Can I use ADVC-100 to capture to mpeg

[kadzbiz]

sounds to me that somebody is pulling somebodies chain

You must have good ears, because I ain't heard nothin'.

[kadzbiz]

If you have something worthwhile to say, I would like to hear it.

[jagabo]

I used WinDV to capture 30 mins of AVI to type 2 (about 1.2 gig). Woohoo, goodbye WMM!! I then used TVW to encode the DVD files at 6000 CBR and tested the result. The source file was a little grainy, but the end result was the same, which is fine, BUT, I had some (how do I describe it?) what do you call it, artifacting? Is that the right word? It looked like there was large blocks of image within the image. Would that have something to do with the bitrate?

VHS is pretty noisy. In addition, if you don't have a VHS player with a Time Base Correcter, or are using a external TBC, you have problems were data doesn't line up from scanline to scanline and frame to frame. These things are killers for MPEG compression which relies, in large part, on parts of the picture not changing from frame to frame. Try encoding at ~9000 kbps and see if it looks any better. Strong noise filtering (spacial and temporal) will reduce the noise but will introduce other artifacts.

[kadzbiz]

Try encoding at ~9000 kbps and see if it looks any better. Strong noise filtering (spacial and temporal) will reduce the noise but will introduce other artifacts.

Thanks for the advice. That was going to be my next task, trying different bitrates.

What about filters? I don't know anything about them. When do you need them? How do you use them? What are good ones to use? Sorry if I'm getting off the topic.

[eugenegill]

Can you use your camcorder in passthrough mode for capturing analog video to DV? My old Sony digital (tape) camcorder does a good job - no Canopus required.

[kadzbiz]

Not sure. Never tried. And now I don't need to. If I remember rightly, my handycam is a Sony DCRDVD100 or something. I think it was one of the first ones Sony made that recorded straight to DVD.

[Cornucopia]

What eugenegill is saying, is that contrary to what you might think, you MAY need to (for some tapes). If filtering, upping the bitrate, etc won't work for your VHS caps because they're too unstable, a TBC might be needed to stabilize the feed into the Canopus box.

Rather that buy ANOTHER device, it may work out that your DVDcam has analog Line Ins. In this case, you might try and see if it can act as a quasi-TBC, stabilizing the signal as it records. This would be similar to DVR functionality. Slim chance, but possible.

I think what BendixG15 was saying was that we've gotten your information piecemeal, where some IMPORTANT point of clarification was left out until later on (like the fact that you normally record to DVD-cam and edit MPEG), and this could be construed as "bait-and-switch" or "feeding someone a line". I'll give you the benefit of the doubt though.

Scott

[kadzbiz]

I think what BendixG15 was saying was that we've gotten your information piecemeal, where some IMPORTANT point of clarification was left out until later on (like the fact that you normally record to DVD-cam and edit MPEG), and this could be construed as "bait-and-switch" or "feeding someone a line". I'll give you the benefit of the doubt though.

Sorry, I must be dumb becuase a) I don't know what you mean by piecemeal and b) my post was about helping with my VHS to DVD conversion, not about my DVD-Cam that I didn't realise would even come into the conversation. I didn't mean to upset anyone, I just asked a question that probably wasn't worded as good as it should've been. I'm still fairly new to all this forum type stuff.

[Cornucopia]

That's OK, that's what being new is all about--learning the ropes, what to do, what not to do. I don't think anyone was "put out", just starting to get wary.

Piecemeal (from Dictionary.com):In small amounts at a time, in stages, gradually, piece-by-piece

Supposedly, your camera (if it is "DCRDVD100") does have analog inputs, so that may be something to try.
Personally, I prefer the VHS->TBC->CanopusADVC->Firewire->PC->DV-AVI->MainconceptEncoder->MPEG2 method, as I can control things much better and get the quality I want.

Scott

[kadzbiz]

Thanks for being so understanding.

Supposedly, your camera (if it is "DCRDVD100") does have analog inputs, so that may be something to try.

I checked my cam. It's a DCRDVD101E and I can only see one USB output and nothing else.

After trying to encode my 30 minute typr 2 avi file with TVM at 6000 CBR and not getting a good result, I tried 6000 VBR and 8000 VBR, but the end results were no better. I noticed that the DVD encoder seemed to take a little while to activate on each occasion. I will say that the preview of the clip appears okay in the TVM output monitor. Does the AVI file need some more work on it before importing it into TVM and DVD encoding it?

[thecoalman]

Virtual dub has a lot of filters....

[mats.hogberg]

Take a look here:
http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/dv/guide.html for a basic DV to DVD guide.
It uses AviSynth and the Convolution3D filter

/Mats

[kadzbiz]

Phew, there's a lot to keep me busy now. Thanks guys. I'll be sure to get back to you if I need any more help........

