Good system for incoding video

[vermilion]

I have many vidoes that I want to incode to MPEG2 so I can burn them to dvd. I would like to know if this system will be good enough to do this perfect, without any audio sync problems, etc.

Althon XP 3000+
1 Gig DDR 400 RAM
Canopus ADVC1394
ATI 9800pro
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2

[FulciLives]

Canopus ADVC-100
DataVideo DAC-100
WinTV PVR-250

The first two do DV encoding which must then be encoded to MPEG-2 for DVD. Best quality.

Nearly as good quality that is faster?

The WinTV PVR-250 captures direct to MPEG-2

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vermilion]

So I should take out the Canopus ADVC1394 and add the 100, but what about the rest of the system? Is it good enough to make the MPEG movies without any audio sync problems?

[FulciLives]

So I should take out the Canopus ADVC1394 and add the 100, but what about the rest of the system? Is it good enough to make the MPEG movies without any audio sync problems?

My mistake. I somehow missed the fact that you have the Canopus ADVC-1394 when looking at your computer specs.

At this point you really don't need anymore hardware.

Now I must admit I know more about the Canpus ADVC-100 than I do about the Canpopus ADVC-1394 but according to the Canopus website this can do both DV capture and MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture.

However it appears that only DV capture supports the AUDIO LOCK feature. This card appears to offer hardware based DV encoding ala the ADVC-100 but it does not have HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding. Instead the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding appears to be done through software only.

So ...

If you want to capture to DV first then convert to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 you will not have audio sync issues and you will get EXCELLENT quality. However doing it this way can take a LONG time since you first capture to DV video (which is real time) but then your MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding takes MUCH LONGER than real time. Of course with a fast system like you have it probably won't be all THAT long. But these are added steps. This will give you the best quality though.

If you capture direct to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 then the quality will not be as good. In fact most computers have trouble doing pure REAL-TIME SOFTWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 captures at high resolutons and bitrates BUT since your computer is so fast you very well MIGHT not have a problem doing that with this capture card. However audio sync is not guarenteed using the direct to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture.

So decide which way you want to go.

If you really would rather prefer to do direct to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 then by all means try it with this card since I guess you alread have it. But if that is your goal then you might well be better served by the WinTV PVR-250 which does REAL-TIME HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding.

Also if you have the money to blow and want the best in REAL-TIME MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture then look at the Canopus MPEG PRO MVR

The MPEG PRO MVR has a MSRP of $499.00 but it is the cheapest REAL-TIME HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding that also has some REALLY kick ass features such as a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C comb filter and DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).

However you will get execellent quality with the ADVC-1394 by capturing to DV then converting to MPEG-1/MPEG-2 ... the only "bad" thing is the amount of time software MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding can take.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vermilion]

Ok, let me see if I got you right. If I capture to DV and then encode to MPEG-2 to burn to DVD, I would get great execellent quality right? I use TMPGE for all of my encoding. Will TMPGE be able to encode the DV movie to MPEG 2 with execellent quality? Given whatever I choice as the bitrate?

[FulciLives]

Ok, let me see if I got you right. If I capture to DV and then encode to MPEG-2 to burn to DVD, I would get great execellent quality right? I use TMPGE for all of my encoding. Will TMPGE be able to encode the DV movie to MPEG 2 with execellent quality? Given whatever I choice as the bitrate?

You are correct. TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 will be able to encode your DV capture to MPEG-2

Assuming you use a proper bitrate for the video and audio and use a high setting for the motion search precision setting then yes ... you will get excellent quality.

This is the best way to go since a 2-pass VBR encode will always give better quality overall than a straight real-time MPEG-2 capture since a real-time MPEG-2 capture can't really do VBR encoding ... at least not as good as the slower-than-real-time TMPGEnc encoding process. The only way to get a real time MPEG-2 encoding to match the DV/TMPGEnc method is when you do a CBR of 8000kbps using a card that features HARDWARE MPEG-2 encoding. The problem with that? At 8000kbps you can only fit approximately 60 minutes on a single DVD recordable disc.

