capturing from dv to pc using huffyuv...

[vidnewbie]

Hi there,

I sucessfully burned my first home made music video on a disc (vcd). I have a few questions, would really appreciate some help.

This is what I did so far:

I made a 3 minute movie using pinnacle studios from my DV camcorder. I saved it as a mpeg and used TMPGEnc to convert it to vcd format. I then used NERO to burn it on a disc.

Question:

The first thing i noticed about the video is the poor resolution quality. I also notice that although i saved the video at a 720 X 480 screen, when TMPGEnc converts it to vcd format, it becomes 1/3 of its file size at 352 X 240. Is this the problem, that the window is stretched - causing the poor resolution? What can i do to save the movie at best quality?how can i improve on the quality?


ok. After spending 2 hours on the forum, i learn about this huffyuv thingy as a lossless capture source. All my video material has already been shot and stored in my DV cam. Now, i have edited the material using pinnacle ( background music, scenes edit etc.)


Does this mean, that i have to RE-Do everything?? Starting from capturing the video material from DV to pc using huffyuv, then editing it again using pinnacle and then burning it using NERO?


On my pc, the editing final video looks good, very clear - just like when i plug my DV to the TV. The problem is when i save it as MPEG and play it on a vcd player - looks very pixelated. room full of squares.



sorry for being long windered - just had to explain everything i can.


thanks.

[bugster]

Huffyuv is a popular codec to use for Analog capture cards. You have a DV camera, so the video is already stored digitally. When 'captured' to a PC, it is actually copied from tape to hard disk (via firewire normally) and stored as a DV format AVI. It is not actually 'captured' in the traditional sense.

When editing DV video, it is generally accepted best practice to maintain the DV .avi format throughout all your work. Use the finally edited .avi file as the input to Tmpgenc for encoding to VCD format mpeg.

VCD format is 352*240 for NTSC with a CBR of 1150kbps so it will not look as good as your DV footage, many claim it is comparable with VHS quality although with differen issues.

If you want higher quality encode to a higher resolution and/or bitrate, use XVCD or SVCD or even DVD (DVD burner required!)

I suggest you read a little more of the info on this site. Start with the WHATIS sections then take a look at any of the relevant howto's for further info. Finally, as you know, the forum is great for those quaestion not answered elsewhere.

Hope this helps

Bugster

[KingJohn]

The first thing i noticed about the video is the poor resolution quality. I also notice that although i saved the video at a 720 X 480 screen, when TMPGEnc converts it to vcd format, it becomes 1/3 of its file size at 352 X 240. Is this the problem, that the window is stretched - causing the poor resolution? What can i do to save the movie at best quality?how can i improve on the quality?

The VCD size is not 720 X 480, a fully compliant VCD for NTSC is as follows;

Video-CD NTSC (MPEG-1 352x240 29.97fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 224kbps)

If you make the VCD mpeg with any other settings, it is no longer fully compliant, it may not play on your DVD, but if it does, it may not be compatible for future players. Or play on anyone else's. Find out whats best for you, stay away from XVCD and SVCD untill you are happy with the VCD's you have made.

ok. After spending 2 hours on the forum, i learn about this huffyuv thingy as a lossless capture source. All my video material has already been shot and stored in my DV cam. Now, i have edited the material using pinnacle ( background music, scenes edit etc.)

Huffy is a lossless codec used instead of the regular video codec's, that would normally be selected if saving to AVI, it has a keyfreame set at every 1, making it easier to edit, much more so than a mpeg 1

Does this mean, that i have to RE-Do everything?? Starting from capturing the video material from DV to pc using huffyuv, then editing it again using pinnacle and then burning it using NERO?

If your getting problems, you need to experiment, what works well on some machines does not work very well on others, take things slowly and learn to use the programs you got, save using all types available, you never know you may find something that is better than the rest.

On my pc, the editing final video looks good, very clear - just like when i plug my DV to the TV. The problem is when i save it as MPEG and play it on a vcd player - looks very pixelated. room full of squares.

Sometimes this happens when people don’t load a VCD template in TMPGEnc, or use other means to make the mpeg 1 with incorrect settings, bitrates being the main cause.

However make sure you are using good quality disks, these will be for your player only, people can tell you what they use, but you need to find out what is best for you.