Which capture resolution is right for me?

[Y2Bogus]

I'm trying to capture decent quality AVI files that I then encode to VCD compliant MPEGs. I've been capturing at 352x240 and the picture quality isn't too bad, but I read somewhere that if I capture at 352x480, I'll have a better picture quality in the resulting VCD. Then I read a contradition that said 704x240 would result in a better picture than 352x480. My guess is that 704x480 would be the best solution, but that leads to frame drops, so I'm torn between 704x240 or 352x480. Can anyone enlighten me as to which would result in a better looking VCD?

[KingJohn]

Here's a good idea... Why don't you try them both and find out ?.
What might be good for one person machine does not mean a thing for the next.

[athrak]

I usually capture at 720x576, and then encode at VCD res. later. I have an Athlon XP 1600+, and a cheap $60 TV Turner card. I can do full frame 25fps, without dropping 1 single frame... i've captured around 4 hours worth like this, with no frame drops, in mpeg-2 format. Mpeg-2 (DVD Standard) is pretty taxing to encode on the fly (from what I've heard/read anyway), so if you're trying to capture in a codec that doesn't use as much bandwidth, I don't think It'll give you much of a problem.

if you capture it in 704x240, you'll get the quality up and down (vertically), but it mightn't look as good sideways, and at 352x480 is the same deal, only you won't get the quality up and down, it should look good sideways.

You can always go in-between and capture at 640x480 though, (if it doesn't drop frames) - most DivX's are encoded at that size.

Good Luck!