Size and format problems when capturing

[Cairoco]

I am a newbie and am trying to capture video tapes to convert into dvds. I tried capturing using Ulead Video Studio, versions 6 and 7. I have the capture size set to 640x480, using ntsc format and saving as mpg 2. My computer is a P4 2.6, 512 ddr with a 128 ddr MSI GeForce card. I have a vcr connected to the video card and audio/in on my Soundblaster Live card. The videos I have been trying to capture are old b&w movies that average 60 minutes in length.

I have encountered a couple different problems. In Video Studio 7, the video comes out with a file size of under 1 gig for a 1 hour movie, which seems normal to me. The quality is great but when I take the mpg into Sonic Mydvd to burn the dvd, Sonic tells me it is in Pal format. I know it's Ntsc and have verified that in the program. When I go to render the file (I've tried both VideoStudio 7 and Arcsoft Showbiz), the file size then jumps to almost 3.5 gig.

In Video Studio 6, the video comes out with an average file size of 2.5 gig for a one hour movie and when brought into Mydvd, it is too large to burn to a dvd.

I tried using Mydvd to capture but the file size is even larger. I'm sure I have something set incorrectly but I left all of the settings at the program defaults. Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong? If you capture a movie, saving it in an mpg 2 format, you should be able to burn it without further rendering, correct? Each time you render or change a format of a file, you lose quality, right? I've downloaded avi files and converted to mpg and burned movies that were over two hours that had smaller file sizes than the one hour movies I'm trying to capture... and never had a problem. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

[theReal]

You should use the right aspect ratio: You can't burn a 640x480 mpeg2 as an NTSC DVD.
AFAIK NTSC DVDs need a 720x480 resolution (PAL has 720x576).

btw. I'd rather capture to HuffYUV (lossless) or high-bitrate MJPEG (if you don't have enough space for HuffYUV) and then encode to MPEG 2 with an encoder like CCE or TMPEG - you'll always get much better quality and/or smaller filesizes than with direct capture to mpeg2.

[Cairoco]

Thanks. I'll give HuffYUV a try and see how that works. I had originally tried capturing in dvd aspect of 720 x 480 but it gave me an error so I gave up on that and went with the mpg2 at 640 x 480. I do graphic design work and with graphics, when you scan them in, you use the highest setting possible and then resample to what you need. I'm assuming that also applies with video, right?

Originally posted by theReal
You should use the right aspect ratio: You can't burn a 640x480 mpeg2 as an NTSC DVD.
AFAIK NTSC DVDs need a 720x480 resolution (PAL has 720x576).

btw. I'd rather capture to HuffYUV (lossless) or high-bitrate MJPEG (if you don't have enough space for HuffYUV) and then encode to MPEG 2 with an encoder like CCE or TMPEG - you'll always get much better quality and/or smaller filesizes than with direct capture to mpeg2.