No DivX options in PowerDirector Pro?

[Freiheit]

I've got PowerDirector Pro (2.1 ME) which came with my Asus TV Tuner Card. It's a nice program but it gives no real options when saving captured video to DivX format. I have DivX 5.0.2 installed in Win2K.

A piece of video I captured in MPEG-1 format (default options) took about 10MB per minute of video while the same clip converted to DivX 5.0.2 by PowerDirector took about 5 times as much disk space! Something's really wrong here.

I wonder if anyone knows -- is the lack of DivX options just a limitation of this OEM version of PowerDirector? Does the full version allow one to select bitrate and quality settings, etc? Normally I use RAD Video Tools to covnert to DivX but it seems to have problems handling the MPEG audio input, though it does produce much smaller DivX files.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Freiheit

[UncasMS]

did you set a compression or cant you even access compression level within your tool?

[Freiheit]

Selecting compression

Well there's just a general option when you select AVI as the output type (instead of MPEG-I or MPEG-2) -- that option is for "Low Quality", "Medium Quality" or "High Quality", and when you select one you can then select the compression codec. This is where I choose DivX 5.0.2 but all other quality related controls are grayed out.

There is a "Data Rate" box which always says "230 Kbps (low-speed Modem)" no matter which quality setting I chose originally, and there is a slider at the bottom labeled "Quality" with options of "Better Compression" and "Better Quality" but this control is grayed out so I cannot change it. It always defaults to "Better Quality".

[UncasMS]

many people prefer virtualdub for capturing.

have you ever tried vd?

if not do you read german?

if so, read this :

http://reloadworld.de/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1997

[Freiheit]

On your advice I tried VirtualDub. It capture my video alright and compressed it nicely, but it failed to capture my audio. It did PRETEND to capture the audio and made the fille very large but when I play the video I hear no sound.

I think I may be onto something here, though -- when I captured the video in VirtualDub and saved as DivX format (512Kbps) it showed me that the video was running about 2MB per minute but audio was being calculated as much more. I think my file size issues are due to both programs not supporting mp3 audio output, so I am forced to use uncompressed PCM audio. Both programs (VirtualDub and PowerDirector) appear to suffer from Microsoft's fear of open standards and limit mp3 audio to 56Kbps.

Any way to fix this artificial problem while still using one of these 2 programs?

[setarip]

(I assume you have the Radium .MP3 codec, or similar, already installed on your system)

1) Load the captured DivX-compressed .AVI with Uncompressed PCM (WAV) audio into VirtualDub

2) Set "Video" to "Direct Stream Copy"

3) Set "Audio" to "Full Processing Mode"

4) From under the "Audio" dropdown menu, select "Compression" - and choose the desired MPEG-Layer3 (.MP3) setting

5) From the "File" dropdown menu, select "Save AVI" - and save with a new filename.

Play the new file to ascertain that you've retained audio/video synchronization. If so, you can delete the ORIGINAL large capture file.

Let us know of your success ;>}

[Freiheit]

Tried that with lameenc, where's radium?

That's what I have tried in the past, but the mp3 compression options top out at 56Kbps with 22KHz sampling rate.

I have lameenc.dll installed but I also made the mistake of "upgrading" to MediaPlayer 7.1 -- is there a better encoder and if so where do I get it?

Thanks!

[UncasMS]

are you using an hauppauge card?

[setarip]

"but I also made the mistake of "upgrading" to MediaPlayer 7.1"

To reinstall the far more "cooperative" Windows Media Player v.6.4, simply do the following from your desktop:

Start>>Run - Type MPLAYER2.EXE

[Freiheit]

Not Hauppage, Asus.

No I'm not using a Hauppage card, I am using an Asus TV Tuner (pci) card - I believe it's one of their newer products and it works well, it's just this inability to get good file sizes with DivX and (high quality) mp3 that's bothering me now.

As to the MediaPlayer 6.4, thanks for the suggetion. It is working but I still only have the 56Kbps limit when encoding mp3's from both VirtualDub and PowerDirector.

Thanks again,
Freiheit

[setarip]

"I still only have the 56Kbps limit when encoding mp3's"

Try downloading and installing the Radium (Fraunhoefer hack) .MP3 codec. Then, from within your Control Panel, select "Multimedia" and deactivate all .MP3 codecs EXCEPT the one with the word "Professional" included in the description. Reboot (cold) your system and see if this doesn't resolve your problem...