So yes the DV capture then TMPGEnc convert to MPEG-2 method will almost always be the best QUALITY method to use VS real-time MPEG-2 capturing.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[vermilion]

use a high setting for the motion search precision


You lost me there. When I make my DVD movies, I endcode an MPEG-2 file at 2000KBPS, I could use more but I put 2 movies on one DVD this way. Using the bitrate of 2000KBPS to encode from the DV, do you think I'll end up with a good movie.

[FulciLives]

use a high setting for the motion search precision.

You lost me there. When I make my DVD movies, I endcode an MPEG-2 file at 2000KBPS, I could use more but I put 2 movies on one DVD this way. Using the bitrate of 2000KBPS to encode from the DV, do you think I'll end up with a good movie.

Oh dear god in heaven.
Here I spend all this time trying to help because you are CONCERNED about quality ... and you have the nerve to tell me that you encode MPEG-2 at 2000kbps



2000kbps is what alot of people use as a MINIMUM bitrate when doing a 2-pass VBR encode. But it should never be your AVERAGE for a 2-pass encode nor used for CBR encoding.

2000kbps is WAY too low. You should be using at least 4000kbps if not more.

If you do a 2-pass VBR with a MINIMUM of 2000kbps ... a MAXIMUM of 8000kbps ... and an AVERAGE of 4500kbps that should give you approximately 2 hours of VIDEO on a single DVD recordable (this is assuming you are using either MP2 or AC-3 sound at 224kbps which is just dandy for 2 channel mono or stereo audio).

You really need to read more about MPEG-2 encoding especially a guide perhaps on the use and settings in TMPGEnc.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Here is a decent guide on using TMPGEnc
http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html

[bottle-necked]

vermilion

You can believe me when I say your new system may still suffer audio sync problems even with it's hefty 3G cpu and 1G of Ram. Multiplying your cpu speed 6times above what you have now is not a cure-all thats guaranteed to fix any video-audio problem you may have now. I can understand how downhearted you may be if you should wind up with a problem after your upgrade, but it can happen.

There are so many things to mention here I don't really know where to begin but the single most important item I can mention first would be 'CPU Temperature'. If you don't properly cool that 3G cpu your captures will have audio-sync problems.

There are many more items also that can bring that mighty 3G to it's knees also. So please don't be fooled into thinking a big CPU is a guaranteed cure-all, because it is not.

Good luck

[DaveS]

Also if you have the money to blow and want the best in REAL-TIME MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture then look at the Canopus MPEG PRO MVR

The MPEG PRO MVR has a MSRP of $499.00 but it is the cheapest REAL-TIME HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding that also has some REALLY kick ass features such as a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C comb filter and DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).

FulciLives- the MPRG PRO MVR board has a setup of IRE 0 which is not user selectable. If your analog signal is IRE 7.5, I would think this board would not work well for you as your blacks would wash out . I was very interested in this board - canopus forum seems to indicate they may be working on enabling a IRE 7.5 board or a selectable setup but it is not currently available. The features do look really great, including a s/w utility to convert an existing (canopus) DV AVI to mpeg2 at (near) realtime, which would be really handy. Any comments you have would be appreciated.

Also, how do you guys put the poster's name at the top of the quote (vs. the generic 'quote')?

[jtommyj]

Also if you have the money to blow and want the best in REAL-TIME MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture then look at the Canopus MPEG PRO MVR

The MPEG PRO MVR has a MSRP of $499.00 but it is the cheapest REAL-TIME HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding that also has some REALLY kick ass features such as a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C comb filter and DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).

FulciLives- the MPRG PRO MVR board has a setup of IRE 0 which is not user selectable. If your analog signal is IRE 7.5, I would think this board would not work well for you as your blacks would wash out . I was very interested in this board - canopus forum seems to indicate they may be working on enabling a IRE 7.5 board or a selectable setup but it is not currently available. The features do look really great, including a s/w utility to convert an existing (canopus) DV AVI to mpeg2 at (near) realtime, which would be really handy. Any comments you have would be appreciated.

