High Quality Capturing with Little Frame Loss in VirtualDub

[web_smurf]

Hello monsoon01!

Thanks for your reply.

I mentioned 768x576 only to show the capacity of my system and because it is just double the "ideal resolution" of 384x288 (which has no interlacing).

Details of my system can be displayed via the "show computer details" button (e.g. simple TerraTec TV card for capturing).

Thanks again for any help.

[monsoon01]

web_smurf,
you are capturing at really strange resolutions....the resolution for a vcd is 352x288(for pal, 352x240 for ntsc). if you want to capture at correct resolution(for pal) you should capture at 720x576. you are capturing an unneccesary extra amount of pixels.....have you tried capturing at 352x576, it saves space and cuts down on dropped frames. i am not sure where you got a resolution of 384 for the vertical resolutions but that is wrong, 352 is the correct size.

[web_smurf]

monsoon01,

you are probably perfectly right, I do not remember why I chose for a width of 384?!? Probably because it was available in the list of possible values in VirtualDub capture (Video -> Set custom video format).

352 should be indeed correct, I will try with that one as soon as possible.

web_smurf

[ocman2]

First of all, using YUY2 with PicVideo MJPEG is a bad idea. There is a known issue with this codec where you get mass loss of color when you use YUY2 or YUYV.

If you don't believe me just try capping three samples, one uncompressed, one huffyuv, and one PicVideo YUY2 at any quality setting. You will see that both the raw and huffy captures are very close to the source, where as the PicVideo cap will have the colors washed out.

On top of that, 1:1:1 is overkill because you are trying to pull in more color than is actually there. You should never need anything more than 4:2:2 if you are trying to use YUY2, and in most cases RGB as well. The difference is negligible.

So what I am saying is until they can solve the problem, the best setting for this codec is RGB and 4:2:2. There are also several other things you can work with on this particular MJPEG codec to optimize the results, so keep an eye out for a writeup that I will be posting soon.
--

Matt

[monsoon01]

ocman2,
thanx for you input but i did a side by side comparison before i even wrote this guide and i noticed no difference what so ever. i captured a 5 second clip in avi_io at 352x480 in 24bit rgb and then output it as rgb huffy and rgb mjpeg, no differnece, then did the same but converted them to yuy2 and i didnt notice a differrnce here either. but the whole point of this was to limit the amount of data written to the hard drive so it would limit the number of frames dropped. and i didnt know what the 1:1:1 setting was doing so thanks for informing on that part and i look forward to your optimazation tips cause i'm always looking for a boost in preformance.

[ubers0ldat]

receiving a "grainy sound" when capturing tv with virtual dub and PICvideo codec, as well as huffy luv and some other codecs Virtual dub uses.

however, when i capture with the software taht came with my Pinnacle PCTV-Pro, sound sounds fine.

Please tell me what's going on. Thank you.

[monsoon01]

ubers0ldat,
go to your sound card properties and lower the level of the line-in volume, that should help, make it about 3/4 way up but not all the way, i find the best way to tune your audio input it to use AVI_IO and try to keep the sound in the green bars (turn on the audio bars.......its in the options, i'm tired and i'm having problems explaining) send me a mail if u need screen shots or nething....yawn, what we need is a little emoticon that looks tired....

[aaroncyk]

Dear all,
i am unable to adjust the video format to 352 x 576 either by using custom format, which u have advised. It will say "format not supported". I am using Pixelview Play TV Pro PV-231 model which is a TV capture card.

The only resolution that can be used is the 320 x 240 and 352 x 288. Therefore my video capture from the VHS is not sharp when i convert using tmpgenc after capturing with virtual dub 1.4.10. I intend to keep the format under PAL VCD.

Another problem is Virtual dub loss of frame is high. using huffyuv and YUY2. wonder why? I defragment the hdd before capturing and converting to VCD PAL format.
My PC is a Pentium 4 1.4ghz with 384 MB RDRAM.

Please hlp. Thanks.

[tung]

Monsoon01 that was a beautiful and to-the-point guide.

I have EXACTLY the same problem as aaroncyk with my (borrowed ) ATI All-In-Wonder Pro (8MB, 2X AGP). I can only capture @ 352x288 PAL and i intend to write the captured video on VHS tape. I am using Win2k on a PIII 660 with 256MB RAM.

Any suggestions???

[monsoon01]

hey guys,
sorry for the late response, i've been pretty busy lately. i believe the limitations are due to the drivers for your cards and while i'm not sure aobut 3rd party drivers for ATI i know for BT chipsets the ones from btwincapture.sourceforge.net are extreemly good. i am using them right now on my Win2k system and i capture at 704x480 with huffy and stereo sound and I don't drop a single frame during my hour long video captures.
Private message me or email me for better responses(and quicker ones too!)

