A lot of people seem to like ATI's hardware and hate ATI's software. I admit that an ATI solution has a number of quirks, but I get great results using the following method on a Win98SE machine with pretty decent hardware (Abit KT7 Raid [dual 40 gig WD 7200 drives in the raid array]; 1.1 gig Athlon; 512 megs Corsair CAS2 SDRAM [2 256meg DIMMS]; 30 gig WD 7200 drive as C, E, F, & G; ATI Radeon VE [32 meg DDR, dual display edition]; and a LiteOn CDRW 16x10x40 [Buslink] using Nero 5.5 for burning.

Capture from S-Video feed from Hi-8 Camcorder or DirecTivo with ATI's MMC program [I use the older VFW based program] using mpeg-1 video settings of 352x240 at between 2700 and 4000 vbr, 20 motion estimation, audio settings of 128 bps @ 16 Stereo 44,100.

With these settings, I can capture a 3 movie in mpeg-1 format and keep the file size under 4 gigs. Of course, I capture to the Raid array.

For archiving camcorder footage, I use TMPgenc to cut the mpeg-1 file into clips which are 22 minutes or less each, then burn to a 700mb cdr in xvcd format (vcd format with compliancy off). The higher bitrate gives me a picture quality equal to or better than SVCD, without any post capture processing other than cutting the mpeg-1 file.

For archiving DSS movies captured from the DirecTivo unit, I convert the mpeg-1 file to a divx format after using a bitrate calculator (get 1 here at vcdhelp) to determine max VBR for the conversion (usually between 390 and 550, depending on the length of the movie). I convert the audio to MP3 format leaving it at the same specs as it was captured. The resulting file is less than 700megs. I burn it as an ISO file to the cdr. I can play the file with the Playa from Divx, or with Windows Media Player or the RealOne Player.

Time to capture and convert a 3 hour movie to divx is about 5.5 hours. I don't fool around with cutting out commercials from some of the movies I capture off non HBO or other movie channels. I don't want to spend the time [I just fast forward when I see a commercial during playback].

The key is to get away from your computer while you are doing the capture (I use StartCop from pcmag.com to reboot my computer with only a few drivers loaded). You need to have your drives defragged and nothing running except the capture program, explorer and systray.

The great thing about using the DirecTivo unit with my capture setup is that if something goes wrong, I can start over again. Best $99 (with free professional installation from Circuit City) I ever spent. Capturing from the TV Wonder's tv tuner is dicey. The S-Video from the DirecTivo is as good as you can get from NTSC sources.

I bought and tried AVI-IO and also tried VirtualDub for AVI capture, but the resulting file sizes and the time it took to convert to SVCD in TMPGenc was too much IMHO. Also, with the TV Wonder, I had to had the MMC TV Tuner on in the background to capture sound.

I occasionally capture 1 hour shows (24 on Fox, maybe an ESPN special). I then use the same capture method but convert to VCD using the TMPGenc VCD template, then burn with Nero VCD compliancy on.

If anyone has questions or wants a clip from camcorder footage, post here and I will try to email you a short clip.