please be patient with lame question

[jolo]

This lame idiot who has encoded many, many movies is trying something new.

I am running XP and have a ATI Radeon all-in-wonder card.

I have captured from TV successfully many times. But this time, I want to play a DVD, then capture it into AVI or MPEG2.

I see know way of playing a DVD either on ATI's player, Zoom player, Microsoft Media player and capture it at the same time (preferably to Divx(avi).

Another reason for this, is because this particular DVD (Hell Freezes Over, a filmed concert from the Eagles) has driven me crazy where Eazy VCD (my favorite), DVD2SVCD, Vidomi all crap out on this. At least I did get smart rippper to rip it, but no success from there. TMPG or CCE in SDVD2SVCD.

Anyway, I'd like to see if I can do this anyway, capture a DVD, while playing. Using Virtualdub would be nice, but I would like some suggestions.

Thanks,

Jon

[Fozzee]

Hi
Obviously not that lame a question.
52 views no answers

Anyway I've done some playing around with my setup and can see 2 ways of doing this.

1)USING A STANDALONE DVD PLAYER

Connect your DVD player to your vcr or tv by scart.
Then capture through the video in on your all in wonder card connected to the appropriate device.....eg if your DVD player is connected to your VCR then connect your capture card also to your VCR.
Macrovision shouldn't be a problem.

It wasn't when i tried it.

2)USING YOUR COMPUTER DVD DRIVE

Using your TV out record the DVD to Video. Once again Macrovision shouldn't be a problem as most tv out software has an option to disable it.
Then using your TV card capture the video back onto your computer using whatever capture software u choose.

Both options yielded reasonable test results.


I hope this helps. I am no expert in this field I have just played about with my Tv in /tv out connections loads of times.
If this has not helped..........
I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOUR ARE TALKING ABOUT


Fozzee

[6ftcomputerman]

If I understand what you are trying to do correctly, you want to have you DVD be an AVI file. The best way I have found to do this (by far and away) is FairUse. It is a free program and has it's own ripping deal bundled in with it. I have found it to be more reliable on DVD's I can't seem to get to rip. It also makes absolutely fantastic AVI files.

As far as capturing a DVD, the only problem I could see you running into is that some DVD's have macrovsion. I am not sure if this will show up on a capture or not. You should be able to do it with VirtualDub with no problem...Just plug the DVD player in where you have previously plugged your Anntenae/cable/RCA/S-video in. The capture will never be as good as ripping it. (But, I am sure you were aware of that)

Hope this helps.

Chris

[Fozzee]

I found I can't just plug my DVD player into my capture card.
It does not create a good picture (even though my DVD player has an s-video socket.)
I have to go via the VCR . This creates a very good picture.

Like I ALREADY said Macrovision shouldn't be a problem.
It isn't when I do it.

Fozzee

[Nelson37]

DVD straight to AIW should be the best, something must be wrong. I have an older AIW also on XP, the picture on cap is significantly darker than TV, but after cap and encode it looks correct on TV. If I correct brightness on PC, encoded cap looks very washed out on TV.

Are actually recording on the VCR or using it for a pass-thru? Recording and re-recording will degrade image and sound.

Did something similar on a DVD I couldn't rip, there was a definite quality loss but not too bad, comparing ripped and captured segments side-by-side it was real obvious. But there were like 60-something VOB's and I needed subtitles, which I'd never done before, the PITA factor was way too high.

[Fozzee]

Hi
I meant I connected DVD to Capture card direct FUZZY PICTURE!!
So I used my VCR as a pass thru. Very good picture.

Fozzee

[jolo]

Thanks so much for your replys.

As obvious as it is, I never thought of plugging in my DVD player to my AIW card. Duh.

But since I did use Smartripper to rip the DVD, and I can play it, I', thinking that it might give better quality internally.

And yes, I want to convert this DVD to AVI or SVCD. The usual products I use all fail. SO I thought I could play it on a internal player, then capture it.

Never heard fairplay, but I'll give it a shot.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Jon

[Donny661]

Try using dvd2avi to make an avi file. Just open your ripped vobs and do file-->save avi and choose your compression. You'd probably want to use DivX or XviD because those will give you best qaulity with smallest filesize.