Non-standard capture specs for DVD?

[drak23]

Hello:
I recently decided to make the jump from SVCD- to DVD-quality recording. My DVD burner has arrived and awaits installation (hooray!). Unfortunately, my 700MHz pc can't capture at the standard DVD frame size (720x480). I capture to an AVI file with the Huffy codec and process with TMPGEnc.

My machine seems to do well at 640x480 (just done a few tests, no dropped frames in about 3 minutes of capturing) and has no problem with 480x480.

So, any suggestions on the best settings for capturing with this limitation? I know I can use IFOEdit to author a 480x480 MPEG2 file to DVD, but will it do the same with a 640x480 capture (and yield a further improvement in quality)? What about the audio capture settings?

Thanks in advance,
Drak

[TBoneit]

Why not choose the half dvd resolution of 352 x 480 for video and avoid compatability problems?

the 352 x 480 is a standard dvd resolution that all players should handle.

Or capture at 640 by 480 and resize to standard dvd resolution, slow processor = long encode time

I'd opt for trying the 352 by 480 and see how you like it...

Or depending on source do vcd resolution (352 by 240) but do the audio at 48Khz, That works too... I have used Movie factory 2 trial to burn vcds with that audio setting per the guide from this site and they play fine and you get over 6 hours per dvd disk at that setting. High actrion will look blocky with vcd settings, but other source will look OK. I haven't tried it yet but I'd bet that Cartoons and low motion video will look good. The better the source the better the output. I've seen vcds from dvd that looked very good to my eyes, whereas others look poor.

YMMV

GoodLuck

[SaSi]

Perhaps your PC (700MHz) is too slow for the huffyuv codec. Going to half DVD resolution would do harm to the resulting quality, but this is only true if your TV reception is excellent. If your TV reception is as I think it is, perhaps full DVD resolution is a waste anyway and using half-D1 resolution will (additionally) at least double the amount you can record on a DVD.

I would also try to capture using DivX 5.02 at single pass, quality based with Q=2 or single pass at 10,000kbps. The DivX codec is at least 2x faster than the Huffyuv and perhaps it can allow you to go to full resolution capture. It also encodes very well and quality is not really lost. Additionally, captured files will be 1/10th of what they are with Huffyuv.

I would then compare the two captures (half-frame with full-frame) on the DVD player and make a decision on which resolution to use for capture.

[drak23]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll test them out but the point of going to DVD is that I'm unhappy with the quality of SVCD (my source is from satellite dish and the quality is very good). Maybe 352x480 at a DVD bit rate will be an improvement.

I'll continue experimenting and try IFOEdit with the 480x480 and 640x480 caps as well.

Not sure about the DivX solution as the goal is to play back on my standalone DVD player.

Regards,
Drak

[SHS]

Well drak23 if want ture 720x480 you only option is REALtime Hardware MPEG2 encoder like Dazzle DVC2 or WinTV-PVR 250/350 and there min other hardware base capture.
352x480 is know as CVD or miniDVD min of Home DVD play can't play them so beware of that.

[yg1968]

352x480 is an acceptable resolution for DVD. For example, Ulead DMF will accept this resolution.

Here are the DVD specs:

http://www.disctronics.co.uk/technology/dvdvideo/dvdvid_videnc.htm

Perhaps you should also consider a better capture card. The ADVC-100 is a good option, if you are considering a new capture card.

[drak23]

Those external capture devices with on-board processing are very cool but I can't justify the extra expense right now. I think my ATI AIW 7500 is a good bang-for-buck, I've been very happy with the results (once I learned how to optimize my environment). Its just that it leverages the computer's processor and mine doesn't seem to have enough horsepower for the job. I'll upgrade the PC eventually but due to economic factors I'm stuck with it for a while.

Thanks again,

Drak

[RoopeT]

Even if you can't capture @ full res. with huffuv, I'm sure you can with Picvideo MJPEG codec (Q 19/20). This codec requires a lot less processor power, I think someone claimed to capture full res with a Celeron 333 MHz! The quality is very good with PicVideo also, and it takes a lot less HD space compared to huffuv.