Capturing Downsampled HD

[Nelson37]

Using a satellite HD box and capping the S-video feed, some interesting results.

As you probably already know, the feed is true widescreen, though the ratio varies.

The quality is significantly better that simultaneous SD feed, in addition to having far fewer, if any, low-bitrate artifacts.

These feeds are also true Progressive, NO interlacing! I am, however, seeing variations in the patterns, some are all unique frames, some repeat every fourth frame. Both patterns observed on recent movies, haven't detail checked documentary videos.

Definitely the best standard source I have captured yet, outside of a DVD. Could not locate a compatible Satellite box with firewire out, and it seems the anti-copy flag is getting very common. Antenna reception for HD OTA is still something to check out, but there are serious interference issues in my area (thunderstorms).

These captures are getting very, very close to duplicating DVD quality.

[vhelp]

I held my breath for too long, and lost..

I thought that with the advent of HD, that we would get a brand new
(edited and then) re-telecined, but this time, with clean IVTC'able
video. To my surprise, this seems to not be all true, as it looks
like the source is still the same "edited" after the fact.

So, I'm guessing that the source that they worked off of, is the one
and only source.. the original that was (edited and then) transfered
via telecine to an archival format. Then, later on, when things change,
they just refer back to this archive. Now, this archive may be in a
very high resolution, much like the HD sources starting to build up
these days. But, the transfers seem to still hold the old inconsistancies.

Seems new sources (of video) are cleaner, though, i.e... ABC ran a new
version of "The Ten Commandments" a few weeks ago. That was a new source.
Clean transfer w/ no edits after the telecine. When I capture this new
source via 480i from my HDTV Receiver, I got a clean and perfectly IVTC'able
source.

I don't do a lot of HDTV capturing. I should, but I don't. But, when I
do, I think I get better results than usual. Unfortunately, I only have
one station that is clear for me, Channel ABC.

These captures are getting very, very close to duplicating DVD quality.

As far as this goes, I couldn't agree more

I have been meaning to UPLOAD samples of my work (as usual) but I have been
stressed for time, not to mention, I'm still on dial-up. I have fast conn.
at work though. If I figure out how to set one of those freeupload sites,
I'll try and U/L a no-frills clip (50MB or so) and a link, if you're curouse what
can be obtained via HDTV Receiver and a Capture card, and some cunning
encoding menovers

-vhelp 3940

[edDV]

Using a satellite HD box and capping the S-video feed, some interesting results.

As you probably already know, the feed is true widescreen, though the ratio varies.

The quality is significantly better that simultaneous SD feed, in addition to having far fewer, if any, low-bitrate artifacts.

These feeds are also true Progressive, NO interlacing! I am, however, seeing variations in the patterns, some are all unique frames, some repeat every fourth frame. Both patterns observed on recent movies, haven't detail checked documentary videos.

If it is coming out of the S-Video port, it is interlace. If a film source it would be telecined to 29.97 fps.

What are you watching on? Maybe your HDTV or software player is doing the IVTC (aka Cinema mode). An HDTV after ITVC would be repeating frames 3 2 3 2 for progressive playback at 59.94 fps.

By "true widescreen" do you mean full height and squished horizontally? Or letterbox?

[Nelson37]

Checking frames in Vdub, both AVI and MPG captures, no detectable interlacing. Blown up to 400%, edges of horizontally moving objects very clean. Interlace lines clearly visible with same technique for non-HD captures. All caps made while simultaneous display thru component cable to HDTV was on.

Recent remake about a rebuilt airplane stranded in the dessert showed the 12344 pattern, another recent film about major weather problems 2 days from now showed 12345, no repeats.
These received on premium channels. Have not been noting the indicated resolution, but my HD box seems to get everything at 1080i, only ESPN is on 720p, this is noticeable as I have to manually switch the box to 1080i to get an image on-screen. Unable to receive major networks in HD, other than TNT and UHD, plus HDnet and two documentary channels.
Have not yet tested these channels in detail.

Have a 4:3 HDTV set to letterbox display, capping with ATI in widescreen mode. Various cap and display methods indicate that what is being received is less letterboxed than what is displayed, that is the video received has the horizontal black borders, but the letterbox display has additional borders. TV only has one letterbox mode, ATI card has 16:9, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1, none of these completely clip the borders. 16:9 seems closest, DVD made from this capture displays the same on TV as original feed. Do not have a true widescreen display to test, but I am assuming such a display would show full-screen. Have carefully checked true circular objects, AR seems correct.

The quality benefit for capture is two-fold, one being a sharper picture, two being virtually no bitrate artifacts. I have noticed these increasing over the last several months or so, sometimes flat-color backrounds are crawling with blocks, on the SD channels.