Taping 24hr Marathon

[Stanley Bostitch]

I want to tape a 24 hour marathon Friday, but I am afraid of the space ti will require. I usually use PowerVCRII with the following settings:

Mpeg-1
Video - 1500 kbps
Audio - 244 kbps

I also changed the registry so that it won't split my files to they reach 4gigs.

What is the best way to tape this marathon? Should I tape in VirtualDUB using a particular video or audio codec (w/ specific quailty settings?). Or PowerVCRII? I want the best quality at the most compression.

I need to know how to do this by 8:00PM EST Friday guys, so please help me out here.

[Stanley Bostitch]

By the way I use an ATI TV Wonder; I don't know if that helps you or not.

[BJ_M]

you would need a whole lot of room even at that bit rate -- chances of sucess are prett slim and if its one big file -- take forever to do anything with it ....

... 4 vcr's tapeing 6 hours each would work - each programmed to do a 6 hour stretch ..

[LanceSteel]

Edit: Never mind. I looked under the wrong persons computer details.

[bbb]

What exactly are you taping that will be shown for 24 hours?

[snowmoon]

I'm doing 13 hrs in one strech this weekend, but I've got 140gb of space to kill and anoth 30gb of temp space for downconversion. I figure it will take up ~104gb for the 13 hrs. AVI_IO will automatically split between the two fast drives. Between that and the two computers for conversion I should be able to NR and compress to SVCD in 6 days or so. Another day or two for the VCD conversion.

Hey anyone want The Dead Zone?

Cheers

[Stanley Bostitch]

Whoa. Guys, I'm not lookin to be taping ANYTHING at svcd quality.

All I want is for the recording to be 352x240, at any bitrate (preferable 1150 or lower), and I only have a 40 gig hd, which is mroe than halfway full.

I was under the impression that if I use some specific codecs in VirtualDub (mjpeg or something), I can record at good quality, while taking up a fraction of the huge .mpgs that PowerVCRII creates.

And the show I'm taping is called "SOAPS" I believe. My folks watched it like in the 70's, and I'm doing them a favor taping it.

Please help me out guys, I know there's gotta be some .avi codec that will have good quality+compression.

[BJ_M]

SOAP was great show ...

mpeg4 variations will give you the best quality and compression (divx5, QT, WMV, mpeg4 are all types of mpeg4) ...

at your selected size (which is fine) and at 1150 bit rate or so will fit on 13 gig space using a mpeg4 compression ..

i would go with one of the divx types if your system can compress it in real time . you can lower the frame rate to 15 or 20 and that can help ... as well you could go to a lower audio bit rate or record it in 16 bit mono 24khz sample (ok for tv really - not a whole lot over 12khz freq anyway)

[vhelp]

stanley,

ah, the gold 70' days. Those were the days. Anyways. I think that the
show you're talking about is SOAP, and if memory serves me, it wont
be in really good quality, but who know's what/how (these days) broadcasters
are formating their content, even if they rented.

Stan, your best probable bet is to not capture it. Well, NOT just yet.
You'll tax your cpu, cap card, hd's, and any others hardware I missed in
this long stretch - less you got money ta spare

Since your final goal is to make VCDs, my recommendation is to record them all
to 3 or 4 VHS tapes. In fact, for this casuse, I would record them even in
the EP mode, so you can pop in an 8 Hour tape and go off to work, come back,
and continue all w/out be too taxed.
Later, you can capture it and:
* refine your capture specs
* workout any last minute details
* capture / encode in steps, today this do one hours, tomorrow do another, etc.
This way, you can give them in spirts like weekly or every other day deals or
something like that to your family.

VCR RECORDING STEPS
---------------------
* Use the best quality 8 hour tapes
* set your mode to EP (but, if still want as much quality as you can, even
though show is old anyways, and probably not going to be aired in good quality
anyways, ok to record in SP mode instead, but remember, SP will record only
at 2 hours/tape vs. EP's 8 hours/tape - so, it's your call)

Please believe me when I say to tape the 24 hour marathon instead. You'll have
WAY so may issues if you go the Immediate Capture route ie:
* HD and/or CPU and/or MB overheating (possibly, and causing shutdowns and loss
of work - I've ben their! )
* frame drops (you might start catching lots of it - may cause you to cancel
the capture)
* CPU may lock of at times due to all kinds of issues during capturing.
* software issues, be it ANY capture
* HD space issues
* Scandisk issues like if you crash, DON'T EVER just reboot up and start caping
again, you'll regrit the incremental issues/crashings, and you'll loose control.

