Better? - Bitstream and PCM are capable of producing the same audio quality, and the only difference is how your setup decodes the compressed file. Compatibility with devices and supported frequencies are bigger factors to consider than sound and transmission when choosing between PCM and bitstream.
    • NICAM
      • Nicam: Most Up-to-Date Encyclopedia, News & Reviews | Academic Accelerator
        • An in-depth article on NICAM and it's history.
        • Full-size VCRs were already taking full advantage of tape, using an additional helical scan head and depth multiplexing to record a high-quality audio signal diagonally below the video signal. Mono audio tracks (or, on some machines, non-NICAM, non-Hi-Fi stereo tracks) are still recorded on linear tracks, and when played back on a Hi-Fi machine, they will have the same effect as recordings made on that machine. Backward compatibility has been ensured. Non-Hi-Fi VCR. Such devices are often referred to as "HiFi Audio", "Audio FM"/"AFM" (FM stands for "Frequency Modulation"), and sometimes informally as "Nicam" VCRs (Nicam Broadcast Audio Signal (because it was used for recording). It also recorded standard audio tracks, making it compatible with non-HiFi VCR players, and its excellent frequency range and flat frequency response meant it was sometimes used as a replacement for audio cassette tapes
      • Does this require another head in the viodeo player?
      • Is this only available on commercial tapes because you require a special recorderto put NICAM on the tape.
    • Dynamic Range Compression
      • From the Panasonic DMR-EZ48VEBK manual, page 92
        • Dynamic range is the difference between the lowest level of sound that can be heard above the noise of the equipment and the highest level of sound before distortion occurs. Dynamic range compression means reducing the gap between the loudest and softest sounds. This means you can hear dialogue clearly at low volume.
      • Quick Tip: For Best Audio, Turn OFF Dynamic Range Compression and Loudness Controls — Bob Pariseau - Many Audio Video Receivers (AVRs), and some Source devices such as movie disc players, will include Digital Audio processing options for Dynamic Range Compression or Loudness Adjustment.  Should you use them? In a word, No!  Not if your goal is best quality Audio.
      • How does Automatic Dynamic Range Compression work? | Reddit
        • Dynamic compression basically lowers loud and increases soft sounds. (Normal talking no screaming or whispering but for all sounds)
        • Compression for the audio format is basically packing it into a smaller space, lossless(like trueHD) does this in a way that the sound can be unpacked and still stay identical (like .zip files on the computer) while lossy compression (DD, DD+ etc) gets rid of some of the information to pack it even tighter saving storage space/bandwidth.
      • Dynamic Range Compression? | AVForums
        • If your desire is to listen as the Director intended then surely you should have it switched off? I am not sure why they would recomend it being set to 'STD' as it is obviously applying some compression in that mode.
        • Personally I would leave it off but by all means experiment
        • given that i spend my days coding DRC's and other audio algorithms, if you want the biggest difference between speech and explosions turn DRC to off. unless Sony have messed up their coding, any enabling of drc will result in less range between the quietest and loudest moments.
      • Dynamic Range Compression: Techniques, Applications, And Tips | SoundScapeHQ
        • Discover the definition, purpose, and history of dynamic range compression. Explore its advantages, disadvantages, and how to use it effectively in various applications and genres.
        • Introduction to Dynamic Range Compression
        • Definition and Purpose
        • History and Evolution

Legacy Hardware

  • Composite (RCA)
    • Understanding Composite Video Signals - ClearView - Dive into our detailed CCTV guide to understand composite video signals, their components and their crucial role in CCTV operations.
    • Composite video - Wikipedia
      • A gated and filtered signal derived from the color subcarrier, called the burst or colorburst, is added to the horizontal blanking interval of each line (excluding lines in the vertical sync interval) as a synchronizing signal and amplitude reference for the chrominance signals. In NTSC composite video, the burst signal is inverted in phase (180° out of phase) from the reference subcarrier.[7] In PAL, the phase of the color subcarrier alternates on successive lines. In SECAM, no colorburst is used since phase information is irrelevant.
    • Composite Video vs S-video - Difference and Comparison | Diffen
  • Component
    • Component video - Wikipedia
    • what is the difference between rgb and component?? | Official Pyra and Pandora Site
      • Here is the solution (I work as a technical director at a TV station ;):
        • RGB
          • The best and original color system.
          • You have three lines: Red, Green and Blue.
          • (some RGB, such as RGB cables on computers, also need horizontal and vertical sync lines, but the picture itself uses three lines).
        • Component
          • Developed by Sony.
          • Component also uses three lines, but the three lines consist of:
            • Y = Luminance
            • R-Y (or Cr) = Reduced Red
            • B-Y (or Cb) = Reduced Blue
          • Y usually is the green line from RGB, R-Y and B-Y are pure mathematical calculations. Y is the luminance (so, if you only connect Y, you get a nice B/W signal).
          • A component signal can also be YUV, U is a reduced Cb-signal and V is a reduced Cr signal.
          • Component has been developed when RGB only had 5 lines to get the same image quality with only 3 lines.
          • Most people only know the difference between PAL and NTSC as PAL usually being 50 Hz and NTSC being 60 Hz. But there's another difference:
            • As already stated, if you have a composite signal, the color signal is encoded into the luminance (B/W) signal.
            • This encoded signal is called the "color burst".
            • The first guys to develop the television developed this technique using NTSC - but there has been the problem that the colors shifted (on old TVs you had a knob to recalibrate the colors, new TV sets do this automatically for you).
            • The developers in Germany thought of a solution to this problem a came up with a different burst (a mirrored one, to be exactly) so that the TV sets could automatically handle the colors and there's no shifting (so PAL is more advanced than NTSC).
            • The problem now is: The PAL TVs can't decode the NTSC color burst and the NTSC TVs can't decode the PAL color burst - so only the luminance (B/W) signal can be displayed.
          • Using a scart cable
            • When you use a scart cable, you usually connect your DVD Player, PS2 or whatever else using RGB (three lines instead of one).
            • There's no need to decode any colors because they are transmitted seperately.
            • And that's why you have colors on all kinds of TVs (well, they must at least have a RGB scart).
        • Y/C (some VHS-recorders also call it SVHS)
          • All the colors are put together on one line and the luminance gets one line.
          • So we have a total of 2 lines, but we get some loss in the colors (you won't see them, though, they're minimal).
        • Composite (also called CVBS)
          • That's the worst quality. The colors and the luminance are together on one line.
          • The bandwith per line is 5 MHz, the color is encoded (AM) at 4,43 MHz.
          • For those who want to know a little more:
            • The more the contrast changes, the higher is the frequency.
            • (e.g. if you have a striped shirt, you have a high frequency).
            • When you have a contrast change at exact 4,43 MHz, the TV doesn't know whether this is luminance or a color. That's why you have nice flirring colors at shirts with striped shirts ;))
            • And because we only have small bandwith for the colors, they are really blurry at edges.
      • Oh, and none of the four signals here are digital, all pure analog
    • What is better RGB Scart or component? | Reddit
      • Technically speaking what you're referring to are "RGBS" and "YPbPr". SCART is just a connector, and can carry multiple types of video signal. "Component" just means that the video signal is broken into its separate component parts. The most common type of Component video in use by consumers is "YPbPr Component", but professional equipment often uses "RGBS" Component". Computer VGA is a third, similar signal called "RGBHV". "RGBS" means that there is a single separate sync signal. "RGBHV" means that there are separate horizontal and vertical sync signals. There is also "RGsB", or "sync on green", where the sync is integrated into the green signal.
      • RGB and YPbPr are nearly identical in practice. I've seen in claimed that RGB has slightly better color due to the additional processing YPbPr goes through, but the difference is so small that it's nearly imperceptible, and I doubt most people could distinguish them in an A/B test. Your TV has to convert YPbPr to RGB before it can display it, but the higher quality source means very little is lost in the process.
      • RGB works by breaking the red, green, and blue values of the video into separate signals. This is better than something like composite or S-Video because the color data can't interfere with the other colors (short of an improperly shielded cable).
      • YPbPr has the same advantages, but encodes the signal differently. The "Y" in the name is the green connector, which is a Luma signal (the image in black and white, with sync). The "Pb" and "Pr" (blue and red connectors) are the blue and red offsets. Those signals contain the difference between the Luma and their component color, and that color is then calculated from that value. The green value is then derived from the Y value using the Pb and Pr offsets.
      • They're both about the same. RGB has a slightly higher dynamic color range over YPbPr, but it's not likely something most people will notice. However, RGB is limited to 480i.
  • S-Video
    • Should you get an S-Video VCR? Understanding Super VHS / SVHS and S-Video - If you are trying to achieve the best picture quality, get an S-Video VCR.
    • S-Video supplies luminance (luma, monochrome image) and chrominance (chroma, colour applied to the monochrome image) as separate signals which are read directly from the video tape. Unlike the Composite/RCA where the luminance and chrominance signals are sent down the same cable after one of them has been sent through a filter degregating the signal and leading to a phenomenon called Dot Crawl'
    • S-Video - Wikipedia
      • S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video)
      • S-Video did not get widely adopted until JVC's introduction of the S-VHS (Super-VHS) format in 1987
      • In composite video, the signals co-exist on different frequencies. To achieve this, the luminance signal must be low-pass filtered, dulling the image. As S-Video maintains the two as separate signals, such detrimental low-pass filtering for luminance is unnecessary, although the chrominance signal still has limited bandwidth relative to component video.
    • Test Caps - various composite and s-video cables - VideoHelp Forum
      • Here are some screen caps from AVIs of one of our favorite test patterns showing difference between S-video and Composite.
      • Look closely at the boundaries between different color in these caps:
    • Leads Direct - S-Video Wiring - S-Video is a technical specification for the transfer of video information via a 4 pin mini din cable. These leads are sometimes also referred to as 'S-VHS' leads, which is technically incorrect. However, the two names can be used interchangeably to refer to the same type of cable. These leads are commonly used for connecting video sources such as video cameras, PC Video Grabber cards, DVD players etc.
    • S-Video Cable: All That You Need to Know in Cloom Tech - In this article, we’ll talk about S-Video Cable and answer all the questions you may have about the product.
    • S-Video Cables | cmple.com - s-video cables learning center - learn about different configurations and resolutions of Cmple's s-video cable.
    • What Are S-Video Cables and Connectors For? | Home Cinema Guide - An S-Video cable can be helpful in an AV setup. But, what does it do, and when should you use one? This guide explains when to use an S-Video connector.
  • Scart
    • S-Cideo sockets on scart adapters do not provide a proper S-Video signal, it is just the composite/RCA signal patched onto both the luminesance and chroma lines which therefore only gives you the same quality of a composite signal.
    • Has RGB output available. This might be restricted to 480i max resolution but I have not tested this.
    • Does using an S-Video output via a SCART connector improve the output quality of a VCR? - Video Production Stack Exchange
      • The answer is probably no, unless the SCART socket on your VCR is labeled specifically as "S-VIDEO". The fact that SCART connector has S-Video pins does not guarantee that your VCR provides S-Video signal to these pins. A low-end model will simply transmit a composite signal over the luminance S-Video pin and nothing over the chrominance pin.
      • Even my DVD player having both S-Video and SCART sockets doesn't provide S-Video signal over SCART. Only component RGB.
    • The Ultimate Guide to SCART Connectors and Cables
    • Leads Direct | SCART Wiring - Gives pinouts and a description of scart connectors.
  • SVHS (Super VHS / Super Video Home System)
    • S-Video is not SVHS
    • Super VHS is an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer-level video recording.
    • It was about for a short time before DVDs that provided a better quality experience but required specific video players and different type of video tape.
    • S-VHS - Wikipedia
    • The Many Flavors of Super VHS
      • We'll look at the variations of Super VHS format including S-VHS-C, Super VHS-ET and S-VHS quasi-playback.
      • Recording quality of S-VHS-C camcorders competed with Sony's Hi8 format that also had 400 lines of resolution.
      • S-VHS machines were backward compatible with VHS cassettes but S-VHS video recorders were not selling much in the first few years of production.
    • Learn the Difference Between VHS and S-VHS - Free Video Workshop
      • Although the VHS and S-VHS tape formats look similar, their properties aren't. This article explains the difference between VHS and S-VHS.
      • S-VHS ET = best
      • S-VHS ET was developed by JVC to allow S-VHS ET tapes to be played back on non-ET S-VHS VCRs.
  • Identify VHS Cassette tapes
    • VHS Varieties - How to identify VHS Tape Types - EachMoment - VHS tapes stormed in popularity through the 80s and 90s before declining into obscurity with the rapid rise of the DVD. Now streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon Prime are pushing DVDs into the shadows too. But while the VHS tape was popular, there was lots of innovation and not a lot of universality. Different countries and companies were producing their own twist on the technology and so one VCR was not capable of playing every VHS format.
  • Capture hardware, best to worse, for capturing VHS
    • DV --> S-Video --> Direct Video to DVD (via DVD-RW/Video Combi) --> Component (YPbPr) --> Component (RGB) --> Composite (RCA)
      • DV
        • Fully digital so there is no data loss. Do not use analogue methods to capture this.
      • S-Video
        • This is direct supply of each the luminance and chrominance signals from the video tape.
        • This will allow you to process the video on a PC with modern algorithms and methods not present on the video player whoes hardware and programming cannot be changed.
        • This method does not suffer from dot crawl as does composite.
      • DVD-RW/Video Combi
        • This depends on the quality of the hardware as to whether this is better than S-Video.
      • Component (RGB / YPbPr)
        • This signal has been made by converting the luminance and chrominance signals on the video tape and split into components, so it is dependant on the hardware of the device to do a good job. Component does however have a higher bandwidth that composite and S-Video and in other types of capture this might be the preferred method. An edge case would be capturing DVDs but why would you capture these via analogue when they are already a digital format.
      • Composite (RCA)
        • The original and worst technology to use.
  • VHS
    • Chroma and luminesance are stored as separate data streams on the video tape.
      • S-Video provides these streams as separate data giving a better quality capture.
      • Composite carries both these streams over the same cable, but one of them goes through a low pass filter to prevent interference, however this causes a degredation in the signal and phenominen called dot crawl wihich impares the picture quality.
  • DVD
    • DVD-Video - Wikipedia
      • Has the audio and video specs.
    • DVDs have the following attributes
      • 768x576 (4:3)
      • Can store Interlace/Deinterlaced
      • Can specifiy the viewing ratio of the video file which allow hardware to dynamically change the image output as required to show properly.
    • What is DVD? - VideoHelp
      • DVD stands for Digital Versatile/Video Disc, DVDR stands for DVD Recordable and DVDRW for DVD ReWriteable.
      • This article goes into great detail about the technical specs of the DVD.

