Best MPEG-2 capture software?

[premiumcapture]

I have a Hauppauge USB live-2 - WinTV keeps sync fairly well, however, I recently discovered that the MPEG files it produced, though playable, were not actually DVD-compliant files (though they technically do play). As such, I am on the hunt for a new piece of software.

Any recommendations?

[hech54]

Unless you are really digging into the custom settings of WinTV, it does produce DVD compliant files. If you mean that it is giving you .TS files or something, there is a setting in WinTV that turns them into MPEG2 files after you are done capturing. There is a menu setting for that. It does take a little bit of time to revert them to MPEG2 so be patient (more patient than I was at first).
I also use Magix Movie Edit 15 occasionally to capture MPEG2 with my USB Live2....and DScaler to capture Lossless/HuffyUV.

[usually_quiet]

I have never found any freeware that can make DVD-compliant MPEG-2 captures. I suspect that is because there are no suitable free (or low-cost) MPEG-2 encoders capable of making DVD compliant captures available to use with such software.

I looked at the software on my computer and found that the OEM version of Cyberlink PowerDirector 9 installed on my PC has a DVD HQ profile which could be used capture DVD compliant MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio from my ATI TV Wonder 600 USB. Not every MPEG-2 encoder setting that one would want is available, but it is possible to create a custom profile and change the bit rate. It includes a duration timer, but the captures must be started manually and it can't capture N. American closed captions. The aspect ratio flag is set to 4:3 and can't be changed at capture time, but could be changed to 16:9 later.

It may not be the best capture software ever, but to be frank there does not appear to be a huge selection of DVD-compliant MPEG-2 capture software to choose from.

[premiumcapture]

Unless you are really digging into the custom settings of WinTV, it does produce DVD compliant files. If you mean that it is giving you .TS files or something, there is a setting in WinTV that turns them into MPEG2 files after you are done capturing. There is a menu setting for that. It does take a little bit of time to revert them to MPEG2 so be patient (more patient than I was at first).
I also use Magix Movie Edit 15 occasionally to capture MPEG2 with my USB Live2....and DScaler to capture Lossless/HuffyUV.

TMPG Smart Edit is telling me that the GOP is all over the place and it needs to be reencoded. Technically speaking, MP2 will play but it is not part of the DVD spec AFAIK.

I did get a copy of Magix to try out with the MPEG encoder, but it keeps trying to force 16:9 and PAL settings. Do you capture NTSC? If so, how did you set this up for good results?

Thanks

[premiumcapture]

I have never found any freeware that can make DVD-compliant MPEG-2 captures. I suspect that is because there are no suitable free (or low-cost) MPEG-2 encoders capable of making DVD compliant captures available to use with such software.

I looked at the software on my computer and found that the OEM version of Cyberlink PowerDirector 9 installed on my PC has a DVD HQ profile which could be used capture DVD compliant MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio from my ATI TV Wonder 600 USB. Not every MPEG-2 encoder setting that one would want is available, but it is possible to create a custom profile and change the bit rate. It includes a duration timer, but the captures must be started manually and it can't capture N. American closed captions. The aspect ratio flag is set to 4:3 and can't be changed at capture time, but could be changed to 16:9 later.

It may not be the best capture software ever, but to be frank there does not appear to be a huge selection of DVD-compliant MPEG-2 capture software to choose from.

I have PowerDirector and it works pretty well, but with the more popular commercial tapes there is no way to capture Macrovision tapes without a TBC. It captures in CBR and the quality is pretty good. It probably keeps better sync than most other programs I have tried.

[hech54]

Unless you are really digging into the custom settings of WinTV, it does produce DVD compliant files. If you mean that it is giving you .TS files or something, there is a setting in WinTV that turns them into MPEG2 files after you are done capturing. There is a menu setting for that. It does take a little bit of time to revert them to MPEG2 so be patient (more patient than I was at first).
I also use Magix Movie Edit 15 occasionally to capture MPEG2 with my USB Live2....and DScaler to capture Lossless/HuffyUV.

TMPG Smart Edit is telling me that the GOP is all over the place and it needs to be reencoded. Technically speaking, MP2 will play but it is not part of the DVD spec AFAIK.

I did get a copy of Magix to try out with the MPEG encoder, but it keeps trying to force 16:9 and PAL settings. Do you capture NTSC? If so, how did you set this up for good results?

Thanks

My version of WinTV is pretty old....V7.
I capture PAL and NTSC(once - testing a cheapo NTSC VCR) with Magix, never captured anything 16:9.

[PuzZLeR]

Direct to MPEG-2 capture is a dying breed it seems, assuming it was ever vibrant to begin with.

MPEG-2 based VFW or AVI codecs are dead, or super-expensive, or suck IMO.

