Question about codec settings for capturing from Hi8

[jarsoffart]

I recently purchased a Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP for the intention of capturing Hi8 video onto my computer. I connected it using composite video and audio from a camcorder I borrowed from someone because mine broke. I want to keep as much quality as possible. I used the bundled software and the DivX 5.02 codec 1-pass quality-based to encode with nothing enabled (no GMC, no Quarter Pixel, no psychovisual effects, nothing). I set the number in the box to 2 and it said 100%. I used those settings and set it to record. The resulting captured video is choppy. Then I decided to use Virtual Dub and told it to not compress at all and use full frames (I planned on encoding it later), but it would only capture at 320x240. What program and settings should I use? I don't mind having to encode later. I've checked DivX-Digest and the article they had wasn't too useful. Please help...

 

[oldfart]

Why DivX? What are you going to do with the captures when you are done? I'm in a similar situation. My 8mm camcoder broke. I borrowed one and am in the process of converting all the 8mm tapes to SVCD. The advantage of SVCD is it can be played in a home DVD player. The project is going well. I can get 1 Hr of very good quality video on a 700 Meg CDR. A really good site is VCDhelp.com. I'm pretty good at VirtualDub settings for VCD/SVCD capture, but haven't messed with DivX. I just got a new Canon DV camcorder which makes it easier. I use the A->D passthrough feature. I connect the 8mm analog out to analog in on the DV cam, and capture to the PC via the firewire port. Works very nice.

 

[rbV5]

Check out THIS generic capture driver for your card. It seems to work well with BT chip based capture cards, and should allow you to cap at full resolution.

I like Vdub with huffyuv compression for captures, and Nandub with Div3.11a 2 pass SBC for encoding. I'm also eagerly awaiting my Premiere 6.5 upgrade and Adobe's new MPEG-2 encoder for DVD/SVCD authoring.

Good Luck!

 

[Jeff7]

What speed is your processor? Compressing video in realtime needs a pretty speedy processor; I'm not sure if your particular TV tuner does any video compression in the hardware, as the "features" page for the Winfast TV2000XP doesn't seem to have any detailed technical specifications.
In this case, you might have to do two-step encoding - record the video to the hard drive in a lightly compressed, high quality format, then use another utility to recompress it to Divx, or some other compact format. I'm finding that Vidomi is an adequate utility to convert video to different formats. It doesn't include any real editing features to cut out sections of video, but then again, it is free.
If you do use Vidomi, for some reason, it doesn't install a shortcut to the actual Encoder. The file is in the "Program Files\Vidomi" folder - simply called "encoder.exe" - that's the thing you want.
rbV5 - thanks for that link. Might finally be able to get my TV Master (bt848 chip) working on a WinXP system. With the Win2k drivers, XP kept detecting all sorts of new devices that didn't exist.

 

[oldfart]

For really good MPEG-2 encoding, TMPGEnc Plus cant be beat. I'm doing 2 pass VBR (variable bitrate) encoding with it. It is the only way to get 1 HR of very good quality video in SVCD format on one CDR disk. Every other MPEG encoder I've tried only does CBR. Its $48. There is also a free version available HERE, but it does not support 2 pass VBR MPEG-2.

For VirtualDub capture, I also like the huffyuv codec. Use the resolution applicable for the format you are encoding to (SVCD is 480 x 480). Use as little compression as possible to fit the capture on your HD.

 

[jarsoffart]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
What speed is your processor?

I have a Athlon XP 1700+ with a 100 gig WD1000BB and an IBM 60gig 60GXP all connected to an Abit KR7A, so I think I have enough disk space and speed. I really want to capture as much quality as I can from the Hi8 tapes and encode them to make them a reasonable size. I really don't mind how long it takes. I don't mind capturing at full frames then encoding. I'm going to check out that huffyuv stuff, but are there any other ways? When I bought the TV2000XP I really wasn't prepared to have many problems with the video being choppy or something.

 

[teddymines]

I'm capturing hi-8 as you are, and producing VCD's. Use VirtualDub to capture to AVI using the huffyuv or mjpeg codecs. Then feed the AVI file through Tmpgenc to produce the mpeg of choice. Both apps are freeware and there are many guides and posts at vcdhelp.

 

[oldfart]

teddymines, if your DVD player will play SVCD's, and you dont mind the long MPEG2 encoding time, an SVCD looks MUCH better than a VCD. Well worth the effort IMHO.

 

[teddymines]

Originally posted by: oldfart
teddymines, if your DVD player will play SVCD's, and you dont mind the long MPEG2 encoding time, an SVCD looks MUCH better than a VCD. Well worth the effort IMHO.

Agreed, but my DVD player is very picky (the Sony DVP-S360) and only plays VCD's on about 2 types of CDR media. Maybe is Santa gets my note...