Can't get good quality captured, why?

[mostin5000]

When I capture from digital tv to avi for playback on the pc, the video plays back in superb quality, but when I encode to mpeg the quality is dramatically decreased.

I use mpeg1 at 2000kbps with 25fps at a 320x240 resolution through a composite lead.

I have tried different encoding programs, increasing the bitrate, but the quality hardly changes at all.

I have seen some screencaps in svcd format and that is geat quality. Is that because of the resolution its captured to? I have tried to capture at 640 x 480 but I get major frame loss. Is this because of my capture card or the speed of my computer?

Any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated

[Duchess]

I have tried to capture at 640 x 480 but I get major frame loss. Is this because of my capture card or the speed of my computer?

Possibly, but without knowing what sort of PC you have nobody can comment. One question though, do you try to use your pooter whilst you are capturing because doing so can, and frequently will result in frame loss?

[FOO]

I suspect your main capture problem is computer speed.
When you encode to MPEG1 , do you keep it at 320 x 240 ?
If you do , you should not see much quality loss. What
encoder are you using ?

[NoWhereElsetoGO]

Capture to avi at 640x480 with huffy or mjpeg. Then use TMPGEnc Pro to convert to mpeg2 with either svcd, kcd, or your own settings. It'll take more time, but you'll probably get the best results.

But since you mentioned that you've tried different bitrates and such, it leads me to believe that you aren't using mpeg 1 or 2 to play back on a dvd player. If you're just archiving on your PC, then after you cap with the lossless codec (huffy or mjpeg), then use virtualdub to convert to divx or (i prefer) xvid. Keep it at a high resolution too. The files will be much smaller than by using mpeg.

[mostin5000]

thanks I will try that

[Richard_G]

I use mpeg1 at 2000kbps with 25fps at a 320x240 resolution through a composite lead.

Huh?? You are using an NTSC VCD resolution (320 x 240), at a PAL frame rate (25 fps) but encoding at an SVCD bitrate (2000kbs).

Decide what country you are in and what format you are aiming for and you might have a bit more success.

[FulciLives]

Decide what country you are in and what format you are aiming for and you might have a bit more success.

Thanks for making me laugh out loud Richard

But mostin5000 ... Seriously I think the problem here is lack of knowledge as to what you are doing.

If you capture at Full D1 (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL) then you can convert to whatever MPEG-1/MPEG-2 format you want.

However VCD resolutions (352x240 NTSC or 352x288 PAL) will produce a very crappy looking video.

You are better off trying CVD (352x480 NTSC or 352x576 PAL) or SVCD (480x480 NTSC or 480x576 PAL).

Of course if you have a DVD burner then doing either Full D1 or even Half D1 resolution MPEG-2 will look best.

Also in case you didn't know (I'm trying really hard NOT to laugh here) NTSC captures are 29.970 fps and PAL captures are 25.000 fps.

But hey you are new so it is easy to get confused

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[jdizzy40]

And honestly, a 15 gig hard drive according to your profile is not going to cut it. Your operating system and everything else is on this drive. What kind of space do you have left. You need a much bigger seperate hard drive.

[FulciLives]

And honestly, a 15 gig hard drive according to your profile is not going to cut it. Your operating system and everything else is on this drive. What kind of space do you have left. You need a much bigger seperate hard drive.

WOW I didn't even catch that part!

That is surely NOT enough room to work with!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[mostin5000]

Yea forgot to update profile with new pc / re-check now. I captured at the proper vcd resolution now all is normal.

When I capture at svcd resolution I have no problems, but the quality seems worse than vcd format. I know some people encode from hdtv for svcd's but the picture from my digibox is superb on the screen, can I not capture to such a quality?

[vcd4ever]

mostin5000,

I'm only capturing from analog tv and therefore i'm wondering if it's possible for you to upload the captured avi that was encoded to vcd. The reason for asking this is that i don't know if it's any difference working with avifiles captured from digital tv compared to analog tv.

vcd4ever.