Whats the best encoder in terms of quality for mpeg2 (dvd)?

[Netslayer]

I have a Pinnacle Studio DC10+ card, and have been capturing to raw MJPEG 640 x 480 @ 29fps, and I have tried bitrates from 3-6MB/s. I have tried a lot of different converters, TMPGenc, Canopus, Studio 8, etc, but they don't look that great. Any thoughts on what the best one to use is? (It seams I get some green blockyness in dark spots, especially on peoples faces).

and if anyone is experienced/actually using the DC10+ card in XP, let me know because I have a few questions, specificaly on how to change the capture bitrate on other apps (instead of studio 8).

[Mavrick]

Your problem is pretty simple... Capture in uncompressed AVI or Huffyuv AVI. Then use TMPG or whatever (I use Media Studio Pro) to encode to MPEG2. You get far better results this way....

[Netslayer]

okay, how can i capture uncompressed? There are only a few programs that let me capture with my card ie it wont work with premiere but it will work with studio 8 and arcsoft showbiz, know of any programs that you think would be able to capture with it? (Pinnacle Studio DC10+)

[Mavrick]

Did you try VDUB?

OR

You can download a trial copy of Media Studio Pro from
http://www.ulead.com/msp/runme.htm
They also offer upgrade offers from other editing software – so you can get it as cheep as $129.00 for the DC version.

[Netslayer]

I have tried VirtualDub, and it gives me an error "no capture drivers found", i think the card uses WDM or something, (all the good programs like premiere wont work, pinnacle sucks lol)
I just started to dl the trial for that software, ill see how it works.

Does anyone know of the best settings for DVD w/ TMPGEnc? The results I have found to be pretty good, but it still needs a little work, any hints?

[xed]

Sadly, I must agree that the advice "capture uncompressed AVI" is simply useless for almost every person who is working with video.
Let's run down the reasons why:
[1] If you use a commercial digital camcorder, the video gets compressed as soon as it's recorded. So you're out of luck right there.
[2] If you use a video capture card like the Pinnacle DV 500 Plus (or one of hte many others) you often get no uncompressed AVI option.
[3] Even if you do have an uncompressed AVI option, you are probably not using Win XP and thus find yourself still limited by the 4 gig filesize barrier. This means that the maximum length of time you can record using uncompressed AVI (even if your capture supports this option, which most DO NOT) is a whopping 3 minutes.
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Am I the only person disgusted by useless advice like "Oh, the solution to your problem is VirtualDub?"
VirtualDub does not work with 90% of the capture cards out there. VirualDub is a marvellous piece of software -- alas, it is simply unable to open most AVI files. VirtualDub bounces right off my AVI files, and refuses to open the AVI files of most of the other people I know. Like a gold-plated cybernetic artificially-intelligent nuclear-powered buggy whip, VirtualDub is a superb tool which simply does not work with most video streams.
Likewise, advice like "Capture to uncompressed AVI" does not prove valuable to most people who work with video. Most capture cards do not permit the option of capturing to uncompressed AVI (mine doesn't), and if you're unlucky enough to be stuck with a real-time MPEG-2 card, you're even worse off.
But that's the real world. Most people do not work with D1 format 30-bit uncompressed video, so let's get real here. Most people in the real world who work with video at home start off with DV Type 1 AVI files right off the bat, and VirtualDub and Vidomi and most other pieces of freeware just won't open these kinds of AVI files.
If the so-called "solution" to someone's problem involves buying a $2000 video card (one of those monster Canopus rigs) and $2500 worth of software (viz. CCE or the like), that's not really a "solution," is it?

[Mavrick]

Xed,

If you read my post I did say capture uncompressed AVI or Huffyuv Avi...
So I did give an option there... The point is to capture as loose as you can. Capturing at high compression usually only results in poor quality video.

1: If you read Netslayers post, he is capturing 640x480 with a Pinnacle DC10+ card. Hence, he is not using DV, but rather VHS or Hi8 tapes.