Pixel Shapes (Square, Thin, Fat)

  • Pixels on CRT TVs were not square, they were usually taller and the technology was aware of this so an image at a set resolution shown on a TV correctly will appear squahes or otherwised strectched when viewed on a monitor with square pixels. This means some extra work needs to be done on the source to get it to show properly on modern displays.
  • When VHS, PAL and NTSC videos are displayed on TVs (CRT) the ratio is 4:3 (DAR) however because CRTs don't use square pixels the the ratio of the video signal (vertical to horizontal) on a VHS is different (SAR).
  • The effective display of both PAL and NTSC is 720x540 (4:3), NTSC is stretched (this might be called underscan) and part of the PAL signal is cropped (the overscan) allowing both systems to have the same viewing output.
  • PAR, SAR, and DAR: Making Sense of Standard Definition (SD) video pixels - BAVC Media
    • By Katherine Frances NagelsIt’s well-known that while motion picture film has seen many different aspect ratios come and go over its history, video has been defined by just two key aspect ratios: 4:3 for analogue and standard definition (SD) video, and 16:9 for high definition (HD) video. Simple, right? Yes—but underlying this are some aspect ratios that are not so straightforward: those of the video pixels themselves.
    • This article successfully explains that PAL and NTSC do not have square pixels and how this can affect rendering of digitally captured analogue videos.
    • We now have two video resolutions: 720×576 and 720×480, and we know that the aspect ratio of the video frame is 4:3. Yet, it’s clear even at a glance that these two dimensions cannot both produce a 4:3 image. A closer look and a quick maths equation reveals that in fact, neither of these frame dimensions are 4:3!
    • And this is where the non-square pixels come in. In effect, SD video is slightly anamorphic: in order to meet the specifications of Rec. 601 and also fill a 4:3 screen, SD pixels are ‘thin’ or ‘fat’.
    • Since it will probably be transferred at 720×486 or 720×576—as is best practice for preservation
    • But 480i pixels are higher than they are wide, with a pixel aspect ratio (PAR) of 10:11. What about 576i pixels? It’s the reverse.
    • Excellent visual comparision between square and thin/fat pixels
  • Pixel aspect ratio - Wikipedia - A Pixel aspect ratio (often abbreviated PAR) is a mathematical ratio that describes how the width of a pixel in a digital image compared to the height of that pixel.
  • About Aspect Ratios
    • We shall talk about three aspect ratios: frame-size aspect ratio (far), the pixel aspect ratio (par) and the the display aspect ratio (dar).
    • All aspect ratios are given as the ratio of width to height of the rectangle.
    • The frame-size aspect ratio is the shape of the data stored.
    • The pixel aspect ratio determines the shape of a pixel.
    • The display aspect ratio determines the shape of the image that will be displayed.
    • This goes into the maths used to create these values.
  • PAL D1/DV Widescreen square pixel settings in After Effects (CS4 vs CS3) | Mike Afford Media
    • Seems the latest version of After Effects from Adobe (CS4) has changed the PAL D1/DV Widescreen square pixel preset. In CS3, compositions using that preset would be set to 1024 x 576 pixels. The new version (CS4) uses 1050 x 576. So which is right? 1024 or 1050?
    • Has visuals to help with this question and shows the different type of pixel shape.
  • Solved: PAL pixel aspect ratio issue - Adobe Community - 13042553
    • I'm working with some old PAL footage, 720x576.  Premier says its PAL pixel aspect ratio is 1.0940; however the correct pixel aspect for this resolution is supposed to be 1.0666.
    • Change the Comp settings to 720x540 Square Pixel for 4:3 and 960x540 Square Pixel for 16:9. Use Layer > Transform > Fit to Comp to fit the PAL Source exactly to the manually set square
    • I found that my footage of 720x576 would scale to be exactly 4:3, using the PAR of 1.06. The adoption of 1.09 is based on 704x576, which is considered [I think] the displayable portion of PAL. So that explains to me why they adopted this value.
    • Change the Comp settings to 720x540 Square Pixel for 4:3 and 960x540 Square Pixel for 16:9. Use Layer > Transform > Fit to Comp to fit the PAL Source exactly to the manually set square pixel frame sizes.
  • Understanding PAL aspect ratio? - digitalFAQ Forum
    • The actual video area usually is not 704x480 either. The exact measure varies. Remember, the source was analog, not digital. It wasn't measured in precise pixels. 720x576 is essentially 704x576 with an added matte. The matte was missing in the 704.
    • Most lossless codecs don't honor DAR on playback, they simply play the frame as-is.
    • The physical aspect ratio of the original 720x576 frame is 5:4, which is not a 4:3 image. VHS and VHS-C are designed for playback as 4:3 images for your old 4:3 CRT TV. As far as rectangles go, a 4:3 image is slighter wider than a 5:4 image. Another way of stating the image ratios is that 4:3 = 1.333 to 1 and 5:4 = 1.25 to 1.
    • 4:3 is the only image ratio that VHS and VHS-C can were designed to play as analog tape source, whether the image has extra borders or no borders and whether the core image fills the entire frame or not.
    • The reason for capturing to the anamorphic format of 720x576 is because that is the format that will be required for DVD or Standard Definition BluRay authoring.
    • You can also crop the 720x576 image to 704x480 (sorry, but a width of 702 simply will not play correctly and your DVD authoring program won't let you use it). ALso, some ornery equipment won't use 704 width exactly, but can use more or less than 704. It depends on the source and the capture gear. If you wanted square-pixel 4:3 for playback from FFv1, you should have encoded to 768x576 or to the more standard 640x480 (note that you would still have side borders and head-switching noise, and neither of those frame sixes can be used for DVD or BluRay).

Ratio, Resolution, PAR, SAR and DAR calculations

This area can be quite tricky to understand but is not needed for most people and is here as a reference for me and other nerds.

  • To get the DAR resolution
    1. You can use media info to get the DAR but it will only show you the ratio. if you put this same file into handbrake it will show you thre actual resolution of the DAR
    2. To get the DAR resolution of a film and not just the ratio, play it in VLC Player and then save a screen shot. This will give you the true DAR.
  • NTSC 4:3 aspect ratio 720x540? - digitalFAQ Forum
    • For uploading to YouTube/sharing, I am using ffmpeg to change the storage aspect ratio and re-encode to H.264 MKV files. This is working fine and I've got no problems.
    • For archiving the original HuffYUV files, I am using ffmpeg to change the display aspect ratio and remux into an MKV. I am changing the DAR only, with the intention being simple playback at the correct aspect ratio with no other changes to the file. SAR is not changed and the file is not re-encoded.
    • This was going fine working with my PAL tapes (I think), but now I've tried NTSC and I'm having difficulties. I've done a lot of Googling over the past few hours but haven't really got a clear answer.
    • Capturing at 720 and cropping to 704, Again it's only about 3% stretch if you keep 720 and don't mind the ugly 16 grey pixels on the sides of the frame. 704 is accurate, 720 is an approximation according to the D1 standard.
  • Is 720x480 DVD source conversion to 720x540 upscaling? - VideoHelp Forum
    • ALL DVDs have a Storage Aspect Ratio (SAR) of:
      • 720x480 for NTSC
      • 720x576 for PAL
    • When the Display Aspect Ratio (DAR) is 4:3, the display is resized to 720x540, for both NTSC and PAL
    • When the DAR is 16:9, the display is:
      • 854x480 for NTSC
      • 1024x576 for PAL.
    • The variances are due to the simple fact that DVD pixels are not stored as square (PAR=Pixel Aspect Ratio) whereas they are displayed square.
    • H.264 has nothing to do with the original DVD. You must be looking at a conversion
    • All NTSC DVDs are 720x480 (well 704x480 is possible for 4:3, but pretty rare).
    • If you keep the 720 width the same and stretch the 480 height until it's 4:3, in square pixels terms you end up with 720x540.
  • DVD, 720*480 or 720*540 | AVS Forum
    • 720x540 is the display size for both of these formats. Both formats have non square pixels.
    • NTSC pixels are stored a little short and fat, PAL pixels are stored a little tall and skinny.
  • Is PAL 720x576 or 768x576 - VideoHelp Forum
    • jagao
      • Analogue PAL is 576 discreet scan lines but on the horizontal axis is a continuous waveform. It can be sample with as few or as many pixels as you want. It is customary to sample with 720. That is generally considered enough to capture all the detail of the highest quality analogue PAL sources, without being excessive.
      • PAL DVDs, for example, use a 720x576 frame. 720x576 is a 5:4 aspect ratio so the image is adjusted at playback to give a 4:3 picture.
      • Whether you want to resize to square pixels depends on what you are making. DVDs don't support 768x576 so you should leave the video 720x576. If you want to upload to Youtube or some other video sharing network you might want to use square pixels
    • Pandy
      • This depends from sampling clock - for 13.5MHz sampling clock there is 720 pixels max, for 14.75MHz there is 768 pixels max.
        BTW 768 is for square pixel (pixel aspect for 4:3 screen is 1:1), remember there is always Source Aspect Ratio, Pixel Aspect Ratio and Display Aspect Ratio.
    • DB83
      • And just to throw another cog in the wheel, analogue tv transmissions are 625 lines (NTSC 525 lines).
    • pandy
      • Yes but it is not related to luminance bandwidth and sampling rate - there is 576 (480/486) visible lines only remain are so called VBI lines and are used to transmit vertical synchronization + equalization pulses and to transmit various types of data information (teletext, WSS, VPS, Closed Captions etc).
    • Cornucpia
      • One of the primary rules of video, which all here should know by now is: 
        Display Aspect Ratio = Pixel Aspect Ratio * Storage Aspect Ratio
      • The DAR = 4:3 = 1.33333 and the SAR = 1.25, as you have mentioned. So plugging those figures into the equation, 1.33333 = ? * 1.25, or rearranging it 1.33333 / 1.25 = ?. Solving it exactly gives: 1.06666666. This is quite close to the standard PAL PAR for non-widescreen: 59/54 or 1.0925.
      • The difference has to do with the fact that in sampling analog PAL signals, it is usually only ~702 of the 720 width that uses active pixels.
      • And 702/576 (or 1.21875) plugged into that original equation gives a PAR of ~1.094. And, since most devices like familiarity, the width of 704 is often used in Rec.601-compliant digital equivalent of PAL analog signals. 704/576 (1.22222) plugged into that equation gives a PAR of ~1.090909. Another standard ratio for PAL PAR non-widescreen is 12/11 or 1.090909. Look familiar?
      • As pandy and jagabo were mentioning, 768 is just the Square Pixel EQUIVALENT to 720's native non-square pixels.
      • Solving that same equation using square (1:1) PAR: 1.333333 = 1 * (? / 576) = 1.3333333 * 576 = ? ..... 768.
    • 2Bdecided
      • In the DVD and digital broadcast world, high quality "PAL" is 720x576, or 704x576 (i.e. with the parts that's not actually used in the analogue world removed - the extra 8 pixels either side were just included in the standard as a tolerance).
      • On quality compromised digital broadcasts it can be 544x576, 480x576, 352x576, and even 352x288 - just like 720vs704, some pixels are sometimes left off either side, making the horizontal pixel count even smaller (e.g. 528x576).
      • All of these resolutions can represent a 4x3 picture or x 16x9 picture.
      • 768x576 is only ever used when manipulating "PAL" video in systems that only understand square pixels. It's basically true to say that real "PAL" video never actually has square pixels.
      • Capture at 720x576. Crop to 704x576 if you want.
    • pandy
      • Question is a bit incorrect - PAL line length (visible part) is in fact equal 52.3us and it can have unlimited number of pixels (this depend only from sampling speed), for typical PAL B/G video signal bandwidth from practical perspective can't be bigger than 5.2MHz assuming fancy DSP involved - standard define bandwidth as 5MHz. Thus real resolution for PAL is (for 13.5MHz sampling) close to approx. 544 pixels.
      • For 13.5MHz maximum bandwidth is 6.75MHz, 1 pixel period is 1/13.5MHz=(approx) 74.074ns, if line period is equal to 52.3 us i.e. 52300ns then maximum number of pixels can be 52300/74.074=706.05, now for 5.2MHz PAL B/G standard bandwidth number of pixels is equal (5.2MHz/6.75MHz)*706.05=543.92 pixel.
      • This bandwidth limitation is usually common for non digital (analog RF broadcast) sources.
  • 720x576 vs 702x576, PAR confusion? - digitalFAQ Forum
    • I need to settle this once and for all. The proper PAR and SAR for PAL SD material.
    • The 720x576 SAR is the standard for both 16:9 and 4:3 material.
    • But the problem starts when PAR and nominal analogue blanking come into place.
    • The bottom line is, should 720x576 DV be displayed at 1,067 or 1,094, and therefore should I master to 720 with 1,067, or 1,094 with blanking bars at sides?
    • To conclude the 1,094 PAR is the proper one for PAL and VLC is not displaying PAL image properly, but the video itself is carrying 4:3 flag, which is correct for active image, but not taking blanking/overscan into account.
  • How do i upscale PAL - VideoHelp Forum
    • It can be confusing. If you have mpeg2, a dvd source or DV.avi then you have 720x576 which have a 4:3 DAR flag to display that 720x576 as 768x576 which is now perfect 4:3. Other 720x576 sources will report as 5:4
    • If you must upscale you an choose practically any size you desire. But there are caveats. Your source is interlaced and if you crop anything you must de-interlace before resizing.
    • Yes. 1280x960 is valid 4:3, but so is 1440*1080 which can save any further scaling in your player/tv.
    • Yes as hello_hello mentioned your VHS footage is only about 704x576, De-interlace first, crop to 704x576 and resize to 1440x1080 for a perfect 4:3 square pixel, resizing from 720x576 will not give you an accurate 4:3 aspect ratio.
    • DVD has actually a legal resolution of 704x576 for PAL/SECAM and 704x480 for all NTSC variants, I haven't seen any mention to 702 being an official standard, But in practice the junk surrounding the frame is never the exact number, it varies from tape format to another and from a standard to another, But when I crop I always base my calculations on 704. It seems to be the most accurate, I even did a circle test in one of the threads to demonstrate it a while back.
    • Lots more maths and discussion here.
  • Blackmagic Forum • View topic - MP4 PAL 720x576 4:3 pixel ratio export in DVR
    • 59:54 is correct as long as you have clap atom (clean aperture) set to 9. This means you have active area of 720-9 pixels for each side, so 702. Then when you calculate you need 59:54 PAR to get DAR as 4:3.
    • If you don't have clap set then you use "digital" flagging as 16:15 (720/576*16/15=1.333)
    • This might be useful in the future.
  • Why is NTSC showing 720 x 540, and not 480? - Moho Forum
    • Has a table of converting resolutions between : Rectangular Size --> Square Size
  • VHS conversion resolution? - digitalFAQ Forum
    • Q:
      • Greetings, I have read many articles on the topic of what resolution to capture VHS tapes in, but all the information just makes my head spin.
      • I would like to get a definitive answer on, in digital terms, what resolution the modes of VHS and S-VHS would be in, and if PAL or NTSC will affect those resolutions. SP, LP, SLP/EP, for both VHS and S-VHS to be clear.
    • A:
      • For all PAL VHS captures, regardless of the tape speed (SP, LP...), the normal resolution is 720x576, to be displayed at 4:3. Rarely, some gear will capture at 768x576, but it is uncommon.
      • VHS, S-VHS, SP, LP, SLP you name it, All SD analog video tape formats are captured at 720x576 for PAL/SECAM and 720x480 for NTSC, That's the native sampling rate per standard, only 704 out of 720 is actually contain the active image, So crop to 704x576 for PAL/SECAM and 704x480 for NTSC then set your aspect ratio to 4:3 during encoding and everything will work out just fine.
      • Sound Issue: Noise floor is the basic level of noise and hiss in a system that is always there whether or not there is a recorded signal. It comes from the electronics, the tape, the electromagnetic signals in the air around the gear, and so on. The signal to noise ratio you see in specs typically compares the desired signal level to the noise floor.
      • Read the forum for very techicnal discussion and futher explanation.
  • CGTalk | video sizes/aspect ratio - the answer!
    • okay, here is the definitive answer of what size video and aspect ratio you should use straight from the horses mouth (i.e. me). if you follow these guidelines you will not go wrong ever!
    • There are some different PAR values here.
  • Aspect Ratio and Digital Video | miraizon
    • This page discusses how aspect ratio works in digital video and common problems associated with editing and playback of anamorphic video.
    • Anamorphic Frame Size
    • Display Aspect Ratio
    • Square Pixel Frame Size
  • Aspect ratios | Doom9.net - A DVD video stream is 720x480, right? But 720/480 = 1.5 which is an impossible aspect ratio for a movie. And what about full screen, widescreen, anamorphic, etc? Many people are unfamiliar with these terms and are unsure about how to resize. This article tries to explain some of these mysteries.
  • Can someone EXPLAIN the whole "720x480" thing to me? - VideoHelp Forum
    • My DV camera obviously captures its video in 720x480, and I'm just curious what the thought process was behind this whole idea. That is, why capturing a 4:3 video will end up as 720x480, which is obviously NOT 4:3 and has to be filtered to play correctly (or so it appears to uneducated me).
    • DV uses non-square pixels, and these are adjusted by your player on playback. NTSC DVD also uses 720 x 480. Just to add to the fun, 16:9 (widescreen) images are also 720 x 480 (NTSC) or 720 x 576 (PAL).
    • The choice of 720x480 had to do with early digital video for broadcast. 704 (with the frame padded to 720x480) pixels were deemed necessary to match the horizontal visual resolution of high quality studio analog video. 480 was chosen because it's the nearst mod16 size that can capture all the resolution of the 486 scan lines of NTSC video (6 are cropped away).
    • So is 720x480 a square-pixel representation of a 480i video?
      • No. Standard definition 480i is 4:3. 720:480 = 3:2. The pixels are 10 percent taller than they are wide (PAR = 10:11). Note that a 720x480 video actually contains the 4:3 image in a 704x480 portion of the frame. There are 8 pixels added to each side for padding. So the full 720 pixel wide frame is slightly wider than 4:3. Using just the 704x480 part:
      • DAR = PAR * SAR
4:3 = 10:11 * 704:480
4/3 = (10/11) * (704/480)
4/3 = (10 * 704) / (11 * 480)
4/3 = 7040 / 5280
1.333 = 1.333

