Need capture help!

[Neisse]

I'm starting my first capture on a Mac, but I need a little help from you gurus out there.

I have a 7300 upgraded to a G3/400 w/ 1 MB L2 cache, and a Formac ProTV II. Everything seems to work OK, except I have to change settings many times until things "take". I am trying to do a capture that will allow me to make a VCD or SVCD, but I want to be able to take my burned (S)VCD at a later time and burn a DVD out of it, when I get a DVD burner.

I am using the software that came with the Formac card for capture (ProTV 2.6.3) under OS 9.1. I'm doing this rather than capture in OS X 10.2.6 to make the most processor resources and memory available to me.

The questons I have are:

What resolution (capture size) do I use to make it MOST compatible between VCD, SVCD, and DVD? Without doing an X(S)VCD?

What settings for compression do I set it at? My choices are:
Animation
BMP
Cinepak
Component Video
DV-NTSC
DV-PAL
DVCPRO-PAL
Graphics
H.261
H.263
Motion JPEG A
Motion JPEG B
MPEG-4 Video
Photo-JPEG
Planar RGB
PNG
Sorenson Video
Sorenson Video 3
TGA
TIFF
Video
None

Or do I install another codec?

I need the MOST compatible format, with the smallest file sizes, that will keep the audio locked in sync.

Also, what audio settings do I use?

I am trying to capture a 1 hour TV episode from VHS recorded at EP speed. I have a 9 GB SCSI-2 drive that also has my OS X partiton on it, and using that for video capture. There is about 7 GB or a little more available for capture. So, I need to keep the file sizes under 7 GB for one hour of video and audio. I know this can be done, as my captures on PC usually run 3-4 GB at the most for this same episode.

I really, really need some help with this. I'm still pretty new to Macs, and especially new to video on Macs.

Thanks a lot for any help

[WiseWeasel]

You should not make DVDs from SVCDs, as they will be much lower quality, since SVCD is at a lower resolution than DVD. You should either hold on to the high rez video and audio (DVD is 48 KHz vs 44.1 for SVCD). I'd say export to MPEG2 (720x480) and AC3 at DVD spec and backup each show to CD until you have a DVD burner, at which point you can combine them into a DVD. You'll need DVD Studio Pro for that, which costs a pretty penny, though you might be able to find a good deal on version 1.x for OS 9. If you go the SVCD route though, stick with that format, and don't try to convert them to DVD. For the capture, I'd use DV-NTSC format (if you're in an NTSC region), and then convert to whatever after that. You'll need about 7 GB HD space free per 1/2 hour show for DV video.

[Neisse]

Hmmm.... OK, then. No SVCD to DVD. Got it. Bummer, though.

I can't use DV-NTSC, as I only have 7 GB or so free, and I have one hour shows to capture. So, I'd be halfway through, and run out of drive space.

I guess I'll have to go with SVCD, then. But, again my orginal problem: what resolution/size do I capture at, and what compression for video and audio?

I'll be editing with whatever works (FCP 2 or 3, QT Pro 6, whatever), adding chapters and menus, and then burning with whatever will work then, probably Toast 5.2 or Toast 6. Encoding kinda throws me, too. I have heard good things about ffMPEGx, I think I'll grab a copy just in case I need it.

So, for SVCD @ NTSC, do I capture at 480x480, then? What compression do I use to fit into less than 7 GB for one hour? Do I set the audio to 44.1 KHz? Do I use a compression on the audio? If so, what?

I'm really at a loss here - I'm still too PC-minded, I guess. I'd use the PC, but it crashes so much trying to capture, edit, and encode that it is really useless.

Thanks to WiseWeasel for your input.