-monsoon01

[CharlesH]

Hello;

I am using Ulead VideoStudio6 for capturing and editing and have considerable problems. Probably I am a "newbe"(?). I was advised that VirtualDub and TMPGEnc would be a better choice, but I am used to the VS6 editor.Capturing in VCD format (352x240) is quite poor from VHS tapes which are not to spiffy to start with, so I wish to capture AVI , edit then convert to VCD and burn.

VS6 (with DVD PLug-in) suppose to do all of these, but it does not want to capture in high res AVI. When captured with others (like VirtualDub) VS6 does not accept the format for editing, it would import and convert the file then edit it.The VirtualDub captured file is Microsoft AVI YUV 16 bits 720x480, whereas the VS6 converted file is DV Video Encoder type 1 24 bits 720x480., difference in bits?

By the way, where can I find a manual (or help file) for VirtualDub? For ex. how to start and stop capturing, I would like to see what am I capturing etc. The Help file does not give info about the nuts and bolts operation.

In your tutorial the first window (video drop down) last line is "0 miroMEDIA PCTV VideoCapture" whereas my download has "Drive0-Microsoft WDM Image Capture (Win 32)" Also many, practically all formats in "Set custom video Format" window get the "Unsupported format" warning. Leaves with only a very few choices.

At this moment I want to get a decent, editable AVI capture running before I get into the problems with TMPGenc.

Please advise. Thank you

Dell Dimension 8200 Pentium 4, 1.7 GB, 256 MB mem.
Windows XP Home
CD R Samsung SC-148C
CD RW LITE-ON LTR-24102
Graphic: (capture board) Xtasy Everything5564
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
Sound: Creative SB Live! Value (WDM)
Ports: COM1, LTP1, USB
Hardisk 1 80 GB (74.5)
Hardisk 2 30 GB (28.5)
File system NTFS

[monsoon01]

CharlesH,
Hey, newbe just means your new to the whole process of capturing and editing and whatnot. I just got off work so i'm pretty tired (warehouses are fun! haha...... ) Just send me a mail to remind me or you can just wait till the morning when i waker up.

Just so you know you can edit in VirtualDib, and if you want to add effects you can use Avisynth(cause that cool new guide came out). Sorry i'm not much help right now but 2mar0 i'll be helpful, i promise, haha.

-monsoon01

[Custom_VCD]

I started making CVD with my capture card about amonth ago, when this guide first came out. I started to notice my digital cable were getting some strange vertical lines in the film, matrix looking vortex thin lines. But anyways in huffy I noticed during encoding with TMPGE Plus the lines were present in the video and CVD I played on my player. It drove me crazy, called cable company to fix line, etc. PicVideo on the other hand almost completely takes the line sout after encoding, its seriously amazing. The question of which codec and color info you want is a unwinnable debate, all depends on card. anybody else have my problem? Great Guide, CVD looks sweet.

Here is a pic of my video vortex lines, Moon your my only hope.
http://www.swollaback.com/trey/capture.jpg

[CharlesH]

Thanks monsoon01 for such quick reply.
I am leaving for a 10 day vacation, will be back and pick up these things in earnest and will need your's and everybody's help, advise and input. In the meantime, is everybody out there who is experienced with Ulead VideoStudio6? They are not to helpful. Also need "manual" for VirtualDub
Regards

[supercrew]

Best Capture Resolutions:
DVD-R = 352 x 480 Interlaced Picvideo=18 --> Mpeg2
VCD = 352 x 480 Interlaced Picvideo=18 --> Crop 12 bottom lines
--> smart deinterlace --> Resize 352 x 240
--> 1652kbs video, 128kbs audio CBR Mpeg1
SVCD = 480 x 480 Interlaced Picvideo=18 --> Crop 12 bottom lines
--> Letter Box by adding 6line top & bottom to get back to
480 lines vertical
--> 1652kbs avg - 2452kbs max - 500kbs min Video ,
128kbs audio VBR Mpeg2

Use CCE encoder multipass for mpeg2.

When putting cartoons for kids on cd-r I do VCD...
When archiving Home Video and special occasions I do SVCD, and cannot
tell difference from my sony digital8 camcorder. And yes I do analog captures. DV captures are a big headache for me.

I still don't know why people are wasting good money putting video in 352 x 480 resolution on a $6.00 DVD-R, when you can get ~60 minutes of
VCD or SVCD on an $.25 80min CD-R.

Especially when you can use VCDEASY to do chapters and menus.

I guess they have to find some use for those $500.00 DVD recorders.

Supercrew

[socketus]

yay! finally got my rig to cap after enabling DMA for the h/d

1 frame dropped in 15,000.

only prob is it took about a gig of space after 20 min or so of capping.... sheeesh!

and thats at 44k mono and 320x240 uyvy with huffy

double sheeesh!

