New to capping

[stixster]

I have just starting to capture TV programs from my Cable TV.

I'm using WinDVR to cap to MPEG2 which I would like to encode to DivX.

Now, if I encode at
[Real-time Best]
Format: MPEG-2

Audio:
Format: MPEG-1 Layer II
Sampling Rate: 44.1 kHz 16-bit Stereo
Bit Rate: 224 KBits/sec

Video:
Size: 720x576
Frame Rate: 25.00 frames/sec
Bit Rate: 7200 KBits/sec

Should I be expecting a near perfect cap? Because it doesn't seem very good to me.

http://www.nickday85.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/quality.gif

Thanks


-Nick

[JamieBecks23]

if the end product is divx, dont capture to mpg2, capture using mjpg or huffy and do your edits in virtualdub and save as divx

[stixster]

What if I wasn't planning to encode to DivX though?

I have tried capturing with those codecs too, but I get the same results. I'ts certainly not clear like it should be considering the codecs are lossless.

I know it's not the signal, because I have captured using Windows Movie Maker and the signal is top class.

It's kind of annoying me, as I've seen and downloaded TV rips from a friend and his are normally around 24 mins long, DivX and brilliant quality. What am I doing wrong?


-Nick

[JamieBecks23]

wats ur connection from tv to pc?

[jimmalenko]

I'm using WinDVR to cap to MPEG2 which I would like to encode to DivX.

What if I wasn't planning to encode to DivX though?

Well, which is it ?

You ask one question, then ask the complete opposite !!!



That pic you posted looks totally normal to me for a TV cap. What you'll find is that TV caps normally have noise, and you need to do some noise removal on them. Also, the noise shows up far worse on a PC screen than it will on a TV, because your DVD Player and TV have noise removal features within them by default.

There's a guide here which shows you how to use the convolution3D filter with AVISynth, or a number of MPEG encoders have inbuilt settings also.

BTW, if your "friend" gets such good quality, why don't you just ask him how he does it ? Warez someone like me to find a friend like that ???

[stixster]

BTW, if your "friend" gets such good quality, why don't you just ask him how he does it ? Warez someone like me to find a friend like that???

I see what you've done. You taken 2+2 and got 5.
When I say friend, I mean friend. Warez is illegal wheras what my "friend" does is not.

Is it illegal to use your VCR? No. What he simply does is record things for people who do not have the facilities to themselves.

Please do not accuse me of illegal doings. All I'm trying to do is get the best quality I possible can out of my TV Card.

-Nick

[canadateck]

So like jimmalenko said, Why dont you ask him.

[jimmalenko]

BTW, if your "friend" gets such good quality, why don't you just ask him how he does it ? Warez someone like me to find a friend like that???

I see what you've done. You taken 2+2 and got 5.
When I say friend, I mean friend. Warez is illegal wheras what my "friend" does is not.

Is it illegal to use your VCR? No. What he simply does is record things for people who do not have the facilities to themselves.

Please do not accuse me of illegal doings. All I'm trying to do is get the best quality I possible can out of my TV Card.

No accusations here, my friend. If it weren't true, you'd laugh it off, wouldn't you ?

BTW, it's not illegal to use your VCR for your own purposes, but recording things for other people (ie. uploading to "friends") is dicey at best.

I'd still just ask your friend how he does it ....... if you can find the email address in the readme.txt j/k

[stixster]

I'd still just ask your friend how he does it ....... if you can find the email address in the readme.txt j/k

I asked him this morning actually. He told me, and I did what he said, but still I get a crappy cap.

All I want to know is what settings to run Dr. DivX at? I've used GSpot on my friends caps and they all say 1004Kb. Now, if I use that I get pixelation galore.

Can someone shed some ideas?

Thanks


-Nick

[jimmalenko]

I'd still just ask your friend how he does it ....... if you can find the email address in the readme.txt j/k

I asked him this morning actually. He told me, and I did what he said, but still I get a crappy cap.

All I want to know is what settings to run Dr. DivX at? I've used GSpot on my friends caps and they all say 1004Kb. Now, if I use that I get pixelation galore.

IMO you need to split this up into two areas - the capture and the re-encode. Each area must be finely-tuned for you to get the results you require. Now starting at the end first, 1004kbps IMO should be OK for a 640 X 480 XviD/DivX, provided your source is decent. So back to the start, you need to make sure you're getting the best possible product when capturing, in order for the re-encode to XviD or DivX to have the best possible source.

[stixster]

OK. What settings/codec do you suggest I use for my main cap?

-Nick

[jimmalenko]

I capture VHS and cable TV into DV via an ADVC-100, then apply noise removal on it, then a deinterlace if they're only going to be watched on a PC, or use a player that deinterlaces properly such as PowerDVD.

In your case, since you said earlier that you are getting an excellent signal with Windows Movie Maker, why not capture with that, and output to DV-AVI, then re-encode that to DivX ?

[stixster]

Yeh, I was thinking about that, but how do I encode to DV-AVI? It's greyed out on my copy :S


Thanks


-Nick

[jimmalenko]

Yeh, I was thinking about that, but how do I encode to DV-AVI? It's greyed out on my copy :S

I've got two ways I can do it:

[stixster]

Grrrrr. I don't get that. Is it because I don't have a DV Cam?

If so, I'm well pi**ed because that's giving me the best signal.


-Nick