The VoodooTV 200 will supposidly do realtime MPEG2 compression on 720x540? (some odd number) on a faster machine (like 700mhz). It guarantees HARDWARE MPEG1 compression (which doesn't support anythign higher than 320). If you wanna do recording definately take a look at the new VTV 200, it uses a new digital tuner and should give much better quality, although you may need different software because I've heard the bundle blows goat balls.
Homerboy
Lifer
- Mar 1, 2000
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Ok SOMEWHAT related question.
I have a Sony DV camcorder and I want to xfer my recordings to the PC and compress to fit onto CD etc. When I do a video capture via my firewire and using Ulead Media Pro 6.0(?) It automatically creates .avi files and are HUGE (gigs worth here).
Is there any way to cover to mpg or better DiVX on the fly?
ANy help would be GREATLY appreciated.
I have a Sony DV camcorder and I want to xfer my recordings to the PC and compress to fit onto CD etc. When I do a video capture via my firewire and using Ulead Media Pro 6.0(?) It automatically creates .avi files and are HUGE (gigs worth here).
Is there any way to cover to mpg or better DiVX on the fly?
ANy help would be GREATLY appreciated.
I don't know anything about the Voodoo TV or capturing from a firewire port, so I'll leave that alone. For the most part. Isn't firewire just about transfering data? It's the software that encodes/decodes the stuff. Anyway, I'll leave that to whomever else.
As to SciFi's Dune. It looks to be a remake. And a very good one, at that. Check out the official site,, the trailers, (you'll need QuickTime 4), or try out these direct links. The first (~7.17 mb), and
the second (~4.14 mb).
As to SciFi's Dune. It looks to be a remake. And a very good one, at that. Check out the official site,, the trailers, (you'll need QuickTime 4), or try out these direct links. The first (~7.17 mb), and
the second (~4.14 mb).
I would agree with xtreme2k, but I'd also argue against buying any card that only supported one format. Be that one format be MJPEG, MPEG-1, -2, ad naseum.
When it comes to distributed conversion, yikes. You've got me stumped there.
I will say that I've never seen any such software, but I've not looked for it either.
And links to VirtualDub have already been provided. Why would you want to encode at 50 fps? Pardon my bluntness, but that's just stupid. NTSC is encoded at, what, 29.97 and PAL at ~24.97. By re-encoding it at 50 FPS, you're not seeing any improvement, just unnecessarily taxing your CPU.
When it comes to distributed conversion, yikes. You've got me stumped there.
I will say that I've never seen any such software, but I've not looked for it either.And links to VirtualDub have already been provided.
Why would you want to encode at 50 fps? Pardon my bluntness, but that's just stupid. NTSC is encoded at, what, 29.97 and PAL at ~24.97. By re-encoding it at 50 FPS, you're not seeing any improvement, just unnecessarily taxing your CPU.sory you get 50fps wrong
what i meant was my comp can encode at 50 frames per second
that is above 30fps real time, it takes my comp 0.6sec to encode 1sec
do u get what i mean?
what i meant was my comp can encode at 50 frames per second
that is above 30fps real time, it takes my comp 0.6sec to encode 1sec
do u get what i mean?
This is a remake of Dune, the appearance is naturally going to be much better, whether or not the acting and the way they transfer the story from paper to the screen is any good remains to be seen. The trailers are very tantalizing though.
I read 3dfx's FAQ on the VoodooTV, and none of the models supports MPEG2. Only MPEG1.
I think what I'm going to do is go out in a little while and pick up a VoodooTV 200 and see how that works out.
Grr....Best Buy, CompUSA and Electronics Boutique are the only places listed by 3dfx as having it, and none of them list it on their websites. I may end up getting a WinTV+FM.
I read 3dfx's FAQ on the VoodooTV, and none of the models supports MPEG2. Only MPEG1.
I think what I'm going to do is go out in a little while and pick up a VoodooTV 200 and see how that works out.
Grr....Best Buy, CompUSA and Electronics Boutique are the only places listed by 3dfx as having it, and none of them list it on their websites. I may end up getting a WinTV+FM.
