Vhelp, About Your Clips

[bbb]

On your website, what are the precise tmpgenc settings that you use? 2-Pass VBR? CQ? Min, Max, Avg Bitrates?

Regarding your DC10+ samples, why didn't you capture at 6000? You stated that you only captured at 3000. I noticed that there are blockiness in your direct TV mpeg 2 clips (when the direct tv blurry swoosh goes by). Can you try capturing those clips again at 6000 and reencoding them to see if that gets rid of the blocks. Thanks.

You don't have to post the whole re-encoded clip, just maybe the portion with the swoosh.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: bbb on 2001-12-02 16:13:11 ]</font>

[bbb]

*bong*

[vhelp]

bbb,

I have several questions for you too. . .

1, what's your connect speed? 56k? Cable? DSL?
2, How long did it take for you to download the clip (or clips)
3, do you have satalette or cable tv?

Sorry for not responding to your post quick enough! I usually do
watch all new posts that come in.

As for BLOCKYness, I make sacraifices. You gotta come to a decision
when you make your encodes to SVCD - hence, how many CDs you
want to make. I prefer to keep at a minimum, say, 2 to 3, if it can
be helped. For the most part, I've pretty much stuck with the bitrate
of 2520.
One thing I can't stand is jumping back and forth between bitrates.
Do I choose 1800, or 2500, or 3215, etc. I just stick to 2520 and hope
that the quality is good.
I hope that you BURNed to cd, hence making your judgement on the
clips "Smush". I don't care for PC viewing.
Ok, I capture from Satalette. And, as such, BLOCKYness will depend
on each stations own quality of source. When you (or I) catch any
BLOCKYness in the encodes, there's pretty much nothing else for me
to do but live with it! I'm not in the habbit of getting rid of minor BLOCKs.
"Smush" had some blocks as well as maybe some of the other clips on
my website. So, sometimes, you'll see BLOCKs in my clips, but they may
not REALLY be from my encodes. As for my encodes, they are, IMO,
BLOCKless (even if you see 1 or 2 scenes w/ slite hint here or there) they
are usually from the SOURCE (my satalette) and not my encodes.

Unless you think there is a better way to prove it, I'm more than will to
try YOUR method of capturing something off the air. But, I can't do it
right now. I'm in the middle of capturing ST-E right now, encoding the
commercials.

Man, I just realized that I took the clip, "Smush" off my website. So, you
must have D/L'ed it a few days ago or so. I guess you've ben giving this
clip a battery of tests, he, he...

I haven't seen that very same commercial of the upcomming tv show "SMUSH"
so I don't think I'll be capturing it. So, hay, if you want, I'll capture something
now - (after Star Trek) and compare it with yours or for you to test, or whatever.

Oh, and as for why I capped at 3000 in DC10+, well, becuase of HD space for
one, and the other is because I really didn't see any difference in the quality
of my final encoded MPEGs.

The only ONE thing I don't like about the DC10+ is the COLOR problem that
it has. I think it's the color rage to be exact. 16-235 instead of the normal
0-255 - I could be wrong though.

Currently, I'm still running tests with my ATI-TV Wonder card, which seems to
be working quite well (excellent) side by side with my ATI Rage Fury (AGP)
card. I've had problems with it, but till yesterday, I've solved them all, and
am getting MUCH better captures from it, than my DC10+ !! Only, it eats up
a little bit more HD space then the DC10. It might be something that I can
live with IF I decide to switch my preference over the DC10+ which I've ben
claiming is the best (for me) in the past. So far, the ATI-TV Wonder is holding
up it's own ground. And, I like it!

As far as my prices settings for TMPG go, NO, I don't use 2pass VBR - -
It takes WAY too long for me to apprecate it!! I've done it, and got GREAT
results, but I choose to NOT use it for my encodes - just ain't worth the time
it takes. I'm quite satisfied with my current settings, yes, VBR. Besides,
going the 2pass VBR really isn't going to do much in quality anyways, as its
only use is for making the clip just slightly smaller, ie, from a 200mb file, maybe
down to 187mb - not worth the extra double time for me!!... and the quality
is still the same. When I said "GREAT" results above, I didn't say that I had
upped my bitrate! I was using 3000mn and 6000mx

On another note, yesterday, I did a capture of the Wizard of Oz, and today,
I finished most of it. I must say, the quality of it was excellet, IMO.

Unfortunately, I don't have the DC10+ card in my system. So, I can't do any
test captures for you, from it. But, I have the ATI-TV Wonder in my system.

bbb, if you're looking for that PERFECT encode, forget it! You have to make
a decision. You have to make some sacifies. You have to know when to say,
"this is enough!!" and stand by'em!! Don't get me wrong. I keep trying for
the best ENCODE, but when I do my every-day capture and burn, it'll be according
to my final decision in my settings to use as my standard for EVERY capture
project I use, unless I feel otherwise. Am I making any sense? - you have to
have standards to live by.

Again, your question:
>> I noticed that there are blockiness in your
>> direct TV mpeg 2 clips (when the direct tv blurry swoosh goes by). Can you
>> try capturing those clips again at 6000 and reencoding them to see if that
>> gets rid of the blocks.
This was most likely from my satalette source, not my encode.

Sorry for the long post!

Oh, I've revised my website, so you may want to check it out.

---------------------------------------------
Sample Clips . . .revised web site

[bbb]

Answers to you Questions:
1. I have cable modem. It's about 4x to 5x of 56k speed.