Troubleshooting

  • Video Artifacts
    • Time base correction - Wikipedia
    • Noise reduction - Wikipedia
    • Analog Artifacts - Browse by Tags | AVAA - A giant list of all possible artifacts with examples.
    • GitHub - joncampbell123/composite-video-simulator
      • Code to process video to simulate analog composite video.
      • Analog composite video simulation (for retro video-like video production).
      • The reason for this project is to provide the internet a better simulation of composite video-based emulation, especially for the rash of people on YouTube who all have their own ideas on what VHS artifacts looks like.
    • Dot Crawl
      • Use S-Video and not Composite/RCA to reduce or remove this issue.
      • GitHub - zhuker/ntsc: NTSC video simulator
        • This is a python3.6 rewrite of https://github.com/joncampbell123/composite-video-simulator intended for use in analog artifact removal neural networks but can also be used for artistic purposes
        • The ultimate goal is to reproduce all of the artifacts described here https://bavc.github.io/avaa/tags.html#video
        • A composite video artifact, dot crawl occurs as a result of the multiplexing of luminance and chrominance information carried in the signal. Baseband NTSC signals carry these components as different frequencies, but when they are displayed together, the chroma information can be misinterpreted as luma. The result is the appearance of a moving line of beady dots. It is most apparent on horizontal borders between objects with high levels of saturation. Using a comb filter to process the video can reduce the distraction caused by dot crawl when migrating composite video sources, and the artifact may be eliminated through the use of s-video or component connections. However, if it is present in an original source transfer, it might be compounded in subsequent generations of composite video transfers.
        • Has some good examples of video artifacts.
      • Dot Crawl Artifacts from Composite Source? - VideoHelp Forum
        • Dot crawl is the result of incomplete separation of the chroma subcarrier and luma from a composite source. Basically, it's always a problem with composite sources -- the more saturated the colors the more dot crawl artifacts you get. Capture devices usually have 2d (spacial only) or 3d (spacial and temporal) filters to reduce dot crawl artifacts. The temporal component of these filters work well on still parts of the picture but not on moving parts (you risk ghosting if you apply it too strongly to moving parts of the picture) -- which is what you're seeing.
        • An easy way of reducing dot crawl is to blur it away. You can do this by downsizing to half width, then upscaling back to full width. This isn't acceptable with high quality video because the picture gets blurry. But VHS has such low resolution horizontally you can usually do this without harming the picture much. Try using VirtualDub's Resize filter in Lanczos3 mode to scale down to 360x480 then back to 720x480.
        • You can also use more sophisticated methods involving masks to limit the blur to edges, highly saturated areas, and moving areas. But I don't think it's necessary for this clip.
        • There are also dot craw filters for VirtualDub. But, as usual, they don't work really well on moving parts of the picture.
      • "Dot crawl" elimination help? - "Dot crawl" elimination help?
        • Dot crawl is a well know artifact in composite analog video.
        • It happens at highly contrasting colour edges and looks like an unstable checkerboard pattern.
        • It's caused by crosstalk between the luminance and chrominance signals. Depending on the direction of the interference it is also responsible for colour bleeding.
        • In the analog domain, usually some kind of comb filter is used to add some constructive interference to help minimise these issues.
        • If you are capturing yourself, try using component signals instead of composite signals, as that should get rid of these issues .
    • Horizontal Wobble
      • Horizontal wiggle and de-framing when capturing. Malfunctioning card? - VideoHelp Forum
        • An example video is on this post.
        • Hello there! Been searching the forum for a little while, but didn't find any problem exactly like mine. I'm trying to capture some Hi8 tapes from my childhood using a DigitNow! U170 capture card, and I've been experiencing an enormous amount of horizontal wiggle and de-framing, which didn't occur in playback, be it in the camera (HITACHI VM-E340E) or when connected to a TV.
        • A Time Base Corrector (TBC) is needed.
  • Audio Issues
    • VHS - Wikipedia
      • Hi-Fi audio is thus dependent on a much more exact alignment of the head switching point than is required for non-HiFi VHS machines. Misalignments may lead to imperfect joining of the signal, resulting in low-pitched buzzing. The problem is known as "head chatter", and tends to increase as the audio heads wear down.
    • VHS conversion resolution? - digitalFAQ Forum
      • Noise floor is the basic level of noise and hiss in a system that is always there whether or not there is a recorded signal. It comes from the electronics, the tape, the electromagnetic signals in the air around the gear, and so on. The signal to noise ratio you see in specs typically compares the desired signal level to the noise floor
  • VHS Specific
    • Audio Hiss on capture and playback of VHS capture
      • Remove audio hiss during VHS capture? - digitalFAQ Forum
        • There's an audio hiss in both playback and capture. Any thoughts on ways to remove this? I already tried switching from stereo to mono settings and while the hiss is less noticeable, it's still there.
        • In HiFi stereo there is no hiss, probably the VCR is just stays on mono linear track all the time since most low budget camcorder didn't record HiFi stereo anyway. One place to start is try to clean the fixed audio head with q-tips and alcohol.
          • This is possible. But sometimes you need to verify VCR settings, verify it is set to HiFi. Sometimes you'll find that only 1 channel is bad, so you'll capture only L or R HiFi channel.
        • All VHS has hiss to some degree, both linear and HiFi. Some decks do better that others, but it also depends on the tapes. I have mono tapes that hiss loudly in JVC, but not Panasonic. Some in Panasonic, not JVC. Some hiss regardless of deck.
        • Some other good information about the issue here.
    • Moldy VHS tapes cleaning tutorial (in 5 easy steps) - YouTube - The best and easiest way to clean you precious and rare VHS tapes and preserve them for years to come. This video tells you absolutely everything you need to know to remove mold once and for all, even from the nastiest tapes!

Standard Resolutions

In this section I will show you all of the resolutions you will come across and it can be used as a reference.

List of Resolutions and relevant information

This a list of various resolutions you will come across. There are others but you probably don't need those.

  • 1920x1080
    • 16:9
    • 1080p
  • 1440x1080
    • 4:3
    • 1080p
    • HDV
  • 1280x720
    • 16:9
    • 720p
  • 1024x576
    • 16:9
    • PAL DVD widescreen output (DAR)
  • 960x720
    • 4:3
    • 720p
  • 853x480
    • 16:9
    • NTSC DVD widescreen output (DAR)
  • 768x576
    • 4:3
    • PAL DVD square output (DAR)
  •  720x576
    • 5:4
    • 576i
    • PAL
      • Fat pixels
      • Interlaced
      • 25 Frames a second (fps)
      • 50 Fields a second
      • Storage aspect ratio (SAR): 5:4 (720×576)
      • Display aspect ratio (DAR): 4:3
      • Pixel aspect ratio (PAR): 59:54 or 1.093 (1.0925)
        • I have also seen 1.0940/1.094
      • All PAL videos are stored in this resolution on all medias.
  • 720x540
    • 4:3
    • NTSC and PAL effective display resolution (4:3)
    • There was never a proper widescreen format for VHS/PAL/NTSC analogue. There is only 4:3 in which a widescreen image is displayed as a rectangle within the square display, and the image is of lesser quality.
      DVDs are a different situation because they are natively digital. The player or TV would automatically crop the images or there would usually be a button on the TV remote to change to a 'Widescreen' display format.
    • NTSC DVD square output (DAR)
  • 720x480
    • 3:2
    • 480i
    • NTSC
      • Thin Pixels
      • Interlaced
      • 29.97 Frames a second (fps)
      • 59.94 Fields a second
      • Storage aspect ratio (SAR): 3:2 (720×480)
      • Display aspect ratio (DAR): 4:3
      • Pixel aspect ratio (PAR): 10:11 or 0.9 (0.909)
      • All NTSC videos are stored in this resolution on all medias.
  • 704x576
    • 11:9
    • PAL
  • 704x480
    • 22:15
    • NTSC
  • 352x576
    • 11:18
    • PAL
  • 352x480
    • 11:15
    • NTSC

 

PAL/NTSC Physical Media - Verified Values

I have just used random sources for these, some settings will always be the same and others will not.

