best method of capturing and burning XSVCD with a 20gb HD

[paull]

I capture VHS footage at 352x480 at 4055 data rate as an mpeg2 i=1, p=1, and b=1 file (on performance rating 10 using Ulead Video Studio 6).

I find that if I use 352x288 the resulting video is more blurry - presumably because you can't use as high a data rate and it has to convert to 480x576 frame size.

But if I try to capture at 480x576, my 1.1 Athlon/Geforce2 card starts dropping frames.

But to make it into an XSVCD I have to render to XSVCD 480x576 at data rate 3200, 100% quality. Then I can only fit a maximum of 36 minutes of video onto a disc. This is at the maximum data rate my Philips DVD player will play (3200).

Even then video is not crystal clear. Probably because of the mpeg2 capture and then mpeg2 render combination.

Originally I tried capturing uncompressed video and then used Huffy. But as you know file sizes are enormous, and this is simply not practical, and still because of the change to 480x576 the pciture becomes fuzzy.

So how can you get 60 minutes onto a 650mb CD and still get good quality, and able to play on a DVD???

I guess my 32" tv doesn't help the problem either!

What am I not getting?? Is there a better way of doing it?

[hwoodwar]

Paull:

Your specific profile information is not filled out, so since you mention both 480 and 576 vertical resolution I cannot absolutely determine wether you are in a country that supports NTSC or PAL TV formats.

Since you are trying to create XSVCDs anyway, why not capture and encode at 352 x 480/576. This should drop less frames (than 480 x 480/576) and will probably play on your DVD player since it is a valid DVD resolution (half D1.) If Video Studio has some sort of VBR or 2-Pass VBR I would use that over CBR. It will allow for better allocation of the video bitrate. With VBR or 2-pass VBR I would suggest you use bitrates of min 1000, avg 1600, max 3200 (for 60 minutes video on 70 minute audio CD.)

I know you don't want to hear this, but many people agree that, in general capturing to avi format using a lossless codec (like huffyUV) and then encoding to MPEG-2 using a good encoder (CCE, TMPGenc, or MainConcept) produces better quality video than capturing directly to MPEG-2 format. I personally have had good to excellant results capturing 352 x 480 VirtualDub w/huffyUV and encoding in TMPGenc, 2-Pass VBR at 1000/1900/3600 (about 50 minutes on a 70 min audio CD) on my system.

In the U.S. hard drives are at or near their lowests costs ever; near $1.00/gb and ocasionally less after rebates. I strongly suggest you get at least a 60 or 80gb drive as soon as you can afford it.

[paull]

Thanks for that. I am on PAL and do capture at 352x480. Unfortunately I have a winfast 2000 capture card which only captures at 352x288 or 640x480 - I asked them why they didn't have the obvious 352x480 or 480x576 - and they said something about it would take up too much of the specs?
Virtual dub 352x480 and 480x576 captures won't work with Winfast 2000

soooo I have to use Ulead which will work at 352x480 etc, although I wonder now, whether it is true or a jiggered capture size.

It seems a shame to use 60gb for one movie. I suppose another way would be to get a faster processor so I can capture at 480x576?