Please could someone answer a few questions for me please?

[mattiusb]

I have the following:-

Camera - Sony Video HI-8 TR717E. It has a 380000 CCD with Mono Outout.

1. To capture this video I will use an S-Video lead to my Hauppauge PVR 2 USB2 for the video & a 1 into 2 Phono splitter from the single Phono Jack on the Camera to the L & R jacks on the capture box. I need to know what would be the best Bit rate both Video & Audio in order to get the best quality. I am thinking 8000 Video / 320 Audio @ 48Khz or would this be overkill. I eventually want to edit & write the file to a DVD using the MPEG2 file that the PVR2 USB2 creates.

2. What is the difference between Constant & Variable Bit rates?

I also want to convert some video's from my VCR to DVD. The Video is a JVC HR-S6600EK NicamS-VHS with S-Video out & a Left & Right Phono Jack. Again I need to know the above answers using this instaed of my camera.

[Nelson37]

1. There is no correct answer for this. At some point, the gain in quality for higher bitrate is virtually unnoticeable and is not worth it when considering the increased filesize. You must balance these factors and decide for your self.

2. Well, CBR is constant and VBR is variable. Not sure what answer you are looking for.

Would highly recommend you invest some time reading some guides and posts, there are too many things you need to know. Such as several pages worth of explanation for #2.

[mattiusb]

The whole point of having forums like this is to speed up the learning curve. Surely someone must have done a similar thing and could advise what settings they found were the best. All I want are some recommendations based on other users experience with similar setups. For example what would you suggest?

[Tommyknocker]

Didn't you get it? He suggests you study the guides. Sound advice from a generous guru if I ever read any!

[teegee420]

The whole point of having forums like this is to speed up the learning curve.

True, but perusing guides containing documented success speeds up the process too. I would characterize a steep learning curve as having to figure out most of this stuff on your own. Quick sermon over.

You will need a bitrate calculator to determine the maximum bitrate you can use for any given length of video per DVD. There is a terrific one on this very site which can be found here. After deciding on a bitrate and you decide you are not happy with the resulting mpeg versus the quality of the original you will need to increase the bitrate, but at the sacrifice of the length of your movie. Regarding your proposed audio bitrate, personally I can't hear much quality increase above a bitrate any higher than 224kpbs.

The best advice I can give you is to get your feet wet and run a few captures. If you get stuck or you need advice on how to increase quality, post your questions on the forum. You will get better responses when you have an actual problem versus when you haven't even attempted the process at all. Have fun and good luck.

[realmexican]

I am doing pretty much the smae thing, converting piles of old family videos in Hi8 and 8mm. But I am doing it to SVCD, I have found that 2500 mbps is a fairly good speed.

If you are doing this up to DVD that should not be any different, my opinion is that it is a waste of time an money to upconvert a medium quality video (8mm,Hi8) to something higher than that, but this is just an opinion.

In in the other hand, I am a newbie and I am still learning, for instance all my home videos are monoaural in 2 ch (I do not thing any home SONY Camcorder will do better), not precisely stereo, so I am looking for ways to diminish the Audio footprint to gain space, right now I am researching at KSVCD techniques to do so, since the video from my source is not highest quality, there shall be a good result from this, but I have not started experimenting with this yet.


Best Regards