Clipped video while Capturing

[robogeek78]

I am Having problems with my video capturing and conversion to mpeg-2.

System Specs:
Athalon XP 1600+
512MB RAM PC2100
ECS K7S5A Motherboard
WD 30GB HD, WD 17GB HD
ALBATRON GEFORCE FX 5200 VID CARD
DIGITAL RESEARCH DDVDRW4D DVD-RW
AVERMEDIA DVD EZMAKER PCI CAPTURE CARD(NEC Verson)


The Following details my attempts:

1. NeoDVD (Packaged with Capture Card)
- Opened program and preview window shows video perfect.
- Tried capturing with all settings every file produced has top and
right sides of video cut off.

2. Pinnacle Studio 8 (Packaged with DVD Recorder)
- Program Preview window shows video perfectly like NeoDVD
- Trying to start capture freezes and exits program

3. iuVCR
- Preview window shows clipped video (Like NeoDVD output), when using
all but 720x480 resolution, when using this preview and capture
resolution, it captures video perfectly using the PicVideo MJPEG
Codec
- after captured video I used TMPGEnc to convert to mpeg-2(720x480
res.) Using VBR, it took 3 hours for a 20 min clip. at the end of
conversion. The video was clipped(top and right) just like every
other try I have done.

*all attempts were using the (NTSC)RCA Composite video input from my
tv and non-clipped video also had the Closed Captioning data on the top
line.

Does anybody have any advice for capturing and converting without
getting clipped output? and if that is possible, how do I remove the
Closed captioning Data (Not Text but the Datastream that is multiplexed
in the first line of video)?

[FulciLives]

I'm confused what you mean by CLIPPED VIDEO and how you know this is happening?

Anyways I have an AverTV Stereo PCI capture card and I don't think this works that different from your Aver capture card.

In my experience you should capture at 704x480 and "pad it" up to 720x480 by adding 8 pixels to either side.

This results in a more-or-less "perfect" aspect ratio. It is hard to get it 100% perfect with this capture card since it does internal scaling and will cut off black "useless" video from the sides.

If you capture 704x480 and use TMPGEnc then you don't have to "pad" the video first ... just use KEEP ASPECT RATIO for the VIDEO ARRANGE METHOD and it will stay 704x480 with 8 pixels of black on either side.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

Just cut the stuff off the top and/or bottom if you have any "junk" like the CC stuff.

For instance use the CLIP feature in TMPGEnc to cut 4 lines off of the top. The image will be centered with 2 lines of black on the top and two lines of black on the bottom. 4 should be enough to get rid of that "noise" at the top.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[robogeek78]

By Clipped i mean the top data of the frame and the left data of the frame is cropped out of the resulting frame, it would be like cutting 2-3 inches off the left and right sides of a 32" tv.

[FulciLives]

By Clipped i mean the top data of the frame and the left data of the frame is cropped out of the resulting frame, it would be like cutting 2-3 inches off the left and right sides of a 32" tv.

Well it shouldn't be clipped off by that much. It looks like this on the computer monitor? I mean are you sure this isn't a TV OVERSCAN issue?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[robogeek78]

No this has nothing actually to do with the TV, I just was trying to Illustrate a point.

I am trying to capture a Sci-fi channel show. The frame has the Sci-fi channel logo in the bottom right corner, by cropping i mean the captured file has the Sci-fi Logo chopped in half and does not have anything to the right of the logo, similar chopping at top of screen.

[FulciLives]

No this has nothing actually to do with the TV, I just was trying to Illustrate a point.

I am trying to capture a Sci-fi channel show. The frame has the Sci-fi channel logo in the bottom right corner, by cropping i mean the captured file has the Sci-fi Logo chopped in half and does not have anything to the right of the logo, similar chopping at top of screen.

Well yes OK I understand now what you are saying but I'm not sure why that is happening ... it is not a common problem.

Most capture software has a feature that allows you to crop the video while capturing. Maybe this "area" of your capture software got filled in somewhere with some numbers that are doing this cropping.

Also make sure you have the correct TV system selected for instance if you are in the USA or CANADA then you want NTSC_M selected.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Tommyknocker]

It does sound like it has been masked, or cropped. I would suggest you try Virual Dub mod to see if the problem is not caused by your software. I hope it is, as if the problem is caused by your card, only its manufacturer may be able to repair it.

[robogeek78]

Thanks for the info guys I will try virtual dub when i get home i am away on business right now and don't have access to my desktop computer.

robogeek78

[robogeek78]

Well, I tried Virtual Dub, Its very interesting Every File that is "Chopped" Shows all the data in virtual dub... The direct Captured "Chopped" Video. and the Captured fine but Chopped MPEG Encoding... All the Data is there just not played back in Most software players...
any suggestions

Robogeek78