# Diamond VC500 Video Capture: Larger Sized Videos For TV Viewing?



## halfbuck (Feb 12, 2012)

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a Diamond VC500 video capture device to capture video from my TV DVR and to convert old VHS and 8mm tapes to DVD's.

The "live" feed to the software looks great, and the captured video quality looks good for YouTube sized, computer viewed videos. But, I'm having issues with getting good results for TV sized viewing. My captures are "small" (720x480 I think). At 100%, they only fill normal viewing panes on my computer (not even the whole screen). I've tried different settings with no luck. Going to full screen on the computer or viewing finished DVD's on a TV only magnifies the image to fill the screen, so of course the image suffers greatly.

I've read reviews from people who are pleased with their VHS conversions, so I'm assuming that I just need to be schooled on how to get better results for producing good quality TV sized videos.

If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. I use the EZGrabber software that came with the VC500. For video capture, I select the DVD setting. When I create a DVD using the included ArcSoft ShowBiz software that came with the device, I select High Quality. I don't see any options for selecting an output size for the video. 

My goal is to make DVD's for viewing on a full sized TV screen. Help?

Thanks.


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## Oddba11 (May 13, 2011)

Increasing the resolution won't matter. DVD resolution is 720x480. VHS resolution is roughly 333x480.

You will need to experiment and see what works best. As your final goal is DVD, capture at DVD resolution and preferably in mpeg2. If you capture in any other format aside from mpeg2 (which is the DVD standard), it will need to be converted to mpeg2 as part of the DVD creation process. Converting reduces quality. Try increasing the bitrate and verify if quality increases. At some point, increasing the bitrate will no longer have any affect aside from increasing the file size. For the VHS captures, you could also try using a resolution of 352 x 480. Again, experiment and see what looks best.

Results will vary according to the source material and the hardware being used.

DVD spec here> http://www.videohelp.com/dvd


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## Oddba11 (May 13, 2011)

I should also mention that the above concerns just the capturing. You want to capture in the highest quality possible, and preferably keep a copy for future use (as is...untouched).

When encoding onto DVD, you will need to experiment with the amount (ie: length in time) of data that you place onto a disc. The standards are in the link posted above.


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## johnebadbak (Feb 28, 2002)

you may find some info on settings here go to this site as several videos are available

www.youtube.com search for Diamond VC500 video capture device tutorial also

Best Settings For The Diamond VC500


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