converting mpeg-2

[diamond dave]

Hi folks!
I'm brand new to this forum. I want to ask everyone what I can do with some videos I have. I am using InterVideo WinDVR to record some great collections of assorted things on videotape...I record in "best quality" mode directly from a composite video line from the vcr to my MSI tvanywhere card. The resulting picture looks great! It is in Mpeg-2 format, 640x480, 6400 Kbits/sec video...audio is MPEG-1 Layer II, 44.1 kHz 16-bit Stereo 224KBits/sec.
I want to share some of my videos online and via cdr to friends.
My question is: using Virtual Dub-mod, what do you think would be the best settings to use (compression,etc.) in order to get the file size down a bit and make it easier to share with the greatest number of people? (ie:compatiable with most folks' players and codecs) I tried DivX MPEG-4 fast motion with VirtualDub and the result looked great, and was about 1/3 the size as well.
Any of your comments would be appreciated!
Sincerely,
Diamond Dave

[BoF]

I would recommend a 2-pass xvid encoding + ogg vorbis. you can encode with virtualdubmod.
codecs needed for playback:
_ ffdshow alpha (a must have)
_ Tobias' oggDS

[shiny#3]

If possible use the S-Video line in of your MSI TVanywhere
for enhanced picture quality while capturing.

[techno]

Check out my site for capturing.

I personally prefer to capture using no recompression (using a Hauppauge WinTV GO PCI card), then encode to MPEG 2 - usng 2 different settings, then a 2 pass on it or a fast motion on it with 6000 bitrate.

Check my site for details

[diamond dave]

Thanks for your replies. BoF: For "video compression" in virtualdub I selected XviD MPEG-4 Codec with configure set to "2 pass-1st pass" but I am unfamiliar with ogg vorbis...I can read up on it but I am unsure how to incorporate it into the audio part of my captures.
shiny#3: for the S-Video line in on my MSI card I would likely need a super video out from my source (I only have composite and rf out on my vcr)
techno: I visited your site and read the capture section...thanks for the info.

Before I realized that Virtualdub Mod would read and work with my MPEG-2 format captures from the MSI card, I was using Windows Movie Maker and saving some recordings to my hard drive. But I did not care for the quality of wmv, and actually I found it bothersome to work with...especially for editing out parts of video. I liked the results from using DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion and Direct Stream Copy (AVI) for the audio in Virtualdub. If I "botch" other attempts and methods, I would guess that the MPEG-4 would be preferable to wmv by most folks?
Thanks again for your input
Diamond Dave