2: Read his post again... no DV500 (great board BTW... Have them at work)

3: What??? If you have an uncompressed AVI option, you are probable not using Win XP..???? How do you get that? I didn't know you could tell the OS by a capture method... I'm using Win XP and have a common capture card (ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV). I do capture in uncompressed AVI (approx 1gb per min, alot less if using Huffyuv Codec for capture.)

Frankly I'm disgusted with people who only bash others advice, but don't give or have any good advice on the subject themselves. (you a politician?)

VDub works great on my AIW for capturing... So I told him to give it a try... what would it hurt? If it worked, great! If it didn't, then he only lost a few minutes in time....

As far as buying $2000 video card and $2500 worth of software... I didn't read that in any of the post either....

Did you perhaps respond to another post in here by mistake? None of what you said applies...

I don't have a problem with people not liking my way of doing it, or debating it... As long as they can offer another solution for the original poster to try as well...

You need to be a little more open to other ways of doing things....

[Netslayer]

I found VirtualVCR on the tools page, and that seams to work great for capturing, its simple, but it lets me configure everything, not like all this other software that locks my pinnacle settings page lol. So now i'm capturing at 720 x 480 @ 29.9fps, compressed w/ Morgan MJPEG codec @ 100% Quality which is around 6MB/s. I'm using XP Pro w/ NTFS so the 4gig limit is not a problem for me (that solves that problem). I have found that Pinnacle Studio 8 provides the best MPEG2 DVD encoding, followed by TMPGenc's DVD 2Pass VBR template(I find that Studio 8 gives more sharper encodes).

Does anyone know of a better setting I can use or templates I can dl for TMPGenc to improve the output?

[Mavrick]

I found VirtualVCR on the tools page, and that seams to work great for capturing, its simple, but it lets me configure everything, not like all this other software that locks my pinnacle settings page lol. So now i'm capturing at 720 x 480 @ 29.9fps, compressed w/ Morgan MJPEG codec @ 100% Quality which is around 6MB/s. I'm using XP Pro w/ NTFS so the 4gig limit is not a problem for me (that solves that problem). I have found that Pinnacle Studio 8 provides the best MPEG2 DVD encoding, followed by TMPGenc's DVD 2Pass VBR template(I find that Studio 8 gives more sharper encodes).

Does anyone know of a better setting I can use or templates I can dl for TMPGenc to improve the output?

Glad you found a program to get it going!!!! As always, hang in there...

Looks like Xed's Crystal Ball is broken... With you running XP and everything.

Sorry on the template thing, I haven’t used TMPG in a while.... Anybody else got something for Netslayer to use????

[DJRumpy]

Netslayer, VDUB requires a WDM compatible capture card, but it does support AVI segments (for anyone still living in the the 20th century, or without NT4), with a 4GB file size limit. It also allows live filtering while your capturing (limited only by your CPU cycles and hard drive performance. It also allows for virtual stripping, so you can save an avi across multiple (preferrably physical) drives (great for performance if you don't have RAID).

[cdcox]

Here's my 2 cents. This works for me so I don't mind the little extra work it involves. I capture with Studio Dv 1.26 I then edit my movies in 15 min segments. I then make my movie and create an avi, 15-18 min is usually less than 4 gig. (using win98 se). At the beginning and and of each segment I fade to and up from a solid color ( Black works very well but have used other with good results). I then encode my 15 min avi's with tmpgenc to mpg2. When this is done I use tmpgenc to Merge all the 15 min clips into 1, 30-60 min mpg2. I have never experienced any gliche between mpg's when merging them. The picture quality on a TV comes out great. I'm sure there are eaiser ways to do this and with time I will probably figure them out, but until then this is the method I will use. Doesn't Studio ver 8 allow you to "Make Movie" (your final project) into an .avi? When I capture in preview mode the render into avi when I make my final movie, studio does recapture in full DV or .avi files.

[DJRumpy]

In case anyone is interested, and you won't, or can't use virtual dub to automatically split your AVI files to get around the 4Gig limit, you can download NTFS support for Windows 98. It's not free (although there may be some free solutions out there).

