AVerMedia DVD PCI -> SW to capture MPEG-2 + 48kHz audio?

[davidandkellie]

Good afternoon! Wanted to query your collective wisdom on a stumper (at least for me.)

Santa brought me an AVerMedia DVD EZMaker PCI for use in capturing about 40 hours of 8MM and VHS video to archive. The card installed fine and I can generate good looking video. However, I have not yet found (despite repeated trials) the right software to achieve my capture goal.

I want to go straight to MPEG-2 due to (1) no need for editing, (2) lack of disk space, and (3) a desire to streamline the capture/author/burn process.

Per Lordsmurf's advice, my MPEG-2 capture parameters are 352x480, 4000 kbps CBR data rate. This produces roughly 2 hours of video for a DVD-sized chunk with good quality.

My ideal situation would be:

(1) CAPTURE -- go from analog input to MPEG-2 video, 48kHz audio
(2) AUTHOR -- basic menus and chapters only, no re-encoding of an already DVD-compliant capture file. I am trying out TMPGenc DVD Author for this...
(3) BURN -- simple burn program. Also trying TMPGenc DA for this...works well except for the aformentioned delay

I thought PowerVCR II was the answer, and it captures great video given the parameters above for my card. These videos play back perfectly in Windows Media Player, but any attempt to go to DVD yields the dreaded audio sync problem. Based on my reading here, I believe this is due to the fact that PowerVCR II captures audio at 44.1 kHz, and an audio conversion is required.

For capture, I have tried:

PowerVCR II -- results described above. Very pleased with quality of capture and features except for 44.1 kHz audio. If I was stopping at creating files to use in Windows Media Player I'd be done.

neoDVD (shipped with card) -- very poor MPEG-2 quality

iuVCR (trial) -- was unsuccessfully getting an MPEG-2 capture

ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD (shipped with DVD+RW drive) -- re-encodes both video and audio, no clear way to directly capture MPEG-2 and 48 kHz audio

VirtualVCR -- stability problems, plus not sure about MPEG-2 options

VirtualDub -- appears not to do the MPEG-2 capture, though it looks like it has plenty of bells and whistles for audio spec at 48 kHz

Ulead Movie Factory (trial) -- downloaded and tried out. The features I need appear to be here, but when I try to do an MPEG-2, 48kHz audio capture it locks up

Now the question: is there a capture program which can cleanly achieve the objective listed in (1) above (direct capture to a DVD compliant MPEG-2 + 48 kHz audio file), or is there an all-in-one tool that would provide similar functionality?

Thanks in advance for any and all leads/help you can provide...much appreciated!

David

[lynza]

Hello mate !

You won't believe it, but i got solution for you !!!
Certainly, it works magic for me !

I use the same Aver PCI capture card AND...
MainConcept Mpeg Encoder 1.4.1 !
Be sure to get 1.4.1 version (last) which have capture module in it !

I was using PowerVCRII - only to be embarrased in front of family with that audio sync problem =).

On my rig (atl1900+,1gig) at 720*576 (PAL) YUY2 i can get realtime MPEG2 with 48khz audio and all bells and whistles and 0 dropped frames per 3 hours of capture =).

After i use perfectly suitable Tmpgenc DVD author.
It masters full DVD-R with MC encoded files for about 10 mins !!!!!

Got some problems with Encoder config thou.... Was getting some dropped frames...

But i got it now !!!

If you need any info about configing it , just mail me.

Also you can notice changed brightness/contrast interpretation, than PVCR2... Try changing it in MC 1.4.1 setup, capping small video, master burn to DVD-RW and watch at your DVD player (standalone) - you'll work out needed params soon !

Hopp i helped.

Paul

[davidandkellie]

Paul -- thanks for the lead on MMC! I will download the trial and give this one a shot. A little pricey, but may be worth it if I can get it to do the job...

Has anyone had any luck with getting iuVCR to perform a similar function? Seems like it may be able to, but I don't see the trick...

Thanks!
David