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You've captured it - now what?

At the end of the capture process you will have your finished MPEG 2 file. If you are capturing to another format such as .avi, then a lot of the following options are also applicable and possible. For this guide I'm carrying on with my way of doing it as the focus, which means I'm dealing exclusively with post processing an I framed only MPEG 2 file.

There are a number of things you may want to do to the file - I will give you an overview of the possibilities here, starting with the most obvious - making a DVD disc.

Turning your MPEG 2 file into a DVD video disk

Due to the way DVD discs work, you can't just put your large MPEG 2 file onto a DVD as data and expect it to play in a normal player. Whatever burning software you use will try to split the large MPEG 2 into smaller files, called VOBS. Most burning software like Nero, will process the file to make the VOBS for your movie DVD, as well as letting you set up Menus, etc.

My personal favourite software for preparing my MPEG 2s is Ulead DVD Factory - its a breeze to use and easily customizable. The MPEG file we created in Part 2 can just be opened in the programme and is ready to go. You can follow the simple stages and add menus, custom backgrounds, etc. Its really easy to use and will burn your DVD into the bargain.

Hopefully your source material was of a good enough quality that you don't need to do any more other than burn it to DVD - however, there can be issues with the source that can be fixed, once you know how and the tools you can use.

Bad sound - Strip it, filter it, fix it...

Its quite possible that you could have some poor quality sound on your capture. It is possible at this stage to fix that. There are a number of tools that allow you to strip the audio out of the MPEG file and process via your favourite audio editing software, then add it back to the video.

This is where your constant bitrate comes in handy. I've had problems getting audio and video synched back up correctly using variable bitrates - and keeping them constant seems to have fixed those problems. I recommend TMPGEnc or VirtualDub MPEG are useful tools for stripping your audio. For advice on audio conversions and the software you can use - try Doom9.org.

With a bit of fiddling you can get yourself a nice .wav of the stripped audio which you can then filter using your audio software. My favourite is Cool Edit Pro 2, which is now Adobe Audition. You can boost the audio, filter out clicks and pops and all sorts of other clever stuff that I could spend ages delving into. However, all you need to know for the scope of this guide is that it is possible.

Once you've finished, you need to join the audio and video back together. The MPEG tools in TMPGEnc allow you to remux (join together) the audio and video together once again. Run through the file just to check everything's synched back up once your done.

Video restoration and editing

It may be necessary to edit your footage or join footage - I've had tapes which due to damage stop and need to be captured in two parts due to damage. Fortunately, its relatively easy to do with simple software. A handy MPEG 2 editor and joiner is the deceptively simple and useful Womble MPEG2vcr. Its as easy as setting the in and out markers and insert points and cutting and pasting the two MPEGs together. Once again, because we've kept them as I frames and constant bitrates, there is little likelihood of any synching problems with the finished file.

Should you wish to do more 'creative' things with your MPEG 2s, then as well as the simple Womble software, you could invest in some hardcore software like Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 - which will allow you to do all sorts of stuff like overlaying videos, adding transitions and all sorts. I ain't even going to go there...

Premiere will also allow you to tinker with the video levels, gamma and stuff, which can be useful for restoring some murky video. If you're willing to take the time, then its possible to convert your MPEG 2 to a high grade .avi, then run some filters in VirtualDub and then convert it back to MPEG2 with TMPGEnc, ready for burning to DVD. Once again, that's beyond the scope of this guide.

And finally

That should be all, you should now have a digital copy of your VHS that if looked after will last you plenty of years. If you're happy to leave it there than that's fine. However, if you want you can covert it to DivX - to save space or too allow you the option of multiple DVD discs.

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