Need Recommendations for Settings

[gem]

I have an abundance of VHS footage that I want to digitize. I am currently experimenting with various effects to attempt to correct issues that come with video tape. I really appreciate the ability to adjust color correction, brightness, sharpness, etc, but I am wondering if anyone has a specific technique that they use consistently for this type of correction.

I am thinking of connecting a small TV to my video card so that I can adequately judge changes that I make. As I understand it and as I have experienced in previous work, a video can look quite different on TV vs. how it appears on my CRT. In the meantime, the only test I can run is to burn to DVD and that is time consuming and wasteful.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Chuck Engels]

What are you using to get the VHS footage onto your computer?

[gem]

I am capturing via an ATI AIW card (9600XT - 128 MB) using Pinnacle Studio and rendering as DV-AVI. I am using PE2 because it has greater capacity for color correction than Studio.

My intention for the post was to see if I might be able to determine what you might call a default group of effects / settings to use with all clips. I tend to think that I will need to judge this per clip, but certainly any possible suggestions may help in this effort. I think I need to include a TV with my setup to help judge things while using preview (as an example, when I sharpen the video the result is not pleasing on the CRT, but perhaps it would be an improvement when viewed on a TV?). In the meantime, my only option is to burn to DVD to judge appearance differences between my CRT and a television.

[Chuck Engels]

You need to use a digital converter that connects to your computer via Firewire. Something like the ADS A/V Pyro Link. Otherwise you will need to convert the files to DV-AVI before adding to a Premiere Elements project.

If you want to convert then I suggest you go to the Adobe U2U forum and ask about the AIT AIW and how to get it to convert the files to work with Premiere Elements, it isn't easy. I would either continue to use Pinnacle or get a real converter ;)

[gem]

I'm sorry Chuck, perhaps you misunderstood my question. I am having no trouble getting what VHS I have captured into PE2. I simply capture through my card while using Studio and then render as DV-AVI.

What I was asking was if anyone has used PE2 effects to attempt to correct the various quality problems that come with VHS. PE2 has a myriad of choices to make (which is why I import to and use it) to make these corrections. I was hoping that someone who also is digitizing their analog material might have some suggestions that typically work well in this regard.

[gem]

A specific question I do have is if I patch an ordinary TV into TV out of my video card, will this show the PE2 preview as it would actually appear on a television, or do I need the recommended digital video recorder and / or a TV monitor?

[Chuck Engels]

The video out on your video card will probably not give you the best quality but it is worth a try :)

[gem]

Thanks Chuck. I'll try that and attempt to compare it to the same vid burnt to DVD.

It's like you said, worth a try.:)