Capture DV to MPEG in VideoStudio

[Bstansbury]

I've seen a lot of posts in this forum about VidoeStudio and I've been struggling with a problem for toooo long. In both version 6.02 and 7.01 (trial) whenever I try to capture DV from my Sony TRV-740 via firwire to an MPEG format, it always captures in 740x480 frame size reguardless of what I set in the OPTIONS or in the project preference. My capture plug in is the Ulead DSDW MPEG plug in. What I'm trying to do is capture at SVCD format of 480x480 at the bit rate of about 2350 kbs. When I start the capture and pull in a couple of minutes, there are no dropped frames, but when I stop the capture and look at the properties it has a frame size of 720x480, and of course with this frame size captured at 2350 kbs, you can imagine what it looks like. The ads say I should be able to do direct capture from DV to SVCD. Of course I could go ahead and leave it at 720x480 and drive the bit rate up to 8000 kbs, but then I run the risk of dropping a lot of frames. Another choice would be to capture in DV mode (avi) but that is a lot of data and it could also drop frames. Did I read something wrong or is it not possible to capture DV to MPEG SVCD?

When I capture using S-video input rather than firewire, it will capture in exactly what ever frame size I set it at and what ever bit rate I set it at. Of course, the quality of S-Video is not as good as Digital Video firwire.

Hope someone out there has an answer.

Bud

[Richard_G]

It sounds like the software is transferring native DV and encoding on-the-fly. Consequently, you don't get a choice of framesize, the framesize is DV framesize. I would suspect that it isn't possible to encode to mpeg AND resize on-the-fly on anything but a very, very fast machine so they don't allow you to do it as most people wouldn't be able to anyway.

Transfer of DV via Firewire isn't capturing, it is a simple file transfer from one storage device to another. That's why you can't change things, it is how it is. Encode at a higher bitrate like 6500 - 8000 kbs at the DV framesize (720 x 480 for NTSC or 720 x 576 for PAL) and you will end up with a DVD compliant mpeg file. Then re-encode down to SVCD standard.

[Bstansbury]

Richard, You are right if I was selecting DV (.avi) input. This is just transfer of digital data,... but in selecting MPEG, this is "CApture". All cpature cards allow you to select the "Frame size" of what you are capturing. If you have VideoStudio Ver 7.01, use F1 to get to the PDF file and go to page 46. Just about all of this page describes Direct Capture in MPEG format from DV camcorder. The problem is that most of the page is in error. While the text tells you to select Ulead DSW MPEG Capture Plug in, the picture on the page has selected "Ulead Direct Show Capture Plug In". On the next lines down, they tell you to select " Video Capture Property Settings", which is not even provided under the options menu once you have defined you are using MPEG. Under options, the only selections are "Capture Options" which give you the choice of capture to the library or not,... and "MPEG settings", which only allows you to change either MPEG-1 or -2, and change the audio settings. Everything else is preset and grayed out.

I can see that the benefits to Version 7.01 are the improvements in editing and other functions. So far I see no improvements in Capture.

Bud

[Richard_G]

Richard, You are right if I was selecting DV (.avi) input. This is just transfer of digital data,... but in selecting MPEG, this is "CApture". All cpature cards allow you to select the "Frame size" of what you are capturing.

Right and wrong. If you select DV (avi) it is a transfer of digital data. If you select MPEG it still isn't a capture, it is a transfer followed by an encode. The encode is done in real time though.

To explain why you can't resize while encoding on the fly, transfer some video as avi and then use whatever encoder you choose to encode it to mpeg but leaving the frame size at 720 x 480. Time how long that encode takes. Then encode the same avi file to SVCD format mpeg and see how long that takes.

With a reasonable spec machine you can encode on the fly but you would need an incredibly high spec machine to ba able to resize and encode on the fly.

I can't comment on the manual, as I don't use VideoStudio so haven't got one. I use Mediastudio Pro, which I believe can capture DV as mpeg the same as VideoStudio, but as I'm going to be editing my footage and then burning to DVD, mpeg is the last format I want not the first.