Encoding VHS captured video for best file size

By Jonny Wright
in Editing Studio

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Jonny Wright

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I have started converting some old VHS tapes (family videos etc) into a digital format. I didn't want to spend a fortune doing it so just went with this cheap and cheerful capture device. It works fine and came bundled with Arcsoft Showbiz capture software. The hardware seems pretty good and the software is OK (pig ugly though). I have tried a few other apps but this seems to be the only one compatible with the hardware.


I have tried quite a few different encoding apps and most of them don't like the files which are being created by the Arcsoft software. Adobe Media Encoder errors with The file G:\2016_2_6_20_53_42.mpg could not be imported. Error while decompressing the source file. The only piece of software I have found which will recognise the videos is Handbrake.

 

What I would like is to reduce the file size as much as possible without drastically affecting the video quality - currently I'm getting just over 2GB per hour of footage. As mentioned, the captures are all from old VHS tapes with varying quality due to age etc so I know there won't be one single solution for this, but if anyone has any tips of what kind of settings I should be tweaking to improve file size that would be great.

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