<<I read 3dfx's FAQ on the VoodooTV, and none of the models supports MPEG2. Only MPEG1.>>
Their OEM documents say it does. The rumor is they aren't saying it does because if you don't have a 700mhz processor or higher it won't work. So I'm guessing you can do MPEG2, but they won't admit it because they don't want joe schmoe idiot on a p133 calling them and saying MPEG2 doesn't work.
Their OEM documents say it does. The rumor is they aren't saying it does because if you don't have a 700mhz processor or higher it won't work. So I'm guessing you can do MPEG2, but they won't admit it because they don't want joe schmoe idiot on a p133 calling them and saying MPEG2 doesn't work.
If you really want to go hi-quality you might be interested in the Dazzle Digital Video Creator II. Realtime hi quality MPEG-2 capture and editing. It will cost you a bit but I think it can be had at buy.com with coupon for around $200 bucks. The only reason I would say to go this route would be that TV cards do not capture well for any major project and realtime compression on them sucks leaving you Full Frames (which is frickin' huge in filesize).
Good Luck,
ERJ
Good Luck,
ERJ
I was looking at the Dazzle products, but they don't have a cable input, so it's useless to me. They only have S-Video or composite.
Homerboy, to answer your question about DV AVI to MPEG conversion, Terran Cleaner 5.0 will do what you want. That is what I use. It includes Digital Origin MotoDV to do the captures in quicktime format..can do batch processing in 2gb segments..then when the batch capture is complete, you can use cleaner to actually convert the quicktime files to AVI, Real Media, ASF, Mpeg 1, MPEG 2 or VCD. Unbelievable product but costs >$400. Although I'm sure if you look hard enough you can find it for less.. I can get 1 HR of DV video into MPEG format in 200MB or so..
I can get 1 HR of DV video into MPEG format in 200MB or so..Okay, don't use MJPEG to record Dune. I know, a retraction from what I had suggested earlier. But with good reason, I believe.
Don't get me wrong, MJPEG does a fantastic job. In 2 hours, it only dropped 10 frames, but that can be attributed to not having defragmented my hard drive. And the picture was good. There was only one caveat: I did my first trial using 320x240x24b. The file size ended up just at the 2 gig marker. Any larger and I would've been screwed. So, if you wanted to get it all at ounce, you'd lose out.
That said, I've been playing with Microsoft Media Encoder. Smaller file sizes still, but much better audio quality. The same problem though, I only captured at 320x240 (32b this time). I could not keep up the fps at 640x480. It still looked very good when zoomed.
More tests to follow...
Don't get me wrong, MJPEG does a fantastic job. In 2 hours, it only dropped 10 frames, but that can be attributed to not having defragmented my hard drive. And the picture was good. There was only one caveat: I did my first trial using 320x240x24b. The file size ended up just at the 2 gig marker. Any larger and I would've been screwed. So, if you wanted to get it all at ounce, you'd lose out.
That said, I've been playing with Microsoft Media Encoder. Smaller file sizes still, but much better audio quality. The same problem though, I only captured at 320x240 (32b this time). I could not keep up the fps at 640x480. It still looked very good when zoomed.
More tests to follow...
Well, I picked up a VoodooTV 200 at Best Buy. They didn't have any WinTV+FM in stock, and I was hopeful that the Voodoo might get a little better picture since it's pure digital and all that.
I'm hoping it's the VoodooTV and not that I just have sucky cable, but the image is just plain horrible. I can't even accurately describe it. It looks like a VHS tape that was copied over 10 times at the longest play setting possible.
Plus, even on a 700MHz system that's perfect at everything else, just loading the TV viewer program (VirtualReality) or moving the window around causes the system to stutter. If I try to open the options menu while watching TV, the image freezes for several seconds then jumps to current.
Resize also doesn't work properly. When I move the window around and then resize it, the image doesn't follow right. The actual video seems to stay in the same place it was originally, at the same size. So I end up with a black window moving around, and if I move it back to where it was before, the video image appears (or just part of it if I don't move it to the exact place), like moving a wall with a hole in it around until the TV screen can be seen through the hole.
Considering the VoodooTV is supposed to be doing all the decoding of the signal and sending it directly to the video card, I don't see why the system would lock up so badly just opening a menu item.
