Capture at 384x288 or 352x288 for PAL VCD?

[SupaCoopa]

I use a Fast Movie Machine II card which normally captures at 384x288 but I can also capture at 352x288 through VirtualDub. Although I believe one should capture at the highest resolution possible (384x288 in my case), I am a bit confused as to what resolution I should use if I want to make a PAL VCD. This is why:

I captured the same part of a videotape, first at 352 horiz and then at 384. I used TMPEG to make four normal VCD MPGs to test how they played on my stand-alone DVD.
1. 352x288, Source aspect 4:3 PAL, Full Screen (keep aspect)
The video was croped at both sides and was horizontally stretched.
2. 352x288, Source aspect 1:1 VGA, Full Screen (keep aspect)
The video was cropped up and down and looked normal (no stretch)
3. 384x288, Source aspect 4:3 PAL, Full Screen (keep aspect)
The video was cropped at all sides and was horizontally stretched
4. 384x288, Source aspect 1:1 VGA, Full Screen (keep aspect)
This was exactly as #2, even though when TMPEG was encoding it showed black bars left and right!

Can anyone enlighten me as to what resolution I should capture and what "Source Aspect Ratio" is the captured AVI? I have guessed that any captured AVI should be treated as 1:1 VGA in TMPEG, am I right? Should I use "Full Screen (keep aspect)" or another Video Arrange Method? And lastly why two different resolution files encoded with the same TMPEG settings ended up looking exactly the same at my DVD?

Cheers to all

[jotati]

The default Capture Size for PAL VCD is as you can see in TMPEG 352x288

[SupaCoopa]

Sorry, maybe this wasn't clear: All MPGs that TMPEG produced and that I played on the DVD were in 352x288 resolution. Above I am stating the resolutions of the captured videos used as source for the encoding.

[Elchknie]

so, if your source is 352x288:
* case one:
u selected that your source is in 4:3 aspect ratio AND TMPEGENC SHOULD KEEP THIS ASPECT. so tmpegenc assumes, that 352x288 is 4:3 and not, as our calculator says, 11:9. so you tell tmpegenc it should handle your 11:9 source as a 4:3 source, and so it has to stretch it horizontaly, 'cause u need 384 horizontal pixel to achieve a 4:3 ratio with 288 vertical pixels. u understand?
* case two:
u said that source ratio is 1:1 and tmpeg should keep this one. nothing easier than this, 'casue your source has the same resolution as the resulting mpeg

dunno know if i'm right, but i think it works this way.

but: if u have a 352x288 source, why not encoding in "center" mode? works best for me.

hope it helped a little...

-Elchknie

[Elchknie]

to put it in other words:
to achieve better quality you can capture in 384x288, resize it via virtualdub or tmpegenc AFTER applying all those filters to 352x288, and then use this frameserver in tmpegenc with screen set to "Center".

-Elchknie

[SupaCoopa]

Elcjknie, thanks but... hmmm... still confused...

If I capture in 384x288 and then resize to 352x288 wouldn't the picture get squashed horizontally? Either this or have black bars up/down?
Then, since 384x288 is indeed 4:3, why did it behave strangely when I encoded it as 4:3 source and "Full Screen (keep aspect)"? The picture was stretched horizontally. When I set TMPEGEnc to handle it as 1:1 source it appeared normal...

I'm puzzled with all those Video Arrange Methods in TMPEGEnc, the program help and "TMPEGEnc Explained" didn't gave clear answers either.
Anyone can give any more help with Video Arrange Methods and Source Aspect Ratio settings?

Cheers

[Phil W]

I find that I can cature in non standard (pal) resolutions as extreme as 352x480 for example and then let tmpgenc sort the aspect by selecting a source aspect format of 4:3 (PAL) and everything works fine. I should stress that I am selecting the basic option in the list 4:3 (PAL) and not the one labelled 4:3 625 line(PAL) - this seems to make a difference....

[SupaCoopa]

The highest resolution I can capture is 384x288. I too used 4:3 (PAL) and not 4:3 625 line (PAL), the later is for DVD rips I think...

Come on capturing gurus, some more help please.....

[Elchknie]

-------------------
If I capture in 384x288 and then resize to 352x288 wouldn't the picture get squashed horizontally? Either this or have black bars up/down?
Then, since 384x288 is indeed 4:3, why did it behave strangely when I encoded it as 4:3 source and "Full Screen (keep aspect)"? The picture was stretched horizontally. When I set TMPEGEnc to handle it as 1:1 source it appeared normal...
-------------------

yes, a 384x288 get's squashed vertically (say, a circle becomes an egg), but your dvd-player will correct the aspect again. say, a 352x288 tv does not have cubic pixels like oour monitor! the horizontal length is bigger than the vertical one, the pixels are rectangles instead of cubics.

u understand what i mean? it looks stretched on your monitor, because of it's cubic pixels, not on pal-tv, because the pixels there are non-cubic. i think it's still better to record in 384x288 (some more details), then apply all filters, then resize to 352x288, and then use "center" as video-arrange method, since your source now is already 352x288 (squashed 384x28.

the same is for svcd, u can imageine that 480x576 does not look good when not stretched to correct aspect by the dvd-player.

g'n8!

-Elchknie