THE VIDEO SIGNALS from an analog VCR are not only in composite video form but are also fairly limited in luminance (Y) bandwidth, due to the limitations of VHS recording. In fact, the luminance bandwidth is typically no more than about 3MHz, which corresponds to a horizontal resolution of about 240 lines.

This is only about half the luminance bandwidth and resolution capability of DVD video discs. These can usually provide a luminance bandwidth of about 6.4MHz, or just on 500 lines of resolution.

As a result, when you’re transferring video from a VCR onto DVD via your PC, you may get better results by applying some judicious video enhancement or "sharpening". It’s true that this also tends to degrade the video signal-to-noise ratio but most people feel that the overall picture quality is improved – provided that the sharpening isn’t overdone.

In practice, your eyes can best judge how much enhancement is worthwhile and how much is "too much".

Fig.1: block diagram of the Philips TDA9181 Integrated Multi-standard Comb Filter. It contains all the circuitry necessary for Y/C separation.