Best capture settings?

[drfsupercenter]

I followed paglamon's advice and uninstalled Windows Installer 3.1, now I can capture with Ulead. It works better in Movie Wizard, since Pinnacle/ VS Editor takes up too much memory.

Anyway, due to the restrictions of USB, I can't capture in 640x480 at 29.97 fps. So I did a couple tests (then compressed with DivX, so blame the low quality on that):
This is good quality, 640x480, but at 20fps:
http://drfsupercenter.3lo.net/Test%201.1.avi (70 MB AVI)
You can see it lags a little, maybe like 18fps is better?
This is lower quality, but at NTSC framerate, 29.97fps (320x240):
http://drfsupercenter.3lo.net/Test%202.avi (30MB AVI)

Which is a better way to go, better picture, or NTSC? I can convert the framerate using benbryant's method. Maybe a mix would be better, like 500xsomething and 25fps?

Anyone have any insight? I want to capture the entire 3.5 hour Video Music Awards that I taped (the test is just the first 5 mins), and I have the next week off of school, so I got enough time. I would like to know what would be the most effective way to capture, that would still look good on a standard TV.

Thanks!

[paglamon]

Good to know that Ulead capture problem has been solved.Although I have Ulead,I prefer Virtualdubmod for capture using Picvideo MJPEG codec.AFAIK,video is captured as series of BMPs.Now MJPEG is Motion JPEG i.e it captures as series of JPEGs.Since JPEG is much smaller(file size) than BMP,MJPEG produces a much smaller file while quality is acceptable(compare a BMP to a JPEG).As for resolution,try to match the output resolution.If u see too many frame drops go for a lower one.And USB is not good for video capture.Firewire or Capture cards r much better.

[drfsupercenter]

VirtualDubMod has the same problem that Ulead has. It won't show the picture coming from the VCR, and won't show my capture card.

[drfsupercenter]

Firewire or Capture cards r much better.

Right, I know, but I am stuck with a USB card. I only have $50 in my bank (seriously!) so I can't buy stuff for a while until I get more money for my birthday.

[drfsupercenter]

Well, I am thinking, the entire video is 3.5 hours long. So to burn on a DVD it would not need to be SP quality. What quality should I use then, so it looks the best it can at 3.5 hrs on a standard disc?

[Sly Marier]

Video IN card ( capture )

Hy drfsupercenter,

I don't know how much fast is your computer but I've just buy a new one with a video IN card from MSI manufacturer and cost me 60$ Canadian to buy it. I'm doing some capture rigth now from a bell expressvu receiver and it's very fine. Can make mpg1/2/4, burn DVD, listen FM radio and do lots more.

I suggest you to go on MSI web site to check the specs.

Good luck !

[tigerman8u]

If your capture device/software allows try capturing at 1/2 D1 (352x480). This is a dvd compliant resoltion. If you can't capture at this resolution then capture at the highest resoution you can and encode the capture to 1/2 D1. I use VBR set at 1000 kbps min, 3000 kbps average and 4000 kbpsmax. Then author it and you should have no problem putting this on a SL dvd. This should give you a good quality back-up.

[drfsupercenter]

Won't 352x480 be more tall than wide?

Is there a 500xSomething?

[tigerman8u]

no. it's 1/2 d1 and 352x240 is 1/4 D1 and740x480 is full D1. Any of the 3 are a full dvd compliant resolution. Actually 704x480 is a dvd complant resolution also.

[paglamon]

drf, u might want to see this:

http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/video-capture.htm

[drfsupercenter]

Interesting, but this is the weird part. I went to the computer store last night and talked to one of the tech guys. He said that he uses a USB capture card and uses Roxio to capure at 720x480 29.97 fps without any frame loss. He said that USB IS capable of doing it, but the software like Ulead/Pinnacle takes up too much memory. I found one called Fx Video Cap that works OK but still drops some frames, but works great otherwise. Now, I bought this REALLY cheap PCI capture card, it captured fine at 29.97 fps without using that much memory, but didn't look good any bigger than 320x240. I will be returning it soon. Now, would it make sense to sell my USB card on eBay and invest on a good PCI card? I was also thinking of calling Pinnacle's support line and explaining the situation, and seeing if they could do some sort of replacement thing.

Just another random question, is there any way to get the Closed Captioning off of VHS tapes, so when burned to DVD you can still have the captions?

[moonrocks]

Drf, in my experience employees of Computer Stores - Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. are the last people you want to get any advice from. Almost anyone in this forum will give you better advice than you'll get there.

For video capture the hardware device counts more than the software you are using to capture. You need fast throughput of data to transfer analog video to your PC with good results. In terms of PCI cards, firewire or USB 2.0 devices, all things being equal, USB is at the bottom of the list. No software can get around that. The only big variable there is hardware compression or not.

A capture device with hardware compression really makes a big difference. It frees up the workload on your CPU so even slower systems with modest memory can still get a good capture. So a firewire device with hardware compression, like the Canopus boxes, can get better results than, for example, a good PCI card without hardware compression.

If you need a good low price capture card I'd recommend the Hauppauge PVR-150. It's a PCI card that uses hardware compression. It will capture straight to full-res mpeg2 without dropping frames. You should be able to find one for $50-60. I don't think you'll be able to find a decent capture device less than that.

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html

[drfsupercenter]

Drf, in my experience employees of Computer Stores - Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. are the last people you want to get any advice from. Almost anyone in this forum will give you better advice than you'll get there.

Yes, but the guy there is a computer expert, they pay people to help others with computer problems - I asked the tech, not the people who ring stuff up.

And my device does NOT have hardware compression, is that the cause of it not working right? Would it make sense to sell my card on eBay and buy myself a comprable PCI card?

[moonrocks]

Well, even if he's a "computer expert" if he's working retail his agenda isn't to give you the best info.

It's not that devices without hardware compression won't work right. Hardware compression only means that all the encoding of the video is done right on the card itself. This really frees up the resources of your PC. Now your CPU doesn't have to worry about encoding the video at the same time it's trying to write it to your hard drive.

There are some good PCI cards without hardware compression, like the ATI cards. Since the throughput of PCI is so much faster than USB they can still give good results without hardware compression.

I don't want to tell you whether to sell your capture device or not. That's up to you. But, if I had a USB capture device without hardware compression and I was dropping frames on a consistent basis, I'd definitely dump it and pick up a PCI card with hardware compression, like the PVR-150.

[drfsupercenter]

How much does the PVR-150 cost?

And, does it override Macrovision? That is a must for me.