Simple and perfect VCD, realtime capturing and editing

[bahichs]

Hi, here is the fastest method how to make VCD.

I'm capturing 352x240 NTSC MPEG-1 with old WinVCR v.2.0 (Cinax) in resolution 2xCD which is exact 2097 kbs. Do not try this with capturing MPEG-2, DVD players with no SVCD options will have scrambled sound on play, but video is good.

Than I'm doing quick cutting in I-FilmEdit v.1.4 (10 x faster than in TMPG, really fast). This cutting doesn't change anything in birtrate, format etc, just cut parts of video U wanna keep it separate. Now I need to make mpeg file with VCD standard...

Ready cutted clips I'm openning in TMPG in MPEG tools (first click on FILE, than MPEG Tools, than choose merge and cut session, and your file...) choosing Mpeg Video CD as option.

Next I'm making mpeg VCD file clicking on RUN in Tmpg which become VCD standard (2.0) mpeg file. Just make a new file with new name and click Run. Try to name it new file as myvideo-VCD.mpg for example, so U will know which one is VCD-ready for burning. It will be done really fast.

That file I could burn in Nero Burn (not in Easy CD Creator, it allow only 1150 Kbs) as a standard VCD. Nero Burn will not ask you to turn off standard compliance for VCD, because that mpeg file has VCD standard already even if is not 1150 kbs (tricky isn't it?). It's working great in any DVD (I tried 4 DVD-s so far, and no problems), sound is good, picture quality near Svcd and clear, and I can fit app. 42 minutes on each CD-R.

Of course don't waist your time trying to fit 180 minutes of video on one CD, this method here is made to produce for sure 10-15 % better video record than VHS. That I was expecting from VCD, not resoults I was getting with 1150 kbs (squares, action motion crap moments etc.)

Best of all, it's no long conversions, and no editing reencoding, just realtime capturing and editing. With new VideoWave III, MGI software (must have wdm capture driver) U could capture MPEG-1 maximum 5200 Kbs. Using same method to burn CD-S U will get better resoults, but with less space on a disk. This 2000-5200 kbs high birtrate is good when you want to edit and burn some special material, your video clip or something important to U...

I hope that you will not loose too much time experimenting with some other programs and methods (I tried everything belive me). This is shortest and best way to make perfect VCD.

PS. I have one old WinTV PCI capture card ($ 49 in Best Buy). WinVCR v.20 and I-Film Edit v1.4 software you need to find on the web, some old places...TMPG link is on this site...

Hi to everybody and good luck...

Bojan Bahic - Boccaccio
SARAJEVO WITH LOVE DUDE

bahichs@yahoo.com

[MOVIEGEEK]

I will have to disagree:
I use an ATI pci,MMC 7.1 and Stinkys' regtool.I am able to capture a xvcd
MPEG-1(on the fly) that NTI cd-maker and my dvd player recognize.If I
want better quality I capture in AVI and convert with TMPGEnc.

[siaododo]

I think you are basically capturing XVCD at 2097 bps, then you run it thru tmpgenc's merge/cut choosing mpge video CD option. Couldn't you just cut your film here, instead of going thru the extra step of using I-Film Edit to cut? You can then burn to CD using Nero by turning off VCD compliancy check.

I think you are basically still making an XVCD, but you have fooled Nero on the compliancy check, that's all. It is still XVCD because the video bit rate is 2097 bps, regardless what Nero tells you.

42 minutes on 1 CD seems right at 2097 bps, because you can get 80 minutes on 1 cd at 1150 bps.

at almost doubling the video bit rate, of course, the video quality will be better than VCD.

Because I have ATI AIW Card, I always capture at 4000-5000 bps, MPG2, 480 X 480, I use NTSC Disk Format, so I don't have the 4 gb file limit problem. Depending on how long of video I like to put on 1 CD, I use bit rate calculator to calculate the video bit rate, then I convert using Tmpgenc at a desired video bit rate. A personal rule of thumb of mine is that I will never let it fall below 1150 bps.

[Anonymous65]

When capturing for VCD, you should ALWAYS try to capture both fields, it will make your video quite a bit sharper, escpecially in the vertical plane. So, capture at 352x480 if possible, otherwise capture at 640x480.

[Scobo]

I don't mean to sound smug but I've been using a similar method for some time now. I use Ulead Media Studio Pro 6 to capture and TMPGEnc's merge & cut to make the file VCD compliant.
In fact, using the YUY2 video format, I can capture to MPEG2 at 480x576 with a WINTV GO card giving me PAL SVCD.
Again, I use merge & cut to make the file SVCD compliant and burn with Nero.
My stand-alone DVD player (Logix 3000) plays these MPEGs at a bitrate up to 5000kbps.

[lusid]

Here's another mothod:

Capture using WinDVR at VCD bitrate, the resulting file is very close to spec. To get it perfect, re-encode the audio stream with TMPGenc. and remux the fixed audio stream with the original video stream. Total post processing time: 10-15 minutes on a PIII-800 per hour of video. If you don't care about hitting the vcd spec, you can use a higher bitrate and/or ignore the off-spec audio stream, depending on what your player will tolerate.

If you want to edit quickly, get M1-Edit. Unlike Ifilm edit, you mark all your cuts before you generate the output file. This way you don't have to sit there and watch it copy each segment over as you edit. And you can save your edit list to a file, in case you want to refer to it later. Usefull for setting chapter marks when you author the vcd.

[lkimes]

We ALL know that everyone has their own "best" way of doing things, but the original thread was a discussion of simple, realtime (X)VCD capturing and editing. I'd like to get more info about other users' knowledge and experience doing the same.

