? on Virtualdub, codecs and stability

[tazey]

Hi,

I'm capturing video from my DVD player using an S-VHS link to my Pinnacle PCTV card, planning to edit the different files later in Premiere.
(yes, sadly, I don't have a DVD player on my computer so no ripping possible).

I've run different tests at a resolution of 384x288 Pal 25fps to find out which codec would prove best for that. Huffyuv is the only one that never crashed. DiVX MPEG4 Low motion crashed every other time, same for MiroVideo-XL that came with the PCTV. As for Microsoft MPEG4 Video codec V3 and DiVX 5.0.1 codec, they crash right there and then even as they start!

I'm satisfied with the quality of the Huffyuv captures but my problem is that the only HDD I can use for capture without experiencing massive frame loss is only 3GB and at this resolution with Huffyuv, it means only about 25mn worth of videos. And in Premiere later on, it's better to have the files on a different HDD than the main system one, otherwise they tend to stutter in Premiere which can be quite annoying.

Why is Virtualdub so unstable with these other codecs? Is it something to do with my system? I'm running Windows98 first edition with a MSI K7T mainboard, a 900Mhz Athlon processor and 650MB RAM memory.

Thanks for clarifying that for me if you can.

Tazey

[KingJohn]

Hi,
I'm capturing video from my DVD player using an S-VHS link to my Pinnacle PCTV card, planning to edit the different files later in Premiere.
(yes, sadly, I don't have a DVD player on my computer so no ripping possible).

Why not ? Liteon DVD players are only £33 !!

I've run different tests at a resolution of 384x288 Pal 25fps to find out which codec would prove best for that. Huffyuv is the only one that never crashed. DiVX MPEG4 Low motion crashed every other time, same for MiroVideo-XL that came with the PCTV. As for Microsoft MPEG4 Video codec V3 and DiVX 5.0.1 codec, they crash right there and then even as they start!

Maybe you just don’t have the power, those codecs do work very well, especially DivX 3.11 Alpha, low motion, did you try a lower bitrate, default setting is 910 Kb/s try 400 !!

And what codec do you use for audio ?

I'm satisfied with the quality of the Huffyuv captures but my problem is that the only HDD I can use for capture without experiencing massive frame loss is only 3GB and at this resolution with Huffyuv, it means only about 25mn worth of videos. And in Premiere later on, it's better to have the files on a different HDD than the main system one, otherwise they tend to stutter in Premiere which can be quite annoying.

Buy an 80G hard drive or capture a little at a time

Why is Virtualdub so unstable with these other codecs? Is it something to do with my system? I'm running Windows98 first edition with a MSI K7T mainboard, a 900Mhz Athlon processor and 650MB RAM memory.

Why use Vub, why not use your cards program ?. Ah Windows 98, you need 98SE its much better. Can't help with your problem, these programs do work well on more powerful machines.

Make sure you don’t have any other programs running in the background, your hard drive is defragged, you have installed the Nimo codec pack, you do a re-boot before you go into capture.

You test different audio codec's to make sure its not them that's crashing. PCM uncompressed maybe default.