is this the way it's suppose to look??

[defsrg]

hi
i have been capturing tv programs from my tivo. however the finished test products burned don't look much better than a poor vhs tape.is the best i can do or can i capture differently for a better product,here are my specs and settings.
systemax 1.2 gig proceesor
768 meg of ram
60 gig harddrive , 55 gig available
aiw 7500 radeon
using mmc 7.6, capture settings - 720x480,i frames 4 and 2
5.0vbr
motion estimate 100
motion estimation search 32 horz. 16 vert.
thanx for help

[defsrg]

is there anyone here that could possibly answer my question???

[defsrg]

k i thought this site was a little more helpful than this guess not, boy was i fooled!!!!!!!!!

[valzuniga]

I don't have a tivo, but I would try this link if I were you:
http://themurrays.homeip.net/downloads/tivo/tivo.html

[defsrg]

it has nothing to do with a tivo i just want to know hwy my mpegs look grainy thats all please and thank you

[musher70]

Dont be so mad....check the guides and forums to ur
left,if all else fails try a demo of something else

[xed]

Possibilities:
[1] Radeons are fairly notorious for fuzzy video captures.
[2] TiVO is already a heavily compressed video format, so you're getting whatever catpure artifacts come from the video capture card added on top of the artifacts from the TiVO digital video compression.

To get the very best quality video captures, you must start out with AVI files -- that means 5:1 DV video or lossless Huffyuv. You must also record direct from broadcast TV, not from some box like TiVO that has already recorded and compressed the snot out of your video.

The worse the final format (viz., VCD) the better your original source must be to make it look primo. Recording the output of TiVO is probably doomed from the git-go, unless you intend to transcode into DiVX (a very lossy format).

Also -- don't pay attention to the video quality on your computer monitor. Video playback on a computer monitor always looks like crap. Check if on your TV set if you can. Even 5:1 DV video captured from primo sources like laserdisc or direct satellite TV looks like crud when played back on a computer monitor, but looks superb when played back on your TV.
A TV operates in a completely different way from a computer monitor. TV is interlaced with 60 hz refresh, computer monitor is non-interlaced with a much higher (typically 85 to 100 Hz) refresh. Computer monitors are much sharper with much shorter phosphor persistance than TVs.
Bottom line?
If you haven't checked the playback on your TV set, it might be just fine. DVDs played back on a computer monitor look like junk, but when played back on a standard TV often look superb.

[mikewg]

Also record in Best mode and not the other quality modes, because everything else is going to look bad, while Best looks just as good as the original program.

I know because I capture from my TiVo all the time, so it's not a TiVo problem.

[willy_annand]

I have to agree, I have tested the Radeon line, the capture on them is always not up to the standard of say an ASUS or a Winnov board.

ASUS boards give better quality, but sometimes you have an audio/video sync problems.

The new Winnov boards (or even the old AV card) captures audio and video on the same card, NO sync problems there.

ATI are good cards, second best (behind NVidia) for games, but a distant 3rd for quality capture.

IMHO

[defsrg]

thank you all very much i really appreciate it!!!!

[defsrg]

yes i understand now it could be the radeon. i tried direct capture from my satellite and still have the same "fuzzy" picture i did capturing from the tivo. so if anyone could post your recommendations for the best capture card available with an s video input,capture in mpeg 2 and no vhs grainy looks. thanx

[sterno]

so if anyone could post your recommendations for the best capture card available with an s video input,capture in mpeg 2 and no vhs grainy looks. thanx

Well, if you want MPEG2 capture you probably want an MPEG2 hardware card, I don't think I've ever heard of anybody being satisfied with the quality of real-time software encoding. I think the Hauppage WinTV PVR is the current favorite MPEG2 card. The Dazzle DVC2 is another relatively common card, but it's older and I think the general opinion is that the WinTV PVR is a little better at the same or lower cost.

If you have the disk space to capture to AVI with HuffyUV or MJPEG and then encode that to MPEG2 you can use a basic bt8x8 TV card like the WinTV PCI (not the PVR) or AverTV cards, that chipset has been around for quite a while and is widely used. Pretty good quality, and the cards are usually available for $50US or less.