  • PAL VHS
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 25ps
      • Frame Resolution: 720x576
      • Field Resolution: 720x288
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x576
    • Audio
      • ?
  • PAL DVD
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 25ps
      • Frame Resolution: 720x576
      • Field Resolution: 720x288
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x576
      • Bit rate mode: Variable
      • Bit rate: 5105 kb/s - 9800 kb/s
      • 4:3 DAR: 768x576
      • 16:9 DAR: 1024x576
    • Audio:
      • Format: AC-3 (Dolby Digital)
      • Bit rate mode: Constant
      • Bit rate: 192kb/s 
      • Sampling rate: 48Khz
    • MediaInfo
      • 16:9 
        General
Complete name                            : E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_1.VOB
CompleteName_Last                        : E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_04_3.VOB
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 2.10 GiB
Duration                                 : 55 min 35 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 5 405 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS

Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings                          : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : Variable
Format settings, picture structure       : Frame
Duration                                 : 55 min 35 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 5 105 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 9 800 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.492
Time code of first frame                 : 09:59:59:00
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed                         : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first frame          : Closed
Stream size                              : 1.98 GiB (94%)

Audio
ID                                       : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Muxing mode                              : DVD-Video
Duration                                 : 55 min 35 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 76.3 MiB (4%)
Service kind                             : Complete Main

Menu
Format                                   : DVD-Video
      • 4:3 
        General
Complete name                            : F:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_1.VOB
CompleteName_Last                        : F:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_2.VOB
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 1.72 GiB
Duration                                 : 6 s 720 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 2 196 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS

Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings                          : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=12
Format settings, picture structure       : Frame
Duration                                 : 6 s 720 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 2 152 Mb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 7 000 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 207.557
Time code of first frame                 : 00:00:00:00
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed                         : Closed
Stream size                              : 1.68 GiB (98%)

Audio
ID                                       : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Muxing mode                              : DVD-Video
Duration                                 : 6 s 720 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 158 KiB (0%)
Service kind                             : Complete Main

Menu
Format                                   : DVD-Video
  • PAL DVD-RW (Home DVD recorder)
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 25ps
      • Frame Resolution: 720x576
      • Field Resolution: 720x288
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x576
      • Bit rate mode: Constant
      • Bit rate: 9000 kb/s
      • 4:3 DAR: 768x576
      • 16:9 DAR: 1024x576
    • Audio:
      • Format: MPEG Audio
      • Bit rate mode: Constant
      • Bit rate: 384kb/s 
      • Sampling rate: 48.0kHz
    • MediaInfo 
      • General
Complete name                            : Z:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
CompleteName_Last                        : Z:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_5.VOB
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 4.18 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 2 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 9 544 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS

Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings                          : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : M=3, N=12
Format settings, picture structure       : Frame
Duration                                 : 1 h 2 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 9 000 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.868
Time code of first frame                 : 00:00:00:00
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed                         : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first frame          : Closed
Stream size                              : 3.93 GiB (94%)

Audio
ID                                       : 192 (0xC0)
Format                                   : MPEG Audio
Format version                           : Version 1
Format profile                           : Layer 2
Duration                                 : 1 h 2 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 384 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 41.667 FPS (1152 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 172 MiB (4%)

Menu
Format                                   : DVD-Video
  • PAL DV
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 25ps
      • Frame Resolution: 720x576
      • Field Resolution: 720x288
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x576
      • Bit rate mode: Constant
      • Bit rate: 30Mb/s
      • 4:3 DAR: 768x576
      • 16:9 DAR: 1024x576
    • Audio:
      • Format: PCM
      • Bit rate mode: Constant
      • Bit rate: 1536kb/s 
      • Sampling rate: 48Khz
      • Bit depth: 16bits
    • MediaInfo
      • Tape 1 
        General
Complete name                            : E:\DV Camera\RAW DV Camera dumps\toddler (25-12-14)\vid.13-10-18_16-35.00.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
Commercial name                          : DVCAM
Format settings                          : BitmapInfoHeader / WaveFormatEx
File size                                : 56.9 MiB
Duration                                 : 15 s 601 ms
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 30.6 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Recorded date                            : 2013-10-18 16:35:56.000

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : DV
Commercial name                          : DVCAM
Codec ID                                 : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint                            : Sony
Duration                                 : 15 s 600 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 24.4 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Bottom Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 2.357
Time code of first frame                 : 00:07:38:20
Time code source                         : Subcode time code
Stream size                              : 53.6 MiB (94%)

Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : 1
Duration                                 : 15 s 601 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 2.86 MiB (5%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 40  ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration             : 40  ms
      • Tape 2 
        General
Complete name                            : E:\DV Camera\RAW DV Camera dumps\carnival cruise 2007 - vid.06-01-01_00-00.00.avi
Format                                   : AVI
Format/Info                              : Audio Video Interleave
Commercial name                          : DV
Format profile                           : OpenDML
Format settings                          : BitmapInfoHeader / WaveFormatEx
File size                                : 13.0 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 1 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 30.0 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Recorded date                            : 2006-01-01 00:00:00.000
 
Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : DV
Codec ID                                 : dvsd
Codec ID/Hint                            : Sony
Duration                                 : 1 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 24.4 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Standard                                 : PAL
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Bottom Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 2.357
Time code of first frame                 : 00:24:59:01
Time code source                         : Subcode time code
Stream size                              : 12.4 GiB (96%)
 
Audio
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : PCM
Format settings                          : Little / Signed
Codec ID                                 : 1
Duration                                 : 1 h 1 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 024 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Sampling rate                            : 32.0 kHz
Bit depth                                : 16 bits
Stream size                              : 453 MiB (3%)
Alignment                                : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration                     : 40  ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration             : 40  ms
  • NTSC VHS
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 29.97
      • Frame Resolution: 720x480
      • Field Resolution: 720x240
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x480
      • 4:3 DAR: 720x540
      • 16:9 DAR: 853x480
    • Audio
      • ?
  • NTSC DVD
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 29.97
      • Frame Resolution: 720x480
      • Field Resolution: 720x240
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x480
      • 4:3 DAR: 720x540
      • 16:9 DAR: 853x480
    • Audio
      • ?
    • MediaInfo
      • 4:3 
        General
Complete name                            : E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
CompleteName_Last                        : E:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_8.VOB
Format                                   : MPEG-PS
File size                                : 7.06 GiB
Duration                                 : 2 h 23 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 7 023 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 29.970 FPS

Video
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)
Format                                   : MPEG Video
Format version                           : Version 2
Format profile                           : Main@Main
Format settings                          : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP                    : Yes
Format settings, Matrix                  : Custom
Format settings, GOP                     : Variable
Format settings, picture structure       : Frame
Duration                                 : 2 h 23 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 6 691 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 8 700 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Standard                                 : NTSC
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Interlaced
Scan order                               : Top Field First
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.646
Time code of first frame                 : 00:59:59;00
Time code source                         : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed                         : Open
GOP, Open/Closed of first frame          : Closed
Stream size                              : 6.72 GiB (95%)

Audio
ID                                       : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Format settings                          : Dolby Surround
Muxing mode                              : DVD-Video
Duration                                 : 2 h 23 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 192 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 198 MiB (3%)
Service kind                             : Complete Main

Text
ID                                       : 224 (0xE0)-CC3
Format                                   : EIA-608
Muxing mode, more info                   : Muxed in Video #1
Duration                                 : 2 h 23 min
Start time (commands)                    : 200 ms
Start time                               : 701 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Stream size                              : 0.00 Byte (0%)
Count of frames before first event       : 15
Type of the first event                  : PopOn

Menu
Format                                   : DVD-Video
  • NTSC DVD-RW (Home DVD recorder)
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 29.97
      • Frame Resolution: 720x480
      • Field Resolution: 720x240
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x480
      • 4:3 DAR: 720x540
      • 16:9 DAR: 853x480
    • Audio
      • ?
  • NTSC DV (guess)
    • Video
      • Interlaced @ 29.97
      • Frame Resolution: 720x480
      • Field Resolution: 720x240
      • Format Output Resolution: 720x480
      • 4:3 DAR: 720x540
      • 16:9 DAR: 853x480
    • Audio
      • ?

Notes

Research

A collections of my research links that dont fit into other categories

Useful Sites

  • OBS
    • Wiki - Wiki | OBS - If you're looking for any kind of assistance with OBS Studio, the site has a help portal with links to resources and our support channels.
  • VideoHelp
    • Homepage Video forums, video software downloads, guides, blu-ray players and media.
    • Software Downloads - Download free video and audio software. Old versions, user reviews, version history, screenshots.
    • Forum - This forum will help you with all your video and audio questions!
  • The Digital FAQ – Video, Photo, Web Hosting – Forum - Learn digital media and get video help, photo help, and web design help. Topics include capturing video, converting VHS to DVD, best blank DVDs, fixing DVD problems, digital photo tips, making web sites, and running web sites. High quality video services available. Forums, blogs, reviews, guides and articles.
  • Pricing | TapedMemories.com - This page has picture of all old storage media.

Capture Hardware

B-frames

  • Video compression picture types - Wikipedia
    • I-frames are the least compressible but don't require other video frames to decode.
    • P-frames can use data from previous frames to decompress and are more compressible than I-frames.
    • B-frames can use both previous and forward frames for data reference to get the highest amount of data compression.
  • B-Frames OBS - B-frame is short for bi-directional predictive frame, a form of video compression. In the 1800 frames of your one-minute video, you are the only moving object. The wall remains still and unchangeable. To cut down on the file size of your video, it is compressed. That is, only the pixels that change position from frame to frame are retained. B-frames perform compression by consulting the frames that come both before and after a frame. So if you have frames 1, 2, and 3, in order to render frame 2, a B-frame checks the pixel alignment on frames one and three. If the pixel alignment is different, then the changed pixels are the only ones that are stored on frame two and later rendered.
  • Help with the impact of raising Max B-frames | Reddit
  • keyframe interval and max b-frames for high FPS recordings | OBS Forums
    • The two parameters deal with quality. They trade off space for quality. If you record with a quality-based rate control such as CQP or CRF, you have infinite space, so you can just optimize for quality if you want. B-frames are the ones with the highest compression (most detail removed), so the more B-frames you insert, the lower the quality. So to optimize B frames for quality, you should use 0 B-frames (none at all) with CQP.
    • With key frames, it's the same, only on a higher level and the other way round. They contain a whole frame and are an anchor for P-frames, which have a higher higher compression (less detail removed) than the keyframes (but lower than the B-frames). So if you want higher quality, use more keyframes, which can be achieved by using a smaller keyframe interval. It has the side effect that a video with more keyframes is better seekable. With lower keyframe interval, video size increases vastly.
    • With CBR rate control, the effect is reversed, since you limit the bitrate. To achieve the forced bitrate, the encoder removes as much detail as needed. If you don't use B-frames or use a lower keyframe interval, the bitrate is consumed completely by the bigger frames, so the general quality must be lowered, which is very visible. So don't do this (don't use CBR for recording).
    • With the Simple/Standard outputs the interval is set in seconds (not frames) so 1 or 2 max. 1 will insert a Keyframe every 240 frames, 2 every 480 frames. If you decide you want to insert a Keyframe more often, like every 1/2 second (120 Frames) or 1/4 second (60 Frames) you'll need to learn how to use the Custom FFMPEG Output.
  • NVIDIA NvEnc Guide | OBS Forums
    • Look-ahead: Checked. This allows the encoder to dynamically select the number of B-Frames, between 0 and the number of B-Frames you specify. B-frames are great because they increase image quality, but they consume a lot of your available bitrate, so they reduce quality on high motion content. Look-ahead enables the best of both worlds. This feature is CUDA accelerated; toggle this off if your GPU utilization is high to ensure a smooth stream.
    • Max B-Frames: Set to 4. If you uncheck the Look-ahead option, reduce this to 2 B-Frames.
  • Question / Help - What is the "b-frames"? (NVENC) | OBS Forums
    • The more B-Frames the higher the quality, generally speaking. Is this even possible to set in NVEnc? Didn't think it was.
    • First, when its constant bitrate video, smaller size = better quality. Second, when its a hardware encoder, the computational increase doesn't matter as long as the ASIC or whatever it is can keep up (doesn't drop frames).
    • For x264 (or any software H.264 implementation), just cranking up B-Frames is bad because there's usually better features to turn on for more benefit and/or less CPU cost. For a hardware encoder, that rule doesn't apply unless someone has measured it and found that it does.
    • Well, when i set my b-frames to "2", i drop like ~60% of frames, so it becomes 10fps instead of 30 for me. Have no idea at all how to use it properly, so i just don't use it.