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfswin98.shtml

[energy80s]

I'm glad to read of others who think that capping RAW AVI's isn't a good idea! It is fine for video clips but useless if you are working with full programmes. Just imagine the space required for say, 10 hours of video, plus workspace files. Totally impractical. Also, VirtualDub is not a good capture tool as it requires cards with VFW drivers and all cards now use WDM drivers. The so-called wrapper doesn't work. The ONLY alternatives are DV format AVI or high bitrate MPEG captures.

[yamato72]

Slayer, you're never going to get the quality you want with that DC10. Furthermore, You're not going to be able to do the VDub Uncompressed/Huffyuv compressed thing with that card either. I currently am not sold on the analog-to-DV boards (ie Pinnacle Studio Deluxe).

That said, you need to decide: Do you want a simple (single interface) with okay results, or are you picky and want the absolute best you can get (given that you're capping from analog tape)? Mjpeg is quite good, so you must fall into the latter category.

I've used the Pinnacle Deluxe package and the Studio AV package (comes with the DC10) and at highest-quality capture the mjpeg caps with the DC10 were always superior to the DV caps color-wise and detail-wise when compared side-by-side (same clip).

I brought them both back, got a $60 TV tuner card, and now cap with VDub/Huffyuv, encode with TMPGenc, and author with Spruce. You will not find a consumer product that gives better results, period.

[andie41]

My only experience is with analog (Hi8 tape), and NTSC TV/DVD recording and over the years, I have increasingly tried to make things simple and long ago put aside my "Spielberg fantasy", sold my Amigas and Video Toaster, and I have since tried numerous products, which I returned.

I am now happily using a Pinnacle PCTV Pro, using S video input and capturing 480x480 uncompressed YUY2, 29.97 fps, 48khz audio (SB Live Value) to avi's, without dropping frames. I then render to SVCD or 5,000 kbits/sec Mpeg2, burn to CD and play on my standalone DVD player. TMPGenc works great for me, as does Media Studio.

I can use Virtual Dub or AVI_io for capturing, using the VFW drivers that came with the PCTV. Newer WDM drivers work great with iuVCR or Amcap and VirtualDub works great for splitting the captured avi or resizing, etc. Also the WDM drivers give me cleaner video than the VWF drivers and using uncompressed YUY2 provides as accurate and clean video as I have manged on the computer.

I do not capture hours of video in a single file; my needs are for shorter segments of a few minutes to perhaps 15 minutes. However, most capture programs I have used, provide for spltting the captures into shorter segments, if necessary.

I have found that capturing uncompressed video or using HuffYuv works the best for my needs. Obviously, those with DV source material will require their own unique solutions.

andie

[KWG22]

I have some similar situations/problems-
I have DC10+ and have used it on my Celeron 500mhz with Windows98SE capturing VHS tapes with really good results. Printing to tape looked great. I used 608x464 which is the cropped setting, cropping off the part you don't see on your TV. I just got a new machine-P4 2.4Ghz with XP Home and have switched the card and my video drive over to it and installed the trial version of Pinnacle Studio 8. The original DC10+ disc wouldn't install the driver for the board, as it doesn't support Win2000(how it sees XP, I think). I got the driver from my Pinnacle Studio 7 disc. Printing to tape is working pretty well, except for some audio sync problems on SOME prints-out.(Wonder if screen saver was interfering; Disabled it; Going to test.) My problem is that TMPGENC won't open any of my AVI files. Another version of TMPGENC opened these on the older 98 computer. VirtualVCR may be part of my solution as well.

I am surprised that Studio 8's encoder looks better than TMPGENC.
I haven't made an SVCD or DVD yet, as I haven't gotten the full version of S8. I did make an SVCD with Pinnacle Express, but it didn't look anywhere close to as good as TMPGENC did on the other computer.

[Mavrick]

I am now happily using a Pinnacle PCTV Pro, using S video input and capturing 480x480 uncompressed YUY2, 29.97 fps, 48khz audio (SB Live Value) to avi's, without dropping frames. I then render to SVCD or 5,000 kbits/sec Mpeg2, burn to CD and play on my standalone DVD player. TMPGenc works great for me, as does Media Studio.


I have found that capturing uncompressed video or using HuffYuv works the best for my needs. Obviously, those with DV source material will require their own unique solutions.

andie

AMEN andie!

