effects of scart out & s-vhs in?

[manthing]

hi all,

i've just read this guide:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/capture/understandsource.htm#analogsource

i'm still a little bit unsure and could do with some pointers.

i have a AIW 9800 and can capture by a digital receiver. for those in the UK, i'm talking about the freeview boxes as the digital source.

i feed the digital source via the scart output on the digital receiver into the s-vhs connector of the AIW card.

am i still getting "350x480 to 400x480 interlaced digital equivalent" as suggested by the guide?

in other words, what effect is there due to the scart and the s-vhs connectors? do i "lose" anything?


a second question if i may. if i playback a vhs cassette (recorded on a vhs (240 lines) player) on a s-vhs player, what do i get? 240 lines? 400 to 425 lines?

cheers.

[steveryan]

Those resolutions are NTSC so the answer is no, you're not getting the same. I have a freeview box which I plug into my AIW or Hauppauge 250 using a scart 2 composite cable and it's fine, use decent quality cables. As for your VCR question, a vhs tape recorded on a bog standard VCR will playback as vhs on a super vhs VCR.

[lordsmurf]

The equivalent to your source is 352x576.

[Richard_G]

I do the same, record to AIW from a freeview box and normally use 352 x 576 mpeg with a bitrate of 3500 - 4000 kbs. This allows me to get just over 2.5 hours per DVD disc with quality that is ever so slightly soft compared with the freeview source. If it is something I want to keep in the best quality I use full frame (720 x 576) at a bitrate of 8000 - 8500 kbs. Use the custom settings on Lordsmurfs site to get the best quality you can and not the defaults presets.

I nearly outright disagreed with Lordsmurf there. Despite what everyone (usually in the US) will try and tell you, the quality from a Freeview box connected using S-Video is a lot better than most realise. As the difference between a capture done at 352 x 576 and one at 720 x 576 is immediately noticable I would argue that the assumption that the equivalent resolution is half D1 is incorrect. But then, freeview doesn't exist in the US, they have to put up with highly compressed digital cable so aren't aware how good it is.

[manthing]

ah, ta for the replys people. yes i should have written 352x576 (or 720x576) for PAL systems. and steveryan, ta for the answer about bog standard vhs output.

yup, i use something akin to monster cables to connect the freeview box to the AIW.

another sub question if i may ... according to the guide, most digital source is interlaced. steveryan or Richard_G, do you know if this is the case with freeview?

if it's a progressive source, do i capture as progressive then convert to interlaced or capture directly as interlaced? as i will be watching the final output on my tv and not my monitor.

[Richard_G]

Yes, as it is intended for display on a TV it is interlaced. If you are going to be burning to DVD for playback on a TV don't convert it. The only time you would is if you are going to reduce the size and encode it for computer display such as for web streaming or similar.