Frameserve DV-Fireware to Mpeg Encoder

[nrnoble]

I am looking for information on how to frameserve DV video coming directly over firewire to an MPEG encoder such as TMPGEnc.

GOAL: I have DV Tapes I do not need\want to edit, I just want to convert to MPEG2. I would like to stream them directly to TMPGenc from the DV camera over firewire.

DV Camera---> fireware--> frameserver---> TMPGenc--->File.mpg

I have tried a few commercial software packages that will do the MPEG conversion on the fly like I want, but I'm disappointed with the lack of control I have over the conversion process and the mpeg quality. These packages seem to be targeting novice users, so the conversion process lacks many of the options that can be found in TMPGenc and other dedicated encoders.

I am somewhat familiar with AviSynth from using DVD2SVCD. Can AviSynth or some other frameserver be used to with Fireware? Thx

[Bondiablo]

It's not possible with TMPGEnc. Have you tried Mainconcepts MPEG Encoder? It can convert DV video on the fly and gives good results.

[nrnoble]

Thx. I'll admit that I don't know all the much about how Frameservers work, but since TMPGenc does work with AviSynth, is it not a matter of having a frameserver that can take handle firewire as the input source? TMPGenc won't detect the difference as long as the Framesever is handing over the firewire stream as a AVI file. Do I understand the process correctly?

I shall look into mainconcepts MPEG encoder. Thanks for suggestion

[jimmalenko]

As Bondiablo says, TMPGEnc Plus definitely won't/can't on the fly, but MainConcept is rumoured to be able to do it.

If you are happy/comfortable using TMPGEnc, you could always just capture to DV AVI and then load this into TMPGEnc via AVISynth scripts. Not encoding on the fly I know, but a very effective method IMO because it reduces the possibility of dropped frames for one. I could imagine your CPU would have to work pretty hard if capturing and encoding at the same time.

It may not be for you, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

[bugster]

load this into TMPGEnc via AVISynth scripts.

.

Or directly, forgetting avisynth if you want.

How fast is your computer? Will it encode to mpeg, from any source on your HD, with TmpGenc, in the quality you want/need, in real-time?

DV via firewire is 'captured' in real time. So your encoder has to work at this speed too if you want to encode whilst capture.

[nrnoble]

Currently I am running a duel 3ghz system with 2gb of ram. I don't have any video analog inputs\capture. What I have been doing is capturing the DV to an AVI file, then converting it to MPEG2 with TMPGenc. I was just thinking that it might be posible to more-or-less simulate a hardware MPEG2 board by using a frameserver. However, it would be unacceptable if the system could not keep up and frames were dropped.

Thx

[shaynew]

I think Movie Factory 2 (now 3) has something like this. It even can burn while capturing.

http://www.ulead.com/dmf/new.htm

I doubt the encoding quality is excellent though with burn while capturing. If the quality scales with system performance you might be okay though.

IIRC, several folks here seem to think the almost-realtime MainConcept dv->mpeg2 captures are pretty good.

http://www.mainconcept.com/mpeg_encoder.shtml

[jimmalenko]

load this into TMPGEnc via AVISynth scripts.

.

Or directly, forgetting avisynth if you want.

True. I only mentioned AVISynth because of my usual need for filters like Convolution3D.

[vhelp]

Real-Time to MPEG (on the fly) encoding does not offer the quality impact as
that from a stand-alone snail, such as TMPG. You'll never get results from
real-timer's. Sorry. But these were designed for those that quality is not
the main goal here, and speed is. At best, I would say it gives fair results,
though, to the unsuspecting, can look good

From Excellent to poor:

* AVI capture (edit; then encode to MPEG)
* hardware MPEG capture (on the fly)
* real-time - capture and encode to MPEG (on the fly)

Cheers,
-vhelp

[nrnoble]

Thanks for all the comments. Looks l shall stick with "AVI capture (edit; then encode to MPEG)". I was trying to streamline the process by combining one or more of the steps.

I am curious are there DV playback devices are able to do highspeed data transfer at a faster frame rate than real time? In otherwords just treat the tape like data on an HD and tranfer the DV content at a faster rate than real time playback. My guess there are such highend\professional transfer devices costing in the thousand

I won't be surprised that in not to distant future instead of tapes, video cameras will just take micro drives type devices able to hold 1-2 hours of video. Then its just a simple process of mounting the camera or separate playback device to the PC and process the video directly.

[bugster]

Yes, there PC type DV drives that will read the data on to your HD much faster than realtime. And yes, they are hi-end proffessional equipment costing huge amounts of money (for what they are).

Just grin and bear it like the rest of us!