Believe me, when i say this, you are and will be, taxing yourself in this
endeavor to succeed. You will fail !! So, please, tape them on VHS tapes, THEN
capture and encode them all. you will have ALL the time to work out issues
and quality stuff etc. later. You will thank me and your self in the end. Ok?
You're already pushing yourself too far. And before you know it, the first
episode will be on, and you won't be ready, or will still have issues or not
yet ready, etc.

Here's one good history - experience:
------------------------------------------
Take it from an expeirienced video buff. I've ben their. The last time I
embarked on this endeavor was with the 2002 Olympics Salt Lake Winter Games
earlier this year. I had planned for a good capture setup using my WinTV PVR USB as a mini
TIVO since it had hardware MPEG-2 on it. Thinking that I could succeed, I
didn't think anything would go wrong. I tell you, I DID NOT plan well enough.
There was an unexpecting glitch I over looked. But, I did have a fall back
plan (I didn't want to have ANY regrets) I had purchased about 12 or so S-VHS
tapes (I have the JVC S-VHS) on stand-by. I was recording them in most of my
first time WTVPVR trials, but not all of them. But, that's ok. I got MOST
of it. Another issue that I hadn't planned/contengency for was the airing
times, and how they show spits or pre-recordings, on some days, and NOT on
others. So, that threw me off trail abit, and I lost some moments (tapings)
of certain events forever.
I've learned my lesson though. Plan ahead! And, have a fall-back plan (as I
had) but make sure it is effective enough. A couple of (your couple of) days
is not enough time for planning, though it you may have just found out and
am trying your best anyways.
Anyways, w/ my WTVPVR, I had HD space issues, even though I had 30gigs, I
thought to myself, that that was enough. Wrong! And, I wasn't paying attention
to what I was recording, and etc., and when I came back, my PC was frozen!
This happend for two days, randomly through out the day.
Now, in most of my capturing, I luckely had my VCR recording at the same time
I was capturing. So, I was lucky on those days or hours I was capturing.
So, my fall-back plan, had worked in these few instances.
In the end, I ended up using my fall-back plan, and I recorded the remaining
events to take (well, those that aired while I was home anyways) However,
I did use some regular 8 hour tapes (not S-VHS tapes) to do SOME recordings.
But, all in all, on a scale from 1 to 5 maxed, I succeeded w/ a 4. A pretty
good score, I think. My goal, next time, is a 5!!

In your case, its a 24hour recording. VCR is THE perfect solution for you!
Use it!!

Heed the warnings!! I don't want to say "I Told You So!"
Good luck!
-vhelp

[Stanley Bostitch]

Holy crap! Thanks for all the help guys, especially you vhelp.

I'm gonna go the VCR route, and I hope to enjoy the marathon forever.

Thanks again; I will definetly return to this forum the next time I have a video dilemma.

[vhelp]

stanley,

now, the one last tip I can give ya is this.
Get yourself an DC10+ card instead of using the ATW card.
I have the ATW, and I still use it, on my 1st PC, but it produces lots of
noise in VHS captures - though I've figure out why, but it's still a bit noisy
for VHS sources. IMO, the DC10+ has NO NOISE, and gives pretty good
quality from VHS sources, add to that, that is' MV"less, which helps in
reducing noise, cause as I have found out, to an extent, MV participates
in noisey output in your capturing.

But, that's you choice. If you're comfortable w/ the ATW, then continue
w/ it. But, my recommend is the DC10+ for VHS source. It would be
that much better. Only, I don't know if they still put them out. Now, they
go by the name Studio 7 and Studio 8, and they may have made some
changes to it's features/designes and quite possibly, MV.

VHS source is a tricky one to master. I have gotten a good strong-hold
on it, but for beginners, it's not so. So, bare that in mind. I"m basing
what I've told you from MY experience - don't always mean that it will be
the same for you. So, take w/ a grain of salt.

If you want more info, please do some searching around on this FORUM and
on www.Google.com

That's about it. Good luck.
-vhelp

[secretagent]

download a program named showshifter, it has a free 30 day trial, works like tivo. set it to save in divx 5 press record and you will have a nice 320 x 240 file. with 40 gigs you can save about 80 - 90 hours of tv, with great clarity. then just encode with tmpeg or whatever. done deal. all with the punch of one button and very little cpu usage. you can get showshifter at http://www.divx.com