Mpeg settings when capturing

[trueman]

hello,

I seem to have a few problems with audio synch when trying to capture on my Winfast TV 2000 expert tv card, which I have already asked about on another thread. However I was just wondering what settings I should be using when trying to capture in mpeg format. I use the mpeg-2 codec but what should I set the following at.

Capture Resolution- (I have this set to 720x5786 PAL)

Bitrate Mode== Variable or Constant??

Video compression mode == Option is 0 to 1000??

Target Data Rate== Options are 1000-10000

Audio Codecs is set to MPEG-1 Audio layer 2 as that is the only option.

Audio bitrate==????

Thanks in advance.

[guns1inger]

For stereo audio, 192 - 256 kbps is usually enough. 256kbps seems to be the sweet spot, although unless your source is very high quality, 192 will usually do quite nicely.

You can't do multipass VBR on a real-time capture, so I would go for CBR. You can either try to hit the target the first time, which is good if the running time is no more than around 75 minutes. If it is longer, go CBR at the highest bitrate you can capture cleanly at, then use a 2-pass VBR encode later to bring it down to fit your disc.

[trueman]

Thanks Gunslinger. Im still not sure what to set the Video compression and target data rate at though. The default seems to be 66 for video compression and 6000 for target data rate.

Should I use this?

[guns1inger]

What's the runtime ?

Use a bitrate calculator to work out what you need.

I don't what the video compression mode means as it seems to be a fairly arbitrary thing. What does the manual say about it ?

[trueman]

The manual doesnt say much about it at all, nothing in fact.

The runtime varies really it depends on what Im recording. It might be a half hour tv show or a movie or 2 hours of football. So do I have to work out how long the show Im recording is going to be and what I want to burn it too then use the bitrate calculator to work out the target data rate?
Could I do this on say a standard rate of 1 hour and then just reduce or increase the quality for anything longer or shorter than that? Would as how that went for 1.5 hrs but was set up for one hour really show that much of a drop in quality?

[guns1inger]

Anything less than or up to 65 minutes can be encoded at CBR 9100 with 256kbps audio. After than, the bitrate needs to be reduced in line with running times. This assumes you are authoring to DVD afterwards. If not, just record at the highest bitrate you can.

If you are authoring to disc afterwards, your other option is to record everything as high as you can in the first pass, then re-encode the longer programs to fit later on.

[trueman]

I tried 9100 and after about 5 mins the video started to play back all stuttery frame by frame.

[guns1inger]

Your PC may not be capable of keeping up with the work.

Defrag your HDD. Make sure nothing else is running if it doesn't need to be. Especially shutdown anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as this will be checking all disc I/O.

If you can afford it, it is worth installing a second disc, just to capture to. This reduces the need for the OS and the capture software to fight for disc I/O and therefore be bouncing the heads back and forwards across the disc.

[FulciLives]

Your capture card is not a hardware MPEG capture card. It is advised that you do NOT capture direct to MPEG-2 DVD spec.

You should capture to an AVI file using HuffyUV or PICVideo MJPEG

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[trueman]

Gunslinger,

I do capture to a different hdd its an 80gb sata drive. My main and data drives are ide drives..

Fulci,

Ive tried capturing using huffyuv and PICVideo MJPEG (Which was advised by you last time) but not only are my file sizes huge but I started getting problems where the captruing would just freeze up after 10 mins or so. Thats when I decided to switch back to mpeg instead.

[FulciLives]

Don't hate me but ... you need to get another capture card ... or a stand alone DVD recorder.

That card is not really well suited for direct to MPEG-2 DVD spec captures ... your computer is too slow to keep up with high bitrates ... and although you shouldn't have that 10 minute AVI problem ... you do.

Time to get rid of that card for something better.

Go with a Canopus ADVC-110 or a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 (or USB 2) or a stand alone DVD recorder.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[trueman]

Yes but for the first few months of owning this card it worked fine and I could capture in AVI no problems.

[FulciLives]

Yes but for the first few months of owning this card it worked fine and I could capture in AVI no problems.

Well ... probably time to back up your files and reformat and reinstall Windows fresh.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RE*S.T.A.R.S*2]

hello,

I seem to have a few problems with audio synch when trying to capture on my Winfast TV 2000 expert tv card, which I have already asked about on another thread. However I was just wondering what settings I should be using when trying to capture in mpeg format. I use the mpeg-2 codec but what should I set the following at.

