TV Wonder VE and DivX

[yellowperil]

Hi,

I am trying to record TV shows with my TV Wonder VE. So far I've installed:

WDM drivers that came with MMC7.1
iuVCR
Virtualdub
DScaler (only for viewing)
Windows Media Encoder 7.1

I would like to know if it is possible to record a 30-min show (after cutting commercials ~22 min) with DivX4 640x480, keep the file size around 100MB, and still have decent quality? Here are a couple things I've tried:

1. Record uncompressed AVI -> convert to 2-pass DivX. This seems to give the best results, unfortunately I only have ~25GB of free space for recording, and it fills up way too fast (not enough space for 30 min).

2. Encode DivX 1-pass in real-time, compress audio afterwards. Less disk space, but results are not as good as I like. Also, the file size is still too big.

Basically, what I'm looking for is maybe some middle ground format between uncompressed AVI and DivX that I could record from, and then convert to DivX afterwards. I played around with some other codecs I found on my system, maybe I wasn't doing it right but they didn't compress the video. If someone who knows about TV capturing could help me out, I'd appreciate it. Thanks

 

[bigshooter]

Is there a converter for mpeg2? I just end up using mpeg2 to record stuff since I don't normally keep it around. It comes out to about 500megs- 1 gig for a 1 hour show.

 

[rbV5]

<< 30-min show (after cutting commercials ~22 min) with DivX4 640x480, keep the file size around 100MB >>



You're just not going to get there. 30 min/100 MB is unrealistic for any decent quality at that resolution, that would give you 2 movies per CD. Half that, yea.



<< 1. Record uncompressed AVI -> convert to 2-pass DivX. This seems to give the best results, unfortunately I only have ~25GB of free space for recording, and it fills up way too fast (not enough space for 30 min). >>



That is the method I use for archiving/burning. I use huffyuv compression codec during capture however. It is lossless(or slightly lossy, depending on settings)and gives you about 2/1 compression so your caps will take up half the room.



<< 2. Encode DivX 1-pass in real-time, compress audio afterwards. Less disk space, but results are not as good as I like. Also, the file size is still too big >>



I also use this method as well...but.... Try this instead: Try capping at 320x240 @ 6000 Kb/sec , use something like mp4def to configure the 3.11a low motion divx codec in MMC, or just use VirtualDub to cap.If you cap at this resolution, you will avoid interlacing artifacts, and you can compress the audio after just like you were doing. It amazes me the quality you can get capping divx real time.


I use my rig for video capture quite a bit, I'm always looking for new tips. let me know what you come up with.

 

[yellowperil]

Thanks for that info rbV5. I tried the huffyuv 2.1.1. codec and I can fit about 45 mins of video on the free space. You're right, it doesn't look possible to fit 25 mins of 640x480 DivX in 100MB (at least not watchable quality). As long as I can fit a couple episodes on 1 CD I guess it's not too bad

I can't seem to capture DivX 3.11a in real time (either low or high motion) without dropping a lot of frames. DivX 4 doesn't have this problem although its files are bigger. For some reason real-time capturing looks bad to me, the image quality is good but there's a big motion blur effect, especially in complex scenes.

 

[Diable]

The middle ground codec you seeking is MJPEG. The MJPEG codec isn't lossless like Huffyuv but it will give you good results and it doesn't use up all your hard drive space like Huffyuv does. The MJPEG codec isn't free but you can download a demo version from Pegasus Imaging web site.

 

[yellowperil]

I somehow have the MJPEG codec (don't know how it got there), but when I try to use it, the file size is the same as uncompressed AVI

Downloading the demo now

 

[rbV5]

<< For some reason real-time capturing looks bad to me, the image quality is good but there's a big motion blur effect, especially in complex scenes. >>



If you can't capture at the settings I shown without dropping frames ( 320x240 6000Kb 100 crispness 1 sec keyframes 3.11a codec) Its not going to look good, it would be a PITA to do any real editing as well, but Since you use huffyuv and can get 30 minute shows of Raw AVI on your hardrive. Try using Nandub to encode. I use it for encoding captured Raw AVI footage. The 2 pass SBC encoding gives me the absolute best quality encoding I've tried. Play with the bitrates and resolution (try full 480 line caps as well as 240 line caps and compare), and compress the audio to MP3, you should be able to get pretty good quality down to perhaps 10 MB/min. That gets you perhaps you 22 minutes at ~220 MB.

LMK how you're doing.

 

[DSTA]

Like rbV5, I think the quality from a direct to MPEG4 cap is pretty decent (only that my old box is to slow for DivX 4.12 at decent resolution, so I use MSPEG4V2). Don't let the seemingly low resolution scare you and try his suggestion to cap with 320x240. It's going to look better than you think once played back full screen. Some more capture settings to play with: try 320x480 and a 2:1 reduction filter in VDub. Should enhance sharpness slightly.

Other than that, try MJPEG (or huffyuv) encoding full resolution at the highest quality you can afford HD space wise. Then use vdub to crop as needed, and apply filters: smart deinterlace, temporal smoother and xsharpen. Encode with DivX 4.12 two pass (1500 should be enough!).