Also, how do you guys put the poster's name at the top of the quote (vs. the generic 'quote')?

Click on the "quote" button on the post you want to quote, upper right hand corner.

[ZippyP.]

2000kbps is WAY too low. You should be using at least 4000kbps if not more.

If you use 1/2 D1 resolution, 352x480 (NTSC) with an average bitrate of 2,000 Kb/s, 0 minimum, 8,000 Kb/s maximum then you should get acceptable results. The higher the bitrate the better though.

[FulciLives]

Also if you have the money to blow and want the best in REAL-TIME MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture then look at the Canopus MPEG PRO MVR

The MPEG PRO MVR has a MSRP of $499.00 but it is the cheapest REAL-TIME HARDWARE MPEG-1/MPEG-2 encoding that also has some REALLY kick ass features such as a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C comb filter and DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).

FulciLives- the MPRG PRO MVR board has a setup of IRE 0 which is not user selectable. If your analog signal is IRE 7.5, I would think this board would not work well for you as your blacks would wash out . I was very interested in this board - canopus forum seems to indicate they may be working on enabling a IRE 7.5 board or a selectable setup but it is not currently available. The features do look really great, including a s/w utility to convert an existing (canopus) DV AVI to mpeg2 at (near) realtime, which would be really handy. Any comments you have would be appreciated.

Also, how do you guys put the poster's name at the top of the quote (vs. the generic 'quote')?

Well damn that totally blows.

No I don't have the MPEG PRO MVR but from what I've read about it and looking at the specs it would seem to be the ultimate MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture device.

I didn't know there was an IRE issue with it though.

Same thing happened with PANASONIC and the first 3 generations of their stand alone DVD recorders also had default set to 0.0 IRE for black with no option for 7.5 blah blah blah

PANASONIC got it fixed finally with the current models (it is now selectable). Pooh on CANOPUS as they should have known better!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

vermilion

You can believe me when I say your new system may still suffer audio sync problems even with it's hefty 3G cpu and 1G of Ram. Multiplying your cpu speed 6times above what you have now is not a cure-all thats guaranteed to fix any video-audio problem you may have now. I can understand how downhearted you may be if you should wind up with a problem after your upgrade, but it can happen.

There are so many things to mention here I don't really know where to begin but the single most important item I can mention first would be 'CPU Temperature'. If you don't properly cool that 3G cpu your captures will have audio-sync problems.

There are many more items also that can bring that mighty 3G to it's knees also. So please don't be fooled into thinking a big CPU is a guaranteed cure-all, because it is not.

Good luck

This is very possible if he does straight MPEG-1/MPEG-2 captures but the ADVC-1394 supports locked audio in ... I think ... more or less the same fashion as the ADVC-100 external unit.

So there should be no audio sync issues when doing DV captures.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[DaveS]

Well damn that totally blows.

That's about what I said

No I don't have the MPEG PRO MVR but from what I've read about it and looking at the specs it would seem to be the ultimate MPEG-1/MPEG-2 capture device.

Yeah, it looks really good; I could almost feel the credit card trying to get out of my wallet to get it (but it's big bucks).

I didn't know there was an IRE issue with it though.

Same thing happened with PANASONIC and the first 3 generations of their stand alone DVD recorders also had default set to 0.0 IRE for black with no option for 7.5 blah blah blah

PANASONIC got it fixed finally with the current models (it is now selectable). Pooh on CANOPUS as they should have known better!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

They seem to be working on it; I got the feeling that it may not be totally up to the US guys but I think they're pulling for it. BTW, if you do get this board, be sure to get the box that's printed with MPEGPro MVR - the older product (1000?) had the same h/w board but w/o the same s/w bundle; the renaming was a marketing thing & the older ones are still being sold even under the new product name (e.g. on bhphoto.com). If you wait for a IRE 7.5 version though I would think by definition you would get the right s/w bundle. (I may spend my next avail. $ on a sony standalone before canopus gets the IRE 7.5 version out.)