Bitrate

  • General
  • Different Bitrate control protocols
    • VBR
      • Has 2 settings bitrate settings:
        • Target Bitrate
        • Max Bitrate
      • This is an old way of recording video.
    • CBR
      • This is only used for streaming now to allow the remote system to plan for a constant stream.
      • This is an old way of recording video.
      • It is used by DVD-RWs so they know how much space is left. 10,000kb/s is one full DVD (4.7GB)
    • CQP
      • Constant quality control rather that controlling the bitrate. This is the modern way to record video.
      • Constant Quality Number (toolitip in HandBrake)
        • The encoder targets a certain quality.
        • The scale used by each encoder is different.
        • x264's scale is logarithmic and lower values correspond to higher quality. So small decreases in value will result in progressively larger increases in the resulting file size. A value of 0 means lossless and will result in a file size that is larger than the source, unless the source was also lossless.
        • Suggested values are: 18 to 20 for standard definition sources and 20 to 23 for high defination sources.
        • FFMpeg's and Theora's scale is more linear. These encoders do not have a lossless mode.
    • CRF
      • Constant quality control rather that controlling the bitrate. This is the modern way to record video.
    • Using the right `Rate Control` in OBS for streaming or recording | by Andrew Whitehead | Mobcrush Blog - Don't know your CBRs from your CQPs? You will soon!
      • CBR (Constant Bitrate)
      • ABR (Adaptive Bitrate)
      • CQP (Constant Quantization Parameter)
      • VBR (Variable Bitrate)
      • CRF (Constant Rate Factor)
      • Lossless
      • Let’s keep this simple. If you’re streaming, use CBR as every platform recommends it and it’s a reliable form of Rate Control. If you’re recording and need to be high quality, use CQP if the file size is no issue, or VBR if you want to keep file size more reasonable.
    • CBR or CQP :: OBS Studio General
      • An excellent explanation of the two.
      • CQP is a rate control method that keeps the quantization parameter constant throughout the encoding process. The quantization parameter controls the amount of compression applied to each frame, with higher values resulting in more compression and lower quality, and lower values resulting in less compression and higher quality. With CQP, the encoder maintains a constant level of compression, which can result in a consistent level of video quality, but at the cost of using varying amounts of bits for each frame.
      • CBR, on the other hand, keeps the bitrate of the encoded video stream constant throughout the encoding process, regardless of the complexity of the scene. This can result in a consistent level of video quality, but at the cost of potentially wasting bits on simpler scenes, as the same amount of bits are allocated to every frame.
    • In practical / video quality terms, what's the difference between CQP or VBR and CBR? What situations would someone use CQP / VBR over CBR for local recording? | Reddit
      • Short answer:
        • Constant QP means you get predictable quality, but unpredictable bit rate; VBR means you get predictable bit rate, but unpredictable quality.
      • Longer answer:
        • No, CQP means Constant Quantization Parameter, and it's actually just a flat compression ratio without regard to bit rates. It usually yields consistent quality, but not.. "intentionally", if you will.
        • And no, average bit rates of only 50 Mbps are not excessive, especially for 1440p 60fps. Depending on what you record and how, bit rates fluctuate very wildly, especially in pre-production video formats like ProRes.
    • Constant Bitrate (CBR) vs Variable Bitrate (VBR) - Learn the differences between CBR and VBR for video streaming and discover which is best for your needs. Explore the pros and cons of each technology with Digital Samba!
    • What is Video Bitrate and How to Choose the Best Settings - Castr's Blog
      • Bitrate (or bit rate) is how much information your video sends out per second from your device to an online platform.
      • Some great charts for bitrate.
      • Stereo should be 384Kbps
  • Examples
    • 10000 kb/s is about 4.5gb and hour i.e. the size of a DVD , dvd are 25fps, so and double that gives you 20,000 = 9gb and hour
    • Twitch max bitrate is 8000
  • Calculators
  • Streaming Bitrates
    • Broadcasting Guidelines | Twitch Help Portal - Our guidelines are set up in a way to find the right balance between visual quality and playback quality, where both the broadcaster and the viewer can benefit from. Read the info below to help you choose the Encoding, Bitrate, Resolution, and Framerate settings that provide the right balance for the game you're playing, your internet speed, and your computer's hardware. Remember: it's always better to have a stable stream than to push for a higher video quality that might cause you to drop frames or test the limits of your internet connection.
    • YouTube recommended upload encoding settings - YouTube Help - These are recommended upload encoding settings for your videos on YouTube.

Why are the capture files so large in OBS?

  • OBS Recording Produced Massive File Size | OBS Forums
    • You are recording using CQP.
    • That means that the encoder will use as much or as little bitrate as is needed to maintain a given image quality level.
    • Recording a (mostly unchanging) desktop isn't going to need much bitrate.
    • Recording a (constantly moving) first or third person perspective game is going to need A LOT more. Especially if there is a lot of detail and foliage.
    • Entirely normal and expected. To reduce recorded filesizes, bump your CQP level up from 18 to 22 or so. The larger the number, the worse the image quality, but the smaller the file size. Most who are recording for video creation do not keep their high-quality master footage for long, or have devoted recording drives. Good quality in real-time takes space. You CAN then throw the footage through something like Handbrake to re-encode it more efficiently, once it's a dead-file recording.
  • Recording File TOO large | OBS Forums
    • CQP = 14 will produce large file sizes.
    • If you want smaller file sizes with CQP, then you need to lower the quality setting. A higher number will result in lower quality and a smaller file size. Alternatively if you need more precision over file size then consider using CBR, for example 50000 kbps = 6.10 MB/s. Therefore 10 seconds = a 61 MB file size...
    • I would recommend trying 21 - 23 as your CQP value, see if the quality/file size ratio is acceptable. If not play around.
  • Question / Help - Recorded size too big | OBS Forums
    • You chose a CRF value of 10, which will create really huge video files. Sane values are 15-25 (lower values mean better quality and bigger file size). Rules of thumb: an increase of 3 will halve the size. Values below 15-18 (actual value depends on source material) are not distinguishable from the original.
  • Tips on reducing file size when recording locally | Reddit
    • Use CQP or CRF (depending on which encoder you're using) rather than CBR. That will dynamically change the bitrate in the background depending on what's being shown on screen while also maintaining visual quality. One of those two should always be used for local recordings, anyway, using CBR is a waste of storage space if you're doing anything except streaming.
    • A CQP of 26 is good for most things... (the lower the number, the more bitrate it uses... 23 uses double the bitrate of 26, 29 uses half of 26...). Tune it accordingly, start from 26.
    • Rawr_Mom
      • as the other poster said, use CQP instead of CBR. 18 is generally considered visually lossless, 24 will produce smaller files and is a popular choice
      • If your CPU has enough overhead, record x264, CRF. The files are generally smaller than estimated equivalents on nvenc. CPU usage preset (faster, slow, etc) reduces file size further at the cost of CPU utilisation.
      • check with your client if HEVC / H265 encoded video are fine with them; you can record in H265 with the StreamFX plugin for significantly smaller file sizes.
      • if you have tons of space to temporarily spare, you could record at an excessive bit rate (like CQP12, or even Lossless in simple mode) and then re-encode with ffmpeg, which will actually produce files that are quite a bit smaller than recording with those same settings from the outset.
      • For reference: I record 1440/60 at NVENC H264 CQP 12 and then re-encode to Nvenc H265 / HEVC CQP 22, and for 1440p video it's at the point where youtube re-encoding is the bottleneck. I can only tell the difference - on a paused frame of a character running quickly past the screen in poor lighting, looking at her face - if I upscale that final video to 4k for extra youtube bitrate.
  • VHS Capture Size Massive? - VideoHelp Forum
    • 8 Mbps = 1 MByte per second ... simply crunch the numbers and 3 hr tape ~ 10.8 GB. If lowering the bitrate gives unacceptable results, your only other option is to switch to a better compression codec that will give a better result at lower rates.
    • DV is 13GB per hour. Uncompressed can be several times that. Be happy that 4GB per hour is giving you the quality you want.
    • When using MPEG-2, at 720x480, (720x576 in your part of the world) I use very similar file sizes to yours to capture VHS to get satisfactory results (to my eyes). You are on par. I would highly suggest not using anything less than 8mbps as you will get noticeable quality loss for most captures, especially more so if you're capturing live sports events (motion, interlacing, etc).
  • File size way to big. | OBS Forums
    • My settings seem ok, and I can record the video without a problem, but when I complete the recording, the 2-hour long 720p output file is over 12gb in size.
    • Don't record with CBR or VBR, use CQP instead.
      • CQP is a quality-based encoding target that uses as much or as little bitrate as is needed to maintain a given image quality level.
      • 22 is the normal 'good' point, 16 for 'visually lossless', and 12 is generally the lowest you'll want to go even if you plan to edit the video later (to cut down on re-encoding artifacts). The lower the number, the closer to 'lossless' video it gets. But below 16 the filesizes get ridiculously large very fast.
  • Should my file size be this large? How can I lower file size without losing lots of quality? | OBS Forums
    • Q:
      • The issue is that the 1080p 60fps file ended up being 56.1 GB, which is a lot of storage usage. It also caused my 2 hour edited file to also be larger than usual at 7 GB, which my internet connection struggles to upload to YouTube.
      • How can I use less storage for videos like this, but still have high quality gameplay recordings for YouTube? I have thought about switching to Simple mode and just choosing High Quality, but I wasn't sure if that was considerably lower quality, and I would have to stop using multiple audio tracks (which I could if I had to).
    • A:
      • This is something you can only work out with trial & error. If you increase the CQ value, you decrease the quality, thus decrease the file size. Adding 3 to whatever CQ value you have is about half the file size, reducing by 3 is about double the file size.
      • Make a bunch of recordings with different CQ values and judge which quality you accept.

Multipass Mode

  • This option controls how and if the encoder prescans a frame so it can better compress it.
    • Single Pass: This means no multipass mode. The frame will be encoded directly
    • Two Passes (Quarter Resolution): The frame will be scanned at quarter resolution to help calculate the compression for the next pass.
      • This is the OBS default.
    • Two Passes (Full Resolution): The frame will be scanned at full resolution to help calculate the compression for the next pass.
  • New OBS Settings for 28.1 Questions | Reddit
    • Multipass Mode: This one confuses me as this is a new option. It defaulted to Two Passes (Quarter Resolution), but I set it to Single Pass for better performance (if I'm understanding that correctly).
  • NVENC streaming Preset and Multipass Mode - what settings are correct for streaming? | OBS Forums
    • What are the correct settings for streaming? Is there anything we should be guided by when choosing these options?
    • Is it a big diference betwenn P5 Slow Good Quality and P7 Slowest Best Quality when it comes to computer load (usage) during the stream?

Colour Space (sRGB / Rec. 601 /Rec. 709 / .....)

  • How to Choose the Right Video Color Space - How do you choose the right video color space for your project? I want to take you through a few basic color spaces and their applications.
  • Rec. 601 - Wikipedia
  • Rec. 709 - Wikipedia
  • Question / Help - Colors (YUV full/partial and 601/709 | OBS Forums
    • Defaults are generally recommended if recording to prevent decoding issues (709/partial). If streaming, you should be able to use any of them. I prefer 709/full range.
    • Full range is WAAAAAY better
  • REC 601 vs. REC 709 - When do I use which? | AVS Forum
  • Question / Help - 709 vs 601 | OBS Forums
    • Actually, in my opinion you don't really need to test much. Depending on your output resolution you should choose the standard color profile for that resolution.
      • Standard definition: BT.601
      • High-definition (720p/1080p): BT.709
      • Ultra-high-definition (4K/8K): BT.2020 (not available in OBS)
    • Everything uploaded to YouTube will be converted to BT.709, so keep that in mind if you use OBS for that.
    • But last time I checked I remember that Firefox always displays BT.601. I think some other browsers have had this issue as well.
  • Color Gamut: Understanding Rec.709, DCI-P3, and Rec.2020 - For current projectors on the market there are three main color gamut standards: Rec.709 (also known as BT.709), DCI-P3, and Rec.2020 (also known as BT.2020).
  • High precision color spaces (including HDR) · obsproject/obs-studio Wiki · GitHub
  • Rec.709 vs Rec.709-A: Explained - Filmmaking Elements - In this article, we are explaining difference between Rec.709 and Rec.709-A. In the realm of digital imaging and color representation, standardization is key to ensuring consistency across various display devices and platforms.
  • Is 709 actually better quality than 601? | Reddit
    • Q:
      • Many video encoding softwares allow you to choose between YUV color spaces 601 and 709. 709 is often referred to as "HD", and 601 as "SD". But does 709 actually produce better color quality? I know there's a visual difference in the case of greyscale, but I have yet to find anything documenting a visible difference in color quality between the two.
    • A:
      • I don't think color spaces have anything to do with quality/resolution.
      • Yes and no. Rec.601 is an old standard that specifies specifies both resolution and color space. Rec.709 is the newer standard for HD video which specifies the HD resolutions, and also a newer color space. So using 601 color space doesn't directly hurt your resolution, but mixing a 601 resolution with a Rec.709 color space (or visa versa) would be pretty weird and nonstandard, and in many cases would be displayed wrong.
      • Rec.2020 (The UHD standard) does specify a much larger color gamut that is quite different from 709 or 601, but don't worry about that for the immediate future.
      • You should be working to Rec.709 if your end result will be displayed via broadcast, youtube, mobile, etc. All of this equipment/software expects 709 input. You'll get the most accurate/reliable result. You'll only ever need to use 601 in fringe cases. There's just no reason not to work in 709.
  • Color spaces - REC.709 vs. sRGB | Image Engineering - If you are in a hurry or just not interested in some background information, here is the essence for you – HDTV (Rec. 709) and sRGB share the same primary chromaticities, but they have different transfer functions.
  • What exactly is Rec.709? | Redshark - What exactly is Rec. 709?
  • What is Rec.709? Things You Must Know!! - YouTube | Waqas Qazi - We'll look at what Rec.709 is and why you should care to get familiar with it.
  • YUY2 or RGB for vhs capture? - VideoHelp Forum
    • Almost every capture device captures in YUY2 or a similar YUV 4:2:2 colorspace -- because this is closest to what is transmitted over an s-video or composite cable. If you request RGB they simply convert the YUY2 to RGB, wasting CPU cycles and disk space, and losing quality.
    • = use YUY2 for VHS capture

Colour Range / RGB Colour Range, Limited or Full?

