If you have a hardware MPEG-1 encoder, read this

[glinckens]

It's very likely that your MPEG-1 capture card is based on the Winbond W99200F chip (MediaForte, ProVideo, 3Demon, Grandtec, etc.)

If it is, then you can tweak the encoding settings for your card very easily! All these MPEG-1 cards are based on the same capture application, called Wmpeg200. Just start the registry editor and search for this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MPEG-I\WMPEG200\CaptureConfig

Here you can find all the advanced settings for the video capture. By default these are not optimized for best quality. Just change the values to the ones listed below, and you'll end up with a capture that has much less blockiness and better high-motion quality:

"MPJ_CAPTURE_TYPE"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_COMPRESS_METHOD"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_FRAME_DISTANCE"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_LOGO_ENABLE"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_MPEG_B_START"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_MPEG_BIT_RATE"=dword:00118c30
"MPJ_MPEG_CLOSED_GOP"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_MPEG_DUPLICATE_B"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_MPEG_GOP_HEAD_FREQ"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_MPEG_HALF_PEL"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_MPEG_INTRA_DISTANCE"=dword:0000000a
"MPJ_MPEG_NUMBER_OF_B"=dword:00000002
"MPJ_MPEG_RC_METHOD"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_MPEG_SCENE_CHANGE"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_MPEG_SEQUENCE_HEAD_FREQ"=dword:00000003
"MPJ_MPEG_SLICE_HEAD_FREQ"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_MPEG_TELECINE"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_MPEG_TIME_STAMP"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_MPEG_VBV_INITIAL_FULLNES"=dword:00000026
"MPJ_MPEG_VBV_SIZE"=dword:00000028
"MPJ_PICTURE_RESOLUTION"=dword:00000001
"MPJ_QUALITY"=dword:00000008
"MPJ_VIDEO_IN_BLANK"=dword:00000000
"MPJ_VIDEO_STANDARD"=dword:00000000

I wonder if anyone else has tweaked their card before?

Regards,
Guido

[thxkid]

Hey! thanks for the tweaks, I have a Hauppauge PVR capture card that does MPEG 1 & 2, and MPEG1 is really bad so I will try this at home tonight.

[glinckens]

I don't think this will work for the WinTV PVR. The least thing you can do is search in your registry for keys similar to these and play around with them.

Good luck.

[SHS]

thxkid that will not work on WinTV-PVR

[glinckens]

It only works for cards using the Winbond W99200F chip! Check your manual or the chip on your card.

I've made a sample capture and put it on a website so you can download it to see the quality. It's a VCD compliant MPG captured with my Trueblue ACtion.
http://www.geocities.com/nvisschedijk/trueblue.html

[VideoGuy]

I looked at your trueblue.mpg file, then burnt to VCD.. I must say its much better quality than what Im getting from my ATI TV-WONDER VE...

I have got to get someting better working here, the ATI card has let me down in the quality area....

[Anonymous65]

Thank you for posting the Trueblue VCD clip. It looks very good. I just ordered the card, and looking forward to capture with it in real-time!