You are right that uncompressed or using Huffyuv will give the best end results. I'm only converting our home videos - VHS & Hi-8 - to XSVCDs, so this IS the BEST way to do it...

I guess I would use another way if I was pirating Movies, TV Shows, etc...

[rjs123]

I recently tried the Pinnacle Studio Pro package with the analog inputs and kept it a few days and took it back. I then went back to my dv.now.av and starting using the CCE plugin for premier with it. I now have what I consider to be excellent results. The Pinnacle raw dv files look really good till the Studio compressed them to mpeg2. They were really bad after that, Im not sure how anyone would accept this.

The dv.now.av captures DV in quicktime. Then you switch over to Premier and all your clips are there for you to edit. I tried the LSX encoder that comes with it and didnt like it either. Its fast but not even close to Tmpeg or CCE.

After editing in Premier I can save the edited clips out again as DV in quicktime and its very fast. Im able to load these into TmpegEnc with the quicktime plugin and had some great video results with this but the audio was never in sync. TmpegEn and the quciktime plugin didnt seem to work too well with the audio sync.

Like I said though, encoding the DV quailty clip with CCE is outstanding.

Its not uncompressed but I dont see why I would need that, the DV source material looks very nice and encodes that way too with CCE.

I tried some of my DVDs today at work on a DVD player hooked to a projector with component video inputs. They look real nice on a 50 foot screen in a 250 seat auditorium

[medievil]

I'm glad to read of others who think that capping RAW AVI's isn't a good idea! It is fine for video clips but useless if you are working with full programmes. Just imagine the space required for say, 10 hours of video, plus workspace files. Totally impractical. Also, VirtualDub is not a good capture tool as it requires cards with VFW drivers and all cards now use WDM drivers. The so-called wrapper doesn't work. The ONLY alternatives are DV format AVI or high bitrate MPEG captures.

Huh?/? I use Vdub with WDM Drivers (Both BT848 AND Phillips 7801 based capture cards) And have no problems. It's been my experience that Vdub Craps out more trying to use Older vfw drivers.
And as far as the whole capture format debate. If you dion't care a lot about quality, capture to Divx or another format. If you, However are needing the BEST quality you can sqeeze out of those old tapes, etc..then use a lossless codec.
Sure the original DV (if thats your source) Might be compr4essed. BUt which is better??
\!) Capture compressed video with Compresion codec (Such as divx) then if size is bad ReCompressing to another format.
Or Capture Compressed video to Very Low Compression codec (Such as Mainconcept DV Codec) then Compress to desired format.
Going from Divx to Mpeg2 is a waste of time as the compression artifacts are to great to overcome.

[DJRumpy]

I also capture in VDub all the time using WDM. Works like a charm. I don't agree that converting from DivX to MPEG introduces artifacts though. I convert DivX rips all the time, back to DVD-R, without any noticable loss in quality (of course these are high quality DVD rips).

[Craig Tucker]

I'm glad to read of others who think that capping RAW AVI's isn't a good idea! It is fine for video clips but useless if you are working with full programmes. Just imagine the space required for say, 10 hours of video, plus workspace files. Totally impractical. Also, VirtualDub is not a good capture tool as it requires cards with VFW drivers and all cards now use WDM drivers. The so-called wrapper doesn't work. The ONLY alternatives are DV format AVI or high bitrate MPEG captures.

It is an excellent idea if you want the best quality possible and have the disc space necessary. The captured AVI only needs to be a temporary file, once you have encoded it to the format that you want you can delete it. The reason for doing it this way is the better your source, the better your encode will be, so if you have enough temporary disc space capture to the best quality possible.

[energy80s]

Although full AVI captures do yield great quality, they just aren't practical fro most applications. Some people may be editing small clips of home movies, but most here are converting either TV shows, films or old VHS tapes full of material. To cap this as AVI footage is just crazy. You would need terrabytes of hard drive space and programmes that are happy to use so many large files. Imagine just capping a couple of Star Trek episodes and a film (less than I would normally cap in a week!!) ... how much space would that need as AVI files? Then double that to allow for workspace overload, then add space for your final output files and you soon realise that AVI is not the way to go.

