Realtime MPEG2 Encoding W/Mainconcept Encoder?

[zanos]

Anyone else use this for realitme mpeg2 encoding? The best I can do is high quality VCD using the dvd setting. I even tweaked the settings to the max some times.

[The village idiot]

Someone else mentioned that they had tried it. Just do a search. If I remember that person had a really fast machine!

[feenix]

Yep - I've tried it, but to be fare ,only on a ten minute clip just to see how it performed. Captured at 720x576 no frame drops.

Quality not bad but I didn't think as good as ati MMC. Having said that I didn't tweak the settings too much so somebody more patient that me might give you a better review.

I might be that your capture card is the deciding factor not the software itself.

[mgh]

PAL-720x576 capture-with PCM audio-no dropped frames-setting is MPEG2- no other special tweaking-highest bit rate available (8000 kbps VBR)
Using mpeg layer II for audio-there were a few dropped frames. BTW-I always use PCM-whether for avi or for mpeg2 captures. For some strange reasons, I get dropped frames when I compress the audio while capturing.

[hhamzeh]

Hi,
I got dropped frame like crazy, so considering my cpu is P4 1.6, it maybe due to the speed of my computer. then I enabled the buffering option but it was no longer real time. I also noticed that there was no option to make 1 or 2 pass encoding when you choose MPEG2 capturing. Did I miss something or actually there is no 2 pass option while capturing/encoding real time. One more thing, is there any difference between the quality of real time capture and encoding to MPEG2 from a DV file assuming in both cases the source is a digital cam? Thanks.

[RabidDog]

2 pass real time encoding.. no, it cannot be done unless time travel has been invented. you could encode real time at high bitrate then re-encode for a lower average bitrate. My capture software from leadtek (PVR) allows me to capture in svcd realtime, but quality is not great. probably needs more tweaking than I can give it.
IMHO : cpu is the big bottleneck in capture not disk thruput so compressing audio is extra cpu burden ergo dropped frames, mgh

[zanos]

I have a p4 2.2 and I still get a ton of dropped frames but I'm willing to guess that's because of my hard drive but the problem I'm also experiencing is the quality. I guess you need a 3 Ghz or a hardware encoder if you want it to look good.

[feenix]

I think your processor is fast enough and as long as you are capturing to a non system disc you should be ok. I don't know much about your capture card but from what I've read they are pretty good so...........Have you got a seperate sound card or do you use onboard sound?

Again from what I have read this can make a big difference. Might be on the wrong tack there though.

[zanos]

I have onboard sound and I am capturing to a seperate hard drive but it hasn't been defraged for a while. Now that I'm looking at my satellite feed on my monitor I noticed that's it's not really the encoding that's the problem. The encoder is simply capturing what is displayed and that's actually the real problem. For some reason the capturing I see a lot of pixelation capturing straight from my direct tv thru the svideo input.

[vmesquita287]

I just tested this Mainconcept 1.4 Capture. I was able to capture 704x480 at 6000 VBR MPEG2 only if I disable half frame pel or something like that (I can the exact option later), doing MP2 audio at the same time. I can't get to 720x480 without getting dropped frames, even switching to PCM. My Tweaked 704x480 took between 85%-98% of CPU processing.

An interesting Data: when capturing at 352x480, I was able to do other things while capturing a good VHS take with no framedrops. CPU was between 65%-75%. I just set Mainconcept to High Priority and could capture in Realtime in background!

I have an Atlhon 2000+, 256 Mb SDRAM, 40 Gb 5400 rpm Maxtor HD and a motherboard K7S5A.

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[lordsmurf]

I didn't think as good as ati MMC.

Probably never will either. ATI AIW Radeons and the ATI MMC use Ligos GoMotion in a hardware-assist variation. This MC capturing, though some I've not yet tried it out, is pure software. I'll try it if a trial version exists. And if it works, I'd probably even make a guide.

[vmesquita287]

What a coincidence, LordSmuf, I just visited your page and mailed you asking your oppinion about some stuff, including MainConcept 1.4 capture. There's a Demo version available in mainconcept homepage.

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[bottle-necked]

I agree with RabidDog.

A 60 minute DVD 4.7G is only about 4.482G in computer bytes.
4482MB/60min= 74.5MB/60sec=1.125MB per second. If we capture MPEG2 in real time and expect to put it on a DVD then our hard disk drives must be up to writing 1.125MB per second. Thats not much.

it's not the drive.

[vmesquita287]

The problem is definatelly CPU. hhamzeh is probably trying to capture fullD1 (720x480/576) and his p4 1.6 is not up to the task. I have an Atlhon 2000+, that should have a performance similar to a P4-2.0 (altrought it runs at 1.666) and can't do it. The limit for me is 704x480 with that option off.

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