Capturing TV in DivX

[yellowperil]

I just got a TV Wonder VE today, and want to capture an episode of Friends for a friend . So far I downloaded DivX codec 4.12, iuVCR (for capturing 640x480 video), and Virtualdub (for converting audio to MP3). I am still messing with the settings but can't seem to get the filesize below 100MB (for 22-23 min video w/o commercials). Does anyone have any tips for making the file smaller without sacrificing too much quality?

BTW I am encoding the DivX real-time, 1-pass on Slow...should I record it first and compress it later with 2-pass?

 

[Spikesoldier]

Try encoding into .asf.

 

[Willoughbyva]

If both you are using windows; try windows media encoder 7.1 from MS.

 

[yellowperil]

I downloaded Windows Media Encoder 8, but it is a command-line tool. For some reason I can't find a way to have it encode the TV-input in real time. Can anyone help? Thanks

 

[Willoughbyva]

The 7.1 version says it has the ability to encode in windows media 8 settings. The one you downloaded came out before the 7.1 update, I think it is used for converting files that were already encoded or something. The ver 7.1 is all you probably need it will capture from device and encode or it will convert all through the click of a mouse type thing and not command line.

Good luck with it.

Will

 

[yellowperil]

Thanks for your help Willoughbyva. I tried encoding an .wmv with 500/128mbps settings, but for some reason the video quality is somewhat poor (the filesize is small though). Any higher bitrates and my computer can't process the video in real-time fast enough, lots of skipped frames. WME7.1 is far easier to use than the mentioned programs, at least.

Is there any way I can encode the video into a less CPU intensive format than DivX, and convert it to DivX after it's done recording? I don't have enough HD space for uncompressed AVI. I have about 20 video codecs listed under iuVCR, I am not sure which ones would fit this purpose. Thanks