NTSC standard VHS has a discrete vertical resolution of exactly 486 pixels, a continuous horizontal luma resolution of about 333 pixels (for VHS HQ; non-HQ is 320 pixels across) and a continuous horizontal chroma resolution of about 40 pixels. Nyquest says we must sample at double horizontal resolution, bringing us to 666×486 for luma and 80×486 for chroma.

(PAL VHS is 335×576 pixels luma and 40×288 chroma. NTSC Super VHS is 560×486 pixels luma and 80×486 pixels chroma.)

Most video capture cards capture at 720×480 pixels for NTSC, providing more than enough luma and chroma information to capture the entire analog image. Generally, 4:2:2 is recommended for digitizing NTSC VHS as it captures the full vertical chroma resolution, avoids unnecessary colorspace conversions, uses less space than 4:4:4 RGB, and facilitates color correction from non-RGB sources. Example codecs include HuffYUV YUY2, Lagarith, and FFV1 422P.

PAL has half the vertical chroma resolution as luma, and so 4:2:0 is an appropriate chroma subsampling.

Also see ¹⁾ for an alternate set of suggested capture sizes.

In addition, high quality videotape digitizing of less than optimal media requires a VCR with a timebase corrector (TBC)²⁾ (see example video³⁾ with and without TBC).

Look for a service that will “bake”⁴⁾ your tapes as necessary in order to overcome sticky-shed syndrome.⁵⁾

DVD is lossy and uses a chroma resolution of 4:2:0 which is half of the vertical chroma resolution of VHS.

Some VHS transfer services use the DV codec, but DV is also lossy and captures less color information (even from VHS!) than 4:2:2.⁶⁾

When capturing analog video, it's a good idea to adjust proc amp settings to reduce contrast and saturation in order to avoid clipping of blacks, whites, and chroma, then stretch these back to whatever the final profile can handle. Because the stretching can cause banding/posterization and noise, it's best to use a capture card that can handle more bits per channel than the final output profile.

To capture all of the color information recorded on standard VHS, 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 chroma subsampling is required. 4:2:2 requires less storage. Neither 4:1:1 nor 4:2:0 will capture all of the color resolution that VHS has to offer.

The following is a table of sampling modes and how they compare in terms of bandwidth / chroma resolution:

The following is a table of codecs and how they compare in bandwidth requirements and CPU load during capture of 720×480i60 (NTSC) / 720×576i50 (PAL) video at 8 bits per channel:

The following are some common file extensions used in videotape transfer:

AVI - this is the generic container format used by Microsoft Windows. It may contain lossy or lossless video depending on which codec is used.

MKV - another generic container format which may contain lossy or lossless video.

MOV - this is the Mac's equivalent to AVI. It may contain video in the DV codec (lossy), ProRes (lossy), or any other lossy or lossless codec.

MP4 - a container for MPEG-4 video which is usually lossy.

MPG - a container for MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video which are both lossy.

VOB - a container for DVD video which is lossy.

See the following article: https://anarchivism.org/w/How_to_Rip_VHS

Or follow this guide: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/7427-capturing-virtualdub-settings.html

One thing that guide is missing is the need to check and adjust your audio levels to prevent clipping.

• Captured on a high quality S-VHS VCR such as the Panasonic AG-1980.
• Captured through a S-VHS toolchain. No composite cables.
• Double shielded S-VHS cables throughout.
• A high quality external timebase corrector such as the DataVideo TBC-1000 or BrightEyes 3.
• A lossless 4:2:2 capture such as HuffYUV, Lagarith, or FFV1 422p.
• Exactly 480i or 486i for NTSC, 29.970 fps. No upscaling. No deinterlacing. No cropping. You should see head switching noise at the bottom of the video.
• No fewer than 720 pixels across for NTSC.
• Black borders on the left and right sides of the video.
• 8-bits video bit depth or better.
• No blown out whites in the video.
• No crushed blacks in the video.
• No clipping in the audio.
• Lossless audio 48 kHz, 16-bit or better such as PCM or FLAC.
• Audio levels not too low.