Creative Blaster Digital VCR Questions.

[lan]

Hi there,

I have been reading some info on this card (only just bought it) and trying to work out the best custom Compression settings in the Vcr program and conversion settings in TempEnc of the non standard mpeg-2 files it creates. I would like to know the minimum settings for ok Svcd quality in the VB Vcr software please. I noticed that it only makes 650 meg files...is there any way to squeeze more output as i use 700MB/80 cd's?

I have created some tests files (about 10 mins of capture) using 2.6 compression, 480x480 and 128 for sound. The file once converted with the VB Vcr converter looks fine. Then i go ahead and convert the file over using the SvcdVcd NTSC TempEnc template. I use Vcd Imager to create bin/cue file for burning. No problems up to here.

When i play the svcd in my stand alone Pioneer DV-341 the fast motion of objects (foreground and background) gets blured/gitters/ghosts (like the fast objects/movements are not scanning properly). Never had any probs till now with svcd's doing this on the player. Can someone let me know what causes this and how to remedy it. I am figureing its something to do with the TempEnc settings while encodeing. Apart from the non standard Mpeg-2 files it creates it seems a good card. Please Help!

PS Sorry Admin...Posted this in Newbie area fist when it should of been here. Wont happen again.

[Roginator]

While your method "may" work, I doubt the quality of finished output will be very good.

Try this method:
1) Convert to MPEG-2 using the supplied program. Note there is a program update which allows you to select more file sizes. I usually output to just under 2GB. Capture using best possible custom settings of the card that your computer allows
2) Run DVD2AVI on the files to create a .d2v project file and an .mpa sound file
3) Convert the .mpa to a .wav (I use mpa2wav)
4) Write a short Avisynth script to create a pseudo-avi file. Example:
LoadPlugin("C:\MPEG2DEC.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\decomb.dll")
mpeg2source("C:\filename.d2v")
Telecide()
Decimate()
TemporalSmoother(1)
You can apply many other filters and commands here. Like reducing the size, etc.
5) Open the .avs file in VirtualDub and add the .wav file. Under the video:frame rate menu, examine the line for making audio and video durations match. After doing an inverse telecine, the video frame rate shouldn't be much less than 23.972 fps (.004 fps less than 23.976). If it is, it means your capture is screwed up somewhere and must first be fixed with PVAstrumento.
6) Now you can add more filters and either save as an avi format or frameserve to an MPEG encoder like TMPGEnc.

[lan]

Thank you for your response Roginator. I guess no one else has come up with less complicated method of converting these non standard mpeg-2 files to svcd Alot of messing around due to Creative making these files non standard. Any suggestions on a capture card similar to this that doesn't mean messing around?

Thx.

[Roginator]

The files aren't "non-standard". They are perfectly normal MPEG-2 files. You could probably find a program like M2-Edit Pro which "might" allow you to edit and convert the files more easily. Expect to spend $$$$. The method I outlined above is free and pretty simple once you have all the pieces downloaded and installed.

Alternatives: You could get a card which captures to MPEG-1, or if you have a LOT of disk space, you could get a cheapo TV card and capture to .avi. Conversion of .avi files to MPEG is pretty simple. You could also use software with a TV card to capture direct to MPEG.

Within a year or so, we'll all be using cards like MyHDTV (?) which capture both HDTV and (crudely) analog TV broadcasts. You'll probably have to use my method, or something similar, to shrink the MPEG-2 files from those HDTV captures. The picture quality is stunning -- even after compression.

[lan]

Thx for the info Roginator,

I have read in a few posts on this card that the files are called "Non standard mpeg-2 files" because they cannot be edited in the form they are converted out to from the blaster vcr software.

Creative puts copy protection on the exported mpegs to prevent them from begin edited.

Is this true? I am only going on the info i have seen on this board. Also can you explaine why i get the motion problems with the output using my method of conversion stated in my first post?. I am only new to this so please be pateint. I am looking into the Pinnicle Studio 7 package w/capture card:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=469&Langue_ID=7

Hopefully that card/software might do the job. I do appreciate you taking the time to explaine the process from the last post. But i do not have any experience in creating scripts etc. So what i figured out from your description was that you have to convert the file to an AVI then back to a Mpeg right? Anyway hope to hear from you soon.

Regards.

[Roginator]

There is no copy protection on the files from the VideoBlaster. MPEG-2 files are just more difficult to edit than .avi files. People who say the files are copy protected are just too lazy to read the forums.

With my method, you are creating a sort of .avi file -- except that by using Avisynth you don't need massive amounts of disc space. It takes the video frame-by-frame from the original and sends it to TMPGEnc (or wherever else you want to send it). Very cool.

I can't say why you had weird artifacts in your capture. I'd guess maybe too low a bitrate.

[lan]

Hi again,

Well i have been testing the output files etc and have detected them to be Anamorphic. And the fact that the card cannot capture sound any higher than 32khz doesn't really help. So might try another card. But thank you for your prompt responses...Really appreciate it.

Regards.

[Wolf359]

I also have Videoblaster VCR and after lots of frustating tryings now I'm making very good SVCDs only correcting the audio.

I am capturing 1-hour TV shows with "Good (EP)" recording setting (480x480, 2.2kb/s, 32kHz) and using File Exporter to get a continuous mpeg-2 file.

Next step is split this file in small ones (without commercials). I couldn't use TMPGEnc, it says "illegal video stream", but Womble MPEG2VCR is working fine to me.

The critical part: demux each small mpeg file, convert audio to wav, upsample it to 44kHz, reencode it back to mp2 and remux them with TMPGEnc. A lengthy process, but Ulead Audio Editor can convert audio in one step. Load the audio directly from mpeg-2 and save a .mpa file with the SVCD settings, 44.1kHz rate and any bitrate you want.

I got some sync problems in demux/remux, but I found a workaround to correct them. The small show parts has progressive audio delays, largest at last part. So, just shorten the beggining of each audio file, you can see the undesirable audio material using Ulead Audio Editor. As a general rule, I'm cutting 50, 100, 150 & 200 ms in parts 2,3,4&5 of the audio of each part.

Finally burn a SVCD with Nero using the small remuxed files. This process is a little boring, but I'm making very good 45min-SVCDs with regular 700MB CDRs in less than 1 hour and watching them with no problems in my DVD player, and best of all, without reencoding video.

This is what's working for me. No other software could help me. I also tried PVAStrumento, it seemed to be a good promise, but it ruined all the videos I tried and they became unuseable.

Of course I'm dissapointed with Creative. It would be much better if the final MPEG-2 file could be directly burned.