Which media should I use?

[Diversion]

I'm using my InnoDV 2800 realtime encoder card to put my old VHS Formula one races on Disc.

My first plan was to encode in SVCD and use 2 discs for each race which is about 1h30-1h40 long. Turned out I couldn't fit them on two discs without reducing bitrate to about 1700 and the quality was bad. It didn't look good even when I used max bitrate either anyway.

The bundled software seems limited and gives the following options:

DVD PAL 704x576 3998800 bits/s
SVCD PAL 480x576 2400000 bits/s
1/2D1 PAL 352x480 1999400 bits/s
VCD PAL 352x88 1152000 bits/s

You can customize the bitrate in the SVCD and 1/2D1

There is also the option of setting Variable bitrate in which case you are urged to set average bitrate.

The final option is Frames in GOP 15 /P frames distance 3 (15 and 3 are the defaults and I don't really know what this is, if someone could tell me I'd be very grateful)

Should I encode in DVD and use a DVD-r or is this a waste of money and space?

Since there is a lot of motion especially when the cars zip past the grandstand and you get a view from the onboard racecam I guess VCD isn't really an option I can't stand pixelating and since I want to watch on my standalone DVD player I guess neither is the mysterious 1/2D1 format.

Is there any other software that can be used despite the card using hardware encoding? Will the software override the built in decoder?

Some of these questions might seem stupid but I'm fairly new to digital video so bear with me.

[MrKGB]

If DVD mode gives you better quality (which is actually strange considering very low bitrate), you can capture in DVD and then reencode into SVCD or CVD using tmpgenc or mainconcept.
IMO mainconcept would be better because it opens mpeg2 files without any hassles and it is very fast.

[Diversion]

I tried to capture in DVD mode last night and it gave superior quality almost no loss (to my eye at least). Wouldn't it be best to simply burn it as a DVD movie then?

[disturbed1]

Use DVD by all means.

Those settings are the default settings. I'd use a bitrate calculator to see what the highest bitrate is that you can use to fit on a DVD. As bitrate increases so does the quality, and file size. Your card can do a max of 15Mb/s.
An 1h40 minute video with 192kb/s compressed audio will net around 5000-5500kb/s on average.

If you decide to use VBR, set your max to 8000, and the average to what the calculator tells you.

1/2D1 is perfectly DVD compliant (352x576 for PAL), but has less resolution, and may not look as good as 704x576, do a test and let your eyes decide.

GOP should be 12/3 for PAL, but 15/3 is fine too, it doesn't violate the specs. Don't fix what isn't broke

GOP = Group of Pictures. 15/3 means 15 frames between I frames, and a structure of IBBPBBPBBPBBPBB. 12/3 is the same with a distance of 12 frames between I frames. 12/2 also has 12 frames between I frames a structure of IBPBPBPBPBPB. 6/1 would be IPPPPP.

NTSC has a max of 18 frames between I frames (18/3) and Pal is 15 frames between I frames, for DVD. Recomended GOP length is 1/2 framerate, or 15/3 NTSC 29.97 fps, and 12/3 for PAL and NTSC Film (23.976 fps).

Some questions for you
Do know what encoder chip this card uses (C-Cube DVxPress DVxCell, Kfir, Bali, Panasonic etc).
Is it pretty stable, any gotchas?

[Diversion]

Thanks for the info

It's a Philips 7145 or 7146 (hard to read)but that is about all I can tell. I've only used it for a couple of days but it seems to work fairly well however being a novice I don't have anything to compare with.

The DV-2800 player software seems a bit limited when it comes to options but Ulead Video Studio comes with it I haven't tried to capture with that though.

I captured 1h45 DVD as said above with no framedrops but I got a couple of frames dropped (about 100 on the same race)on the SVCD attempt.

The preview doesn't seem to work. I live in Sweden (PAL) but all I get is a black window. However if I set the software to another PAL, M for example I get preview working but no sound. I think someone here wrote that it was a XP issue.

What about noise filters? Since it is a hardware encoder I guess software can't be used. Is there physical filters available to "wash" away at least some before I feed it to the harddrive?

[MrKGB]

For filtering you can do the following:
capture at highest resolution and highest bitrate, and then reencode using tmpgenc with internal noise filter. You can also reduce resolution to CVD or SVCD while reencoding.
The only problem with this is that tmpgenc's noise filter is very slow.

[disturbed1]

Don't reencode, this defeats the purpose of having a hardware encoder. If you wanted to capture at a high bitrate, filter then reencode, any $20 BT chip card can do that.

The Philips chip is more of the decoder, that feeds the digital signal to the encoding chip. It handles audio clock counter, brightness controls etc.

Most philips chips have tweaks. They're enabled through the registry, and labled unclearly For my SAA7114 it's under FrontendAndDecoder setting in the reg. key REG09. It has a resoultion enhancement filter, notch filter, and low pass filter. If you can find the SDK kit for the chipset it explains what each key does. Usually a quick google, or Philips website search reveals the necc. PDF's.

You can also use an outboard box. Some TBC have slight filters, and color correction. I have a JVC SVHS deck that filters the outputs. Just adjusting the cards Contrast, Brightness, Hue, and Saturation can help some.

[Diversion]

Hmm I tried a new setting and now have a transparent stripe at the bottom of my captured video. It looks like when you're watching a rental movie and the video tape isn't properly aligned.

However when I watch the movie in my TV (just using the VCR) the annoying stripe isn't there so it can't be the tape.

Any suggestions? I've heard it can be cropped but as I said the software is really limited and unfortunately Innos customer support isn't much to write home about.

Btw there is DVD_N and DVD_P as options which I assume is for NTSC and PAL but there is also DVD2_N and DVD2_P, someone know what this is? The bitrate and other settings doesn't change whichever I pick.