Capturing video and compressing at same time

[tyder26]

Heres my thing...i want to transfer some vhs to dvd, but when i use ulead just a 10 minute file is almost 10gig...that is really unacceptable...lol... is there a way i can compress while capturing?...or a software that is better than ulead for capturing and compressing? would be great if someone could help with settings too..sorry i asked for too much ..thanks again

[DB83]

Ulead defaults to AVI format.

You should have a drop-down box for 'Format' where you see 'AVI' and select 'DVD'. Then click on the options wheel/Video and Audio Capture Settings/Advanced to set the capture bitrate and audio format.

[sanlyn]

Try VirtualDub in capture mode with huffyuv lossless compression . Try this reference:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/introduction-record-capture.htm

[DB83]

Try VirtualDub in capture mode with huffyuv lossless compression . Try this reference:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/introduction-record-capture.htm

I would agree. But isn't that what the OP is trying to avoid ? Huffyuv is 60 gig per hour and, as he quotes, 10 gig per 10 mins is not acceptable for him.

In these curcumstances, mpeg2 is the only option unless he goes down the DV route and even then the 26 gig per hour may be too large.

[Gavino]

In these curcumstances, mpeg2 is the only option unless he goes down the DV route and even then the 26 gig per hour may be too large.

DV is 13GB per hour, not 26.

[DB83]

In these curcumstances, mpeg2 is the only option unless he goes down the DV route and even then the 26 gig per hour may be too large.

DV is 13GB per hour, not 26.

Oops !

[tyder26]

so mpeg2 would be what 4.7 dvd size at end? and is debut better than ulead?

[DB83]

Debut ?

Ulead is, in my opinion, perfectly servicable for Mpeg2 capture/compression. The final size will depend on the length of the video and the bitrate you choose. You can capture at 8,000 kbps and get 1 hour of video to fit in your 4.7 dvd size. Reduce that to 6,000 kbps and you can get 90 minutes. It is not suggested that you go lower than 4,000 kbps but you wil still get 2 hours of video at that setting.

[edDV]

Debut ?

Ulead is, in my opinion, perfectly servicable for Mpeg2 capture/compression. The final size will depend on the length of the video and the bitrate you choose. You can capture at 8,000 kbps and get 1 hour of video to fit in your 4.7 dvd size. Reduce that to 6,000 kbps and you can get 90 minutes. It is not suggested that you go lower than 4,000 kbps but you wil still get 2 hours of video at that setting.

Ulead/Corel Video Studio comes with a realtime Mainconcept MPeg2 codec but the amount of compression possible will track CPU power. From my experience, a 2.8 GHz P4 CPU will handle down to ~7000 Kbps but start to fill the buffer and lose frames below 6000 Kbps. A faster Core 2 Duo will keep up at 6000-4000 Kbps rates. There is quality compromise with realtime encoding when using VBR.

Alternate strategy is to use a realtime hardware encoding capture device which won't load the CPU.

[sanlyn]

Ulead is, in my opinion, perfectly servicable for Mpeg2 capture/compression.

Depends on your personal standards.

BTW, huffyuv compressed AVI is more like 25 to 30 GB per hour, not 60.

[DB83]

Ulead is, in my opinion, perfectly servicable for Mpeg2 capture/compression.

Depends on your personal standards.

BTW, huffyuv compressed AVI is more like 25 to 30 GB per hour, not 60.

Really ?

[sanlyn]

DB83, I have no idea what's being used for those captures, but if your output is supposed to be 4:3 aspect ratio for standard def, it should be captured at the playback ratio (640x480) in YUY2. I have a 1-hr 20-min 640x480 VHS capture that takes up 32-GB. The capture in the text file shown uses the rendered (larger) frame size. Wide-screen 16:9 originals will obviously require more space.

Capturing directly to MPEG is a matter of preference. Because I process most of my tape captures, I don't want to do any work in lossy-compressed video or audio formats. After capture, the AVI is transferred to an external hard drive and pulled off in smaller AVI pieces for processing. For 4:3 originals, the final output will be NTSC/DVD 704x480 (720x480 for widescreen).

[DB83]

Apart from the video size - I used that to avoid resizing when editing for final (dvd PAL) output - I would like to know what goes on here.

I did that capture a little time ago but bever got around to doing anything with it except previewing playback in vlc. It looked fine there. But in my editor of choice (ulead) and have no red ??. Put the same file in to Vegas and it displays ok. Is this a color-space issue I ask ?. First time I used huffuv btw as before I was content with DV.

So I did another capture but this time ticked the 'Always suggest RGB for output' box in the huffuv configeration. This time the capture displays ok in Ulead AND bitrate is approx half of what it was before - much nearer the 25 gig per hour as you suggest.

[sanlyn]

There are so many blasted settings and check boxes, it's a wonder anything works.

[CobraPilot]

Basic on-the-fly record/compress option without software: Standalone DVD recorders have multiple recording speeds that can be set to 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 hours (some have other combinations) per DVD. The DVD recorder does the compression on-the-fly, with quality of recordings reducing as times increase. My experience is that the 6-hour speed on a couple recorders I have produces a marginally watchable quality. The 4-hour speed is just okay, 3-hour better, etc.

Purists will probably scream at this solution, but if your VHS's aren't commercial and protected, it's a simple matter of hooking the VHS player to the DVD recorder . . . . I've done it many times. If they are commercial and protected, it's a little more complicated, as explained elsewhere in the forums, but not insurmountable.

[ronnylov]

DB83, I have no idea what's being used for those captures, but if your output is supposed to be 4:3 aspect ratio for standard def, it should be captured at the playback ratio (640x480) in YUY2. I have a 1-hr 20-min 640x480 VHS capture that takes up 32-GB. The capture in the text file shown uses the rendered (larger) frame size. Wide-screen 16:9 originals will obviously require more space.

Capturing directly to MPEG is a matter of preference. Because I process most of my tape captures, I don't want to do any work in lossy-compressed video or audio formats. After capture, the AVI is transferred to an external hard drive and pulled off in smaller AVI pieces for processing. For 4:3 originals, the final output will be NTSC/DVD 704x480 (720x480 for widescreen).

But with PAL video you should always capture with a vertical resolution of 576 (DB83 seems to live in UK). I get smaller file sizes when capturing to YUY2 compared to storing it as RGB. Since my capture card use YUY2 as native format I prefer to capture to YUY2. I think 30 GB per hour is still quite normal with clean VHS captures. A noisy TV capture from an analogue tuner with bad reception will need more file space.

My capture card (a Terratec Cinergy 400 TV) works very well with VirtualVCR when using older WDM drivers for Philips SAA7134 and Windows XP as operating system. By some strange reason the manufacturer is nowadays only providing BDA drivers on it's website but no WDM driver (maybe it is included, don't know)... It does also work in Windows 7 but then some important driver options are greyed out in VirtualVCR (such as brightness and contrast). I guess my hardware is getting old since it prefers older drivers and old operating systems...

So try and see if you can use VirtualVCR instead of some "crappy" ulead software...