Need software to capture and encode directly to Mpeg - Help??

[Confused Chimp]

After reading through some of the guides and articles on this site, it seems that for my purposes I need some software that can capture and encode directly to Mpeg.

I'm looking for some software the preferably is freeware.

I want to be able to set the bit rate (so I can set it to a high bit rate).

The only editing I want to be able to do is cutting the frames. Not interested in filters, cropping, resizing or anything like that.

I've got a camera rig directly up to the computer going in via the composite in on the graphics card (xfx geforce 7800GT - VIVO port).

I'm currently using both virtualDub and Virtual VCR, but neither of these (as far as I can see) can encode to Mpeg, just AVI's.

Any help most appreciated.
CC

[mats.hogberg]

If quality is any of your concerns, capture to DV avi, then encode to mpg after capturing.
For direct to mpg captures, I recommend the Hauppage cards (hardware mpg encoders) 1/2/350

/Mats

[redwudz]

You could try Mainconcept encoder for a software solution. I've used it for DV to MPEG direct conversions on the fly. But as mats.hogberg mentioned, better quality would be done with a encode from the hard drive.

Direct conversion is very CPU intensive. You can enable a buffer if the CPU can't keep up.

[Barnabas]

Ulead Video Studio 9 can do a pretty good job of capturing/encoding from a DV source to MPEG-2 on the fly. You have plenty of computer power, so should not run into a problem. You can buy Video Studio 9 on eBay for a pretty good price.

[mats.hogberg]

I was under the impression Confused Chimp is capturing a video (analog) source, not DV...

/Mats