VHS to DIVX Capture Help!

[PohPoh]

Hi All,

I am new to this DIVX stuff but I have a major project on my hands.. I have about 100 cartoon episodes I want to get onto DIVX. the VHS tapes of these I have are only mine for a few weeks, so I must get these captured.. I have a Pentium 4 2.4 GHX with 512k DDR Ram and a WIN TV PCI card.

Things have been going somewhat smoothly, but I have hit a few snags and I am worried..

I am using Virtual Dub to capture these.. and the DIVX 4 Codecs..
I have been capturing these in 640 x 480 size and a 4000 KBS..

Anyways here are the problems.. First sometimes during capture I am getting dropped frames.. a few is ok because I read that VDub needs to keep itself in sync with the audio card.

However sometimes I get alot of dropped frames, like 60 within 15 minutes! this seems bad.. I went throguh some guides to help the problem with no luck.. Updated drivers and all that.. Anything else I can do?

Maybe the 4000 KBS is overkill for VHS capturing, should I lower it? Keep in mind these are cartoons, but I don't want to lose to much quality and I already have like 20 of these done..

Also the files are huge even when compressed correctly.. like 660 Megs.. One episode per disc, but I liek that because I'd rather be safe than sorry ont he quality..

And finally on some of the tapes during playback I get a bit of jitter video (during Capture Preview) anyways to fix this? I don't think its the VCR causing that.. regardles I haven't captured any with the jjitteriness.. I'll burn that bridge when I get to it..

I know alot of these are VDUB questions, but I assume many of you use this program for capturingand editing DIVX..
Well anyways I got a ton of questiona nd even a little bit of help would be cool..

To Anyone that can help..
Thanks in Advance..

[setarip]

Suggest you initially capture with a lossless codec (e.g. HuffyUV) and then recompress with DivX. No lost frames. Iniatially captured file will be VERY large, but it's only an intermediate file...

[PohPoh]

How Large would we be talking? I have about 65 Gigs at my expense.. but that is all..

[setarip]

That's plenty - I'd be estimating 3-10Gigs per hour of video (To be deleted after conversion to DivX-compressed).

[khp]

Originally posted by setarip
That's plenty - I'd be estimating 3-10Gigs per hour of video (To be deleted after conversion to DivX-compressed).

I don't think thats quite right.

If we assume PohPoh (what kind af a name is that ?) is capturing 640*480@25 fps using YUV2 colorspace.
Thats 640*480*25*2*3600=55296000000, 55GB raw video data an hour. The huffyuv codec generally compresses captures like this by a factor of about 2.5. Which brings us down to something like 20GB an hour.

Of course one could argue that that capturing VHS at 640*480 is a bit silly. I think 352*288 should be enough, but I'am no expert on this.

[PohPoh]

PohPoh is slang for the Police..

Anyways you know maybe If I lowered my resoultion my frame dropping problem would clear up a bit? However (I am no expert either) would I still get Full Screen, High Quality? I read a guide somewhere, I believe on this website, that said to capture in 640 x 480 if you can. Mostyl I can except for sometimes..

Actually thats what kills me about it, sometimes I drop 4 frames in an episode (22 minutes long). That is no big deal. However, sometimes I drop 60 - 200! Sometimes I get good quality when I watch during playback, and sometimes the characters motion is jitter, not the back ground just some of the motion in the foreground jumps... Its the inconsistency that is bothering me here. I think something is up going from source to the capture card.. BUT when I change the source (new VCR) still have the same problem.. ANyone else get this problem?

Thanks

[khp]

Originally posted by PohPoh
PohPoh is slang for the Police..

Ahh, OK I was thinking about excrements

Originally posted by PohPoh

Anyways you know maybe If I lowered my resoultion my frame dropping problem would clear up a bit?

Probably

Originally posted by PohPoh

However (I am no expert either) would I still get Full Screen, High Quality?

You will still get the full screen picture at a lower resolution, it just has less detail. But my point is that, as far as I know, VHS is not detailed enough to make much difference between 640*480 or 352*288.
But of course I would suggest, that you try doing a few test at both resolutions and compare the result at full screen playback.