Capturing using Huffyuv

[fpollock]

I currently own an ATI AIW Pro AGP 32MB and use MMC 7.1 with Win2K to capture TV shows usign MPEG-2 at 640x240. I then use DVD2AVI to separate the sound, convert .mpa to .wav and then to .mp3 with Lame. I then use Gknot to get the bitrate and crop, and run VDub to create the .avi file. I finally use Nandub to cut the commercials and add the sound. I have to insert a keyframe every 5 frames to be able to cut the commercials because when the backgrounds are too dark, movie and commercial runs together.

After reading most of Luke's Video guides I want to capture using Huffyuv at ---x480 to get both fields and better quality. Hopefully cut the commercials with VDub prior to encoding (depending on the keyframes) and then encode to DivX 4. Since I do not believe GKnot works with .avi files here are my questions are:

Would this really give me better quality?
How does Huffyuv deals with keyframes?
What can I use to crop and get the bitrate given the filesize (like in GKnot)?
Are there any other recommendations in order to do this?

Once again thanks to all of you for taking the time to help us.

Francisco

[aldonix]

Would this really give me better quality?
Yes, it will. Especially if you use noise reduction filters

How does Huffyuv deals with keyframes?
Every frame is a keyframe. You can make a frame accurate editing

What can I use to crop and get the bitrate given the filesize (like in GKnot)?

You can use VDub or NDub internal "null transform" and "resize" filters to get the size you want. Also NDub has a built-in bitrate calculator.

Aldonix

[fpollock]

Since I am still new at this (most of what I do is by following Doom9 and Luke's guides), would you tell me a little more about noise reduction filters?

I found a post in here and a reference to the same post in Luke's message board that talks about using Temporal Cleaner (4, 2, 8, 4, 75) and Smart Smoother (3, 30) for TV captures. I found and installed both filters but was not able to figure out where to put the values in Temporal Cleaner. The do not have a preview option so I am not sure what they mean.

Also, can I still use Nandub's bitrate calculator even though I encode to DivX 4.x?

Thanks again for your assistance.

[aldonix]

The settings of your filters depend on the quality of your orginal source. Temporal Cleaner (4,2,8,4,75) is usually used for a clean source. Here 75- Percent threshold for scene change; first 4,2- related to luminance threshold, second 8,4 - to chrominance threshold. If your source is less than perfect you may want to use default settings.
I encode into 3.11 (still waiting for 99.9% of all people to conider DIVX4 much better than old 3.11), so can't answer your question about NunDub calculator. But actually any calculator can be used to get the bit-rate, including a big desk-top one.

[Kedirekin]

FYI: when you see shorthand for vDub filters (the (4,2,8,4,75)), it should correspond to the way you'd see it in the filter dialog after the filter has been added. Most filters list their parameters in parathesis in the filter dialog.

Add some filters, play around a bit, and you'll see what I mean.

[Roginator]

You may be using a slightly older version of Temporal Cleaner which only had two variables... I think I made the same mistake and was scratching my head trying to figure out where to input all those variables.

My favorite is Temporal Smoother run in Avisynth (so it works right when I convert to MPEG with TMPGEnc)

I still haven't found a good spatial cleaner -- or good settings anyway.

[Kedirekin]

I think you're confusing the temporal smoother filter in vDub with the temporal cleaner filter. They're named similarly, but they are distinctly different filters. AFAIK, the temporal cleaner filter has always taken the same handful of settings.

Have you tried smart smoother. I think it is quite excellent, as long as you don't turn up the settings too high. It actually sharpens edges, while at the same time softening flat areas. Unfortunately, if you have an especially noisy source, I imaging it would shapen the noise elements, seeing them as tiny edges, but it is quite excellent for sources that are fairly clean.