Base config:
Win2000 with all patches & DirectX 8.1
1.4 Ghz Athlon (VIA chipset, I know...)
ATI 128Pro AIW
1950k through the ATI MMC
Tmpgenc for editing and joining
Nero 5.5 to burn, w/ compliance turned off

I record a program, edit out the commercials, and burn to CD. The programs generally come out to 43 minutes in length and I nearly fill the CD. My questions are related to editing because I'm not happy with Tmpgenc. It will not perfectly cut where I want it to. I move it forward or back by say .2 seconds and the cut is still at the same place. I usually have to shift the Mark In/Out point between .25 & .5 seconds. I often am forced to make imperfect cuts, before the scene has completely faded to black. Its very annoying when I'm trying to put a descent amount of effort into this.

M1 sounds very nice because someone else said that multiple Mark In/Out points can be placed so that you don't have to cut the original into 6 pieces and join them back together. Even iFilmEdit sounds nice if its much faster and can hit the mark exactly. What are the experiences of others in this area? Should I just accept this? Are this other programs that good and time saving? Hey, I'll easily buy and support them if they are fast and accurate.


Second question:
I tried to record at 480x480 in ATI MMC 7.1, 7.2, 7.5, 7.6 and all of them produce laughable audio. Have you ever heard William Shatner talk like a chipmunk?

The sound is still in sync, but the pitch has been raised a few octaves. Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone else solved this problem?

Thoughts?

Lance Kimes
Systems/Network Architect
Rhythm & Hues Studios

[sracer]

Lance, you can get precision cuts by manually entering in the Mark In/Out points in the input fields. (I don't use the slider or buttons) Unfortunately TMPGENC only deals in seconds, so you have to convert HH:MM:SS to SS.

For recording TV shows, I use PowerVCR with my IOMAGIC PC PVR card... MPEG1 recording at double the bitrate of standard VCD. I then edit out the commercials (using TMPGENC) and then batch re-encode the pieces to the VCD spec.

[lkimes]

Thanks for the input sracer, I realize now that I didn't give enough info about my methods. I use the slider to tell where the commercial break appears. I then use the buttons to shift the mark in seconds near to the fade point and then I start adjusting the mark using the text window in fractions of a second to find the precise fade to black point. Some network leave 2/10ths of a second of black between the end of the show and the commercial following it.

Which version of Tmpgenc are you using? Mine has HH:MM:SS.HS for Mark In/Out points. HS is for hundredths of seconds.


Lance

[sracer]

I use versions 12e and 2.00.29.113 ........

Oh Snap! Duh! Although I use both versions of TMPGENC, I've only ever merged and cut in 12e... and it wouldn't recognize ":" in the edit field. I just tried 2.0 and it DOES! (smacking self on forehead)

I can't tell you how many Videos I've cut using the older version of TMPGENC when I had 2.0...

Thanks for jarring some dormant braincells.

[bahichs]

In addition to some help? e-mails....


Hi here is the update to some problems with audio/video synchro stuff

here it is part of the support page from www.cinax.com for winvcr. Check that first:

1) My Audio and Video are not synchronized

Solution: In most cases this problem is caused by the following:

video capture driver/audio card driver problems (patches)
CPU is overloaded
system is low on memory
some programs running in the background
computer is not disconnected from a network
bad quality of a video source
Your CPU may not be fast enough for real-time encoding at given Video Input Format, Picture Quality and Picture Size. To find the optimal settings for the Picture Quality we recommend running several tests using different Picture Quality settings while monitoring CPU load with a System Monitor. For optimal performance we recommend keeping CPU load no more than 75-80% at all times during recording.

The following audio boards cause synchronization problems:
Sound Blaster AWE 64: Model CT4520
Sound Blaster 16 (VIBRA): Model CT4170

Check that if you still have a problems, also download some CPU monitor software which will be monitoring your system in the system tray, so U could watch what's goin on with your CPU and memory resources. I'm using Active CPU v1.1, you could download that software from www.zdnet.com, type that in download section. After that keep your CPU level all the time when capturing mpg around 50-60% of CPU &memory resources if is possible, more u 'r using will causing problems. Also before capturing, delete all of not so important files, also internet temporary files, temp files and make hard drive defragmentation. Do not use any Power saving for monitor or HD, do not load anything except winvcr and try to capture without preview options.

Im doing everything of that because my computer is "only" 800 Khz, if you have more than that , that is less mpg capturing problems... Even after all of this sometimes I got freezed, but maximum time capturing I got reached is about 4 hours.

PS. download latest capture driver for your system.
regards
boccaccio

[Fred©]

Second question:
I tried to record at 480x480 in ATI MMC 7.1, 7.2, 7.5, 7.6 and all of them produce laughable audio. Have you ever heard William Shatner talk like a chipmunk?

The sound is still in sync, but the pitch has been raised a few octaves. Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone else solved this problem?

Ikimes,

I have worst audio problems.... All MPEG-2 capture have the same problem that you described, including a weird latency when playback the movie, even in ATI File Player... Sound is like an old LP , with a DJ making scratch... I mean, sound goes, stop with scratch, goes, stop, etc... (sorry if I am not understanble, because I speak portuguese)...

but I realized, in my system, that It has something to do with PCI latency time in BIOS...

Mine was at 32 (default). When I setup to 10 and make a new capture, when the file was played it played as a fast forward playing...

As I dont like playing with BIOS, I decided stop capturing in MPEG-2 and now I only capture in MPEG-1, up to 6Mbits/s with no audio problem...

BTW, My computer is a Duron 800@900MHz...

Fred©