The only possible cause I can find for problems in my system is that it's sharing an IRQ with my SCSI card. But I can't change this, it's being forced by the slot it's in. I'd try it in a different slot, but it won't make any difference because it will still share. The only other free slots are PCI1 which shares IRQ with the AGP port, and PCI6 which shares with PCI5 (network card). Maybe there's a lot of EMI in the system, but I don't have any other problems.
I know that my cable isn't perfect, I don't think any is, but never before have I seen it this bad. I even looked at it the first time then went into my living room and turned on the TV. Then I realized just how bad cable really is when it's not digital (we got rid of the digital service last month when we realized how much it was costing and we weren't making much use of it). However the TV image looked nowhere near as bad as this VoodooTV does.
Oh yeah, I did download the newest available drivers and version of the TV software, and I've tried all the combinations of video settings.
So this weekend, unless someone suggests a fix or I can find one myself, I'll probably take this back and try for a WinTV+FM and see whether that makes any difference. I'm going to be seriously pissed if it's just that my cable sucks.
I'm hoping it's the VoodooTV and not that I just have sucky cable, but the image is just plain horrible. I can't even accurately describe it. It looks like a VHS tape that was copied over 10 times at the longest play setting possible.
Plus, even on a 700MHz system that's perfect at everything else, just loading the TV viewer program (VirtualReality) or moving the window around causes the system to stutter. If I try to open the options menu while watching TV, the image freezes for several seconds then jumps to current.
Resize also doesn't work properly. When I move the window around and then resize it, the image doesn't follow right. The actual video seems to stay in the same place it was originally, at the same size. So I end up with a black window moving around, and if I move it back to where it was before, the video image appears (or just part of it if I don't move it to the exact place), like moving a wall with a hole in it around until the TV screen can be seen through the hole.
Considering the VoodooTV is supposed to be doing all the decoding of the signal and sending it directly to the video card, I don't see why the system would lock up so badly just opening a menu item.
The only possible cause I can find for problems in my system is that it's sharing an IRQ with my SCSI card. But I can't change this, it's being forced by the slot it's in. I'd try it in a different slot, but it won't make any difference because it will still share. The only other free slots are PCI1 which shares IRQ with the AGP port, and PCI6 which shares with PCI5 (network card). Maybe there's a lot of EMI in the system, but I don't have any other problems.
I know that my cable isn't perfect, I don't think any is, but never before have I seen it this bad. I even looked at it the first time then went into my living room and turned on the TV. Then I realized just how bad cable really is when it's not digital (we got rid of the digital service last month when we realized how much it was costing and we weren't making much use of it). However the TV image looked nowhere near as bad as this VoodooTV does.
Oh yeah, I did download the newest available drivers and version of the TV software, and I've tried all the combinations of video settings.
So this weekend, unless someone suggests a fix or I can find one myself, I'll probably take this back and try for a WinTV+FM and see whether that makes any difference. I'm going to be seriously pissed if it's just that my cable sucks.
I found a nice little progie for avi to m1v (what the heck is m1v?) windows media player plays it fine, but is it compressable any more than that? i got a 300meg file down to 18 megs
ooohhhhhhhhhhh boy!
i just looked at the trailers and they are good. but we dont get SiFi channel here in toronto. tho Space might carry it. If not, i would be greatful if someone could provide a copy of the episodes?
i just looked at the trailers and they are good. but we dont get SiFi channel here in toronto. tho Space might carry it. If not, i would be greatful if someone could provide a copy of the episodes?
Don't worry about file size. Get yourself a copy of Virtualdub. With this you can do multi-file captures (i.e. every 2gb it will automatically create a new file, no 2gb limit ). And the best thing is that it is free.
ERJ
). And the best thing is that it is free.ERJ
hmm i get the feelin im gonna hafta unpack my ati all in wonder pci 8mb, and start messin with recodording again, you all sound like your havin fun. . . . . virtual dub sounds very usefull
Definitely grab either VirtualDub or AVI_IO, either one will allow you to make multisegment captures. However, AVI_IO is not free, so I favor VirtualDub which coincidentally offers very powerful editing features. With regard to capture format, my understanding is that you want to preserve as much quality as possible. In that case, you should definitely look at capturing into some lossless format and then later compress that into MPEG4/DivX. Of course that requires some massive hard drive storage, but you most definitely do not need a cutting-edge hard drive. I have captured full-framerate 640x480 material with a 4400rpm Quantum LCT series hard drive.