[ronnylov]

Uncompressed is overkill in my view. I capture to lossless huffyuv and that's around half the size of uncompressed. With a 80 GB HD I can easily capture 2 hours from TV at full DVD resolution. Then compress it to DVD compatible MPEG2 needs around 24-40 hours, using Canopus Procoder 2-pass VBR, mastering quality, Link2 and Avisynth.

I think AVI_IO is a better capture program than virtualdub. AVI_IO is more stable and I can capture with 48 kHz audio. I also get less framedrops with AVI_IO.

You can also get good results using mjpeg codec at capture with a high quality setting.

But at everyday look and throw away capturing I normally use my AIW Radeon real time capture. It's not much worse than the other methods.

[xed]

It would be interesting to get DJRumpy and medieval to give the exact specfics of the digital video capture cards they are using. My own specific experience with VirtualDub is this: it does not open ANY of my AVI files created with Ulead Media Studio Pro 6.5. VitualDub reports an error condition and refuses to open my Type 1 DV AVI files -- even if I don't edit 'em, just straight from capture.
I use a firewire card to port in video captured from a digital camcorder. The problems with using DV capture are so numerous and so complex that I have not yet settled on a DV capture card, and may never settle on one. Seems as though as soon as the bugs get shaken out of the DV capture card, the OS upgrades or the motherboard chipset changes, and the capture card becomes incompatible with the new m'board / new OS. I have watched this happen from 98SE through ME through XP, and it still goes on.
---
VirtualDub is 100% utterly totally completely useless with any firewire DV card because VirtualDub expects a type of windows service driver which DV firewire cards do not use. Moreover, this is true of an increasing number of video capture cards. Contrary to claims that VirtualDub works fine, my experience and the experience of everyone I know, combined with the posts made on www.vcdhelp.com, seem to strongly indicate that VirtualDub works with only a very tiny percentage of the video capture cards available today.
To put it bluntly, VirtualDub might as well not exist becuase it doesn't work with 90% of the video cards and 90% of the drivers in existence.
From everything I have read, from my own experience and from that other friends who work with DV capture, VirtualDub is vaporware. It will not work with your DV capture hardware and it will not open your AVI files.
This means that a set of workarounds are required to get the results that would otherwise be gotten from VirtualDub. Thus, since VirtualDub is vaproware and for all practical purposes does not exist, problems must be corrected by using filter settings in TMPGEnc, since VirtualDub won't open almost all the actual AVI files out there created by real-world DV capture cards or firewire DV cards.
You might try playing around with the gamma settings in TMPGenc. You might also try playing around with the noise reduction settings in TMPGEnc. Since VirtualDub is vaporware which won't work with almost all AVI files and almost all video capture cards/DV firewire cards, your' only real opetion is TMPGEnc filter settings. These _might_ reduce the "green blocks" problem, if you hit on the right setting.
---
The DC10+ uses MJPEG, if I'm not mistkaken. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are entirely different compression formats from MPJEG. My own personal experience is that when 2 different methods of compression are used, one after the other, the video output has artifacts tyipcal of both methods of video compression. In other words, video compression artifacts are additive.
What might be happening is that you might be getting certain compression artifacts which prove invisible with MPJEG, but which then get turned into different video compression artifacts by MPEG encoding -- and those artifacts might become visible.
In that case, fiddling withthe exact MPJEG settings (specifically, the gamma and the chrominance and the luminance and the color balance) along with TMPGenc settings (there are too many to mention, with two separate menus -- simple color correction and advanced color correction) might alleviate those video artifacts.
VirtualDub remains vaporware which does not work with well over 90% of the AVi files and well over 90% of the video capture hardware in existence. Accordingly, it is not useful for most people working with actual home digital video in the real world.
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In my experience, the biggest problem with working with striaght Type 1 DV files is the huge rendering times. In order to edit Type 1 DV files, you must render it to disk, and even with a 7200 DPI RAID array, this takes humongous amounts of time.
I have found it simpler to encode the video into MPEG and then do simple cuts on the MPEG files using BBMPEG or TMPGenc.
For complex crossfade edits or titles, sadly, Type 1 DV files are really the only way to go
In that case, the simplest solution is to use TYPE 1 DV to do the complex cross-fade edits and titles, then encode the result and tack it onto the encoded MPEG of stuff that doesn't have to be edited.
Working directly with Type 1 Dv is so enormously time-consuming, due to the many gigs of info that must be read from and written to various hard disks, that I cannot recommend it as a practical solution unless you have some monster dedicated EditDroid system.
ANd by the way, when you folks start talking about CCE, that's Cinema Craft Encoder -- a $2000 piece of software. That's not practical for most people either. TMPGEnc costs $50 (if you want to encode MPEG-2) or nothing (if you want to stick with encoding MPEG-2). $50 is practical for real people in the real world. $2000 for one (1) piece of software is not.