  • Full vs Partial Color Ranges EXPLAINED for Streaming | OBS Forums - EposVox
    • A subject of understandable confusion when it comes to streaming and content creation - especially with game consoles - is RGB Color Range settings. This is one of those things that you may have frustrations with even if you don’t know what I’m talking about. If you’ve had overly-punchy and dark video captures, unsaturated or washed out captures, or just generally want to know what this setting is - this post is for you.
    • This refers to the maximum and minimum luminance values (or white/black levels) in a video signal.
    • Typically TVs and videos formatted for TV only use the Limited (or Partial, or “Legal”) range of 16-235. This means that any information above 235 is seen as white and any below 16 is seen as black.
    • H264 is generally optimized for this Limited/Partial mode.
    • PC monitors, however, typically operate in the Full range of 0-255.
    • In OBS, the setting appears in the Advanced tab of settings, where (in my opinion) it should always be left on Partial. There are some exceptions where Full is okay for recording (which we’ll mention later) but for streaming and most general uses, this should be left on Partial.
    • = leave on Limited
  • OBS STUDIO: Full vs Partial Color Ranges EXPLAINED (Limited vs Legal) Streaming RGB Range StreamLabs - YouTube | EposVox
    • Today we're tackling a technical subject I get asked about all too often: RGB Color Range in OBS Studio, StreamLabs OBS, etc. This has to do with the available luminance values within an 8-bit video signal. I break down the differences between Full and Partial/Limited Range, which you should really be using, and when there are exceptions to this rule.
    • Limited/Partial colour range was called legal range.
    • You should rarely be needing to use full.
    • = leave on Limited
  • All Versions - Full vs Partial Color Ranges EXPLAINED for Streaming | OBS Forums - EposVox -
  • ColourSpace | Data vs. TV Levels - There are two fundamental basics to image levels - creative/grading systems that will output either Data range images (0-255 or 0-1023), or TV Legal levels (16-235 or 64-940), and displays that expect the input signal to be either Data range images, or TV Legal levels, and will display accordingly.

Capture Settings

  • Essay - Video Resolution - In the following article I would like to give you the tools necessary not only to understand our current NTSC video system, but also gain the ability to intelligently approach the new and upcoming video formats.
  • A Quick Guide to Digital Video Resolution and Aspect Ratio Conversions | WayBackMachine
    • Digital video resolution and aspect ratio conversions are more complicated than people generally think. This document tries to shed some light on these issues.
    • Has a conversion table.
  • Hi8/VHS to DVD: which bitrate do you recommend? - VideoHelp Forum
    • Half D1 (352x576 PAL or 352x480 NTSC) with 2-pass vbr and an average bitrate around 3000 kbit/s seems OK for VHS source.
      • This guy was right on the money.. I've done 100's of VHS movie conversions to DVD so far. You will NOT get any added quality going above 352x480 @ 3000 bitrate on VHS.
      • The tradeoff when doing it this way is, of course, you can usually take 2 nearly full VHS tapes. Encode with the above settings. And they will both fit on a single DVD-R.
    • Reilly - I've been doing it for a couple years, and trial and error have confirmed for me that your capture resolutions in vdub should be 352x480 or 360x480. You only need to use 720x480 for mini-DV. For laserdisc I tend to use 704x480. Here's how you tell.
      • Read the thread for the expanation.
  • Correct settings for capturing VHS - please help a newbie | OBS Forums
    • VHS tapes are aspect ratio 4:3, so there will always be black bars if you display this on a 16:9 monitor. You should record to a video file that most closely matches the source material, so record to a 4:3 aspect ratio file. The black bars are added by any media player at playback, but are not contained in the video file.
    • For VHS tapes, record to 768x576 (PAL) - depends on what the capture card is able to produce. In OBS, set Settings->Video->Base resolution and output resolution both to one of these resolutions. In Settings->Video set fps to 50 if you have PAL material or to 59.94 if you have NTSC material.
      Use simple output mode and set the recording quality to "High Quality" or "Indistinguishable Quality". The latter produces bigger files but the best quality.
    • Don't use any video filters with OBS. Record the material as closely to the original as possible, with all drops and damage present. Do any beautifying in a postprocessing step with video editing software. This way you can postprocess the same material over and over again until you are satisfied without the need to re-record from tape.
    • The first postprocessing step would probably be to deinterlace from 50 fps to 25 fps.
    • The next postprocessing steps would be to correct colors or cut unwanted stuff. Since the effective resolution with VHS is only half of the original video (384x288), you might also downscale to this or to a multiple of your recording resolution - this is something you need to work out with trial and error. This downscaling will lessen artifacts/noise created by bloating up the small VHS resolution to 768x576. When upscaled again to your monitor resolution by your media player, the video will look better.
    • There are many different resolution variants (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-definition_television for example), so you might try variants before fully recording hours of material.
    • here are many details to consider if you want perfect conversion, for example the effective pixel aspect ratio of a VHS recording is not 4:3 - pixels not quadratic. OBS, on the other side, works with quadratic pixels only, so I recommended to record to 768x576. This is aspect ratio 4:3 with pixel aspect ratio 1:1. Actually one should record to 720x576 or 704x480, but this will result in some slightly off aspect ratio, so it's probably better to record 768 horizontally. You can ignore all this and never see any difference during recording and postprocessing. But it may be that after recording and postprocessing, if you actually watch your videos, you might observe circles are ovals actually and wonder why this is.
  • Which is the best resolution and bitrate for capturing VHS t - Alludo USER to USER Web Board
    • When you convert it to MPEG, you generally want to use the highest bitrate possible that still allows your program to fit on a DVD.
    • The maximum bitrate for a DVD is about 10,000kbps (audio & video combined). Most people recommend keeping it down to 8,000 for "burned" DVDs, because some players have trouble with high bitrates on burned DVDs.
    • At 6,000kbps you can get 90 minutes of good quality audio and Dolby audio. (A lot of commercial DVDs seem to be recorded around 6000.) You have to use a lower bitrate to get 90 minutes with LPCM audio. When I've squeezed more than 2 hours of video on a DVD, I really start to nitice the quality-loss.
    • All my captures for VHS transfer to DVD are:
      • FULL D1 720x480 (ntsc), 720x576(pal).
      • Variable bit rate 7000 - 8000 ( I also use Constant Bit Rate alot)
      • Mpeg or Dolby Audio
  • Resolution For NTSC VHS Video Tape | OBS Forums
    • What base & output resolutions should I use to capture old NTSC VHS video tape?
    • A clear question, but somewhat difficult to answer and to understand, because the pixel aspect ratio is not 1:1 as in today's digital video processing. Pixel aspect ratio not 1:1 means a pixel is not a quadrat but actually a rectangle.
    • According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-definition_television, you should start with 704x480 as resolution in your capture device. It might also be necessary to use 720x480 instead of 704x480, if you get a "full frame" from the digitizer.
    • This should be rescaled within OBS to 640x480 (or 654x480 resp.) to make the pixel aspect ratio quadratic. To achieve this, right-click your source->Transform->Edit transform and set the scaling options like this:
  • Image format/resolutions of recordings in VHS format? - digitalFAQ Forum
    • sanlyn
      • Capturing PAL VHS at 720x576 or NTSC at 720x480 is considered the best size and aspect ratio compromise for most restoration processing and encoding purposes. It is the frame size for standard definition DVD, BluRay, and AVCHD, and can be encoded for 4:3 and 16:9 DAR. After deinterlacing it can be resized to square-pixel sixes for anything you want. Otherwise, if you capture at 768x576 and want to make a DVD or SD-BluRay, you'll have to resize and take a quality hit. Resizing always has a cost. It's best to use resizing methods offered by Avisynth.
      • PAL at 768x576 square-pixel is really an oddball size that isn't usable except for personal players. It can't be used for DVD or BluRay. If you post it on the internet it will be resized to a more standard frame for a website's players.
      • Lossless and/or unencoded AVi files do not store imbedded aspect ratio display data. They will display at the physical frame size and are not resized for different aspect ratios by media players. After your 720x576 AVI is encoded to something like h.264 or MPEG, you can set the display aspect ratio to whatever is appropriate.
    • lordsmurf
      • Capture 720x576, period, nothing more to discuss on it.
      • You never convert to 768x576, you never do anything at that size. DAR translates rectangular pixels to that size for playback, or 720x540, but nothing is stored that way.
  • Captured PAL VHS - Outputting to DVD - What Resolution Should I use? - digitalFAQ Forum
    • 720x480. VHS is interlaced. So is NTSC DVD, and so is PAL DVD. Never resize video while it's interlaced. Deinterlace first, then resize, then re-interlace. NTSC DVD is 29.97fps, not 25fps. If the PAL DVD is movie-based, it could have been made in a number of ways. We'd need a short sample. There are ways to do that in Avisynth and some other free apps without screwing up frames and motion, but I don't think you'll fall in love with Premiere's results. Let us know how it turns out.
  • Digitizing video cassettes on storage media! - GP
    • The formats are saved in 1: 1 quality of VHS / S-VHS / VHS-C / Video8 / Digital8 / Hi8 / DVCAM / MiniDV recordings up to 720 x 576 pixels PAL (Europe) or 720x480 NTSC (America) format in MOV or MPEG4 format with codec H.264 with an audio quality of 48 kHz and 16 kbit/s.
    • It is not the resolution that is decisive, but the quality of the media and how it is digitized, which is very important to us.
    • Wrongly advertised by competitors, but not done in the right way: You cannot create FullHD or 4K quality from a VHS resolution of 720 x 576 pixels.
  • graphics - NTSC scan lines and vertical resolution - Retrocomputing Stack Exchange
    • Q:
      • From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Micro "the height of the graphics display was reduced to 200 scan lines to suit NTSC TVs". But NTSC is supposed to have 241 visible scan lines per half frame. Why wouldn't you want to make the graphics display vertical resolution 240 instead of 200?
    • A:
      • While nominally 241 scan lines were visible in the sense they contained video information, all TV sets hid a varying amount of scan lines on top and bottom (and left and right) by overscan and by the bezel in front of the screen.
      • So with a vertical resolution of 240, on most TV sets parts at the top and bottom would not be seen. While this doesn't matter much for movies, it's not a good thing if you want to do text editing.
      • This is also the reason while basically all homecomputers and game consoles had some sort of border (which often could be colored) around the center part of the image that carried information: It was to make sure this central part would be visible on all TV sets.
  • capture of VHS using VirtualDub - output size - VideoHelp Forum
    • Hi. It is my understanding that camcorders from the 1990s recorded at 720 x 480, and that would be remain the same when copied onto a VHS tape.
    • Most tapes don't have the same black bars on the left and right especially the 8mm formats, It is always better to capture at the native sampling rate of the ADC chip which is 720 samples and crop or mask later if needed taking into consideration the AR is 704:480 not 720:480.
    • I agree, capturing full frame with overscan is more flexible.
    • But how do you know that the native sampling rate of ADC chip is 720 samples? VirtualDub simply presents all available modes that a particular ADC is capable of, depending on ADC I see different values. So if I select 640x480 from the dropdown I assume that the ADC captures at 640 pixels, not VirtualDub re-samples 720 into 640.
    • It's by design, Never heard of Rec.601 standard? All capture cards are designed on that same standard except some few modern chinese knockoff's that use PC resolutions.
    • Rec 601 defines the format of component digital video and the way analog-digital as well as 525/60 and 625/50 interoperate. I don't see the direct relation to how a particular ADC samples video. My point is that properties like frame rate, frame size, color subsampling, etc that a capturing program displays come from a predefined list that is provided by the ADC. For example, when you switch from 29.97 to 25, the ADC samples video at 25fps. I presume that similarly, when you switch from 720x480 to 640x480, the ADC samples at 640x480 - in hardware. I may be wrong, of course..
  • 720x480 widescreen pixel aspect ratio wrong? - II'm confused about why the Vegas project preset for "NTSC DV Widescreen" sets a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.2121. DV is 720x480 pixels, and the DV widescreen aspect ratio is 16:9. If you do the math, you find that (16/9) / (720/480) = 1.18518... So where did 1.2121 come from?

Recording Settings

  • VHS to OBS | OBS Forums
    • If you don't rescale, bicubic and lanczos is not applied. And about bitrate: since you're recording, use a quality based rate control like CQP (if you use nvenc on a Nvidia GPU) or CRF (if you use x264) or ICQ (if you use Quicksync on a Intel iGPU). CBR/VBR is for streaming only.
    • Best would be to use simple output mode where you just choose the desired quality and don't have to think about numbers.

