realtime mpeg-2 capture

[Shard92]

I'm a computer tech who hasn't gotten into video editing at all. However I have a customer who is. Right now he has a dv camcorder and a firewire card to capture with. he also has been converting VHS tapes to cd/dvd. His current setup he must capture in AVI and convert before burning to media. He would like to be able to capture directly to MPEG-2 in realtime. From what I've seen a Canopus DVstorm 2 would do what he wants to do, and what I've read at various places this sounds like the " best " solution for what he wants to be able to do. I welcome any opinions on this subject as it's all rather new to me...

Also some questions have come up.

(1) Will this allow him to capture VHS tapes as well as from his DV camcorder? (w/ break out box? )

( 2) He has heard that you only get two colors doing this or a combination of those two colors.... I do not know what his source is for this info as it was left as a message for me, and I haven't talked to him.

( 3) How difficult/accuracy of the editing of Mpeg-2 as opposed to raw AVI? -ie. if he is planning on editing is he better off doing avi and converting?

( 4) He was also told that he could get a software solution that would do direct Mpeg-2 capture in realtime ... does anyone know if this is true? Quality?

Thanks for any and all help you can provide!!!

[Nelson37]

Transfering DV over firewire and analog capture are two completely different things, utilizing different circuitry. Am not familiar with the product mentioned.

#2. Never heard of this one, unless he is referring to the black and white problem on PAL to NTSC mismatch.

#3. Depending on some of the variables you may use, which are directly related to filesize control, (VBR and IVTC, mainly) and also the fact that many real-time capture devices create somewhat non-standard files, MPG editing can be much more problematic. AVI edit MUCH simpler, but then you must do a time-consuming re-encode. With the right software/techniques, editing MPG-2 is not too difficult, the quality very close if not indestinguishable from re-encoded AVI, much faster.

If you will be adding multiple effects/overlays, beyond simple editing, then go with AVI. To cut it and get it on disk, quick and easy, go real-time MPG-2.

#4. For Analog video, you must have some sort of input adapter, ie capture card or dongle. I use an ATI card, which is hardware-assisted. Software-only solution on same hardware did not look nearly as good.
I believe there is such a solution for Firewire transfer, but I know nothing about the quality obtained.

[Shard92]

Thank you for your replies... It's a good start.... I know it can be difficult helping out a third party ( ie I'm not the one doing this so I don't have all the details. )

Any one else have opinions/ideas?

[FOO]

Nelson37,
Do you ever edit IVTC MPEG2 video ?
and if so would you tell me what you use ?

[Nelson37]

IVTC'd Mpeg-2 can be trimmed fore and aft using TMPGenc, with these modifications - Allow for the beginning cut to be about 5 seconds off, and use VDUB to determine the ending time mark. Enter this value manually in TMPGenc, allowing for the audio to end 20-40 seconds early.

Have recently discovered that the trim, NOT edit, trim function in Sonic MyDVD will accurately cut these files, (but Sonic will NOT accept a 480x480 file, only 352x or 720x) with no error or anomaly. I use this on Cable movies where only beginning and end need cut, have not tried multiple cuts as with TV episodes. I did trim and cut out an intermission in the middle with no problem using Sonic, this required some trial and error and 20 - 40 seconds of unwanted video with TMPGenc.

M2-Edit, Womble choke on these files.