Capture Resolution- (I have this set to 720x5786 PAL)

Bitrate Mode== Variable or Constant??

Video compression mode == Option is 0 to 1000??

Target Data Rate== Options are 1000-10000

Audio Codecs is set to MPEG-1 Audio layer 2 as that is the only option.

Audio bitrate==????

Thanks in advance.

Hi
Regarding your problem with your capture card, i have the same card with the dirver version 5.13.1.3.3310 and in conjuction with mainconcep pvr, it is true that this capture card is not mpeg 2 capable in hardware but i tell you it work well.
I capture mpeg 2 at 720x480 interleace video at 6000 kbps and 192 audio 48khz
you need at least defrag well your hardriver,update if you can your IDE driver in windows and have a minimun amount of programs starting with windows.
I saw your rig specification 2400 mhz is not bad enough for capturing with this card unless you have a weak cpu (Celeron, Sempron)but it dont tell me you processor name and also your memory is not understandable i think it might be 1 giga in memory.
Also i record with the preview windows off so my cpu works only with capturing task.

Well look in windows task manager if you have something else using all your cpu speed and to defrag your computer, check to see your UDMA is enable and at least have on DMA 5 in your Ide hardriver...
well hope i help in something..

[FulciLives]

You can buy a hardware MPEG capture card or a stand alone DVD recorder for about the price of the MainConcept MPEG encoder.

Also many have said that a P4 2.4Ghz is like the bare minimum to capture high bitate MPEG-2 DVD spec when using software only ... especially if using the Mainconcept MPEG encoder.

Since the computer captured AVI once with no issues ... it probably just has too much "junk" on it now and a clean fresh Windows install is really the only "simple" way to get the system clean again.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RE*S.T.A.R.S*2]

mainconcep pvr its 35 bucks , humm well you can do FulciLives subjection and do a full reformat too, it depends of you....

[trueman]

Stars,

It is a P4 2.4ghz cpu not a celeron or sempron and I do have 1.5ghz of ram. 2 x 512 mb ram and 2 x 256 mb ram.

I thionk its time to reformat and start again with this to be honest. It used to work fine once before.

[FulciLives]

mainconcep pvr its 35 bucks , humm well you can do FulciLives subjection and do a full reformat too, it depends of you....

The MainConcept MPEG encoder is $150 ... the "PVR" only version is now $40 but last time I heard any remarks about it (it meaning the PVR version) ... the remarks said it sucked and to get good MPEG-2 capture you had to use the $150 version.

The last few remarks about the PVR version in the TOOLS section here are favorable so perhaps they finally got the PVR version working as well as the full $150 version.

The Mainconcept PVR version is trailware so it might be worth a look.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RE*S.T.A.R.S*2]

Stars,

It is a P4 2.4ghz cpu not a celeron or sempron and I do have 1.5ghz of ram. 2 x 512 mb ram and 2 x 256 mb ram.

I thionk its time to reformat and start again with this to be honest. It used to work fine once before.

Ok i understand .

But in your computer`s informatinon it only telling me that you have a 2.4 ghz cpu and that you have 1 ghz in memory thats misleading ,well it might be in my side or something wrong with my internet explorer... so well do a full reformat.

[Nelson37]

While the re-format will most likely solve your problem, not sure you want to do this everytime you experience a similar problem.

Solving such problems is fairly simple. It worked BEFORE. It does not work NOW. Detail all changes made between BEFORE and NOW, then reverse them. Most common options are new software installed, in particular antivirus progs, a virus or spyware, and/or a fragmented drive.

This may be simply too much work or thought for you. However, after your third or fourth format and re-install, doing the necessary detective work will start to look much more attractive.

Bring up the task list and kill everything not needed, and defrag the capture drive. Betcha that will solve it. Then its just a process of elimination, and it may well be that the defrag is the solution.

[trueman]

Stars,

I only just put the extra ram in and hadnt thought to update my profile so you were right to think that.

Nelson37,

I see where your comig from but in the start I had installed and then removed every codec I could think of because I didnt know any better. So the best option was to just wipe the drive and start again. Im trying to find an article someone on this forum pointed me too about which codecs to install and with what settings.

[Nelson37]

Only the ones you absolutely need. NO repeat NO codec packs.