Encoders / Decoders / Codecs / Formats

  • General
  • Example Captures/Streams
  • Testing
  • OBS
    • NVIDIA Nvenc Obs Guide | GeForce News | NVIDIA - Configure OBS to get the most quality out of your stream.
      • Base (Canvas) Resolution: Set the resolution you normally play at. That is, your desktop resolution (if you play in borderless mode), or the game resolution you normally enter (if you play in full screen).
      • Output (Scaled) Resolution: Enter the resolution appropriate for your Upload Speed and Bitrate, as we discussed in the previous section.
    • Best OBS Encoders Ranked - X264 Vs NVENC Vs AVC | Streamer's Haven
      • Best OBS Encoders Ranked - 1: (New)NVENC 2: NVENC 3: X264 4: H264/AVC (Advanced Media Framework) - Here's why.
      • There are two types of encoders: Software / Hardware
      • Covers the differences and nvidia and AMD versions.
      • On the other hand, hardware encoding is accomplished using a purpose-built chip that does not need to be processed by the CPU before sending it on its way.
      • AVC/H.264 (AMD Advanced Media Framework) = my video card hardware
    • High Quality Recording (in OBS Studio) | Xaymar - Pushing 1 Pixel at a time - Ever since publishing the guide on how to achieve the best possible NVIDIA NVENC quality with FFmpeg 4.3.x and below, people repeatedly ask me what the best possible recording settings are. So today, as a Christmas present, let me answer this question to the best of my knowledge and help all of you achieve a quality you've never seen before.
    • High Quality Recordings with NVIDIA NVENC (in OBS Studio) | Xaymar - Pushing 1 Pixel at a time - This guide has been merged into the following guides: High Quality Recording (in OBS Studio) with H.264/AVC High Quality Recording (in OBS Studio) with H.265/HEVC High Quality Recording (in OBS Studio) with AV1 Back to the Guide
    • High Quality Streaming with NVIDIA® NVENC (in OBS Studio) | Xaymar - Pushing 1 Pixel at a time - Streaming with more than one PC has been the leader in H.264 encoding for years, but NVIDIAs Turing and Ampere generation has put a significant dent into that lead. The new generation of GPUs with the brand new encoder brought comparable quality x264 medium – if you can find a GPU that is. Let’s take a look at what’s needed to set up your stream for massively improved quality.
    • Audio/Video Formats Guide | OBS Knowledge Base - An overview of audio and video formats available in OBS Studio.
      • For high quality local recording one should use the best quality hardware encoder available (AV1 > HEVC > H.264) together with high-bitrate AAC or lossless audio (e.g. ALAC).
      • MKV is the default container and recommended for most use cases, as it can be easily remuxed into a more compatible format. However, fragmented MP4/MOV may be a good fit for most users who wish to simply upload their videos onto platforms such as YouTube or edit them in common software like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve.
    • Hardware Encoding | OBS Knowledge Base - Choosing a Hardware Encoder
      • Hardware encoders, as opposed to the included x264 software encoder, are generally recommended for best performance as they take the workload off the CPU and to a specialised component in the GPU that can perform video encoding more efficiently. Modern hardware encoders provide very good quality video with minimal performance impact.
      • However, earlier generation hardware encoders provide a lower-quality image. They offer minimal performance impact in exchange for a reduction in quality at the same bitrates as software encoding using the default preset of veryfast. As such, they can be a last resort if software encoding is not possible such as due to performance constraints.
    • Wiki - AMF Options | OBS
    • Low latency, high performance x264 options for for most streaming services (Youtube, Facebook,...) | OBS Forums
    • OBS H.265 Users! What encoding settings do you guys use? | Reddit
      • For Recording:
        • Rate Control - CQP CQ Level - 16 Keyframe Interval - 0s Preset - Quality Profile - Main GPU - 0 Max B Frames - 2
      • For streaming:
        • (Only option is h264) Video Bitrate - 6000Kbps Audio Bitrate - 320 Encoder Preset - Quality
      • B frames are a type of compressed frame between keyframes which are complete images. They are like partial data that tells you what changes between keyframes rather than encoding a complete image. They help compress the video to a smaller file size.
      • CQP should give you the optimal file size to quality ratio (depending on the preset number) while CBR will give you a constant bitrate. So if you pick a bitrate that is higher than you need to encoder good video at that resolution, then no matter what happens on screen, it will always be clear. CQP will use less data when there is less motion. It should auto adjust when there is more motion to prevent blurriness though. I'm not sure what is wrong with your CQP recordings, try lowering it to 15.
  • GPU Selection
    • The different GPU manufactures have their own separate encoders on modern GPUs:
      • Hardware (AMD, H.264) = AMD
      • Hardware (QSV, H.264) = Intel = Quick Sync Video
      • Hardware (NVENC, H.264) = Nvidia = Nvdia Encoding
      • Hardware (NVENC, HEVC) = Nvidia = Nvdia Encoding = H.265
    • Which NVIDIA graphic cards do support NVENC technology? – Elgato - NVENC is a technology used by NVIDIA that handles video hardware encoding. Many NVIDIA GPUs support this technology, among others some...
    • Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix | NVIDIA Developer - Get the latest video encoding and decoding support information for all NVIDIA GPU products.
    • List of Nvidia graphics processing units - Wikipedia - This list contains general information about graphics processing units (GPUs) and video cards from Nvidia, based on official specifications.
    • NVIDIA NvEnc Guide | OBS Forums
      • The objective of this guide is to help you understand how to use the NVIDIA encoder, NVENC, in OBS. Note: we have simplified some of the concepts to make this guide accessible to a wider audience.
      • GeForce RTX GPUs have dedicated hardware encoders (NVENC), letting you capture and stream content without impacting GPU or CPU performance.  
      • GeForce RTX Capabilities per GPU generation:
        • GTX 10 Series: H.264 and HEVC
        • GTX 16 Series: H.264 and HEVC
        • RTX 20 & 30 Series: H.264 and HEVC, and AI powered effects
        • RTX 40 Series: H.264, HEVC, AV1 and AI powered effects
        • NVENC is NVIDIA’s encoder. It’s a physical section of our GPUs that is dedicated to encoding only. This means that your GPU can operate normally regardless of whether you use this region to stream or record. Other encoders, such as x264, use your CPU to encode, which takes resources away from other programs such as your game. Advanced codecs like AV1 are unable to run on consumer CPUs. This is why using NVENC allows you to play games at a higher framerate and avoid stuttering, giving you and your viewers a better experience.
        • NVIDIA has also worked closely with OBS to help optimize OBS Studio for NVIDIA GPUs, improving performance and enabling the latest and greatest features for quality.
        • One additional advantage of NVENC is that typically, the same version of NVENC is used per GPU generation. For example, a GeForce RTX 4090 and a GeForce RTX 4050 both have the same encoder quality
        • Recommends Lanczos + 60fps
      • Look-ahead: Checked. This allows the encoder to dynamically select the number of B-Frames, between 0 and the number of B-Frames you specify. B-frames are great because they increase image quality, but they consume a lot of your available bitrate, so they reduce quality on high motion content. Look-ahead enables the best of both worlds. This feature is CUDA accelerated; toggle this off if your GPU utilization is high to ensure a smooth stream.
      • Max B-Frames: Set to 4. If you uncheck the Look-ahead option, reduce this to 2 B-Frames.
      • Downscale Filter = Lanczos (Sharpend scaling, 36 samples)
  • NVidia Only

Other Video Capture Tutorials

  • The Best Easy Way to Capture Analog Video (it's a little weird) - YouTube | Technology Connections
    • Describes the process in general.
    • He uses a composite to HDMi Upscaler and then a HDMI capture device and finds this the best result.
    • Finally shows you what he does in Adobe Premier Pro CC
    • 60 frames a second gives a smoother video like when playing the video
  • How to convert VHS videotape to 60p digital video (2016) - YouTube
    • This video and its method have been replaced by the video I have based method 2 on.
    • This uses VirtualDub to capture and HandBrake to transcode.
    • Sound should be one of the following:
      • PCM 48000Hz, Stero 16-bit
      • PCM 44100Hz, Stero 16-bit
  • Analog Video Capture follow-up - YouTube | Technology Connextras
    • @470s - component/composite/svideo - S-Video can prevent DOT Crawl. Comb filter will remove DOT crawl.
    • @770s - DOT Crawl = grainy look.
  • The Ultimate Video Recording, Encoding and Streaming Guide - Unreal Aussies
    • Over the next few posts I’ll take you through the main technical points of recording, encoding and streaming video, in particular game footage. Most people can set up scenes and webcams with just a little patience, trial and error. But so many people out there don’t understand some of the basic, yet crucial concepts that go on under the hood.
    • If you’re reading this, you’ve undoubtedly heard of NVENC, Fraps, x264, DxTory, Shadowplay and a bunch of other technologies. In this guide, I’ll be focusing on what I think are the best, yet still pretty easy to use.
    • OBS, HandbBrake, AviDemux and a lot of other related subjects.
  • CAPTURE CARD DOCUMENTATION - Latency, Decode Modes, Formats, & MORE! | OBS Forums | EposVox
    • IN THIS RESOURCE: I will provide extensive documentation about the connection types, supported decode modes, supported resolutions, frame rates, passthrough, and input latency (to preview) of every capture card I have access to.
      • Intro/Overview
      • Decode Mode Support
      • Notes on RGB Color Space
      • Format Support
      • Notes on Scaler Support
      • Input Latency Testing
      • Notes on “Bitrate” support
      • Testing Methodology
      • Limitations & Future Improvement
      • How to submit capture cards for testing
    • Some buyers are looking for capture cards that provide specific decode modes to the user. These are color compression formats (not to be confused with data compression) that affect the bandwidth required by the video feed through the device, as well as the total image quality.
    • YUY2 - 4:2:2 color space, uncompressed data stream
      • This is the most common, and generally the target you want to aim for
      • Requires more bandwidth over USB/PCIe bus, but has minimal system resource load and latency
  • The ULTIMATE VHS Capture Guide - YouTube
    • Your family home videos are slowly deteriorating, it's always best to transfer them to a digital format, however a good amount of people often transfer their tapes in substandard quality. This video will hopefully show you the best method to transfer your tapes.
    • Uses VirtualDub for the capture software.
    • Why not to use 'VHS --> DVD' on a combi recorder @ 352s

Technical Videos (Misc)

  • Compatible Color: The Ultimate Three-For-One Special - YouTube | Technology Connections
    • RCA's attempt at creating a new color television standard that would be compatible with existing black and white TVs initially faced technical challenges. However, it was an obviously great idea from a backward compatibility standpoint, and the National Television Systems Committee latched onto this idea and helped to propel RCA's idea to the real world. This is that story.
    • This explains how Luminance and Chrominace all work together to make a TV picture.
  • Macrovision: The Copy Protection in VHS - YouTube | Technology Connections - Did you ever try to copy one VHS tape to another and find that it just, well, didn’t work? Macrovision was the clever creation of what is now TiVo that managed to confuse a VCR without causing too much distress to a TV. In this video, we find out what it is, how to spot it, and how it works (with a healthy dose of speculation).

Capture Test Results

Capture File Sizes (Downscale Filter)

Here I ran some samples on my setup to see what results I would get and in particular, file size.

Capture 1 - (852x480 @ 30fps, Variable Bitrate, High Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size, Bicubic)

# OBS Output Settings
Output Mode: Simple
Recording Quality: High Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
Video Encoder: Hardware (AMD, H.264)
Audio Encoder: AAC (Default)

# OBS Video Settings
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
Output (Scaled) Resolution: 852x480
Downscale Filter: Bicubic (Sharpened scaling, 16 samples)
Common FPS Values: 30

# MediaInfo
Overall bit rate: 9344 kb/s (this was Variable Bitrate)
Writing application: Lavf60.3.100
Writing library: Lavf60.3.100
First video stream: 852x480 (4:3), at 30.000 FPS, AVC (component)(High@4.2)(CABAC / 4 Ref Frames)
First audio stream: 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, AAC LC

# File Size
1 hour = 4.0GB

Capture 2 - (852x480 @ 30fps, Variable Bitrate, High Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size, Lanczos)

# OBS Output Settings
Output Mode: Simple
Recording Quality: High Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
Video Encoder: Hardware (AMD, H.264)
Audio Encoder: AAC (Default)

# OBS Video Settings
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
Output (Scaled) Resolution: 852x480
Downscale Filter: Lanczos (Sharpened scaling, 36 samples)
Common FPS Values: 30

# MediaInfo
Overall bit rate: 9260 kb/s (this was Variable Bitrate)
Writing application: Lavf60.3.100
Writing library: Lavf60.3.100
First video stream: 852x480 (16:9), at 30.000 FPS, AVC (component)(High@4.2)(CABAC / 4 Ref Frames)
First audio stream: 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, AAC LC

# File Size
1 hour = 4.0GB

Capture 3 - (1920x1080 @ 30fps, Variable Bitrate, High Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size)

# OBS Output Settings
Output Mode: Simple
Recording Quality: High Quality: High Quality, Medium File Size
Recording Format: Matroska Video (.mkv)
Video Encoder: Hardware (AMD, H.264)
Audio Encoder: AAC (Default)

# OBS Video Settings
Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
Output (Scaled) Resolution: 1920x1080
Downscale Filter: [Resolutions match, no downscaling required]
Common FPS Values: 30

# MediaInfo
Overall bit rate: 15.0Mb/s (this was Variable Bitrate)
Writing application: Lavf60.3.100
Writing library: Lavf60.3.100
First video stream: 1920x1080 (16:9), at 30.000 FPS, AVC (component)(High@4.2)(CABAC / 4 Ref Frames)
First audio stream: 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, AAC LC

