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illbob4u
27th February 2004, 02:44
Finally get to post something on the site:D

Well I have been absorbing myself in my new ATI9800 All-In-Wonder video card. I have been following all the guides reading forums from this site and many others. I think this site is the most legit though:sly: But I digress.

Here is my dilema for all you DVB JEDI KNIGHT capture warriors:

I just recorded Seabiscut which is 2hr 20minutes. I used Pinacle Studio 8.10 and I recorded in MPEG2 format 720X480 with digital Audio. The entire file size is 6.6gigs in the raw. My ultimate goal is to get this to DVD format which is limited to 4.7gigs. Someone steer me in the right direction. Is 6.6gigs for 140minutes correct? Should I be recording in *.AVI format instead?

When I use TMPG DVD Author and then CloneDVD it looks like I am watching LEGO blocks. The video is really really poor.

So I ask you
1. should I be capturing in a different format to get the file size down?

2. Should I use a different capture utility for DVB like MPEG_VCR or FLYCAP

Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

hartford
27th February 2004, 03:19
Need more info.

I assume that you captured from a DVD or VHS.

If you captured from DVD, then it might be best to do a DVD
copy operation, and visit a more appropriate forum, like
"one click dvd backup."

If your capture was from VHS, I'd do it differently, ie, I'd
capture using Huffy codec, clean it, then encode to MPEG using
an appropriate program.

Your problem maybe two-fold: you can't adjust the bit-rate;
your capture resolution is too high, ie use 352x40 rather than
720x480.

Your project would fit if it were 352x480.

Just my thoughts.

jggimi
27th February 2004, 03:51
As far as I know, the ATI 9800 video input is analog (S-video or Composite), rather than DVB. But I may be wrong, of course. If I am, you'll probably find better help in the DVB / HDTV / VIVO forum here.

But you ask if 6.6 GB is reasonable. Lets see:

Digital audio: assuming 5.1chDD, that's typically 448kbps. If so, that consumes just under 450 MB for a 2:20:00 soundtrack.

6.6 GB = 6758 MB = 692012 KB. Removing 449MB for the audio, that would leave 6309 MB. If there were no overhead, that would be a video bitrate of around 6300 kbps. (I'd add overhead, but I don't have an MPEG-2 bitrate caclulcator handy.) Is it reasonable? Sure.

There are quite a few AIW users within the forum. For research, just search for "AIW".

illbob4u
27th February 2004, 04:26
I am capturing the S-Video Output of my Direct TV Satellite reciever to the S-Video input of my AIW. I will look around for AIW and see what those people are doing. Thanks for the advice.

maa
27th February 2004, 13:18
If you are satisfied with the quality, author it with IfoEdit and shrink it down automatically with DVDShrink - done!
You may have to demux the mpeg to seperate audio and video streams first if you captured to one.

illbob4u
28th February 2004, 01:23
I am happy with quality when playing from PC but when I created the DVD it looked really poor. I will try the DVDSHRINK IFOEDIT technique and let you know. Thanks for the advice.

stl
28th February 2004, 17:22
So I assume you captured in MPG2, 6.6G
capturing in AVI will give you more work.
re-encode this with TMPG so that it is of DVD-R size, then author. As previosly stated, depending on what type of program you use, you may have to demux to elementary streams.

Honestly, I haven't heard the greatest news about ATI 9800 catures. And I've never used cloneDVD, however the authoring program makes a difference too. My opinion is that DVDMaestro is the best when taking into consideration: quality, power, ease of use. Also, anaolg capture usually result in crappy sound on the DVD. I wind up having to convert to .AC3, but these encoders unfortunately are expensive.