How to capture in a way OK for both SVCD and VCD

[Petz]

I have an ATI All In Wonder 8500DV and I want to capture a 1hr TV show every day and burn a VCD or SVCD. I have Nero, Adaptec/Sonic MyDVD Suite and the ATI Multimedia center.

Since an SVCD can hold an hour, I figure I might as well use SVCD format rather than VCD. Also, I'm hoping that SVCD's will play in fast forward on my Sony DVD/VCR unit a lot smoother. It plays VCDs at about 1 frame per second in any of the fast forward modes.

Is SVCD playback fast forwarding better than that -- on a DVD player?

What capture settings should I use? If I capture for SVCD (MPEG2, I think), can I still burn a standard VCD using Nero?

I noticed that MyDVD can automatically add chapters every X minutes, which would at least make skipping around the VCD easy. The only problem with MyDVD is that I haven't figured out how to get it to use the cable input and tuner yet, so I can only record through the video input connected to a VCR used as a tuner.

[Betamax]

If you cap direct into MPeG2, you can't create a VCD (while VCD is in MPeG1). If you would cap in MPeG1 however, you cannot create a SVCD.

Best would be to capture into AVI first, then let TMPGenc (or another encoder) create either a VCD or a SVCD for you.

[DJRumpy]

Unless you plan to remove the commercials (about 45 minutes of video), then an hour to an SVCD will look slightly worse for quality. You'll need about 1500kb/s for the bitrate to fit an hour on an 80 minute cd. If you don't plan to remove the commercials, then consider using CVD, rather than SVCD. You should also use VBR, instead of CBR. This is a must when squeezing a video onto disc (space is a premium).

Is SVCD playback fast forwarding better than that -- on a DVD player?

It's still jerky on all of my dvd players. I'm assuming this is more common than not. It does not fast foward/reverse like a dvd.

If you plan to go to both formats, then you should capture in AVI, not mepg. This will allow you to convert your source to both fairly easily.

What capture settings should I use? If I capture for SVCD (MPEG2, I think), can I still burn a standard VCD using Nero?

No. To burn an VCD from an SVCD soruce, you would need to resize to a VCD resolution (352x240 NTSC). The requires you to re-encode. Although nero would offer to re-encode for VCD, this takes time, and the nero encoder doesn't produce the best quality. If you want to create both, then capture to AVI, and use that AVI to create an SVCD/CVD, and a VCD.

[Petz]

Thanks to both of you. Think I'll try making a 59 minute SVCD to compare quality, but first I have to download and install the latest ATI TV application (Multimedia Center). I loaded the latest WDM capture driver, video drivers and control panel last night. My version was almost a year old and after using its scheduled capture program, my computer refuses to shut down normally and sometimes it doesn't stop capturing when it is supposed to.

How much VCD-quality video could I get an a DVD+R?

Could I add an hour at a time to a DVD+R?

Is there any software out there to automatically eliminate commercials from catpured AVI or MPEG (1 or 2) files?

[DJRumpy]

How much VCD-quality video could I get an a DVD+R?

Hours and Hours and Hours...

Could I add an hour at a time to a DVD+R?

This would require a multisession Video-DVD, which I don't believe is supported. You would have to burn them all at once.

Is there any software out there to automatically eliminate commercials from catpured AVI or MPEG (1 or 2) files?

Only one. The human brain. It has no way to tell the commercials from the show. You have to manually remove them. You can use AVISynth or VirtualDub to remove them. AVISynth is harder to learn, but easier to edit clips in this fashion. VirtualDub is a simple GUI interface, but it requires you to save each 'segment' of non-commercials. AVISynth simply removes them from the stream fed to the encoder.