[DJRumpy]

Industry standard stuff. My capture card is also my video card. It's an nVidia Personal Cinema GeForce 4 card. Whenever I buy hardware, I always look at the vender, as well as the hardware. nVidia is an industry leader right now. Compatability is at an all time high, and will be for a few years to come, even if they dropped of the map today.

The configuration for the card uses an external box for the capture, meaning I can upgrade the card, and just plug the box into the new card. It's a win/win situation for me.

As for captures, I capture with Huffy codecs. I get about 2.1:1 compression ratio. I keep a 300 GB raid array for this. I easily capture 10 hours of video at smaller resolutions, and about 4 at full D1. The raid array cost me $200.00 dollars (US).

When I capture from TV (broadcast), it doesn't make much sense to capture at higher resolutions since my source is 352x240. I usually capture at 352x480 to give me the option of DVD-R or CD-R, depending on the capture. A few hours at this resolution only takes up about 30 gigs give or take.

Your problems with DV files can be fixed with a search in the forum. I believe you have to convert them. There is a DV Converter tool that should fix you up. I don't remember the specifics. Anyone want to help out here?

[daznic]

Ok, so if v.dub works for you then great !, if it dosen`t - hard luck, just cope with what works for you & don`t get so angry !!
I use an ATI rage fury vivo card & a 120gb IBM 7200 HD, Total cost in UK £130 - I think an inexpensive way to capture Huffy analogue video with now problems at all (Even 3 hrs at a time at 720 X 576 )
Move with the times, get a bigger HD, Win XP & NTFS !!!

[Thorn]

Slow down there xed... I don't think your problems are typical (or terminal). Virtualdub works just fine for me for capture and convert, and I do fine with DV as well (read workarounds below).

As for most people not being able to use virtualdub, I haven't heard much buzz about that. It works fine with all older ATI cards and if you use the VfW wrapper for WDM with the newer ones it works just fine. My new Geforce4 was as effortless to use as my old ATI was. The only things it won't work with are usb capture devices (it's almost a lie to call them capture devices anyway) and hardware mjpeg cards (and those won't work with any program because they're locked to mjpeg, as far as I know).

For DV, there are a few threads addressing that, but here's a summary: Virtualdub can only read type 2 dv with a non-directshow codec (type 1 audio can't be read because it's interleaved differently). Get the canopus dv codec (free for the decoder). If you aren't using a DV "capture" program that stores the file in type 2 (DVIO does this and is free) then get the free type 1 to type 2 converter from Ulead (I think) and you're good to go. With all this, I can open a DV file in virtualdub and frameserve to an encoder (although I don't filter DV material as much as analog caps). Voila, all my DV needs taken care of by free or cheap software. Yes there's an extra step if you want to use virtualdub but it's not too much work.

Yes, if you have win98 with no ntfs support you're limited to about 20 minutes of DV per file and less for huffyuv. That's where virtualdub is great with analog caps because it will automatically segment. I captured 30-40GB on fat32 before I converted my capture drive to NTFS (I'm on win2k... but many people on here are as well, and that only makes a big difference with DV material). Here's where ulead fails: it can't segment files (not sure if premiere can either) so it's screwed on fat32 for large files but virtualdub does fine.

