Capture resolutions?

[visionman]

Hi everyone.
I have a Pinnacle Studio PCTV. as old as the hills vers 1.0 Its working on O/S Win 98se at the moment . What is the best resolution I can get from this device , if I make a VCD or a SVCD from old Vcr Vhs tapes. I am in the process of upgrading this device, to work on XP sp2, if you ever owned an old PCTV vers 1.0 give me a post.
Cheers visionman

[sanlyn]

Hi everyone.
I have a Pinnacle Studio PCTV. as old as the hills vers 1.0 Its working on O/S Win 98se at the moment . What is the best resolution I can get from this device , if I make a VCD or a SVCD from old Vcr Vhs tapes. I am in the process of upgrading this device, to work on XP sp2, if you ever owned an old PCTV vers 1.0 give me a post.
Cheers visionman

Regardless of your capture source or hardware, VCD/SVCD is limited to 240 lines vertical resolution.

[jagabo]

For PAL VCD capture at 352x288.
For PAL SVCD capture at 480x576.

[sanlyn]

For PAL VCD capture at 352x288.
For PAL SVCD capture at 480x576.

Those are indeed correct numbers, jagabo. The numbers I quoted are the lines visible on NTSC displays. In any case, for better quality I'd capture the videos with at least 352x480 (interlaced) in mind. But, then, the original post doesn't tell us very much about the source. If the source is standard VHS 4:3 ratio, I'd recommend a final 352x480 or even 704x480 to stay closest to the original source format. VHS is already poor quality; I've never liked the results in SVCD. I suggest VHS-to-digital looks much better with a larger interlaced transfer. But, then, the owner might have have specific reasons for preferring SVCD.

[jagabo]

The OP is in the UK, he's likely capturing PAL.

[sanlyn]

The OP is in the UK, he's likely capturing PAL.

Lucky bird, that OP. I spent time in the UK. PAL danced all around our crummy NTSC.

[visionman]

Hi , jagabo and sanlyn, thanks for the very specific and informative advice. With the PAL defination. Will test your suggestion capturing at higher level sanlyn. Cheers
visionman