MJPEG codec

[Triffid]

I'm thinking of getting an MJPEG codec for longer captures (I use huffuvy normally, but for longer captures, 1.5 hrs +, the files are still it is a bit too large)

The two I have looked at cost money (not much, I know) so I want to make a good choice.

So, any opinions on which is best:

PicVideo
Morgan
Something else?

I downloaded the demo's, but evaluation is such a long and tedious process, I thought I'd just try asking at the same time (also, the 'watermark' on the picvideo demo codec puts me off so much I find it hard to treat it fairly!!)

TIA

[buffettmo]

I have always had good luck with the PicVideo MJPEG one. I am using an ATI TV WONDER VE to capture my analog Hi-8 video. I use V-Dub for the capture, encode with TMPGEnc, and then burn to VCD with VCDEasy. Never had a problem and the results are very close to the source. I am only running at about 566 mHz with a Celeron processor and can capture with no frame loss at 480 X 360. Let me know if this helps you any or I can offer you some more help.

[Gazorgan]

Morgan works pretty good for me. Instead of quality 1-20 is does 1-100 ( pecentage scale) so don't get confused if someone says they used a quality of 18 (translates to 90%). It was worth the money, and at 90-95% the quality was such that I couldn't tell the difference between capping in Huffy or mjpeg. Size was a good bit smaller than Huffy, but I can't tell you the % off the top of my head, maybe 1/2?

But, as I recall, TMPG doesn't open MJPEG's? For some reason I frameserved my caps (edit, crop, 2d filter, Frameserve).

[Sartori]

Same here for the PicMJpeg , lovely caps from it , a small tip - if you use 20 in PicMJpeg it offers 2:1 compression , the same as HuffyUV but the Pic codec is lossy , 19 gives about 5:1 to 7:1 depending on source (for me at least) and it still seems just as good as 20 .

I`m sure there is a page on this site that gives a guide/info about the different levels of its compression with pics of them .

[buffettmo]

I agree with the last reply. Using 19 quality is pretty much the same quality picture as 20 with half the file size at least. Definitely the way to go with PicVideo. Should have put this tidbit in my first reply.

[Triffid]

Thanks guys,

It's good to see there are good results being had with these codecs. And, that there was not a third option to consider!

I'll do a little more evaluation myself (mostly related to the effects on frame drops in my system rather than quality) before I make my decsion, but for now it looks like PicVideo is the democratic winner!

BTW: the frame serve thing isn't an issue for me. I use Vdub and TMPGEnc too (but going to DVD via DVD workshop), but I do all my capturing under win98SE - due to that I prefer my vfw capture driver over the WDM one, and don't want to rely on MS mapper - so I need to do multisegment captures and frameserve to TMPGEnc anyway.


But, having said that, I just tried it, and, for me, TMPGEnc has no problems at all loading the MJPEG file encoded with the Morgan codec - perhaps you didn't have the codec enabled when you were loading the file???

[furdog]

Triffid, since you are capturing on Win98, another alternative is the DC30 Plus/Pro MJPEG capture card. Hardware MJPEG capture (low processor burden) including on-board audio (good for sync), variable compression, etc. Also Output to tape through tool if keep in MJPEG. It appears as one of the codecs on the system. Downside is that playback requires card in the system (hardware codec), but if converting to MPEG w/TMPGEnc - not an issue (supposedly can use a s/w codec as discussing here). Has own Capture tool, also works well with virtual dub capture (multisegment). Was a profesional level card at one point. Pinnacle stopped supporting it much past Win98 (video/n audio drivers for Win2K). I bought mine on ebay (plus & Pro are the same, except the Pro includes a breakout box to bring the connections out front). and have been happy with it.