Just to clear things up, DV and analog captures require completely separate processes (with some of the same programs). DV is fully possible as I have shown above. Analog captures using Huffyuv are also relatively straightforward and this works for many people (on win98/2k/xp). It might require some setup, but the actual work is straightforward.

Lastly, I don't know where the 90% figures come from, but I strongly suspect many of those who have problems with virtualdub are either inexperienced and simply haven't found out how to set it up properly yet, or they simply have an inadequate card/device for capturing. People who really don't have the option to use virtualdub seem to be more of a minority.

BTW on the subject of encoders, huffyuv (which is how I interpret 'uncompressed capture' since the only important thing is that they're both lossless) gives you the best quality to start with. You can't argue with that... lossless will always give you the best material to start with but sometimes a slightly lossy codec will be acceptable. The biggest names for mpeg2 encoders are CCE (expensive) TMPGenc (cheap, some people say it's buggy) and MainConcept (pretty cheap). There was a comparison thread recently with sample clips. Essentially, all are very good with good source material.

[ronnylov]

When I capture from TV (broadcast), it doesn't make much sense to capture at higher resolutions since my source is 352x240. I usually capture at 352x480 to give me the option of DVD-R or CD-R, depending on the capture. A few hours at this resolution only takes up about 30 gigs give or take.

What TV channel has that low resolution? I've made some tests and I can clearly see that I need at least 640x576 resolution (PAL) to capture the full TV resolution (480x576 is not enough). When capturing from VHS I can see a small difference when going up from 352x576 to 480x576 capture resolution. I have tested the resolution from my VHS VCR and the vertical resolution is full 576 pixels! But the horisontal resolution seems to be somwhere around 370 pixels. So if you have a good TV source (using S-VIDEO cable from VCR or TV-tuner on the capture card) you will loose quality if capturing with less than full vertical resolution and less than 640 pixels width. You'll also loose the interlacing if you don't capture full vertical resolution... I mainly capture to DVD-format so my standard capture resolution is 704x576 (PAL). Sometimes I capture 352x576 just to fit more length on one disc or when capturing VHS (the difference from resolutions above 352x576 is not much for VHS sources).

You might wonder how I tested this? I took a test picture and encoded to DV-format with Ulead Mediastudio Pro. Transfered that to my miniDV camera and then used my camera connected to my capture card via S-VIDEO cable. Then I connected the camera to my VCR and recorded it and then captured that recording from the VCR. Live TV was tested with the test picture they send on the national TV when there's no other programs sent.

It's an old myth that 352x240 is full VHS resolution. Test it yourself and see the difference with higher resolutions!

[DJRumpy]

Traditionally, "lines of resolution" is correctly measured across the largest circle that fits in the space you are talking about. However some advertisers exaggerate using the entire screen width or using some electronic formula that only covers part of the circuitry. Modern standards stating resolution or screen dimensions in "pixels" (dots) reflect the entire screen width or height.

For NTSC, the picture occupies approximately 480 of the 525 scan lines. For broadcasts the portion of a scan line that is visible can hold up to about 440 dots so a grid 480 high by 440 wide represents the maximum amount of picture detail possible. (This is for standard NTSC, not HDTV)

VHS is even less so, comming in at about 250 (S-VHS will take you up to around 400 horizontal)

Besides, it's not the resolution, it's what your capturing with. Unless you want to drop a cool $1000.00 or more, for a capture card with component inputs, then your probably using Composite. Composite is limited to about 352x240 resolution.

S-Video is limited to about 352x480. It doesn't matter what you do beyond that, as your only going to get what the cable can supply.

If anyone is interested in the standards, follow this link:

http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp009.htm

It contains all of the standards for NTSC, PAL, and SECAM

[caish5]

Back to the original problem (Green Blockyness in dark areas.)
I used to suffer this all the time and eventually I found the solution by searching this forum with the terms .... "Blacker Blacks"!!
The solution for me was Simple Color Correction in TMPGenc.
If you reduce the Brightness and Gamma a little and incrrease the Contrast a little the problem goes away. The blacks remain pure black and the bitrate gets distributed a lot more effectively. The results are quite amazing.
And just for the record Virtrualdub works beautifully for me under XP.
Good luck