PowerVCR II Dropped Frames

[ice_2003]

Programs like PowerVCR II do not produce the best of results in terms of picture quality, though it is sufficient to record programes you are only going to watch once.

The only problem is that sometimes, when playing the MPG file back, there are what i think are dropped frames.

Is there a way of getting the application to display the no. of dropped frames ? or is there another application that can cap straight to MPEG 1/2 and that displays the no. of frames dropped?

ice_2003

[thayne]

You need a fast computer. I don't like PowerVCR II. I hate how it splits the files every 600MB or so and the quality is poor. I think you would be better off capturing to avi and encoding after the fact.

[fourthquark]

Ice_2003, the problem of dropped frames is likely from the capture, not the playback. As Thayne stared, you need a fast computer. Do you have fast computer and fast HD? I have a P3-1GHz and I get dropped frames when recording at DVD quality. If you have dropped frames, try recording at one of the lower bitrate settings that can be selected under options.

I find PowerVCR very useful for doing "quick 'n dirty" recordings from my TV-tuner card. It also has a built-in recording timer which is handy.

Thayne, you can get around the 600MB file splits by editing the registry. Do a search on "powervcr" and "registry". I have set mine to split at 4GB. I have never recorded anything larger than 4GB, but definitely anything less stays as one file after the registry mod. 4GB is a nice split point if you want to write the files to DVD.

There is also a registry mod to add addtional framesizes that can be used to create custom capture settings. I added 480x480 to create a custom SVCD setting, and 352x480 to create a custom half-D1 setting.

[MOVIEGEEK]

MPEG quality is only as good as your capturecard and CPU,as was stated you're better off capturing AVI and then encode.
PowerVCRII works great for me using a ATI AIW 7500.

[thayne]

Thayne, you can get around the 600MB file splits by editing the registry. Do a search on "powervcr" and "registry". I have set mine to split at 4GB. I have never recorded anything larger than 4GB, but definitely anything less stays as one file after the registry mod. 4GB is a nice split point if you want to write the files to DVD.

I quickly got fed up with it and got a hauppage pvr-250 which has real-time hardware mpeg-2 encoding upto 720X480 @ 12Mbps. It cost twice as much as a normal TV tuner card, but I'm really happy with the quality! I hate the app that came with it, so I bought SageRecorder for $20 and couldn't be happier! I usually capture at the standard DVD preset, 720X480 @ 6Mbps, and then re-encode to a high quality Divx. or a CVD 352X480 mpeg and author them to a DVD+RW, watch and erase and re-use.