capturing Analog VHS to AVI in not too big size.

[mike722]

Hi all,

I have an analog capture card that I want to capture video footage at 720x480 in order to transfer to DVD. The card came with some software called PlayTV which allows you to capture the analog source to an AVI file. The problem is that every minute of footage is using 1.2gb of space, which is too much for my hard drive as I dont have enough space.. I have also WIN DVR which allows you to encode straght to an 720x480 mpeg2 but there is alot of flickering on the outputted mpeg2 file, which I think is down to my PC not being able to keep up with the realtime encoding.. Does anyone know of any software that can capture the analog source to 720x480 AVI with something similar to a DV codec which would give me a file size of about 1 gig per 5 mins of footage which I can then convert to mpeg 2 afterwards?
Im really struggling at the moment, any help appreciated,

cheers

Mike

[Floppy]

Hello

How big is your drive?

The next things is quality settings on your capture program are probably set to best quality. a;so try reduce the video size down...

Can you upload a screen capture of your settings on the program?

Would u click on the vote link on my signature please, its a multiple option, free, and no strings attached, no information about yourself will be collected or needed....

Good things

[Kosiji]

need help!!!!!!!!!!!

I made one SVCD using Nero Express, it came out pretty good without any modification, except the format apparently was off by enough to make the subtitles appear very low on the TV screen, so low that they get cutoff. what do i do?

[mike722]

there are no settings except the capture resolution. It just captues to uncompressed AVI.
Because I want to take the footage to NTSC DVD I need to capture at 720x480 to get the best quality possible when outputting to mpeg2. I only have about 40Gig of free space on my HD and would need to capture up to 2 hours of footage. What would be perfect would be if I could capture to the DV codec (5:1 ratio), but is there such a program that would do that from an analog capture card?

cheers (i voted from the link you included)

[Floppy]

Hello

Just been looking at a piece of software that should help, I never used it but you can try it out it is called STOIK Capturer

I think you will still need 20/30GB of HD though for the whole 2 hours...

Your card is capturing on DVD quality hence the 720x480 VHS is about half of that...

Thanks for the vote

Good things

[Floppy]

Re: need help!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Kosiji
I made one SVCD using Nero Express, it came out pretty good without any modification, except the format apparently was off by enough to make the subtitles appear very low on the TV screen, so low that they get cutoff. what do i do?

Already answered to you on your original post

[mike722]

hey, thanks alot. The software that you found does exactly what I requested. Captures analog to DV codec. I tried it out, but for some reason the quality really drops down (to the point where it isnt useable), so looks like I need to use no compression at all and buy a bigger hard drive, but now I am wondeing if I should look into buying a analog to digital external USB2 converter. Have you used one before? I beleive that there are some that can even convert your source directly to mpeg 2. Does the USB box do all the processing when that happens? At the moment when I try to go direct to mpeg 2 with windvr there is a lot of flickering and stalling on the outputed file which I figured was down to my PC not being able to cope with the demand, so if this box takes care of all the processing then hopefully it will give a much improved mpeg2 right?

Cheers

Mike

[gary172]

mike722:
I am surprised that your files sizes are that big ("1.2G / 1 min"). I routinely convert VHS tapes to .AVI using Ulead Video Studio 7 or Nero 6 Ultra and then convert to MPEG2 and author the DVD.

A 1 hour VHS tape captured at 740x480 generates a file that is about 13 to 15 Gig. I use a Canopus AVDV50 DV to AVI converter.
I can also capture directly as an MPEG2 with same software.

I am not familar with your capture card (u didn't mention what it is) or software. I would investigate any card settings/ jumpers, if any, and software settings first. I would then get buy Nero Ultra 6. It's a great piece of software for doing all kinds of CD / DVD burning stuff and encoding.

[Floppy]

Hello

Your welcome

After all this I looked at Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Expert and I stumbled across that one.

I will ask santa 4 one... at that price with all the stuff and support... A must!

About your question mike no, I have never used one...

Gary would you u click on the vote link on my signature please, its a multiple option, free, and no strings attached, no information about yourself will be collected or needed....