Help with VHS capture, file sizes are huge!!

[DarkHorse]

I just bought a Dazzle DVC-80 and I'm trying to capture my old football games that I have on VHS but the file sizes are extremely large. We're talking 30-40 minutes of video is taking 6 gb of space!! Is this normal? I have svcd DVDRips that fit on 2 800mb disks that are perfect quality, how do I get these captures to fit like this? I've read the FAQ but I still can't get the capture sizes down, is this even possible or should I take the unit back and forget about archiving these? Thanks

[jggimi]

Welcome to the world of video capture. Yes, huge capture files are perfectly normal.

The general rule when capturing is to capture 1) without consuming lots of CPU doing compression, as analog capture is effectively real time, and 2) without sacrificing much (if any) quality, prior to encoding with a compression codec (MPEG-2, or one of the many MPEG-4 codecs, typically).

Huffyuv is a very popular codec for capturing, as it is lossless (meaning, no loss in quality). MJPEG is another popular codec, as it can be set to be "nearly" lossless while consuming significantly less space. If I capture in MJPEG set to quality 19 (or, quality 95%), 640x480 NTSC captures only consume about 18 megabytes per second. That's a lot less than Huffyuv.

Those SVCDs you own are MPEG-2, and have a maximum video bitrate of 2520kpbs. But, the encoding may have taken 15 or 20 hours to complete. Obviously, a real time operation like video capture could not possibly use the same process.

[DarkHorse]

So, using either of those 2 progs will allow me to capture directly into MPEG2 instead of .avi? I just read on the Dazzle forum that the DVC-80 only supports capturing .avi and that I would need to re-encode to mpeg2 to get the file sizes down? Is this correct or can I use that huffy-whatever program to capture directly into MPEG2? Is there a FAQ on this type of stuff and generally speaking, how much HDD space will I need to capture about 3 hours worth of tape? I then will be editing out commercials so that the final product is just the game which should run about 1 1/2 hrs long. I'd like to put this onto 2 700mb disks. Possible?

[jggimi]

So, using either of those 2 progs will allow me to capture directly into MPEG2 instead of .avi?Huffyuv and MJPEG are not programs, they are codecs (http://www.doom9.org/glossary.htm#Codec). Typically captured into .avi (http://www.doom9.org/glossary.htm#AVI) files. MPEG-2 is yet again another codec. To answer your question ... no.I just read on the Dazzle forum that the DVC-80 only supports capturing .avi and that I would need to re-encode to mpeg2 to get the file sizes down? Is this correct...?MPEG-2 is the codec used in DVDs and SVCDs.

For example, if you intend to create SVCDs with your VHS captures, you might first capture to .avi (using a suitable capture codec, such as Huffyuv or MJPEG). After the capture, you might then use an encoding suite such as DVD2SVCD, which can accept .avi files as input, and many hours of MPEG-2 encoding later, you would have SVCDs ready to burn.

My card came with software that allows me to capture in MPEG-2. I found that fairly convenient, but had to play with the settings for several weeks to capture at max resolution with minimal dropped frames. But after running a quality comparison against MJPEG copy, I eventually dropped the use of the software and drivers that came with the card, and went to BTWinCap drivers and VirtualDub for capture.Is there a FAQ on this type of stuff...?When I started, I used BaronVlad's FAQ here in the forum, then went to many of the links he recommended in his FAQ for more info. I found lots of discussion of different capacity/time settings for MJPEG and Huffyuv, and of course, tested capacity/time settings myself with short captures of 2-3 minutes.

{Edit}
I'd like to put this onto 2 700mb disks. Possible?90 minutes -- probably -- with SVCD. But I doubt you would be able to put 3 hours of video on 2 SVCDs, it would consume 4 or more likely 5 discs. If you went another route where you used a lower bitrate -- such as .avi files with an MPEG-4 codec like DivX -- you might be able to cram 3 hours into 2 CDs. But as these captures are in a TV aspect ratio of 4:3 (lots of pixels per frame), you might have to go to 3 discs to get acceptable quality.

[lemon]

Bad and good news for you.
The Dazzle DVC-80 is a really bad solution for capturing video.
It's bad because it can capture at a maximum resolution of 320x288 (PAL). Normal DVD resolution is 720x576, SVCD resolution is 480x576, and VCD resolution is 352x288, so the DVC-80 gives even less resolution than an old VCD.
As it is an USB device, I think you must capture with the provided application. Don't know if virtualDub or other capture program would be able to grab from it. Anyway, grabbing should always be done at the maximum quality / less compression possible, so huge filesizes are normal.

Forget about making SVCDs. Your device does not have the needed resolution. You can make VCDs anyway.
VCDs have 352x288 (some more than the DVC provides, but not much, so the video can be rescaled without much problem) and, if they are standard, they can hold 74 minutes of video in a normal CDR-74
VCD quality is crap anyway. You can create non-standard VCDs raising the bitrate, but then some hardware players will not be able to play them. There will be no problems in PCs, but if you want to encode for a PC, then better use an MPEG4 codec (DivX, Xvid...). With these you can put 90 minutes of video without any problem in a single CD (with this really low resolution you have, you can far more than two hours with relatively good quality).

Anyway, if you want some more quality, there is one thing you have to do: drop the DVC-80 and buy a capture card that can grab in full resolution. Bt8x8 based cards are quite cheap, and with a 'normal' powered PC you can grab at full resolution without problems. Also, using a MJPEG codec you can have smaller filesizes than you have now. And there are some programs that record real-time to MPEG (1 or 2) although you always have a really better quality grabbing to a losless or nearly losless avi and then re-encoding. You'll find a great improvement on quality.

[dilly]

If it's still possible to take it back, take the suggestion above and get a bt8x8 card (search BtWinCap on google, click supported cards) that can capture at least 720x576(NTSC, don't know/care about PAL equivalent) as I can name 100 reasons not to capture in 320x240(NTSC).

If you can't take it back, then you're going to want to capture to AVI and probably encode to MPEG-1(VCD) for stanadalone DVD-player playback, or to XviD/DivX for PC playback.