Mpeg to SVCD

[wee]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to all this and still finding my feet, I am pretty pleased that I managed to capture my first film onto mpeg then I made a VCD, problem is that the picture quality on the VCD playback was pretty bad.

Do I have to somehow make the mpeg1 into a mpeg2 to make a SVCD (is it worth it to make a SVCD?) I cant afford a DVD writer at the moment after splashing out all my cash on a digicam and a canon powershot. I also am capturing via USB would adding a firewire port make the quality of a VCD better?

I have a Sony Digital8 TRV350....

Thanks to whomever can help!

[Betamax]

1st) Don't capture directly to mpeg, if you're intension is to create a S/VCD at the end. Mpeg-Capture is not (S)VCD compliant and also in very bad quality.

2nd) USB-capture is not advised, while even the fastest USB-speed is not high enough to accept the big data-transfer captures asks. Even FireWire isn't accepted, though FireWire is just okay enough for Camera's (DV-Cam). Such camera's export already digitized video, so the data-transfer can go directly to harddisk, while the most common captures are mostly from TV or a VCR, in which case the video is analogue and still must be digitized.

3th) Get yourself a real capture-card, which creates AVI-files (be sure you have enough disk space).

4th) Encode using TMPGenc to either SVCD or VCD.
For SVCD (and even for VCD), be sure the source has a 1:1 size-boundery (like 720/704 x 480 for NTSC). Even if VCD is at 352x240 and SVCD is at 480x480, you'll get best results with it.
Tip: If you must buy a new card, get yourself one which captures into a DV-codec (best possible quality).

5th) While most capture-devices (yours : direct via USB), amateur/hobby cards doesn't capture the full screen (704/720 x 480) you'll always will have wors quality, unless one's going to hack TMPGenc to get as much quality as possible - but that's not a healty way.
If you can afford it, I keep advising the semi-professional cards of Matrox (RT-2x00 family), Pinaple Pro or Canopus (the one with an internal DV-codec).

And yes, SVCD always is worth it : its quality is like 2/3th of DVD (if encoded using Interlacing and source was in DV-codec)

[wee]

Thanks a lot for your time taken to reply Beta, that was a lot of help.

My next question is that ok, I need a capture card, I want to stay in budget here, though I know you get what you pay for..... This is me just starting to get into a hobby and i don't /can't spend $$$ on semi pro stuff, so what kind of card would be good for about $100-$150 as i want to use it in conjunction with moviefactory2.
Or is there another route that would be better for me? I never thought that home movie making would be such a minefield! Though it's fun learning about it.

Thanks again to whomever has an opinion on this....