TV Capturing Questions

[VegasD]

Hi all. Here is my issue:

I have my crummy ATI card working now, hooked into coax for cable TV. I have downloaded VirtualDub for recording. I also downloaded DivX. My goal is to record Seinfeld episodes. When I recorded my first Seinfeld Episode (30 min long) the file size is about 450megs. (I am recording straight to Divx (.avi) I think)

When I download other Seinfeld episodes online they are all between 40 - 80 megs large. My questions are:

1. How do I get my 450 Meg .avi file down to the 40 - 80 meg size.
2. How can I remove the commercials?

Thanks!

VegasD

[chi]

to reduce filesize, lower capture resolution and bitrate. look which resolution the 'small' rips have...
to cut use virtualdub...

btw. you may use a bitrate calc to see what bitrate to use for the desired filesize (divx4bitrate, get it at doom's download site), then do some capture tests and lower the resolution until quality is ok...

[Jizoinks]

Can you send me the link to download the software to use in theese forums?

Thanks Jizoinks@hotmail.com:)

[Zhnujm]

and dont forget to compress the audio. if you use 16bit 44khz this will take around 300mb in 30min.
if you want to cut out commercials it is better to use another codec like mjpeg or huffyuv because divx doesnt allow frame acurate cutting.
after that you can compress the video/audio to divx/mp3.

[chi]

@Jizoinks

please take a look at doom9's tutorials and guides, they should cover all your needs. you'll find guides about virtualdub, audio processing, divx encoding, resolution/bitrate, muxing.. all you'll ever need ;-). for the required software, check doom9's download page. happy encoding... ;-7