IT'S BETTER TO CAPTURE AND THEN CONVERT OR ENCODE???

[guevi]

THANKS
8)

[SLK001]

Why, you're welcome!!! (????)

[macleod]

depends on what you are encoding from to. What the earlier post was eluding to was you have included no information and you have asked a generic question.

[guevi]

depends on what you are encoding from to. What the earlier post was eluding to was you have included no information and you have asked a generic question.

i meant exactly what the post said. when capturing some programs capturer and encode directly to mpeg 1 or 2. i have problem with program locking my system. the question is ; is it better to capture let say AVI and the convert to whatever you want. than capturing and converting at the same time using the same program????
clear now

[macleod]

more clear than originally (reread the subject line exactly as you wrote it and think about the billions of people that go to these sites and think of the million of interpretations that could come out of what you wrote).

Actually, to be a stickler on this, I read it the first time and read it as a statement (one interpretation). I read it a second time and "assumed" that you were asking a question (another interpretation).

When you say best, what do you mean? Best visual or best capture to fit on X cd's or a combination.

Now lets look at my mood and experience. I have captured from AVI with various codecs, mpeg hardware and software from a DVD, VHS, cable, satellite with my 486pc,p133pc,166pc,366pc, and my 1.2gig machine-all computers with different capture cards, memory, software/hardware encoders, res siz, bit rate, etc. My output has been to vhs, VCD,SVCD,CVD, computer monitor, divx and DVD.

As the majority of the people on this forum will tell you (you'll note that 63 people have viewed your post and I was the only one that responded) many different inputs under many different circumstances will give you many different results depending on your output.

Now to go to another extreme, you did not fill out any info on yourself that would help me answer your question. I (and no one else) knows what you have under the hood.

To take your real question a little further , which actually was

is it better to capture let say AVI and the convert to whatever you want. than capturing and converting at the same time using the same program????

depends on your computer and what your output will be (frames per second, resolution size, etc.) If your computer is high end and you have a huge hard drive, AVI uncompressed will yield you the BEST visual results when you convert(depends on what program you use to convert)since it does not compress the video. If time is a consideration, then you would want to consider a real time mpeg capture.

On a final note with your second question, you mentioned that capturing (insert program name here) locks up your system. What program,what version, what capture card, what system do you have, what are you capturing, what are you converting.

After you read this the first time, you (I hope) see where I am coming from. I am making an assumption (hopeing that all people are nice) that your "clear now" statement was not meant as a derogatory statement as my first and second response isn't.

[DVWannaB]

i meant exactly what the post said. when capturing some programs capturer and encode directly to mpeg 1 or 2. i have problem with program locking my system. the question is ; is it better to capture let say AVI and the convert to whatever you want. than capturing and converting at the same time using the same program????
clear now[/quote]

WOW!!! And with a serious attitude. Whoever you are.....GET A GRIP!!!! NExt time you ask a question you better drop the attitude. People cannot answer your question unless you give more details on whats kicking your ass!!!

If your question is capping in real-time MPEG vice AVI-MPEG encoding, then since your question is OH SO generic, still no specifics, you get a generic answer.

Capture AVI using Virtualdub and PICVideo MJPEG codec. USe your favorite encoder (TMPEG is cheap......like free) and convert to MPEG. Capeche!!!!

[macleod]

DVWannaB,

I was hoping that it wasn't just me that took guevi's response back to me as "curt".

I made an assumption that guevi didn't mean it the way he/she wrote it, but then I have been surprised before (answered a generic one and when it didn't work they write back "blasting me" that it didn't work. Don't know if you are in the tech world, but it is the same thing that goes on there. Business units break something, expect you to fix it for them, but won't give you any info, but it expects it to be perfect.

Guevi, Hope my response didn't scare you off. I just hope you now realize that I (and everyone else on this board) want to help other people (that is why instead of working on my 10 office projects I am writing you), but we need to have info.

[guevi]

DVWannaB,

I was hoping that it wasn't just me that took guevi's response back to me as "curt".

I made an assumption that guevi didn't mean it the way he/she wrote it, but then I have been surprised before (answered a generic one and when it didn't work they write back "blasting me" that it didn't work. Don't know if you are in the tech world, but it is the same thing that goes on there. Business units break something, expect you to fix it for them, but won't give you any info, but it expects it to be perfect.

Guevi, Hope my response didn't scare you off. I just hope you now realize that I (and everyone else on this board) want to help other people (that is why instead of working on my 10 office projects I am writing you), but we need to have info.

Mccleod thanks for the answer. there was no attitude on my clarification of my first question.and i will not respond to the gentleman Mr DVWannaB, that wrote back using work like Kick A.......... I think this forum are not for personal exchanges but for serious and intelligent exchanges related to the topics in questions
thanks again Mccleod.
Dr. Guevi.


PS I will try capturing AVI with a USB or Firewire and a program like ULEAD or Roxio and the encoding with TMPgenc.

[homerpez]

To RE-ITERATE...

Yes you definitely want to go the "Uncompressed AVI" route to capture, then re-encode it to MPEG-1 or 2.

Even if you cap at the same res you plan on outputting to, it will have a much better result to use a standalone encoder afterwards than to encode MPEG on-the-fly.

I especially noticed (having an ATI AIW Radeon) that certain TV shows that used weird visual effects (spinning graphics, lots of details swirling) just do not encode right whe you capture and encode to MPEG on-the-fly, you get blocks everywhere. But if you capture to AVI, you get exactly what the input source looks like on the preview, no blocks, no detail loss, then your standalone encoder (TMPGENC or CCE for example) can handle it much better.

I'd suggest the Huffy codec... 2:1 compression but still "uncompressed" AVI quality.

If this was redundant, then ignore.

[macleod]

PS I will try capturing AVI with a USB or Firewire and a program like ULEAD or Roxio and the encoding with TMPgenc.

I would recommend going firewire (although I personally have not went that route). "Most" usb captures arent that good above a certain vid size and bit rate as a lot of posters have mentioned. It sounds like you are either capturing from vhs tape or from "TV". If that is the case, most respondents would say that a 352x240 capture avi (huffyev codec) would be the best you'll get. That has also been my experience.

You might take a shot at virtual dub (free). I have heard many good things about this free cap. There are a lot of others out there like freevcr, iuvcr for avi caps. Me personally, I use powervcrII (get it off ebay for $10.00 vs at the store for $130) for REAL TIME mpeg 2 captures and do it native 352x480. After I'm done, I turn off standard compliance in nero and burn to SVCD(however it is actually CVD). Take a gander around the forum (do searches) for different avi capture software and see what other people think.

[petec]

From what I have played with:

1- ATI AVI captures were OK for VCDs (from DSS) when encoded using Panasonic MPEG1 encoder. (AIW then later AIW 128 Pro).
2- USB capture box like ADS MPEG1 and 2 capture were better but didn't like the interface (still have it on a shelf but not using)
3- Analog to DV (Canopus ADVC-100) paired up with Canopus Raptor Firewire card captures to VCD, SVCD, CVD and DVD are excellent.

I have played with software real time capture applications and they are OK but really video is what you are happy with. VCD's captured with AIW cards look fine on a 19 inch TV but not 60 inch TV.