**TV Cap/TUNER Questions*** PLEASE HELP!!

[ZoNtO]

Hey guys I had a couple of questions about tv capture. Really the only thing that I am capturing/encoding right now is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes every Saturday morning. Currently I capture an MPEG-2 @ 10 mbit CBR. Then I take this and use VDUB to cut out commercials and convert to HuffyUV. Then I take this Huffy copy and rip the wav out and normalize it, then encode it to MP3. That is what I use for the sound. Then I take the Huffy and cut 2 lines off the top (for the interference junk) and then use a little bit of brightness/contrast/gamma filtering. When all this is done, I encode to a DivX file using version 5.1 now @ 835-840 bitrate. This gives me a file that is right under 150mb.

The only problem is, the episodes seem a little dark anyway, even with my filtering, but I don't know if I want to increase the gamma on the actual capture through MMC 7.9. My capture card is the TV Wonder VE and I am just using gay old antenna, cuz my dad is against cable. So if in fact I did have cable, does that increase the quality of the capture just from that. Also, I was thinking about buying a TV Wonder Pro because its newer and I heard it uses the same video capture chip as the AIW's do (Theater 200). Is this true?

I need suggestions for increasing the quality of my encodes. There is an episode I downloaded off of KaZaA and it's quality is AWESOME (episode 12 of the new series). It's better than anything Hornett and I have done. Are there any filters that are especially made for cartoons, because I have noticed that the lines kind of become hard to see. Maybe something that darkens just the lines or something would be helpful. Thanks in advance to ANYONE who responds, I really could use your help as I want to get the best encodes possible, and still stay at 150mb per episode. Thanks!!

Riley

 

[Viper96720]

Get with the times and get cable.

 

[rbV5]

I would forget capping with a lossy codec to begin with. Your workflow seems excessive to me.

Why not:
*cap with huffy @ a single field (320x240 NTSC for example), edit the commercials in Vdub.
*Process video/encode in vdub (check out Donald Graft's filters, you can use the preview pane or do some short encodes to check the result of the filters) using divx, OR use WME9 to encode.
*Compress the audio in vdub using LAME.

 

[ZoNtO]

Alright, I did always wonder if my methods were a little too "involved" perhaps. Thanks for the advice rbv5, and Viper I don't think you should thread crap considering that if you must know, I'm 17 years old and my parents are staunch believers in NOT getting Cable, Digital, Satellite, or any other kind of TV for as long as they live. The only way I'm gonna get it is by splitting my cable internet which I'll be getting soon (yes I'm on dialup now) *gasp! I am going to try out what you said rb, and look at those filters too. Wish me luck!

 

[rbV5]

Wish me luck!

Good luck, ask away if you need help

 

[oLLie]

Yeah if you have the HD space to cap directly to HuffyUV, that's what you should do. Not too much point in going from Mpeg-2 which is fairly compressed, to HuffyUV which is uncompressed.

You sound like you know what you're doin, so I'm not sure if these links will help:
search results for capture guides

I believe this is already included in the above results

capture forum

This link SOUNDS like it's what you're looking for

Anyway, keep me updated as to your progress. I do some capturing of the Simpsons so I'm interested in your results.

 

[ZoNtO]

did you post this same thing on rage3d? *squints eyes a little bit in suspicion jk bro, thanks for the input

I just recorded the new episode of TMNT today, and aside from yet perfecting my brightness/contrast/gamma settings in MMC 7.9, the results were pretty good considering I'm using a VE and regular old antenna TV. What TV Tuner is the best on the market right now for around 100 bucks? I want to buy one, and I"m going to get a signal amplifier tonight and see if that helps too!

 

[ZoNtO]

Anybody have recommendations for the best TV Tuner card? I have heard good things about Leadtek and Lifeview's. I also have a good deal on a TV Wonder Pro Remote Control Edition, but I need to let the guy know VERY soon. Help me out please! Thanks guys, this forum is great.

 

[oLLie]

A lot of people at AVSForum like the Lifeview because they use an external tuner (i.e. a VCR) to feed the signal into the card via s-video, this keeps the signal noise & interference to a minimum by placing the tuner outside and away from the card. If this is an option for you, you may want to consider going that route.

Also, from looking at pictures of the Leadtek card, I see it uses a conexant chip. Which chip I am not exactly sure. There is a card called TV@nywhere from MSI that uses the Conexant CX23881 chipset, which is one of the latest Conexant decoder chips.

I haven't heard much about the ATI card.

Try to find out which chipsets the different cards use and stick to the latest from Philips and Conexant (maybe the Theater 200, I wouldn't know).

 

[ZoNtO]

Ya, see cuz I want to run my coax right into my TV Tuner card. I don't think it would really matter. Thanks, anybody else have any ideas?

 

[rbV5]

Ya, see cuz I want to run my coax right into my TV Tuner card. I don't think it would really matter. Thanks, anybody else have any ideas?

A good card won't make a poor signal better. Garbage-in...garbage-out.

 

[ZoNtO]

On the contrary, if I can capture at 640x480, my encodes will look noticebly better than 320x240. 240 is the maximum number of pixel lines (heightwise) that my card can capture right now, so if I can get a better resolution it will look better than it does now. Plus, I am going to get cable internet soon and just split that into two cables, one into tuner, one into cable modem. That's why I want a new TV Cap card, any recommendations?

 

[rbV5]

On the contrary, if I can capture at 640x480, my encodes will look noticebly better than 320x240.

Not at 150 MB per 30 minute episode they won't.

 

[ZoNtO]

Obviously with a bigger resolution the file would be bigger than 150mb, if you're not going to help me out with my question quit posting crap man.

 

[rbV5]

Obviously with a bigger resolution the file would be bigger than 150mb, if you're not going to help me out with my question quit posting crap man.

Posting crap...mmmmkay

Thanks in advance to ANYONE who responds, I really could use your help as I want to get the best encodes possible, and still stay at 150mb per episode. Thanks!!

I gives you meee advice...you dooos wid it whut you weeel. Good luck!

 

[ZoNtO]

My bad dude, I forgot that I wrote that. I meant 150mb for the 320 episodes, but now I've gotten those down to 115 mb at way better quality. Sorry...

 

[rbV5]

My bad dude, I forgot that I wrote that. I meant 150mb for the 320 episodes, but now I've gotten those down to 115 mb at way better quality. Sorry...

NP, no offense taken. oLLie has good advice concerning card recommendations, but maybe you'll find your VE fine after getting a better signal with the cable. If you are going to shoot for the best quality captures period, you'll definately want a better capture card, like the cards mentioned above.

 

[ZoNtO]

Alright, so does anybody know a card that uses the latest chipset from Conexant? I really like the VE, except for the fact that it caps at so low a resolution, that is why I'm thinking about the TV Wonder Pro, but price is an issue too, because that is 100 bucks, and the Leadtek is only 46 (both with remotes). If anyone has first hand experience with any of these cards LMK, cuz I need to get back to SaigonK tonight about the TV Wonder Pro. It's been too long already....

Thanks guys! Please help!

 

[rbV5]

Here's a capture card list with user comments.

 

[ZoNtO]

Anybody have first hand experience with the TV Wonder Pro? C'mon, I know you're out there

 

[ZoNtO]

i like tv wonder pros..............

 

[ZoNtO]

^ gettin the pro, ROCK ON ATI YEEEEEEEEEEEA!