Hardware MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoding

[Al Bundy]

I would like to encode external videosources (TV signal, CVBS, S-VHS) and AVI files on my computers harddrive with a hardware MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoder. I have seen some examples from hardware MPEG encoders and they were amazing. Much better than what TMPGEnc can achieve.

Can I do that with 1 card or do I need at least 2? I prefer 1 card.
Which card(s) do I need?

[aldus4]

Most Hardware decoders are "backward" compatible, meaning if they encode MPEG 2 they will also encode MPEG 1.

[digvid]

Does anyone know of an "affordable" hardware encoder card? I have tried the Sigma Designs DVR, but the quality is definitely far below TMPGEnc.

- digvid

[SatStorm]

Amoisonic got something, but ain't "card". Is a device in the cost of a good card.
Realtime grabbing and encoding in mpeg 1 and 2 from any analogue or digital source...
try the amoisonic site...

[Al Bundy]

Standalone devices are nice, very nice but I want to have full control. That's why I need a PCI card.

I was more thinking about the Hauppage WinTV PVR card, but that card cannot encode sources other than the TV and video inputs of the card itself. So it is no replacement of TMPEnc and I haven't seen any captures from this card.

Any ideas?

[aldus4]

Checkout the "Capture Cards List" in the "other" section of this guide. I personally use the DVC II from Dazzle and am very pleased with handling and results. Others might argue that the ATI All in Wonders, or DVPlus 500 is their preference. If you are willing to pay 4figure amounts you can get real professional equipment. So as with everything else, you'll have to see what you like best.

[SHS]

adlus4 your nuts man being the DVC II suck more then my WinTV-PVR dose took look at MPEG samples on the front page
it real dose look like that I know I had one and there Teshsupport blows they never reply back to any e-mail if don't belive me Al e-mail them you self or better idea is to call them maybe they call you back in 6mos that no joke.
Anyway Al I have list of other MPEG capture card I post the other day you my want check them out at
http://shs-tv.m0ss.com/ under news button.
There alway a Pinnacle DV500 Plus for $600+.
I wouldn't get ATI unless you went the best DVD Play back that they are real real good at.

[aldus4]

@SHS

You have your opinion - I have mine.

The PCI card itself does not suck, but produces with the excellent C-Cube Chipset great captures at an affordable price. I agree that the editing facility in moviestar etc. does not compare to other software (Premiere), but that one can "purchase" seperately. That the customer support is beyond "good and bad", I admit as well. But we were talking about the card - not anything else. DVD, TV, Cam captures at SVCD or DVD settings are almost just as good as the originals.

P.S. I did actually email Dazzle once. It only took 3 weeks for a reply to arrive!



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: aldus4 on 2001-07-08 04:49:14 ]</font>

[Al Bundy]

Great stuff on your website SHS.

Do you have some capture examples in VCD and SVCD format of the WinTV-PVR?

At the moment I own an ATI Rage Fury Pro. This card has CVBS and S-VHS inputs. I can select MPEG1 or MPEG2 compression, but I'm quite sure they are software encoders. My CPU cannot keep up. To many dropped frames.

Can WinTV PVR encoder be used in other programs so I can get rid of TMPGEnc?

[Al Bundy]

I found some samples on your website, but am unable to download them. The files disk1.zip-disk6.zip are not there.

http://shs-tv.m0ss.com/movie/disk1.zip

[SHS]

I'am try fine some space for them.
I had a SVCD samples but i-drive close shop.
TMPGEnc will be need for SVCD but that only going take a few min's to do.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SHS on 2001-07-08 08:09:45 ]</font>

[rochkind]

The card (i.e., hardware encoding) works OK for me. But MovieStar is pretty shoddy, and I would love to purchase an alternative. Alas, there are very few MPEG-2 video editors. Is Premiere even one of them? I thought it was DV only. Converting to DV defeats the purpose of capturing to MPEG-2 in the first place for me, which was to save space. What alternatives to MovieStar do you know of? (I can continue to use MovieStar to capture. But I would like to use something else to edit.)

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On 2001-07-07 13:20:31, aldus4 wrote:
@SHS

You have your opinion - I have mine.

The PCI card itself does not suck, but produces with the excellent C-Cube Chipset great captures at an affordable price. I agree that the editing facility in moviestar etc. does not compare to other software (Premiere), but that one can "purchase" seperately. That the customer support is beyond "good and bad", I admit as well. But we were talking about the card - not anything else. DVD, TV, Cam captures at SVCD or DVD settings are almost just as good as the originals.

P.S. I did actually email Dazzle once. It only took 3 weeks for a reply to arrive!



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: aldus4 on 2001-07-08 04:49:14 ]</font>
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[YVS]

Do not feel let-down by the weak software. In the end what you capture in the begining are very important. A good capture card can capture very good quality MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 format. The other process depend on software which we have an option to choose what we want/comfortable to use. There are so many editing softwares to choose.
As for me, Dazzle DVC II is a good MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 capture card. I love the MPEG-2 quality that DVC II can capture.
Unfortunately I can only use Dazzle Moviestar to capture. Moviestar is weak in heavy duty editing but I do not need to use Moviestar for editing because I can use the great Ulead Media Studio Pro to do the editing & effects. I use Moviestar only for minimum editing.

[rochkind]

Thanks for the info about Media Studio Pro. Can you tell me how smoothly it can edit MPEG-2 that I capture with the DVC II card? Do you know how capable the much cheaper VideoStudio is by comparison? (I've tried a demo of it, and it seems to work. But, I would gladly pay more for Media Studio Pro if I thought it would work better.)

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-08 09:51:40, YVS wrote:
Do not feel let-down by the weak software. In the end what you capture in the begining are very important. A good capture card can capture very good quality MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 format. The other process depend on software which we have an option to choose what we want/comfortable to use. There are so many editing softwares to choose.
As for me, Dazzle DVC II is a good MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 capture card. I love the MPEG-2 quality that DVC II can capture.
Unfortunately I can only use Dazzle Moviestar to capture. Moviestar is weak in heavy duty editing but I do not need to use Moviestar for editing because I can use the great Ulead Media Studio Pro to do the editing & effects. I use Moviestar only for minimum editing.

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[SHS]

Hi rochkind,
One major problem I have found is some of the other so called MPEG1, 2 Editors out there they re-render the entire movie and will get some quality loss, or will not read MPEG1, 2 made by DVC II nor WinTV-PVR.
I have found Womble's Mpeg2VCR to be the best editor, it doesn't re-render the whole movie like all the other MPEG editors do as long you do not resize the movie it self.
As YVS said Ulead Media Studio Pro 6.0 is only one of the few editor that can read both MPEG1, 2 made by the DVC II and WinTV-PVR.
I have heard that Ulead VideoStudio 5.0 can if get the MPEG2 Plugin but I don't know for sure being the demo dosen't have the plugin so it iff on weather or not it really dose work.
Womble's Mpeg2VCR don't have a lot special effects nor some cool features like the editor do it can only read MPEG1,2,BMP and JPG.
Anyway just give idea how long it take to Capture & Edit & Burn VCD disk.
1 hour capture but that depend on the movie it self, If I where doing anime or cartoons I can do up to 1hour 50mins.
Edit 15 to 30 mins.
Burn VCD 30mins.
So you see it take me 2 to 3 hours tops done with a WinTV-PVR and slow 4x cdrecorder and Nero5.