Recommended capture settings for PowerVCR II Deluxe

[rkelley]

Greetings all,

Like many of you, I am new to video capturing. My goal is to create VCDs (or SVCDs) of my son's favorite VHS movies to play in our DVD player in the car. After trying almost every capturing tool suggested in the "Tools" section, I decided to use PowerVCR II to capture directly from my VCR to the PC via a DAC-100 converter box. Unfortunately, I could not use VirtualDub (or other similar VFW capturing tools) with my PC (WinXP, SP1) due to the VFW-WDW wrapper issue.

I have been testing different settings with PowerVCR and am still not satisfied with the output of the capture. I have tried every possible combination of settings and still the final product looks blocky and grainy. I have been thru most of the FAQs on this site (and other sites) but still have not found the key to get great captures using PowerVCR.

Here is what I have tried:
* Change compression level from none to Maximum (and every combo in between)
* Use MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoders
* Use various video sizes
* Change the bit rate from 1150 to 4000 (and various combos in between)
* Cleaned the heads of my VCR
* Closed down any unnecessary programs prior to running the capture

The only thing I have not adjusted is the GOP Pattern because I don't know what it is. The program currently sets the GOP to "IBBPBBPBBPBBPBBP" (2-B Frames and 5-P Frames). Will changing these values make any difference?

At this point, I am getting disappointed in this package. I like the ease of use but the quality of output is not as I had hoped.

Any suggestions/help out there?

-Ron

[Fozzee]

Hi

I create my own profile............

720 x 576 (Pal)
Excellent Mpeg2
8000 bitrate
Speed indicator to 3 in advanced.
Intelligent Noise Removal and Video Smoothing on.

Then encode to CVD/VCD/SVCD

Fozzee

[rkelley]

Fozzee,

Thanks for the reply. Using your modified profile, how good is the quality of the video? Would you say excellent or just ok? How does it compare with the original footage?

Also, should I be using a different program to capture the footage? If I directly into AVI using MS Movie Maker the convert to MPEG (via TMPGEnc), would I get better results than using PowerVCR?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions...

-Ron

[robrosen]

After trying almost every capturing tool suggested in the "Tools" section, I decided to use PowerVCR II to capture directly from my VCR to the PC via a DAC-100 converter box.

rkelley,

With a DAC-100 converter box, you can do way better than an MPEG-2 capture with PowerVCR. Just hook up the DAC-100 to your computer's firewire card and start capturing in DV Type 1 (where the audio and video are combined). Ulead Movie Factory ($50), Ulead Video Studio DV ($70?) or Pinnacle Studio ($80?) should get you up and going with DV captures.

The only issue with DV captures is that it requires about 13 GB per hour of video. This means that if you will need at least a 40 GB secondary drive for video captures, preferably 80 GB or more.

My experience with PowerVCR is that motion is blurred, even with high bit rate captures. I generally reencode with TMPGEnc, which takes care of the dropped frames and keeps the audio in sync (this is without specifying an external audio encoder in Environmental Settings; external encoders are crash prone with PowerVCR captures).

[Fozzee]

Fozzee,

Thanks for the reply. Using your modified profile, how good is the quality of the video? Would you say excellent or just ok? How does it compare with the original footage?-Ron

Hi
If I had a DVD burner I would be extremely happy with the results.
I could then put my captures straight to DVD with good quality.
Before encoding I am very happy with my capture.
After encoding to CVD the results are still good.

You must remember that each person has different standards.
I believe my captures are good. And every person I have sent one too has agreed.
I also using Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro 2.5 which can do avi and mpeg capture.

But remember the most important factors . Your source must be good and also your connections from VCR to PC must be good.
No good using co-ax the results are usually poor.

Fozzee

[baker]

look, there should be problem for anybody using this method, it produces fantastic quailty asnd is handy to do.

use virtual Dub to capture to picvideo.
encoe the mjpeg output in CCE.

Wheres your problem there???

Baker

[Fozzee]

He's already said he can't use virtual dub due to driver problems.

Fozzee

[ckdexterhn1]

You can do pretty smooth captures with PowerVCR, but like Fozzee said, you have to make your own profile based on the equipment you are using.

Capture MPEG1 at least at 352x480 for VCD (if you can) at a bitrate of at least double the standard for VCD (1150 standard VCD x2=2300). Going higher than a bitrate of 3000 for MPEG1 in PowerVCR doesn't seem to make a difference. Use the Intelligent Noise Removal and Video Smoothing. Encode with TMPGEnc. I use the KVCD template with some modifications and have gotten two hours of good quality video on a single CD.

PowerVCR never impressed me with MPEG2 captures no matter what the settings. With SVCD, CVD, or DVD you need to capture as an AVI, and then convert to MPEG2. Then you get a cleaner sharper image.

[baker]

I have a post on this forum with capture drivers, download them and install.

Baker

[Fozzee]

You can do pretty smooth captures with PowerVCR, but like Fozzee said, you have to make your own profile based on the equipment you are using.

PowerVCR never impressed me with MPEG2 captures no matter what the settings. With SVCD, CVD, or DVD you need to capture as an AVI, and then convert to MPEG2. Then you get a cleaner sharper image.

Let's not get into an avi v mpg2 capture row

All I will say is my mpeg2 captures are good I have no need to use avi.
When I do use avi I get that interlace effect which looks crap on the PC.
When I capture to mpeg2 it looks good on my PC and on my DVD standalone so I'm happy.
Each to his own

Fozzee

[rkelley]

All,

Thanks for the information and help. The main reason I was using PowerVCR was to cut down the time needed to make the VCD videos. However, after doing some more testing, I realized converting a DV/AVI file to MPEG produces much better quality than PowerVCR's MPEG utility. I used Adobe Premiere to capture the datastream directly from the VCR via the simply exported the DV/AVI capture using the MPEG export utility.

So, I will simply use a DV/AVI converter (TMPGen, CCE, etc) to convert my files and just live with the longer conversion times (but get much better quality).

Thanks again...

[Nasp]

WinDVD Recorder is better, much better than PowerVCR2.
Easy the best solution for your Problem.

[Bradskey]

Let's not get into an avi v mpg2 capture row

All I will say is my mpeg2 captures are good I have no need to use avi.
When I do use avi I get that interlace effect which looks crap on the PC.
When I capture to mpeg2 it looks good on my PC and on my DVD standalone so I'm happy.
Each to his own

Fozzee

Hey Fozz! long time. Yeah, you and me been down that road with people telling us we were doing it all wrong, wasting our time, blah blah. Whatever dudes, as long as I like the end result.

[Fozzee]

Let's not get into an avi v mpg2 capture row

All I will say is my mpeg2 captures are good I have no need to use avi.
When I do use avi I get that interlace effect which looks crap on the PC.
When I capture to mpeg2 it looks good on my PC and on my DVD standalone so I'm happy.
Each to his own

Fozzee

Hey Fozz! long time. Yeah, you and me been down that road with people telling us we were doing it all wrong, wasting our time, blah blah. Whatever dudes, as long as I like the end result.

YO DUDESKI

[Fozzee]

WinDVD Recorder is better, much better than PowerVCR2.
Easy the best solution for your Problem.

I have used WinDVD products, WinDVR2 WinDVD Recorder etc .
With my system they don't give ME good results. They give me out of synch captures. But that doesn't mean they won't be good for others.
I think software is hardware specific. What I mean by that is that it depends on your hardware configuration as to which one will work best for you.
Another one to try is PowerDirector Pro 2.5 .

Fozzee