TV based apps, like SageTV or BeyondTV, are Ok for TV caps, even VHS, and their MPEG-2 output is decent, but I don't think they even make them any more.

NeroVision does MPEG-2 capture (at least an older version) but only through firewire (otherwise it can crash) - but this produces color space conversion artifacts since this method is meant for DV.

As well, MainConcept had a utility, one of their older encoders, version 1.X (something), that did MPEG-2 caps, and was probably the better of the bunch, and likely the only true MPEG-2 good capture software. Again, they don't make it any more.

I personally also have an aversion to an editor doing it, such as Magix or VideoStudio. I'm too suspicious that something else is being done to the video on top of the capture. But that's just me.

You can use Hauppauge USB-Live2, or ATI USB 600, as mentioned, both good capture devices. However, the bundled software they come with, WinTV and Catalyst, may do MPEG-2, but are rather weak IMO. Sometimes buggy. Old too.

Personally, the best way is capturing to lossless, like with HuffYUV, such as with VirtualDub or DScaler, and converting to MPEG-2 afterward with a good encoder, like HCEnc, or CCE, or TMPGEnc. This way you have full quality of lossless, better MPEG-2 quality from a good conversion, better control of the specs, and can have full DvD compliance if you wish. Doing an encode aftewards, instead of on the fly, produces better results.

Yes, it's one more step, but it guarantees the solution, and likely the best one IMO.

[usually_quiet]

I have PowerDirector and it works pretty well, but with the more popular commercial tapes there is no way to capture Macrovision tapes without a TBC.

For most people who are serious about digitizing analog tapes this would be a non-issue because they already have and are using a full-frame TBC for other reasons.

I suggest that you investigate GraphStudio and try to build capture graphs for your device since there is apparently no commercial software or freeware which meets your needs.

[TimA-C]

I too have a Hauppauge USB Live2 (largely influenced by some of Hech's posts about it!) and before that I had a PVR150 TV/capture card which also had terrible GOP length and audio sync problems after editing. Before stumping up the cash for VideoRedo for editing my recordings from the PVR150 I used to use a free tool called PVAStrumento (still available on VideoHelp but not updated for quite a while) which used to solve a lot of the problems before editing them with one of the free GOP accurate editors and then authoring to DVD using . . . something? (Ulead's VideoStudio? Something that came with one of the capture devices.) Anyway, you might want to investigate PVAStrumento and see if it helps. (Sorry. Can't remember if there's much configuring or not. I do vaguely remember that there was a chance of it deleting the original file after doing it's stuff . . . so you might want to experiment on a copy of a recording in a separate temporary folder. I'm fairly sure that this was one of the settings you could turn off.)

You know you can edit the capture profiles used in WinTV in the registry to tweak the recording settings and possibly make your WinTV recordings more DVD compliant? (Regedit then HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hauppauge\TVServer or possibly HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Hauppauge\ TVServer) BE CAREFUL! Make sure that you AT THE VERY LEAST create a new restore point before delving into the Registry in case you INADVERTANTLY SCREW it UP!!!!!!!! (I'd probably make at least 2 new restore points . . . just in case something happened to one of them.) You'll probably need to reboot before the new settings take effect. Seriously, make a backup of the registry before messing with it! Also, make a note of what you changed and what the original value(s) are/were (Screen dumps are always quite good for this.)

Seem to remember using ProjectX on some of those old recordings but also remember that the GUI on that was HORRIBLE!

[TimA-C]

I'd also go along with Hech and PuzZLeR in capturing to lossless AVI, edit and process in Vdub/AVISynth and then encode to DVD compatible Mpeg2 before authoring to DVD (if you want it on disk,) I use the free AmarecTV software to capture mainly to Lagarith - Could never get Vdub to capture in sync and DScaler/VirtualVCR/etc. all gave me problems with audio volume - edit in Vdub then fairly simple avisynth script and HCBatchGUI, (with the latest HCEnc replacing the older version that comes with HCBatchGUI.) AviSynth and HCEnc/HCBatchGUI are NOT the most intuitive pieces of software I've ever used, so I'd probably recommend that you find an Mpeg2 workflow that works for you to begin with, and then progress if you want to and have many, many empty hours at the end of each day to fill and a dogged urge not to let any of this stuff get the better of you!

[pandy]

Maybe ffmpeg?

[Cauptain]

Do you try POTPLAYER??




Claudio

[usually_quiet]

Do you try POTPLAYER??




Claudio

I have, and PotPlayer won't solve premiumcapture's problem. There is no encoder to use with PotPlayer that can produce DVD compatible MPEG-2 video. The free encoder that you or others have recommended in previous threads for MPEG-2 video capture creates video composed entirely of I-frames, which is not DVD compatible.