_______________________________________

supercrew, one reason mite be to get it all one one disc. like say, an ld like SWars with DD and dts 5.1..... but other than that, yah, i agree.. lotta money ....... just go and buy the dang dvd

[monsoon01]

hey guys, been a while since i've been around, i've been really busy. first off, i'd like to say there is nobest resolution.........it all depends on the person, for sum people capturing at 720x480 in uncompressed 24bit rgb and encoding into a 2500kbit + mpeg2 file is barely acceptable while other people think a bootleg camera video of a movie in the crappiest form of divx u can find is the best ever. Whatever u like for capturing is whats best, i just try to make suggestions.

socketus, 1 gig for 20 minutes is great, i fill up a 30 gig drive with about 55 minutes of video, but thats just cause i am obsessed with tryign to get the best quality possible, lol. well sorry for ranting, thanks for using my guide, hoped it helped u all just a little.

[easydvd]

help!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been trying to follow your guide ( seems VERY well thought out ) and I'm dropping almost 50% of the frames!!!!!!!

[monsoon01]

easydvd,
what ur system configuration, it makes it a lot easier to help if we know what we're dealing with.

[monsoon01]

hey guys,
hope my guide helped some of u. unfortunally i am leaving for bootcamp so i wont be able to answer my emails for a long time. so if there r ne questions just search the forums, they r a great resource. Baldrick, thanks for having sucha great site and for keeping it free. see you all around.

-monsoon

[Baldrick]

monsoon: Thanks and thanks for a greeeeeat guide!

[plasticrevolver]

Monsoon, great guide, you've got the basics covered. Maybe mention that for longer captures to non-NTFS partitions should enable multi-seg capture. For my eyes, Huffy does beat PICVideo - but that is a good tip to try lower res 352x240 for those whose PCs can't keep up with full resolution.

[tigerten]

How come i can't customize format to YUV2. It said unsupported. When I check the compression my huffyuv 2.1. 1 is in the list. And under format, only the DVSD is available.
I use Pyro firewire card to capture from DV camera.

[edsmith77]

Monsoon,
Great job with your guide. I like it 'cause I can understand it. However, maybe you can help with a small problem that I am having. I used to be able to capture to full resolution just exactly like your guide says we can. However, I recently upgraded to W2K and now I cannot capture anything over yyy x 240. Do you have any idea what I am missing in order to capture at say 640 x 480. I am sure there is some piece of software that I had on my old 98SE system that did not get reinstalled with W2K but for the life of me, I just cannot seem to find it.
Any idea's

[ndb_88]

Help.......I cannot capture over a resolution of about 352X288 its realy annoying me as i want to capture at about 640X480 so i can have all my old red dwarf vids on my p.c. that actually look good the message i get when i try to capture is could not open video device or something like that PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME. Im using everything u say and use DIVX4 compression i thought it was the DIVX compression that was the prob but it does not work with anything little help please.

[Dj3stripes]

how do i get the annoying jpeg.net screen off when i capture like the guide says to? i'm assuming the codec requires registration, how much does this cost? is it worth it? help.

[nonex1]

Please help .. I have a pinnacle Studio vcd card ... working with xp
it does not work in this program .
it shows as if some out program is working with it.
I have no other program loaded.

I cant even get studio7 program to find the card
the only one is neroDVD plus no others find it and that one only makes a mpg2 file and the quality is down from a VHStape.

[scratchman]

sorry to bother you...but I really need help here...I can capture beautiful lossles frames...but the audio is fucked up...its super quiet and very fuzzy! not even audible! I have treid everything to change this but can not diagnose the problem! the audio settings are greyed out under all codecs I try...and do not allow for changing of the volume or balance is there a way to change the imput source? or is this not my problem? I have used other capturing methods and gotten great sound...its only in virtualdub that I encounte this problem! please help...someone!

[abeelandig]

Hi,
Monsoon01's guide says:

"Now I have figured out through trial and error to just capture in mono sound and later when encoding TMPGenc(using toolame for audio) instead of encoding the sound as Stereo to select Joint-Stereo or Dual-Channal mode. Note: when you load your file in TMPGenc the audio bitrate will be 192, this is ok, just make sure that when using the bitrate calculator you remember this."

If I do this (first capture in mono in VirtualDub and then set the sound as "Joint Stereo" in TMPGEnc), will this result in the correct MPEG1 format for burning a VCD? I read somewhere that if I use "Joint stereo" instead of "stereo", the VCD that I create won't play in a VCD player.
Thanks in advance for any advice/help.

[pasky]

Hi guys, I have a AMD Duron 1ghz I'am using a Pixel View TV Pro Capture card. I can't set the capture size to 352 X 288. Why? Is there a problem in my drivers? I'am Vdub (Capture) and huffyuv for compression. Please help me...