[jay1028]

Just for my two cents. I have been using the ADVC-100 for 4 years now and have used Windows Movie Maker 2 for capture. It is free and is fine. If it doesn't work for you, there may be some other software or install problem. All it does is the capture function for the Canopus. The Canopus takes in the analog signals and outputs it to firewire. You may have a firewire problem. At the time I purchased a firewire card, there were only two manufacures of the firewire chips. The firewire card with the VIA chip gave me capture problems. I purchased another card with the TI chip and all has been fine since then. If your firewire is embedded in your motherboeard, you may want to try one that connects to a PCI or whatever slot you have available. Don't use MM2 for any coversion. I have also used Arcsoft Showbiz that came bundled with my dvd burner with the same fine results. Just capture to AVI. AVI(DV) is the only format that you should use for capture. I use TMPGenc Plus to do the mpeg conversion and compression to fit on a dvd.

Sorry you are having so much difficulty. Video is much more difficult than audio. It took me, as everyone else, a lot of trial and error to find what works best for you.

Jay

[kadzbiz]

The firewire card with the VIA chip gave me capture problems. I purchased another card with the TI chip and all has been fine since then.

That's interesting to know as I bought a card with a VIA chip. I'm just doing some tests now. I've used virtualdub to capture and tpmgenc express 3 to convert to mpeg. I noticed for the 30 minutes of video it dropped about 7 frames during the capture.

[edDV]

Once you get the basics working, it is possible to capture the ADVC realtime to MPeg2. See this thread.
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=324977

[kadzbiz]

Thanks edDV. I'll keep that in mind if I get sick of converting.

While reading the posts, I just saw that TPMGEnc failed converting the avi file to mpeg at 50% with an error code of 1 x 80048002. Why would that happen? Is the file too big at 6.6 Gb or something?

Gees, just when you think you're onto something, another glitch!

[jay1028]

I don't think that there is a size limit for TMPGenc. I normally convert 35gb files in AVI down to 4.3gb for dvd burning all day long. It's tough when you have a problem like you have. Before I found out about the chipset problem on the firewire card, I had sent the ADVC back to Canopus and of course they found nothing wrong with the unit, it was my firewire card.

Maybe try downloading a trial version of the latest TMPGenc. There are so many things that can go wrong with video that you would never see on any other application. Once you get everthing working like you want, make an image of your system so if something happens down the road, you can restore your system back to where everything worked fine. And I don't mean the windows restore function. It doesn't always do want you want.

After you capture a video, can you play it back on your computer in the AVI format ok? If so, then your capture to AVI is ok and it is in the conversion to mpeg that is causing the problem.

Jay

[jagabo]

80048002 - Maybe this?

http://forboden.com/feed/

[kadzbiz]

Well, after much mucking around, even reformatting my dedicated-for-video-and-music-pc, I have been able to manage a VHS to DVD transfer. Not without its glitches along the way, but I got a result on DVD with quality as good as the original source.

I used Nero to capture the avi file and then exported it as an mpeg file to edit in TMPEG Video Wizard. It looks like TVW just doesn't like avi's very much. Type 1 not at all, type 2 creates quilting. I then authored with TMPG DVD Author Pro. It worked fine, BUT, Nero did freeze on the first attempt to capture for some reason. It worked the second time.

I tried capturing another VHS with Nero again. It froze about 12 minutes in for some reason. I repeated the whole thing as above except that I captured with VirtualDub this time. Worked ok.

Thanks for all the help. I've since found lots of posts and links from here that have got me studying and learning heaps.

[zoobie]

I'd stop right now and go spend a few hours reading the glossary in the top left menu. You'll be glad you did...

[jagabo]

I wouldn't trust Nero for capturing DV. Use a dedicated DV capturing application like DVIO or WinDV.

Could you provide a vendor link for "TMPEG Video Wizard"? I don't know what program you're talking about. Is it Womble's MPEG Video Wizard? Or is it one of the programs that comes with one of the TMPG packages (I only have TMPGEnc Plus)?

[kadzbiz]

Yes I mean Womble's MPEG Video Wizard, sorry.

[jagabo]

If you are going to be capturing a lot of DV and converting to DVD, you might consider CCE as your MPEG encoder. It's very fast with DV sources. On my computer (Core 2 Duo E6300) it encodes over 4x realtime. Ie, an hour of video encodes in less than 15 minutes.

TMPGEnc Plus is a decent encoder but it's pretty slow (about 1/3 the speed of CCE). TMPGEnc Plus does have the advangage of lots of built in filters.

I think they both have free trials. Lots of people here use them so you can get lots of help too.

[kadzbiz]

I'll have to consider CCE. Thanks.