Filtering during MPEG capture

[TB Player]

When I transfer video tapes to DVD and the tapes don't need to be edited I usually capture to MPEG. But I have a VHS tape that was made from 8mm film, and the film was under-exposed so information on the VHS tape is dark. I know I can use Premiere to adjust the brightness/contrast but to do that I will need to capture the tape to AVI for editing, so I'm wondering if there is a way to filter the MPEG while capturing so I don't have to go through the AVI/Premiere/MPEG process... or is there a better way?

[jagabo]

Many capture devices have proc amp settings you can adjust. Those adjustments take place in the capture device before MPEG compression.

[themaster1]

Many capture devices have proc amp settings you can adjust. Those adjustments take place in the capture device before MPEG compression.

Do you include capture cards ? I don't know many with proc amp capability, most of time it's for "preview only" no effect in the actual recorded video.

[jagabo]

Most of the cards I have used have included proc amps (for example my Hauppauge PVR-250 and Diamond ATI 650 USB2). And yes, the proc amps effect what's saved in the recorded file. The exceptions would be ATSC and QAM tuners which simply dump the broadcast MPG data to a file.

I'm not talking about the graphics card's proc amp (accessed via Control Panel), but the video capture device's proc amp, usually accessed via the capture software options.

[TB Player]

I have an older ATI card - the MMC software doesn't work with my card. I was just trying to find out if any MPEG encoders were able to make filtering adjustments on-the-fly.

[usually_quiet]

The two or three MPEG encoders I've used just accept video input and compress it using the bitrate and resolution settings they have been given. None of them had adjustments for brightness, contrast, etc. As far as I can tell, that must occur prior to the actual encoding.

As jagabo said, proc amp settings (if available) are found in the capture drivers, and they can often be accessed in the capture software. DScaler, Virtualdub, GraphStudio, AmCAP, and VLC did give me access to the settings, although the proc amp controls aren't functional for my ATI Theater 650 card when using Windows 7. The Catalyst Media Center software provided with my card is the only capture software I've tried that didn't provide access to the proc amp settings.

[themaster1]

Yeah right i just checked with dscaler (the max Hue value is 255 lol not sure if it's a mistake, 360 would be better)
.
Problem is
- You can't capture interlaced with dscaler it seems (only some form of deinterlaced: tomsmocomp etc)
- virtualdub never worked with any of my cards (vdub bug when i click "start capture")
- Amcap is trialware (= never tried)
- Graphstudio (i couldn't make it work thus far) if someone has a terratec card i'd love to hear how he managed to make it work with this app

It's sad i love dscaler i don't know why this project is not going forward with new deinterlacing algorythms and options.

[jagabo]

I don't use Descaler but I believe the "deinterlace" setting you want is "simple weave". It sounds like that just weaves pairs of fields together into frames, just like any program that captures interlaced frames.

[themaster1]

Weave give you weak interlaced lines, i tried today: artéfacts

[jagabo]

You should see interlace comb artifacts with a weave. That's what interlaced video is.