ULEAD VS6 Capturing

[MarkLV]

Hi,

Could somebody help me with two following question about capturing
with Ulead Visual Studio 6 (this one with new MainConcept
based MPEG codec):

1) Is it possible to capture compressed AVI from ANALOG source?
I want to capture AVI with real-time compression into HUFFYUV, but I
can not find out how to specify codec for real-time compression.

2) How to tweak CPU usage of MPEG capturing from ANALOG source?
With standard NTSC DVD template settings (720x480/29.97fps)
I can not set "Motion Estimation" higher than 8-9 without frame drop -
Task Manager shows 100% of CPU usage. I think, it is a little bit low
for my AMD1800+/256MB DDR RAM machine.

Thank you in advance, Mark.

[Spicuzza]

1) Is it possible to capture compressed AVI from ANALOG source?
I want to capture AVI with real-time compression into HUFFYUV, but I
can not find out how to specify codec for real-time compression.

MarkLV, Open VideoStudio 6>Settings and Commands (wrench & hammer icon)>Templates Manager>Select Compression Codec>Ok>Close

This will create a custom template of whatever settings you desire.

2) How to tweak CPU usage of MPEG capturing from ANALOG source?
With standard NTSC DVD template settings (720x480/29.97fps)

Capturing directly to MPEG with a frame size of 720 x 480 in real time is very difficult to get a clean capture and will not produce any discernable visual quality over capturing 480 x 480, uncompressed AVI, then rendered as an (X)(S)VCD. At least this has been my experience. Capturing directly to MPEG never produces as good of results as does encoding from the highest quality capture that your machine can handle.

Good luck,

Gary Spicuzza

[MarkLV]

First of all, thank you Gary for answers, but, you know, so far so good:
more answers – more questions.

MarkLV, Open VideoStudio 6>Settings and Commands (wrench & hammer icon)>Templates Manager>Select Compression Codec>Ok>Close

I created new template, opened new project based on this template,
but still captured AVI is uncompressed. How can I specify that AVI
capturing should be the same as project template (something
like MPEG capturing definition)?

Capturing directly to MPEG with a frame size of 720 x 480 in real time is very difficult to get a clean capture and will not produce any discernable visual quality over capturing 480 x 480, uncompressed AVI, then rendered as an (X)(S)VCD. At least this has been my experience. Capturing directly to MPEG never produces as good of results as does encoding from the highest quality capture that your machine can handle.

I read somewhere on the net, that the real resolution of the VHS video is
300x360. Does it mean that there is no any advantage to capture more
than ~352x480?
About uncompressed AVI, it is frame based, but I capture interlaced
signal from VHS to edit and to produce interlaced DVD. Is it good to use
non-interlaced format for intermediate captured file?

Thank you in advance, Mark.

[Spicuzza]

Mark capturing uncompressed AVI is the way to go if you have the HDD space to do it. You are exactly correct, there isn't any advantage to capturing VHS tape above 352 x 480 then encode this to 352 x 240 for an (X)VCD. I do this all the time and the quailty is very good @ 2300 kbps.

Regarding the template, the default setting is AVI when creating the template just click the arrow and change to MPEG.

Also, regardless of the working template setting you can still capture to AVI or MPEG, and at any frame size, by just changing the settings while in the capture step. Look to the left of the preview screen to change from MPEG to AVI. Under the "Options" button you can change to whatever frame size you want.

The capture settings work independently of the working template settings as do the final make movie settings. All is totally customizable which leads to a little confusion at first but you'll love it later on.

Have fun, and you'll find once you get over the learning curve with VideoStudio 6 you won't want to use any other product for simply doing amateur videography editing.

Gary Spicuzza