The best quality solution I've found is to capture with Ben Rudiak-Gould's lossless HuffYUV codec. If you allow the codec to use a slightly lossy compression (YUY2), you will get much better compression, however I have not used this particular method myself. The author claims the two are virtually indistinguishable. When used losslessly, it takes around 35GB to capture 2 hours of video. That's hard to swallow at first, but when you consider that we can now buy this much storage for around $100, it's pretty insignificant. I bought one of the WD 45GB 5400rpm monsters from CompUSA for $100 a few weeks ago, and a 40GB 7200 for $109 from Buy.com soon thereafter. Again, the ~17GB/hour scenario is worst case, if you allow HuffYUV to encode slightly lossy, you might be able to get much better compression with no perceptible loss in quality. If you're interested, I will test this tonight and get back to you.
I have not had good results with MJPEG...in order to maintain acceptable quality, the bitrate must exceed that which is necessary to capture with HuffYUV losslessly.
You may want to try capturing directly with DivX compression, but I don't think that will be possible without dropping frames. A prior post mentions encoding at 50 fps, I have never seen or even heard of a machine that will encode that quickly (full framerate, 640x480). A dual Athlon 1GHz rig, maybe. Capturing 50fps in any format is a feat, let alone a compressed format which is so computationally intense. My 850MHz Celeron will encode 640x480 video at approximately 15fps if optimally configured, and will then drop frames during high-motion sequences. I acknowledge a Celeron isn't a best case scenario due to the intense FP arithmetic involved, but doing realtime, full-framerate encoding to DivX has been ruled out by every authority on the subject I've ever seen (that includes DVDDigest, its associated forum, and several well respected authorities on the subject).
BTW, I'm grabbing the Dune trailer right now to see if I want to capture it too!
Best regards,
Floyd
The best quality solution I've found is to capture with Ben Rudiak-Gould's lossless HuffYUV codec. If you allow the codec to use a slightly lossy compression (YUY2), you will get much better compression, however I have not used this particular method myself. The author claims the two are virtually indistinguishable. When used losslessly, it takes around 35GB to capture 2 hours of video. That's hard to swallow at first, but when you consider that we can now buy this much storage for around $100, it's pretty insignificant. I bought one of the WD 45GB 5400rpm monsters from CompUSA for $100 a few weeks ago, and a 40GB 7200 for $109 from Buy.com soon thereafter. Again, the ~17GB/hour scenario is worst case, if you allow HuffYUV to encode slightly lossy, you might be able to get much better compression with no perceptible loss in quality. If you're interested, I will test this tonight and get back to you.
I have not had good results with MJPEG...in order to maintain acceptable quality, the bitrate must exceed that which is necessary to capture with HuffYUV losslessly.
You may want to try capturing directly with DivX compression, but I don't think that will be possible without dropping frames. A prior post mentions encoding at 50 fps, I have never seen or even heard of a machine that will encode that quickly (full framerate, 640x480). A dual Athlon 1GHz rig, maybe. Capturing 50fps in any format is a feat, let alone a compressed format which is so computationally intense. My 850MHz Celeron will encode 640x480 video at approximately 15fps if optimally configured, and will then drop frames during high-motion sequences. I acknowledge a Celeron isn't a best case scenario due to the intense FP arithmetic involved, but doing realtime, full-framerate encoding to DivX has been ruled out by every authority on the subject I've ever seen (that includes DVDDigest, its associated forum, and several well respected authorities on the subject).
BTW, I'm grabbing the Dune trailer right now to see if I want to capture it too!
Best regards,
Floyd
Kick ass, Floyd. Hmm... maybe we should just have one of us capture/encode it, burn it on CDs, then just distribute them for a buck or two to cover the cost of the CD....
I've heard of Hufy, but I've never tried it. Maybe I'll downgrade my system to IDE and pick up a 45 gig'er to try this out...
Hmm... maybe we should just have one of us capture/encode it, burn it on CDs, then just distribute them for a buck or two to cover the cost of the CD.... I've heard of Hufy, but I've never tried it. Maybe I'll downgrade my system to IDE and pick up a 45 gig'er to try this out...
