Newbie requires help and advice.

[Buggerlugs]

I`ve just borrowed a Haugpage Win-tv PCI (Which uses Brooktree 878) off a friend to test out (he basically wants £20 for it). I`ve managed to find a driver which works in windows xp without rebooting my pc here....

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/Files/btwdmdrvinstaller5.3.0.zip

I`m using PowerVCR2 (3) 0618. The results using a RF arial are pretty crap to say the least. Also I can`t seem to get audio to work in this way by taking the audio out the tv-card to my line-in on my sblive. Apparently no driver is loaded for the audio, but its working properly according to device manager, so go figure?

Needless to say my line-in on the sound card is working as I have tested it by other means and Powervcr2 records the crap picture and perfect audio in this way.

My questions are,

1. Is it worth my while to invest in a scart to Supervideo/1x 3.5mm stereo jack, and trail them from my Sky Decoder to my pc? (so I can go svideo to tv-card, 3.5 stereo jack to sblive line-in)

2. What will the quality be like, considering the cable will be 10meters long and split out of a scart lead?

3. Is this a worthwhile venture and if so where can I buy the cable I need in the UK online without spending lots of cash?

4. If it possible to encode directly to divx502 AVI using virtual dub, how are you supposed to calculate the bit rate to a film you are recording on the fly in this way?

System specs, XP1800+,KT266A,512MB PC2100, GF2-PRO-64, Seagate Barracuda 4 40gb, Sony CRX100, Pioneer DVDrom, Supra-express modem, Sblive value, MS Internet keyboard pro, Ms intellimouse optical, Windows XP PRO, PowervcrII 3 0618.

[Buggerlugs]

Come on guys! I`ve had 33 views of this thread (5 or 6 of which are my own!) and no ones responded!

I`ve read all the FAQ`s on this site, I`m new to pc capturing and would like a bit of help!

[baz00ie]

I might be able to help you out on a couple of those things....

OK, Capturing to DivX may be posible, but it's not the best choice for such things. DivX is mainly suited for final product and play back,... so after you capture, you would process and or edit your video and then render it into it's final output format,... ie: DivX5

A good capture codec is a Motion JPEG (MJPEG) codec ( check the tools section)

Here's what to do: start up VirtualDub, select Capture mode and set your file name. Next under "Video" and "format" select 'uyvy' or 'yuv' or 'yuv2' or what ever shows up there - that will be the raw colour data coming out of your card (try not to use RGB). Under "Video" and "Compression" select the MJPEG codec and set your desired quality plus the 4/2/2 setting. Enter other settings to taste.

After you capture the video, you then decide if you want to clean it up with some of VirtualDub's filters and/or edit it.

After all that, you then create a final version in the codec/format of your choice.

**

If you can get an intermediate tuner, such as a VCR, then trail a 10 meter
coaxial cable to the Sky Decoder, it will keep the image quality at it's best.

**

Is it worth it?..... beat's the @#$% out of me... I've been at this for years and i still haven't figured that one out yet

take care and good luck

baz