How do I create MPEG's from AVI

[msspinner]

I am new to digital video and need some help. I want to record interviews (actually depositions) by video without changing tapes, and convert them to MPEG to store on CD. The interviews can range anywhere from an hour to 5 hours. To do this I have purchased a Sony digital recorder with firewire output, and Ulead VideoStudio 5.0. I can record directly from the camera onto the hard drive withou using tape. It seems to save in an AVI format, which is huge. I can apparently then convert to MPEG format using the software, but it seems to take an awful long time to convert. I was going to get a 120G firewire drive to record video directly on the the hard drive. This way I won't have to worry about tapes. My plan then is to convert the AVI file to an MPEG 1 file and burn the MPEG 1 onto CD. I am told that I can store up to 2 hours on 1 CD in MPEG format. My question is, will this work? What else will I need? How long will the conversion take? Reading on this site, there appear to be some options for recording directly to MPEG using a card. Is this option available for laptops. The interviews will necessitate a mobile computer. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Spicuzza]

msspinner,

For capturing video tape depositions it's not necessary to capture in AVI and then encode to MPEG-1 since the background and the subject are stationary.

You can capture directly to MPEG-1 with VideoStudio, you simply change the capture plug-in to Ulead MPEG DirectShow under the Global Commands button. By doing so you will eliminate the time consuming and unnecessary rendering and encoding.

I wouldn't recommend not having a tape running also while I was capturing to the hard drive, if anything happened to the computer or HDD the deposition would be lost and you would have some very angry attorneys if it had to be redone. You could reuse the tapes over and over again. I would just simply make sure I have my MPEG file burned on a CD before reusing the same tape.

Also it's not necessary to capture with a frame size any larger than 352 x 240. Your captured DV is 720 x 480 and is total overkill for a video tape deposition.

Good luck, hope this helps.

Gary Spicuzza
cic7@juno.com

[msspinner]

Thanks. Version 5 doesn't seem to have that capability, but Version 6 does and I downloaded this afternoon. This seems to work, except when copying tapes in as MPEG, I get a "transcode buffer" (whaterver that is) every minute or so of tape that stops the tape for 2 or 3 minutes for every minute of playback. Buffer also appears after about a minute when I am recording from live feed. Is it still recording while it is buffering? Also, in order to get 2 hours of MPEG on 1 CD, I am told I need to capture at .554 Mbts/s video, .128 Mbts/s audio, but when I try these settings, I get an error that says the capture rate is too low for the screen size of 720 x something. How do I reduce the screen size so those settings will work?

[Spicuzza]

You can capture directly to MPEG with VideoStudio 5, although VideoStudio 6 is a much cleaner product to use and is what I currently use.

I have no idea what a "transcode buffer" is either as this has never come up with any capturing that I have done. Also, I have a Hi8 camcorder not DV camcorder. I can capture at whatever frame size/data rate I want without any problem.

It is my understanding that DV is 720 x 480 frame size which is great for having suberb digital quality but I think total overkill for doing video tape depositions. Your problem may be that your laptop computer simply does not have the power to keep up with such a large data stream.

It would be tough for most top of the line machines to keep up with that large of capture not to mention a three or five hour deposition would be a tremendous file size. You may be stuck with 720 x 480 as I believe that is the size of DV and perhaps VideoStudio does not allow the frame size of DV to be adjusted while cpaturing directly to MPEG.

Sorry I don't have good answers for you.

Gary Spicuzza
cic7@juno.com

[googlioboy]

Msspinner, you have a common problem, but easily solvable. First, you need to check out some things about your harddrive. Does it spin at 7200RPM? It should, as this is the optimum speed of harddrives used for digital video capture. Also, on your desktop, go so 'start' then 'control panel' then 'system' then 'harware manager'. Then click on the icon for the harddrive that you'r capturing to and click properties. Then click on the box that says 'DMA'.
About the 'transoder buffer' underrun thing: this is probably from having too slow a processor (most of the software MPEG encoders require at least a 1GHZ processor for realtime MPEG encoding). Most of the software encoders call the process of realtime MPEG encoding 'transcoding'. Your camera stopping every minute is probalby the result of your system having to catch up to the demands of digital video capture. You will probably have to update your processor and get a harddrive that spins at 7200RPM to maximize your system for doing what you want.

[msspinner]

Oh. Well I guess now I have an excuse to get a new computer then. My hard drive in my laptop is only 4500 rpm, although I was going to get a firewire drive at 7200 if it looked like this would work. That won't fix my speed issue though. My notebook processor is only a PIII 600.

Any ideas about the frame size issue. With it recording at 720x480 or so, the files are going to be too big to put 2 hours MPEG 1 on a CD. Is there other editing software that gives more control that someonee could recommend.

[Gary Spicuzza]

Any ideas about the frame size issue. With it recording at 720x480 or so, the files are going to be too big to put 2 hours MPEG 1 on a CD. Is there other editing software that gives more control that someonee could recommend.

Yes, first I would like to tell you that I have a client that does video tape depositions for a living and you have a great idea to simply capture directly to the hard drive!

Some problems I see and suggestions.

1) DV is 720 x 480, overkill, don't use DV camera.
2) Good quality Hi8 camera, analog would be perfect for this because you can easily control the frame size of the capture.
3) Simply capture 320 x 240 or even 160 x 120, directly to MPEG-1, you could probably get by with as low as 500 kbps.

The smaller the frame size and the lower the bit rate the more video you'll be able to fit on one CD-R. For software I would recommend Ulead VideoStudio 6.0 www.ulead.com