VCD creation with ATI AIW 128 PRO AGP

[Premichander]

I am not able to create a decent Video CD after capturing in Video CD format using ATI AIW 128 PRO and burning with WinOnCD 3.7. I am using MMC 7.1 's Composite Pin Connector to Capture the video. The quality of the thus created is very bad. I had captured the video from an VHS (VCR) Cassette of My marriage.

My system is Pentium II 450 MHz operating on Windows 98 SE.
My RAM is 128 MB and HD is 8 GB free of 10 GB.

Please help me.

Is my computer too low for this kind of Job? Do i need to upgrade my computer to P III 933 MHz and above?

Please enlighten me on this. I will be thankful and greatful for solving my problems.

Thanking you
Prem

[GEORGE NEVADA]

Well, I hope somebody going to give you an answer, becouse I would like to buy the ATI 128 Pro Agp too. I'm scared to buy it, becouse my system is Pentium III, 550 MHz, 20 GB Ultra DMA memory.Anybody have this system (or close) to make good VHS or SVCD? Please help us!

[patrickm]

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I am not able to create a decent Video CD after capturing in Video CD format using ATI AIW 128 PRO and burning with WinOnCD 3.7. I am using MMC 7.1 's Composite Pin Connector to Capture the video. The quality of the thus created is very bad. I had captured the video from an VHS (VCR) Cassette of My marriage.

Is my computer too low for this kind of Job? Do i need to upgrade my computer to P III 933 MHz and above?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

first, in win98, you should be using the 4.12.6292 drivers, and MMC 7.1. we've written several threads on ATI AIW MPEG capturing, and i'm in the process of putting together a guide with screenshots now.

but using VCD bitrates for realtime MPEG doesn't really produce very good quality. however, when you move it up into the 2.4Mbps MPEG-2 range, it looks much better. but i'm not sure if a PII 450 is enough to do the MPEG-2 without losing too many frames. you'll have to test that out yourself. the other thing is to capture to high-bitrate MPEG-1, which takes less processor power. set the motion estimation at 64v/64h and as close to 100% as you can use. it may even work better with a 32vert setting, since weddings are generally not a lot of fast motion. this could save you a little CPU work and squeeze a few more % out.

[goodspeed2]

I have an ATI AIW on my AMD 1.2Ghz, 512Mb ram, 2x60GB 7200rpm 2mb buffer HD, Asus A7A266 motherboard. I've done some video capturing myself... and here's what I have to say.

1) if you must use pc.. you'd better be running Windows2000 since Windows 98 has a file size limit of 4GB.
2) i'd get a faster system.. preferably a Pentium III or AMD equivalent. Otherwise, when you encode to mpeg.. it'll take forever.
3) i suggest you do a vhs to dv transfer if you have a dv camcorder. and then import it to your computer using iLink/Firewire.
4) you won't get very good quality from a vcr analog transfer since the quality is really bad already.
5) vcr tape quality is really poor.... you're not gonna get better quality by doing a transfer into the computer. "garbage in = garbage out".

Even though i have the ATI AIW... i don't really use it. I found that using my PowerPC G4/733mhz Macintosh for video transfer and editing far easier and better than doing it on PC. However, I do transfer the final edited product to PC to convert to DVD or VCD format.

Bottomline is.... don't waste money on ATI AIW. I'd suggest you to go buy a DV camcorder and a firewire/ilink card for your computer and do a transfer and then convert the DV file to mpeg-1 or mpeg-2.

[patrickm]

why do a vhs-dv transfer? i hardly see how you're getting anything out of that. it's not any less lossy than an analog capture to uncompressed (or huffyuv compressed) AVI. and if you had a DV camcorder, you'd probably tape it with that to begin with, but otherwise a transfer and adding a firewire card/software is an unnecessary expense.

and no, you don't really want to use win2k for AVI captures. it's fine for realtime MPEG, but AVI is not its strong suit.

and i think his point was the first person already has the AIW, so he might as well use it. and honestly, it's quality is pretty good if it's done right. it has a lot of driver and software issues, but the hardware is decent. you will however need probably 700+MHz to do decent realtime MPEG. and i wouldn't go with a celeron.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: patrickm on 2001-07-31 11:25:43 ]</font>

[Tommy]

Yes everyone has a few thousand $$$ around so they can go out and buy equipment. as long as were spending money, go and pick up a hardware encoder much better than the dv camera.......

I have a AIW 128, and it works fine. however, I think you might want to capture in avi and then use something like tmpg to convert the file to vcd. I think the quality is better but thats subjective. I would capture small clips in differnt ways and see what you like best.

As far as conversion goes its going to take you a long time, but it'll still work. good luck.

George: I wouldn't go with the ati card, unless you upgrade you box. I don't know if you would be able to capture in a high enough resolution without dropping frams to create a svcd. Somewhere on the Ati website, I think in the online manual, they say what kind of power you need to capture what. Take there numbers and bump them up a little, then make the decision on what to buy.

[patrickm]

the 550 PIII should be more than fine to do AVI captures and encode them with another encoder. i did this with a K6-2/550. i also did some MPEG capture on that, but mostly just MPEG-1 352x240 and bitrates from 1.15-4.00 Mbps. the quality varied a lot since the motion estimation couldn't be maxed out. i now use a 900 Athlon and realtime SVCD captures are pretty good.

when going to VCD i still do AVI->MPEG but for SVCD or for archiving i'll just use straight MPEG-2 now.

in MMC 7.1 make sure you have directx8, the directx8 DV/VidCap Update, and the ATI DVD 4.1 installed.

[GEORGE NEVADA]

I checked all the site, what I find about the upgrading.
I think, going to add a bigger hard drive(60GB?)and 256Ram.
I learn a great deal from your responce too! Thanks for your time again: George