2. I been doing simultaneous downloads to get 1 commercial clip at a time. It takes about 70 minutes per clip because Yahoo briefcases deliberately slows down the download to a 28.8k modem speed (even if I'm downloading just 1 file at a time). If Yahoo allowed full speed download, it would take about 2-3 minutes to download a 6 meg file.

3. I have cable TV, no ghosting like attenna TV, but it has visible static compared to your clean satellite clips.

More Comments:
I burned your clips on a cdrw and I noticed the blocks on my TV. But, I just reviewed the clips on my computer screen and they don't seem to be really visible. Despite a few blocks, your clips are very nice and clean. In fact, it inspires me to start using my DC10+.

Also, I don't see any problems with your DC10+ captures. The colors seem fine. Please keep using the DC10+ and unlock all it's secrets so you can pass it to me. I just built a new Athlon system with bigger hard drives and can start using my $59 DC10+ that was sitting in it's box for several months.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: bbb on 2001-12-02 21:56:07 ]</font>

[vhelp]

bbb,

Is there proof of this (Yahoo) or what? ...I heard something similar to this.
I feel I need to go elsewhere now, for my clip storage.

question:
how are the blocks showing on your tv? what size IS your tv?
Mine is 13"

>Also, I don't see any problems with your DC10+ captures. The colors seem fine. Please
>keep using the DC10+ and unlock all it's secrets so you can pass it to me. I just built a
>new Athlon system with bigger hard drives and can start using my $59 DC10+ that
>was sitting in it's box for several months.

As for the colors, you'll notice the difference is you just capure Star Trek Enterprise!!
I might have a small clip for you to see. Maybe! Anyways, maybe I have a bad card
as far as color goes? ...that is, if it turns out that your captures (Star Trek Enterprise)
comes out with regular colors. You'll have to do a small clip on Wednesday, just the
first few minutes - you'll see
I may use my DC10+ shortly, here or there, but right now, I'm still toying with my
ATI-TV Wonder. I REALLY like the quality captures I've ben getting! Some of my
gripes with the DC10+ is the glitches we all have with the Studio (in capture mode)
and the color issue (16-253 vs 0-255) Not all your clips will suffer this color'less issue,
but depending on dark scenes, you'll notice it - trust me! What I was doing was
LIVing with it. I got used to it and made the sacrifise to stick with it. Now, my standards
are changing (for the better) using the ATI-TV Wonder card is helping me to do that
I still think the DC10+ IS a great card, else I wouldn't have stuck with it for this long
a time! Just so that you know, the card has gone through some rugh handling.
I am planning on doing some experiments with the DC10, but at a later date, soon
as I can find the right IMAGE to create on my first PC system, based on my ATI-TV
Wonder's card setup. I want to retain the settings, etc. and windows, and create
an imaged disk on cd. So, if I have any problems, I can just pop in my cd and re-
image the hard drive, and I'm back in business. I have this working on this pc (my
2nd pc for surfing)

I'm going to do SciFi's "Farscape" tonight (8pm) to see how it looks. Ben wanting
to do this with the ATI-TV Wonder (ATW) to see the quality of it.

MY WEBSITE:
---------------
On another note, I have another question for ya.
* how did you get to my forum?
* did you JOIN in, and/or have to "create" a forum just to join/register???

I'm curious, because this is NOT what I wanted people to HAVE to go through
in order to communicate with me. I wanted something simple!
* do you know of any FREE forums sites I can go to to start up on my own
and without ANY registering or JOINing or whatnot???????????
I need something simple, and not scare anyone away.
* I though the <new> link was a good idea for quick posts!
I don't want to have people HAVING to register or joing a large sect to post
on my forum/website.
I can't use CGI, or SSI or what-not, because my provider refuses to provide
this feature for me. For whatever reason.

You got any idea's ? ? ?

[vhelp]

bbb,

I'm in the middle of UPloading some files to a new storage website.
I want to test the DOWNloading speed. So, what I'll do is post a
link here and you see how long it takes to D/L the file, K??

I am hoping that you get it at your fastest, being that you have
a cable modem, luck b_stard you, he, he....

Hope you're standing by. . .

[vhelp]

bbb,

Sorry, but no such luck with the storage website I talked about earlier.

They don't allow anyone to D/L files from them, NOT EVEN IF I'M THERE
AND (via a website I created at that location, and incorporate a link to
file at that location). I get a warning message saying:
"I am sorry, but this file type is not allowed unless you are a paid account"
Tried different names, but it still doesn't work. I'm just wondering, . . .what
good is 100mb or more if you can't put file on it to D/L ? ? ?

Man!

Later.

[bbb]

I got in your forums pretty easily. I didn't have to register either. But, I guess other people are bashful.

I hope you find better storage. Yahoo is ok for now but I have to click on the links, go to sleep, and wake up to see your clips.

[vhelp]

bbb,

My website:
The reason why I asked the question above was because when you click on
the <new> link on my main menu section (frame) and the forum page loads
up with some boxes, I notied that User and Password is displayed at the top
and I thought that you MUST register or join in forum first, before you can actually
make any new POSTS there.

What did you do to be able to post and show you ID name in the forum?
I'd like to know, so I can give the exact instructions on my website, maybe help
to convense people that they don't have to join (go throgh process)

Thanks.

[bbb]

Ok,

I go to http://home.computer.net/~ttcog/sampleclips.htm

Click "Main" in the Forum box at the lower left corner.
Click "Sample Clips"
Click on the message "So, how's my site"
Click "Add Reply" at the lower right corner.
Type in User Name
Type in Subject
Type in Message
Click Add Reply

Done!