IShowU Highest Quality Lowest File Size

[Jonahinthewhale]

I have what should be a simple question (yes I searched the forum). What is the best way to get the highest quality video capture with the lowest file size with IShowU? I am encoding at 30fps mpeg-4 at 720x480. Thought I had figured it out, but, say I have one video an hour long (a) and another an hour long (b). "a" is 1.5gb and the other "b" 3.5gb at the same setting. Any tips?

[terryj]

That is actually true if you read the manual for iShowU.

What your question should say is " How can I have the Highest Quality
playback taking into account codec compression to achieve the lowest file size?"

The answer to that is using the settings for h.264 compression in an mpeg-4
container.
Page 13 of the iShowU Manual

[Jonahinthewhale]

Well, I tried this option and it is very choppy no matter the adjustment. I realize the manual says that this option is much more cpu intensive. I'm running a macbook 2.4ghz with 2gb ram. Would more ram help this? Or is there another setting that that could be a alternative?

[terryj]

No, RAM isn't the problem. CPU intensive means Processor.
Your 2.4ghz ( Core 2 Duo?) processor should be suffcient
enough to do it, are you running anything else while doing this?

You may have to do the conversion after the capture.
Capture the same file this time to DV Stream ( try just the 1 hour,
and yes it will be quite large when captured), quit iShowU, and then try
making your h.264 mp4 file using another app such as Quicktime Pro,
ffmpegx or VisualHub.

[Jonahinthewhale]

I'm sure I have other things running in the background that is taking up cpu so I will shut them down and try again. I have been happy with Mpeg4 and I understand the concept of converting the files, I am just trying to cut at as many Middle programs as possible. I may refer back if the problem isn't being fixed or just live with it.

[Jonahinthewhale]

Just realized the problem. I'm trying to record from a certain known video sight (wink) and firefox is hogging all the juice. Don't see this being fixed at least with this computer. thanks though.

[terryj]

If it is a certain U Video Tube site (wink) why aren't you just using
a Firefox extension to download files offsite like the excellent VideoDownloadHelper?
Then all you have to do is ( with Perian installed) open the downloaded
.flv file in QuickTime Pro, VisualHub, or even MpegStreamclip and
export it to .h264 THAT WAY rather than capture w/ iShowU?

less CPU intensive, and it can do the job this way while you download
other clips....(hint, hint)

[AntnyMD]

I use the bookmarklet from this site (http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/download-youtube-videos-as-mp4-files.html). Load the page from a certain well-known video site, click the bookmarklet, and boom. Downloaded.

[terryj]

Just curious Ant, does that work everywhere or only on the U video Tube site?

[AntnyMD]

Only YouTube .. And then not on their premium content files (like the LionsGate feature films).