Should capture resolution be same as ultimate output?

[Linelle]

I plan to capture and edit DV and output to VCD (home movies). Is it therefore more logical for me to capture at 352x240 (NTSC) since that will be my output resolution? IOW, I realize that capturing at 720x480 will mean bigger files and slower render times, but do I gain anything from starting with full resolution? Or, does the downsizing mean throwing out pixels and perhaps result in worse VCD quality?

Thanks in advance,

[Beavis]

Your DV isn't being output at 352x240, so at some point it will have to be re-sized to VCD resolutions. The question may be what does a better job of re-sizing- your capture hardware and utility or your MPEG encoder. I suspect the latter, but you should run your own tests and see what looks good to your eyes.

[The village idiot]

With DV your are restricted to capturing at 720x480 (NTSC), so you won't have much choice. But to answer your question, Yes capturing at a higher resolution with the objective being to downsample to a smaller resolution is prefered. As opposed to capturing at a smaller resolution (160x120, etc.) and trying to upsample to vcd (320x240). You might want to think about converting to something higher than VCD, as some of the lower end players are longer supporting that format. It's all a money thing for them.

[Linelle]

Thanks for your replies. I think I finally get it that my capturing is going to be 720x480 (NTSC).

So let's say I have a project destined for VCD (320x240). I'm using Premiere 6.5 for my editing:

Is it better to keep the project at 720x480 and let the export to MPEG take care of the downsampling? Won't I still be working with a bigger project and preview times than I need? Or doesn't it really matter until I render into my final output?

Or should I set my project to be 320x240? Will Premiere downsample just by picking that project size?

Thanks!

[Linelle]

You might want to think about converting to something higher than VCD, as some of the lower end players are longer supporting that format. It's all a money thing for them.

If I could play SVCD on my own player, I'd be aiming for that. Right now I'm just thrilled to be able to play VCDs on my DVD-player. So, from what you said, does it mean that newer players won't be backwardly compatible with the VCD format?

Hmmm, things change. Sounds like keeping captures and project files so they can be encoded later in a better format is the prudent thing to do.

[teddymines]

I've read lots of times that you should capture at 352x480 to get both fields. When you edit, set your edit project to the same resolution/compression/audio. You will probably have to manually resize your source and preview windows to 352x240 to get the correct aspect ratio. Save the rendered file at 352x480 to preserve both fields.

You can then filter/crop/whatever using vdub, and frameserve to tmpgenc's vcd template.

I believe this is the best way to do this, but am open to suggestions for better ways!