MiniDV capture in MPEG

[ARL]

I've just bought a new Sony MiniDV camcorder and instaled a Firewire card in my PC (Athlon 1.2GHZ with Win XP home). I installed MGI Video studio 4 SE which came with the card. I also have Ulead Video Studio 5. Both of these seem to be the tool to capture the digital video but both only allow capture in AVI. I want to capture in MPEG2 as my end result is going to be SVCD, and the AVI captures are taking up an unbelievable amount of disk space. In both of these programs there doesn't seem to be a way to change the capture. Is there a better way to capture via Firewire?

[Jester700]

The downside of DV capture is filesize, as you've found. There is software that will capture in MPEG2, but it's very processor intensive. Ulead's stuff, Wincoder, PowerVCR, etc. You're probably OK with your Athlon, but it won't look nearly as good as capping in AVI and encoding afterwards. SVCD is a hard format to encode for - the bitrate is barely enough for the resolution. I'd bet that if you stick with realtime software encoding, VCDs would be better.

Anyway, a better bet is a PCI card - $100-200. Do a search on Hauppauge, PV250, PV231. I'm sure others will also pipe up with suggestions.

[ARL]

I don't mind encoding to SVCD afterwards, if I can start from an MPGE2 capture. Are you saying it's hard to do that on the fly or it's hard jsut to capture to MPEG2 on the fly?
That seems to be defeating the point to buy a TV capture card, I have an ATI TV card now and am not getting decent results with that, it's refusing to capture in MPEG2 right now without the video stuttering,( I have another post on this). I think I've spent enough money at this point without shelling out for another card.

[Jester700]

Well, AVI "capturing" is basically just transferring the DV file from the cam - there's no processing going on. An MPEG "capture" is really a real-time encode. So, your processor is getting hammered, and if it's not up to snuff, it won't work at all. If it DOES work, it's not going to be as good as it would be if you let the processor "chew on the files" for a few hours.

There are 2 kinds of capture cards - one that provides an analog input but basically still relies on the CPU to encode, and one that does the encoding itself. I THINK the AIW is the former type, and explains your trouble. Something like a Hauppauge WinTV PVR250 would handle all encoding, so you shouldn't get drops.

I have a conceptually similar device, and it works pretty well, even on a 450MHz PIII laptop. Again, the processor isn't tasked much. Plus, your storage space is much less.

HOWEVER, since the video is already encoded as MPEG2, editing becomes much more difficult and fraught with perils. If you intend to edit, you really should set your PC up to capture AVI (meaning, get a big second hard drive and use Win2k or WinXP). If all you'll ever do is simple cuts, you can probably get away with caturing to MPEG. But remember, that format is already highly compressed, so if you ever want to re-encode to another format, it'll be UGLY - save your original DV tapes!

[antisoshal]

The best bet is to spend the money you would on a capture card on a large hard drive. DV is a nice format, and as long as you purchase the Mainconcept DV codec, its extremely easy to edit and work with. The advantage is that in theory, as long as you are editing and working in the DV format, you lose no quality to speak of. since each frame is compressed on its own, there is no re-compression loss for chopping parts out and joining together. You can make your final product completely in the DV realm then convert to Mpeg at the end using Tmp or CCE. Be wared that the native DV codec provided by microsoft is NOT video for windows compatable, so most editing programs cant use the file. Sonic Foundry Vegas and Adobe PRemier being the exception. If you are an AVIsynth or Vdub fan, get the mainconcept DV codec, which makes DV files VFW compatable, then have at it.

[Jester700]

Never had a problem with Vegas, TMPGEnc, or Pinnacle studio with the MS codec, but if you choose to use it, make sure you have DX8.1a installed. There was a point in earlier versions where the MS codec was visibly inferior to others. The current one is fine.

[anthonyx]

I just captured straight to mpeg from Ulead Videostudio 6. However the Automatic Scene Detection doesnt work when you are capturing straight to mpg.