Capturing quality from satellite - vertical strips

[rlcoach]

After much research on this website I finally went for the ADVC-100, thanks for everyones advice.

However now I`m doing some capturing I am running into a problem.


My Satelltie is connected to my ADVC-100 with a high quality 1 meter s-video to s-video cable, capturing PAL. I have captured 2 different video clips.

One capturing DV to ulead videostudio and then using adobe encore to convert to mpeg 2 and then make a DVD. The other clip I used scenalyzerlive to capture the dv and then used tmpgenc to convert to mpeg 2.

Here is the problem, both my clips when played back on my DVD player result in a good quality picture except that you can see strips running vertically down the picture all the way across, more easily detectable when there is something light on the screen.

Does anyone have any ideas what this can be? If I can get rid of these very feint lines from the background I will be very happy with my captures.

[rlcoach]

Here is an example (this is from the avi)



You should just be able to make out the strips if you look closely. (NOTE: screenshot suffered a bit in compressing from bitmap)

[non-linear]

It looks like compression artifacts from the satellite signal (since you didn't specify, I'm guessing it's a digital satellite service you're using). If that's the case, then there's really nothing you can do to get rid of them. You can try filtering through something like TMPGEnc and soften the picture to try and hide it, but it will probably look worse than just leaving it there.

[rlcoach]

Yes I am using digital satellite (sky digital/sky plus) but I thought the dvd I produced would be nearer the quality of the original. It is only the vertical lines that are tainting it to be honest.

[non-linear]

It will be closer to the quality of the original picture, but if the picture from the satellite feed has compression artifacts in it, then the final product will reflect that.

[rlcoach]

but why arent the artifacts showing when I watch satellite directly through the TV? Is it because of the compression? Would a DVD Recorder have the same problem?

[feenix]

rlcoach,

So you finally went the ADVC-100 route. Did you use the long firewire option as well?

Anyway - can't answer your problem directly but was this recording from the sky+ hard drive or realtime. If you get the 'stripe' from the sky+ hard drive but not realtime then it's obviously a 'feature' of the sky+ mpg2 encoding.

[rlcoach]

rlcoach,

So you finally went the ADVC-100 route. Did you use the long firewire option as well?

Anyway - can't answer your problem directly but was this recording from the sky+ hard drive or realtime. If you get the 'stripe' from the sky+ hard drive but not realtime then it's obviously a 'feature' of the sky+ mpg2 encoding.

feenix,

Yup I decided to go the ADVC-100 route, I have connected my ADVC-100 with sky plus via a high quality s-video lead.

I decided to go with a 10m firewire cable, which at the moment I put through my windows when I`m using it (temp until I drill through house).

[feenix]

Good on ya!

I must admit that's the way I would have done it as well.

[rlcoach]

Good on ya!

I must admit that's the way I would have done it as well.

The quality is very good, if I could only go that one step further and get rid of the feint lines

[feenix]

Well as I asked before - do they appear when capturing direct from satellite or only when capturing the copies on the sky+ box? Or indeed - both?

[rlcoach]

Sky plus records the incoming signal so the quality is always the same whether it is live or recorded on its internal hard disk.

It is always capturing via the s-video.

[non-linear]

but why arent the artifacts showing when I watch satellite directly through the TV? Is it because of the compression? Would a DVD Recorder have the same problem?

It's possible your TV set is filtering out, or distorting the image in a way that you can't notice the artifacts. If you're using a coaxial connection to feed the satellite receiver to your TV, the signal might be degraded to a point where you don't notice it. Without knowing your setup or what it looks like on your end, I can't say for sure.

[rlcoach]

but why arent the artifacts showing when I watch satellite directly through the TV? Is it because of the compression? Would a DVD Recorder have the same problem?

It's possible your TV set is filtering out, or distorting the image in a way that you can't notice the artifacts. If you're using a coaxial connection to feed the satellite receiver to your TV, the signal might be degraded to a point where you don't notice it. Without knowing your setup or what it looks like on your end, I can't say for sure.

My TV is connected to my satellite via RGB while my DVD player is connected via component, so they should be of relatively similar quality.

[rlcoach]

Anyone any final ideas? Would I be able to pick it up in some sort of noise filtering when converting to mpeg 2?

[non-linear]

There's really not much you can do. If there are artifacts in the original video, then the only thing you can do is try to disguise it. You could try using TMPGEnc and use the noise reduction filter and see if that helps. Other than that, I'm out of ideas.

[rlcoach]

The one thing that is frustrating is that I dont notice the artifacts when watching directly from satellite to tv, it is only when I watch the avi from advc-100 via s-video.

[GKar]

You can try using the RCA connections and see if the lines go away, maybe the s-video is noisy. Just a thought.

[lordsmurf]

Non-linear said it best.