ATI AIW RADEON w/ DVD-R seeks assistance.... please help

[Skunkwerx]

Really need your experience on this one guys.

System:
1.5 P4
AIW Radeon card (7.1 MMC)
Pioneer A03 DVD-R
WIN2K OS (FAT32)

What I am trying to accomplish:
I would like to transfer alot of HQ VHS video to DVD. Im trying to get as close to a 1:1 replication of image quality.

What I need help with:
What capture size? (Dimensions)
What Bitrate?
What Motion Estimation Range?
VBR or CBR? (What is better?)

What I have tried (all mpeg format):
I've tried many dimensions (480*480 / 640*480 / 720*480)
I've tried bitrates as high as 9mbit.
-All capture tests seem to be grainy and not as sharp as I would like.-

I am familiar with all the MMC controls and settings so be brief if its easier for you..

If I go AVI? Aside from switching to NTFS, what would the file size be if I capped a 60min video?

I have access to all utilities, authoring, and burning wares so list what you would suggest.

I do know that the AIW does have its limitations but I am hoping that I can come a little closer to my expectations.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR RESPONSES.

[Macros746]

I've been doing alot of reading up on this today....not to burn to DVD but other formats. And you might want to read this: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33588723 post for many really interesting article. But the bottom line is: you are going to want to capture to huffy or MJEG which takes up HUGE amounts of harddrive space (approx equivalent to DVD...i.e. 6 gigs or more for two hours) You are going to want to capture to 640x480 because that is the highest resolution that VHS is capable of...anything else is overkill. So now you are going to have this enormous file. You can now do one of two things encode to MPEG2 (DVD) with TMPGenc and experiment with filters until you are satisfied, or purchase or find ahem other ways of getting your hands on Cinema Craft Encoder which is considered by many to be the superior MPEG2 encoder. Then you are going to take this enormous file and encode it with all the best settings (let us know which encoder you decide to use and we can advise you from there) and then you will be done. Ask anymore specific questions and I'll do what I can to answer.

Mark

p.s. if you have the dough and really care how the vhs tapes look you should invest in a VHS player with a digital video out....the purple dongle that comes with the AIW is notorious for slight picture and color bleed...not enough to bother me...but it sounds like you are a perfectionist.

[Skunkwerx]

Thanx for the quick response Mark!

I have "acquired" *cough* Cinemacraft and will try encoding with it as you suggest.

<STRIKE>Can you expand on Huffy? and MJPEG? I am not familiar with these. Are they programs? or file formats? If format, does MMC capture to this format or do I use something else (VirtuaDub?) to capture to these formats?</STRIKE>

**edit** I'll read through the links you have already provided before I bug you with HUFFY and MJPEG.

And AGAIN... thank you for taking the time to respond.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skunkwerx on 2001-12-06 13:53:10 ]</font>

[Macros746]

Huffy and MJEG are codec which can be plugged into existing capture programs in order to capture video with them. You mentioned that you have tried capturing to MPEG1 and MPEG2...so consider this to be similar to those in capture function. Basically, Huffy is called a 'lossless codec' meaning that it will take as much of the raw video and audio data as it possibly can and store it as quickly as possible without compression. This means that it will look amazing and take up HUGE quantities of disc space. MJEG is an incredibly fast compression format that on it's higher settings is almost lossless and takes up slighly less HD space than Huffy. I would recommend using VirtualDub with both of them. There are other simpler programs available but none that have all of the functionality that Virtualdub offers. There are some excellent articles over at digital-digest.com about the many uses of Virtualdub. I am also an AIW user and I can say, without a doubt, that Virtualdub, when capturing to anything but MPEG2, kicks MMC's ass.

[Skunkwerx]

Mark,

In the past I remember reading about VirtualDub and ATI captures conflicts.

Do they still exist?
If they do I guess I could check the V..dub site's knowledge base for a remedy.

Still reading through the links you provided.....very enlightening and educational. I'm understanding the bigger picture now.. thank you thank you thank you!!

[Macros746]

No problem. Everyone on this site was very helpful to me when I was a newbie so I try to return the favor. There is sometimes a conflict with virtualdub but it has a very easy remedy. There is an easily installable 'wrapper' available that solves all the issues. I would advise downloading VD...see if you have any issues and if you do do a forum search on this site for AIW wrapper...or some such and you'll find it.