"Why would you want to encode at 50 fps? Pardon my bluntness, but that's just stupid. NTSC is encoded at, what, 29.97 and PAL at ~24.97"
actually, NTSC is 60fps however that's partly because it's an interlaced signal.
ie, the TV draws every 2nd line of the screen, and finishes half the screen every 1/60th of a second.
so you could theoretically see a difference, esp in high action scenes.
however to capture such high framerates, you'd need a more pro rig!
finally, what I would do in your situation, is get that Voodoo TV200 working (it SHOULD be alot better then what u describe), and record nearly raw (minimum compression, not too much, as the more compression schemes u run on the same file will add up artifacts). after which I would compress it to Divx format.
actually, NTSC is 60fps however that's partly because it's an interlaced signal.
ie, the TV draws every 2nd line of the screen, and finishes half the screen every 1/60th of a second.
so you could theoretically see a difference, esp in high action scenes.
however to capture such high framerates, you'd need a more pro rig!
finally, what I would do in your situation, is get that Voodoo TV200 working (it SHOULD be alot better then what u describe), and record nearly raw (minimum compression, not too much, as the more compression schemes u run on the same file will add up artifacts). after which I would compress it to Divx format.
hmm, i think i know someone who might be able to help, i was in the forums at www.gideontech.com, and some one had a quad zeon system. at home, maybe if some one asked, and we chipped him some cash for cd's and shipping (and beer for while he installed a tv in card) he might be able to encode it and distrib it eh?? what you guys think, 50 fps 640-480 and highly compressed, hmmm
> "Hmm... maybe we should just have one of us capture/encode it, burn it on CDs, then just distribute them for a buck or two to cover the cost of the CD...." <
Praetor, you negotiating?
Considering the amount of work involved, that's not a bad idea. If I understand correctly, this is a six hour series being shown in three two-hour segments. Is that correct? What is the interval between the three parts? All the editing and compression of the each piece would have to be completed by the time the next part airs (to free up space for capture).
> "hmm, i think i know someone who might be able to help, i was in the forums at www.gideontech.com, and some one had a quad zeon system. at home, maybe if some one asked, and we chipped him some cash for cd's and shipping (and beer for while he installed a tv in card) he might be able to encode it and distrib it eh?? what you guys think, 50fps 640-480 and highly compressed, hmmm" <
ArkAoss, this guy definitely sounds like he has the requisite hardware...quad Xeon, jeez, I thought I had a hardware addiction. The only problem is, assuming he were to agree to do the job, this is not the type of project you would want to saddle onto someone who has no experience with video capture. It's not exactly rocket science, but not for the faint of heart either. It takes a judicious amount of trial and error experience to get a feeling for what works and what doesn't, and the strengths, weaknesses, and quirks (there are plenty) of the different software editors. Don't get me wrong, I'm not slamming the idea, just trying to keep it realistic.
Best regards,
Floyd
Praetor, you negotiating?
Considering the amount of work involved, that's not a bad idea. If I understand correctly, this is a six hour series being shown in three two-hour segments. Is that correct? What is the interval between the three parts? All the editing and compression of the each piece would have to be completed by the time the next part airs (to free up space for capture).
> "hmm, i think i know someone who might be able to help, i was in the forums at www.gideontech.com, and some one had a quad zeon system. at home, maybe if some one asked, and we chipped him some cash for cd's and shipping (and beer for while he installed a tv in card) he might be able to encode it and distrib it eh?? what you guys think, 50fps 640-480 and highly compressed, hmmm" <
ArkAoss, this guy definitely sounds like he has the requisite hardware...quad Xeon, jeez, I thought I had a hardware addiction. The only problem is, assuming he were to agree to do the job, this is not the type of project you would want to saddle onto someone who has no experience with video capture. It's not exactly rocket science, but not for the faint of heart either. It takes a judicious amount of trial and error experience to get a feeling for what works and what doesn't, and the strengths, weaknesses, and quirks (there are plenty) of the different software editors. Don't get me wrong, I'm not slamming the idea, just trying to keep it realistic.
Best regards,
Floyd
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