Capturing Newbie - Problems & Questions :(

[Heineken77]

Hi guys, I have a few questions

1) I'm trying to capture digital mpeg 2 signal from my satellite to my Hauppauge 150 WinTV card using RCA inputs and WinTV2000.
While using any recording format (usually Mpeg 2 - 12bit) I get a black bar down the left side of the screen, and some noise along the top of the screen. How can I fix this? I will attach a screenshot below.



2) Is there any better software out there to capture mpeg2 stream that can either save as the mpeg2/avi/xvid directly?

3) What are the optimal settings for 'quality' when saving? For example...I see some people capture a boxing match, which is normally around 700-900 megs when all said and done. Or will this kill quality?

4) When using Ulead VideoStudio 10 to capture, I cannot get sound to capture, only video. When I go into settings, I see only an option for mic/line in for the sound, and no option to use the WinTV's RCA jacks for sound in. How can this be fixed, as the line in rca sound jacks work with the other software.

5) What is the best way to convert a captured mpeg2 file to a smaller file that still has great quality. Would xvid be the way to go? If so, how do I go about it?


Thanks guys!

[Baldrick]

1. If you are just going to play it on a tv you can ignore it....cause it wont be showned because of overscan. You can crop it later when you reencode to another format.
5. AutoGK if you want XviD.

[Heineken77]

1. If you are just going to play it on a tv you can ignore it....cause it wont be showned because of overscan. You can crop it later when you reencode to another format.
5. AutoGK if you want XviD.

Thanks for the reply! 2 quick questions in regards to your reply.

1) I realize this is overscan, however I see many people capture an event, and post it immediately after the event is finished, and their videos never have the overscan or black bars when viewing on PC. They also don't have time to convert it either because the file is posted as soon as event is complete. There's no way I can fix this so my caps will look good as theirs without the overscan bs?

5) I tried AutoGK but the XviD file's audio was way out of sync. Any idea why? Finally, what's typically the best format to share say a boxing match in after I cap the mpeg2 stream directly? Why is XviD so popular, and is this the way to go?

Thanks!

[redwudz]

Overscan doesn't have anything to do with a video, it's what a TV set does. The black part of the video is likely a capture problem or the framesize you captured at is different from the source video.

If AutoGK has a sync problem, maybe the video has missing frames. That would cause sync loss. Missing frames don't always show up when playing on a software player. Check the lengths of the video and audio. Or you may be able to find missing frames with VirtualDub Mod.

For sharing, it would depend on how you wanted to share it and what you wanted to play it back on. If over the net, Xvid would work. More common is MPEG-1 or WMV as they are more universal to most computers. If you wanted to put it on disc, the original MPEG-2 would be best, but you would likely need a DVD to get it all in there. Or you could go with a CD and VCD format.