WinTV PVR-250 Question

[Mythos2002]

I'm thinking about purchasing one of these, but I don't know if I can capture the sound with it like I would like.

I'm trying to capture Laserdiscs onto the PC for later burning onto DVD. I currently have a GeForce4 Ti4200 with VIVO that does a good job at capturing, but there is hardly any software worthwhile that supports it. I currently use an S-Video cable to connect from the S-Video out on my LD Player to the S-Video in on the spider adapter cable (two S-Video connectors [1 out, 1 in] and two composite video connectors [1 in, 1 out]) that connects to the Video Out, Video In (VIVO) connector on the Videocard. For audio, I have a digital coaxial cable going from the digital out on the LD Player to the digital in on the SPDIF card that came with my motherboard.

My question is. If I try to use the PVR-250, will I be able to capture the audio with it if I leave the sound hooked up as I described or do I have to use the 250's audio input? If I have to use the 250's audio input, is there an adapter that will allow me to plug my digital audio coaxial cable into it? If the answer is no to both questions, I guess the 250 is out of the question. Thanks.

Mythos

[Beavis]

My question is. If I try to use the PVR-250, will I be able to capture the audio with it if I leave the sound hooked up as I described or do I have to use the 250's audio input? If I have to use the 250's audio input, is there an adapter that will allow me to plug my digital audio coaxial cable into it? If the answer is no to both questions, I guess the 250 is out of the question. Thanks.

The answer is no to both questions. To record, you have to use the 250's built in analog stereo input. The quality of the audio produced is quite good- definitely better than anything I've ever captured using my soundcard and BT878 tuner card.

[Mythos2002]

Does the PVR-250 have 4:3 and 16:9 modes you can set? That's what really turned me away from the Pinnacle Studio 8. There was no selection for 16:9.

Mythos

[PumpkinKing]

Nope, you have to capture stuff the way it comes & process it in TMPEGEnc if you want it as 16:9

[Mythos2002]

Will TMPEGEnc work with the PVR-250's recorded MPEG's and will the picture look okay after converted to 16:9 or will it looked squished when I play the finished DVD in my standalone DVD Player? Thanks.

Mythos

[PumpkinKing]

TMPGEnc does work with MPEGs from the PVR-250, *but* you have to run them through DVD2AVI first (which will give you a video & sound file). Then load the .d2v file into the video bit of TMPGEnc, and the .wav file into the sound bit.

Depends if you just want a widescreen image to watch on a regular 4:3 TV (with black bars top & bottom), or a true anamorphic 16:9 image to watch on a Widescreen TV.

If you want anamorphic 16:9, I'd first cut the black bars off the top & bottom of the widescreen image and then use Center (Custom Size) in Arrange Setting. I only do Pal TV stuff so I change the size to 720 x 576 which will show a stetched image in the preview window in TMPGEnc, but should play fine on a Widescreen TV in WIDE mode (which "squashes" the stretched image to the right ratio).

My advice is to capture a widescreen laserdisc first then have a play around in TMPGEnc, it's easier to see then explain

Hope this helps...

[Mythos2002]

Thanks a lot of for the information. The laserdiscs I have are widescreen NTSC. What I'll do is fiddle around with my GeForce4, Virtualdub and TMPEnc to try to perfect the process while I save up for the 250 or the 350 if it is available. My GeForce4 capturing works with Virtualdub, but lately the captures have been sounding like records played on 78 speed. The picture quality was decent, but I'm sure one of the PVR models has better quality. Thanks again. I'll do some experimenting before and after I get one.

Mythos