Settings you use in VirtualDub

[stokefan]

Hi all,

I am capturing at 640x480 from a PAL VCR, and I want to increase the quality of the picture - can anyone give me advice on filters etc or the best compression methods to use in Vdub?

I tried the deinterlace filter and that turned out very nice, but Im new to the world of filters and want some good quality vids! I dont fully get all this 2-pass vs 1-pass stuff as well.... I should mention that so far the best codec iv seen so far for cutting down huffys is Divx 5.0...any takers?

thanks - stokefan

[Will Hay]

What do you intend to output to?
DVD, SCVD, VCD, what?
W.

[stokefan]

SVCD or VCD mainly, altho im mainly concerned about quality of the original first (i.e. first conversion from the huffy)

[stokefan]

so far from what iv experimented with, 1st Pass quality based (3.6 in DivX 5.0) with Vdub's deinterlace filter works a treat for about a 3.5min music performance its about 70mb in gd qual. Any ideas for improvement on this?

[Will Hay]

Why don't you give TMPGEnc a trial, it's a superb encoder.
Use Virtualdub to capture, click here, and then TMPGEnc to encode to mpeg1 using the built-in templates?
Click here.
I've never used the filters in Vdub, I suppose I've never had any time to try as Vdub takes so long but it is my capture programe of choice.
TMPGEnc is unlimited for mpeg1 by the way, and 30 days fro mpeg2/vcd.
Will

[Will Hay]

SVCD or VCD mainly, altho im mainly concerned about quality of the original first (i.e. first conversion from the huffy)

If I remember correctly VCD is fine at 352 x 288, but bear in mind huffyuv is CPU intensive.
If you get dropped frames consider the PICVideo MJPEG codec at quality 19/20.
Much smaller file size and for me no worse then the huffyuv.
Will

[Will Hay]

.... I should mention that so far the best codec iv seen so far for cutting down huffys is Divx 5.0...any takers?

Hey stranger!
Not sure what you mean by this.
Youeither capture uncompressed ro use a codec to compress the data/footage as you capture it
Will

[stokefan]

LoL@stranger comment! Thing is i will take up a surge of interest in capturing and encoding, then lay quiet for ages and not pass 1 byte of data through my TV card!

OK about the resolution of capture business....Is there any point in capturing at, say 640x480 PLUS? I say this as Im not even sure what PAL tv is broadcasted at. I have tested and can capture TV and video over 640x480 with Huffy and no frameloss. So Im wondering if its best to do that? What do you think?

[Will Hay]

OK about the resolution of capture business....Is there any point in capturing at, say 640x480 PLUS? I say this as Im not even sure what PAL tv is broadcasted at. I have tested and can capture TV and video over 640x480 with Huffy and no frameloss. So Im wondering if its best to do that? What do you think?

I don't think it's an issue of what PAL tv is broadcast at, it's as much to do with the acceptable format for vcd/mpeg1.
I'm only a novice myself my friend, I'm still learning and don't have the answer's
Have you encoded and burnt any to disk yet?
I suggest capturing a five minute clip at 352 x 288, and the same clip at 640 x 480 and then encode both at vcd and svcd.
If you have the storage capacity for huffyuv (approx 900mb per minute, less than one and one half hour on your free HDD space) then stick with it, it is deemed to be superb.
Will

[stokefan]

Id like to archive in divx or similar format really. What was that MPEG 2 TMPGenc thing you were on about in that PM?

Thats a good plan about burning some test copies and playing them back on the DVD player, Ill do just that.

As a followup to the original topic of this thread - here are two images, the first is not using any filter, and the 2nd is using the Deinterlace filter in vdub, is there anything else i can do to clean up the picture and adjust contrast, hue etc upon encoding (post-capture)?