Capture Newbie askin for advice :-)

[puar]

After recently getting a new harddrive (thus giving me the space I needed), I've wanted to start capturing/archiving video to a vcd or svcd format (since my dvd player supports the playing of both).

I've gotten a good start from the HOW TO's on this site, but I definitely want to push the envelope. My current setup is as follows:

AMD Athlon Tbird 900 Mhz
512 MB PC133 Micron RAM
MSI 6167 motherboard
60 gig IBM Desktar 7200 rpm
12 gig Maxtor
GF2MX400 64 meg
Matrox G200 16 meg
Rainbow Runner G
SBLive X-Gamer
Windows 2000 Professional
PD 5.39 VT 2.04

I've been using HuffyUV with Virtual Dub to capture AVIs and then convert them using TMPGEnc.

First question, with everything stated above, what kind of quality should I be able to expect in my captures? I've been capturing at 352x240 right now, since it seems to be the only resolution I can capture at without dropping lots of frames.

Second question, if I should be able to capture at a higher resolution, what do I need to do/make sure of to do so?

I've tried to search through this Forum, and I find bits and pieces of information, but difficult to follow. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bobby

[stanwebber]

do you know how to adjust the disk i/o cache in virtualdub? this setting is quite volatile and often the cause of massive frame drops no matter how fast your system is. i recommend an initial setting of 512k, 32 buffers, disable windows write buffer(if applicable under win2k). you will need to experiment from there to fine tune the settings for your hardware(too-large total cache-size is actually worse than too-small so dont go overboard). your system should easily be able to capture full-frame 704x480 /w compression

[spiderman2k1]

your system should be able to do SVCD 480*480 my feind has a AMD 900 and he does 480*480 no problem at all second if you do mpeg for SVCD you might have a sound problem with you sound blaster if you have a sound card on your mother board use that and not the sound blaster