# File Size
1 hour = 6.3GB

What I found

  • Bicubic and Lanczos downscale filters had no affect on the size of the file.
  • OBS `Simple Mode` uses Variable Bitrate
  • 1920x1080 (2,073,600 pixels) uses 2.3GB extra an hour over the 852x480 (408,960 pixels). 1080p has 507% the amount of pixels than 480p, but the 1080p file is only 157.5% larger which means it is getting much better compression for the quality.
Capture File Sizes (Video Encoder Settings)
  • Advanced Settings (used below, unless mentioned otherwise)
    • NVidia NVENC (H.264)
    • 720x576 @ 50fps
    • Audio: 48kHz Stereo @ 192kb/s
  • Advanced: CQP

    • CQP Level - 30: 439,003Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 1,756,012Kb/hour (2GB per hour) = 488KB/s = 3904kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 35575077448124118703731273079815880816 (0x1AC382BCC8D8B589450B495661974070)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CQP 30 - 2024-01-03 16-47-27.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 429 MiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 14 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 3 933 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 14 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 14 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CQP Level - 26: 1,145,042Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 4,580,168Kb/hour  (4.5GB per hour) = 1272KB/s = 10176kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 306329523498121085214532735022649234206 (0xE674EB933E0CE25DB75095E63A22D31E)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CQP 26 - 2024-01-11 17-01-38.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.09 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 10.4 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CQP Level - 25: 1,341,655Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 5,366,620Kb/hour  (5.5GB per hour) = 1490KB/s = 11920bps
      General
Unique ID                                : 276776621679352528233475097513479577539 (0xD0393D0526DC6C71F7BB116058A31FC3)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CQP 25 - 2024-01-11 17-50-58.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.28 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 12.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CQP Level - 24: 1,524,916b / 15mins * 60mins = 6,099,664Kb/hour  (6GB per hour) = 1695KB/s = 13560kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 181228007543681335105184658854276209449 (0x88573EA151230C1148E391CF02279B29)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CQP 24 - 2024-01-11 16-21-10.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.45 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 13.9 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CQP Level - 23: 1,701,721Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 6,806,884Kb/hour (7GB per hour) = 1891KB/s = 15128kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 175663100252395411654604105638675747627 (0x84277B8476EC58D323B4D375876C132B)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\CQP 23 - 2024-01-07 16-32-54.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.62 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 15.5 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CQP Level - 20: 2,210,115Kb / 16mins * 60mins = 8,287,931Kb/hour  (8GB per hour) = 2302KB/s = 18416kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 37435882224530099396630557843151568443 (0x1C29E37F07BDCED4CF44DC1153F2BE3B)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CQP 20 - 2024-01-03 16-27-00.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 2.11 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 41 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 19.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 41 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 41 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CQP Level - 15: 15,577,813Kb / 85min  * 60mins = 10,996,103Kb/hour (11GB per hour) = 3054KB/s = 24432kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 96810718493985795077012779441069682963 (0x48D510F06B91E51465656E97F256F113)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CQP 15 - 2024-01-03 13-12-20.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 14.9 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 25 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 24.9 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 25 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 25 min
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
  • Advanced: CBR
    • CBR - 10000: 1,122,373Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 4,489,492Kb/hour (4.5GB per hour) = 1247KB/s = 9976kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 321769289710963806689845544926612635147 (0xF21282D2759BAAB76E56DD7E43453E0B)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CBR 10000 - 2024-01-06 11-56-19.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 1.07 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate                         : 10.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Nominal bit rate                         : 10 000 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.482
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CBR - 20000: 2,221,418Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 8,885,672Kb/hour (9.0GB per hour) = 2468KB/s = 19744kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 129082125544208984555618154264060931626 (0x611C502679799BD0FF2DA637DA8AAE2A)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CBR 20000 - 2024-01-06 12-36-10.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 2.12 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate                         : 20.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.2
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Nominal bit rate                         : 20.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.965
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
    • CBR - 30000: 3,322,366Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 13,289,464Kb/hour (13.5GB per hour) = 3692KB/s = 29536kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 160223536104569543433758845467909810106 (0x7889EE3BAAA5FB065A42019528B1E7BA)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\Video Test Captures\CBR 30000 - 2024-01-06 12-53-05.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 3.17 GiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate                         : 30.2 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Nominal bit rate                         : 30.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 1.447
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
  • Advanced: VBR
    • This is just an example/guess for the settings and should not be taken as 100% for imaging VHS cassettes. Try it out though if you want.
    • Target: 3500, Max Bitrate:10000 : 413,185Kb / 15mins * 60mins = 1,652,740Kb/hour (1.7GB per hour) = 459KB/s = 3672kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 155158777199815012946350775578937540317 (0x74BA7E56F511B9FB042D3062F87C3EDD)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\VBR Advanced - Target 3500 - Max 10000 - 2024-01-11 12-52-14.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 404 MiB
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 3 758 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 10 000 kb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 15 min 0 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : Track1
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
  • Simple (VBR): High Quality, Medium File size

    • 11,293,973Kb / 60mins * 60mins = 11,293,973KB/hour (11GB per hour) = 3137KB/s = 25096kbps
      General
Unique ID                                : 76419877045050482474305776784949979518 (0x397DEED61F47EAA4FF92A44839E9297E)
Complete name                            : H:\OBS Captures\spice daewoo 50fps 709 720x576.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 10.8 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 0 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 25.6 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Writing application                      : Lavf60.3.100
Writing library                          : Lavf60.3.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L3.1
Format settings                          : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 2 frames
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration                                 : 1 h 0 min
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Maximum bit rate                         : 11.2 Mb/s
Width                                    : 720 pixels
Height                                   : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 5:4
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 50.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-2
Duration                                 : 1 h 0 min
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Title                                    : simple_aac_recording0
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
  • DVD-RW (HQ settings) (Legacy Physical Media) (Not captured by OBS - for reference only)
    • Video
      • MPEG Video
      • CBR: 9000kb/s
      • 720x576i@25fps
    • Audio
      • MPEG Audio
      • 48kHz
      • Bit rate: 384 kb/s
    • Overall
      • bit rate: 9544 kb/s
    • Results
      • 1,048,512KB / 15mins * 60mins = 4,194,048Kb/hour (4GB per hour @ 25fps) = 1165KB/s = 9320kbps
  • DV Video (Legacy Physical Media) (Not captured by OBS - for reference only)
    • 720x576i@25fps
    • CBR: 30.0 Mb/s
    • 13,691,352Kb / 62min  * 60mins = 13,249,695Kb/hour (13.25GB per hour @ 25fps) = 3680KB/s = 29440kbps
  • Random Video (H.265 / HEVC / High Efficiency Video Coding)
    • 3840x1920@23.976
    • 868,840Kb / 59min  * 60mins = 883,566Kb/hour (885GB per hour @ 29.97fps) = 245KB/s = 1960kbps
    • The quality is excellent with these settings
      General
Unique ID                                : 2127013115158872757609751600123456789 (0x199A5D7DCF170A15FAA041123456789)
Complete name                            : E:\Moby Dick.mkv
Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 4
File size                                : 848 MiB
Duration                                 : 59 min 23 s
Overall bit rate                         : 1 997 kb/s
Frame rate                               : 23.976 FPS
Encoded date                             : 2023-07-04 22:27:39 UTC
Writing application                      : HandBrake 1.4.0 2021071800
Writing library                          : Lavf58.76.100
ErrorDetectionType                       : Per level 1

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L5@High
HDR format                               : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                                 : 59 min 23 s
Width                                    : 3 840 pixels
Height                                   : 1 920 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 2.000
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Writing library                          : x265 3.5+1-f0c1022b6:[Windows][GCC 9.2.0][64 bit] 10bit
Encoding settings                        : cpuid=1049583 / frame-threads=16 / numa-pools=16,16 / wpp / no-pmode / no-pme / no-psnr / no-ssim / log-level=2 / input-csp=1 / input-res=3840x1920 / interlace=0 / total-frames=0 / level-idc=50 / high-tier=1 / uhd-bd=0 / ref=1 / no-allow-non-conformance / repeat-headers / annexb / no-aud / no-hrd / info / hash=0 / no-temporal-layers / open-gop / min-keyint=24 / keyint=240 / gop-lookahead=10 / bframes=0 / b-adapt=0 / no-b-pyramid / bframe-bias=0 / rc-lookahead=12 / lookahead-slices=0 / scenecut=90 / hist-scenecut=0 / radl=0 / no-splice / no-intra-refresh / ctu=32 / min-cu-size=32 / no-rect / no-amp / max-tu-size=32 / tu-inter-depth=3 / tu-intra-depth=3 / limit-tu=3 / rdoq-level=0 / dynamic-rd=0.00 / no-ssim-rd / signhide / no-tskip / nr-intra=500 / nr-inter=500 / no-constrained-intra / strong-intra-smoothing / max-merge=5 / limit-refs=2 / no-limit-modes / me=2 / subme=7 / merange=57 / temporal-mvp / no-frame-dup / no-hme / weightp / no-weightb / no-analyze-src-pics / no-deblock / no-sao / no-sao-non-deblock / rd=1 / selective-sao=0 / early-skip / no-rskip / no-fast-intra / no-tskip-fast / no-cu-lossless / no-b-intra / no-splitrd-skip / rdpenalty=0 / psy-rd=0.00 / psy-rdoq=0.00 / no-rd-refine / no-lossless / cbqpoffs=0 / crqpoffs=0 / rc=crf / crf=19.0 / qcomp=1.00 / qpstep=0 / stats-write=0 / stats-read=0 / vbv-maxrate=100000 / vbv-bufsize=100000 / vbv-init=0.9 / min-vbv-fullness=50.0 / max-vbv-fullness=80.0 / crf-max=0.0 / crf-min=0.0 / ipratio=1.00 / aq-mode=3 / aq-strength=0.50 / no-cutree / zone-count=0 / no-strict-cbr / qg-size=32 / no-rc-grain / qpmax=69 / qpmin=0 / no-const-vbv / sar=1 / overscan=0 / videoformat=5 / range=1 / colorprim=9 / transfer=16 / colormatrix=9 / chromaloc=0 / display-window=0 / master-display=G(34000,16000)B(13250,34500)R(7500,3000)WP(15635,16450)L(10000000,50) / cll=341,95 / min-luma=0 / max-luma=4000 / log2-max-poc-lsb=8 / vui-timing-info / vui-hrd-info / slices=1 / no-opt-qp-pps / no-opt-ref-list-length-pps / no-multi-pass-opt-rps / scenecut-bias=0.90 / hist-threshold=0.03 / no-opt-cu-delta-qp / no-aq-motion / hdr10 / hdr10-opt / no-dhdr10-opt / no-idr-recovery-sei / analysis-reuse-level=0 / analysis-save-reuse-level=0 / analysis-load-reuse-level=0 / scale-factor=0 / refine-intra=0 / refine-inter=0 / refine-mv=1 / refine-ctu-distortion=0 / no-limit-sao / ctu-info=0 / no-lowpass-dct / refine-analysis-type=0 / copy-pic=1 / max-ausize-factor=1.0 / no-dynamic-refine / no-single-sei / no-hevc-aq / no-svt / no-field / qp-adaptation-range=1.00 / scenecut-aware-qp=0conformance-window-offsets / right=0 / bottom=0 / decoder-max-rate=0 / no-vbv-live-multi-pass
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No
Color range                              : Limited
colour_range_Original                    : Full
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : Display P3
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0050 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 341
MaxCLL_Original                          : 341 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 95
MaxFALL_Original                         : 95 cd/m2

Audio #1
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AC-3
Format/Info                              : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital
Codec ID                                 : A_AC3
Duration                                 : 59 min 23 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 6 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -5 ms
Stream size                              : 109 MiB (13%)
Title                                    : Surround
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : Yes
Forced                                   : No

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : AAC LC SBR
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
Commercial name                          : HE-AAC
Format settings                          : NBC
Codec ID                                 : A_AAC-5
Duration                                 : 59 min 23 s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 23.438 FPS (2048 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Delay relative to video                  : -105 ms
Title                                    : Stereo
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #1
ID                                       : 4
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration                                 : 58 min 16 s
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #2
ID                                       : 5
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration                                 : 58 min 16 s
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Title                                    : SDH
Language                                 : English
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #3
ID                                       : 6
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration                                 : 59 min 16 s
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Language                                 : Arabic
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #4
ID                                       : 7
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration                                 : 59 min 16 s
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Language                                 : Bulgarian
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #5
ID                                       : 8
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration                                 : 59 min 16 s
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Title                                    : Chinese (Simplified)
Language                                 : Chinese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

Text #6
ID                                       : 9
Format                                   : ASS
Codec ID                                 : S_TEXT/ASS
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Sub Station Alpha
Duration                                 : 59 min 16 s
Compression mode                         : Lossless
Title                                    : Chinese (Traditional)
Language                                 : Chinese
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No

What I found (so far)

  • CQP Level 15 = High Quality, Medium File size, and have the same bit rate.
  • CQP 23 = Good for capturing VHS
  • CQP
    • Is the modern protocol for recording media.
    • It brings the reduced file sizes because it only uses what data is required to meet a defined quality setting.
    • You define the quality of the recording and the protocol does the rest.
  • CBR @ 10000kb/s is the same as a DVD, almost. A DVD max rate is 10000kb/s including audio.
  • CBR rates are the same irrespective of the resolution they encode. So the larger the image the less the quality.
  • Twitch Max bitrate is 8000kb/s and people can do a 1920x1080 stream with no issues using h.264
  • A H.265/HEVC video with 3840x1920@23.976 has extremely high quality for 883,566Kb an hour (885Mb)

 

 

Read 655 times Last modified on Friday, 29 March 2024 16:53
Published in Media
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