has anyone tried svcdcorder?

[da franksta]

tried the search on the subject and found nothing.

i read about svcdcorder (http://kickme.to/svcdcorder) and it seems to be for capturing what dvd2svcd is for dvd converting. this is exactly what i'm looking for.

1) have you tried it. is it any good?

2) the download link at the homepage is down. do you know where to find the program for download?

TIA :)

[tiki4]

Just downloading,

it seems, that the download takes quite a long time and that there are only 4 users allowed at a time. Try again! I will give it a shot today.

I'll probably need some days to test it out, but I'll be back and give my results.

tiki4

[da franksta]

tnx 4 your reply, i'll keep trying
i'd appreciate the feedback if you have any

Da Franksta

[tiki4]

Sorry,

didn't have time to try the capturing so far, but after installation I recognised that the program wipes out all settings of my VirtualDub 1.4.10 in the registry and replaces it with its own that you can't change from VDub. That's at least one thing I don't like!

I'll do the testing this evening, I post tomorrow again.

tiki4

[da franksta]

TNX
i finally managed to get a copy. i agree on your virtualdub comment. i myself get a error message 418. turns out virtualdub can't
capture in custom resolutions with WDM capture drivers (in winxp).

still experimenting though. i'm a noob at capturing and i like the svcdcorder all-in-one formula.


:cool:

[tiki4]

Capturing with VirtualDub and any WDM driver relies on a so called VfW wrapper driver (vfwwdm32.dll). Apparently not all combinations of DirectX and WDM drivers work well with VirtualDub.

I have the problem that I can't capture above 288 lines with VirtualDub and my WinTV PCI FM card. The VfW driver works well in Windows 2000. There are programs like iuVCR and VirtualVCR that can capture from WDM drivers directly but so far only VirtualDub can capture full resolution (768x576 PAL) on my machine.

I'm not too experienced with capturing myself, but usually conversion into something you can burn on CD involves lots of steps, especially filtering to get something decent. So I don't have too much hopes to find an all-in-one solution that fulfills my requirements. I'm capturing from German cable TV and the quality is ...

tiki4

[tiki4]

So, I finally did a short test.

(Sorry that it took so long, but I reinstalled Windows several times this week, I'm still fighting with the Audigy/WinDVR problem I posted here somewhere).

I did a short 1 min capture this morning and this app proofs itself quite useful so far. However, there are a few points that remain a little bit strange.

First of all the proggie uses MoreTV to set the right channel. O.K, I can live with that, but I never dealt with MoreTV before, so I have to RTFM.

The capturing is done in VirtualDub at 480x576 PAL. Whether or not this is a good idea I don't know but I think you get some better quality if you first capture the full sized picture (like 768x576 with my Hauppauge card) and then resize to 480x576. Some other question arises here: The ReadMe says one should have installed the PICVideo MJPEG codec. Well, it happenes to be that I only have the Morgan MJPEG and that one was used. I don't know which quality setting was chosen by SVCDcorder but I got compression ration of about 3:1. For a 2 h movie this is not acceptable unless you have loads of HD space free. If I only get compression of 3:1 I would rather use Huffy directly as this one is lossless and gives compression of 2.1:1 or something like that, so not much is lossed.

The encoding is done with the included TMPGEnc. This one is a quite old version (2.00 or so) and I'd rather use a newer one with the SSE optimizations on my machine (Athlon XP). Also it doesn't use the included toolame.exe for audio compression automatically. That would mean to me that I would change that on all cirumstances as the TMPGEnc build in compression routines are lousy.

You may choose CCE as MPEG2 encoder which seems to me to be the better choice after all. Multiplexing in TMPGEnc is also a bad idea according to the guides of doom9. I don't know if the sync problems are already solved when multiplexing in TMPGEnc.

You may then generate your images automatically and you are also able to burn them from SVCDcorder. This is very nice but I'd rather use VCDEasy to do that step (which relies on the same GNU programs).

I will now go back to the homepage of the author and try to get some more decent documentation. I think there are many things to improve manually but after all it's a very nice application.

tiki4

[da franksta]

dear tiki4

thanks for sharing your experience. contrary to my earlier statement, i'm beginning to think we're better off doing this stuff manually.

moretv didn't seem that difficult, so i'm not going to rtfm :D

i have plenty of hd, so i too prefer huffyuv over mjpeg. after that it seems easier to just use dvd2svcd to convert to svcd.

a resolution at 480x576 while capturing helps to keep down the filesize. in this regard it makes sense, however what resize method is used?

this is a potentially interesting program

[tiki4]

Hi da franksta,

the homepage states that it uses a modified version of Avisynth with the new ending .avo to do all file operations. That seems to be a quite good decision. I don't have so much hd space (in fact I have more than enough but still too much stuff lying around to capture a full movie in Huffy).

I mailed to the author of the program and gave some remarks, also I invited him to join the forums. I don't know if he's hanging around here and reads about that. I hope I get some response from him. I guess you should be able to choose HuffYUV anyway in VirtualDub, so maybe I can figure out how that works. For creating SVCD it is really easy to do that manually if you use DVD2SVCD (I prefer to do it even more manually with TMPGEnc, BeSweet and VCDEasy).

Regarding the capturing resolution you are right, It keeps down filesize, but also I think I get better quality by capturing the full resolution and downsizing afterwards.

CU, have to fetch up my girl friend now :D

[tiki4]

Hi there,

I had a little discussion with the author of SVCDcorder via email. I sent him some remarks about his program and it seems this can get a really funny thing. Apart from some other things he was mentioning that he is working on a version for Windows XP which would be able to work with WDM drivers as well.
I'll try to go on and play around a little bit with the current version, as I'm still interested to get that one really working. I hope there is still someone reading that thread (da franksta still out there?)!

CU,

tiki4

[fisix]

i'm still reading, but i haven't been courageous enough to download it and wipe my virdub regitry settings.

-fisix

[tiki4]

There is a new version of SVCDcorder around. According to the author it is no longer overwriting the VirtualDub registry settings, allows other capture resolutions than 480x576 (PAL) as the resizing is done by SimpleResize.dll and is bundled with the latest TMPGEnc. So give it a shot!

@fisix: I know you from somewhere :D

[da franksta]

still here, will try 08.111 soon, which is supposed to support wdm-drivers

[tiki4]

I got mail from the author today. So there's a WARNING:

Last version 08.110 was buggy, which hung the whole program. So there is a new version around, get it here (kickme.to/svcdcorder).

This version should work with the btwincap drivers from btwincap.sourceforge.net (http://btwincap.sourceforge.net).

You need Koepi's BtwincapSwitcher in order to use the bundled MoreTV.

Have fun and please report any problems!

tiki4

[da franksta]

still vdub error 418. i'm beginning to think this has something to do with my webcam. as vdub capture starts, the webcam capture driver is active by default. what do you think, could this be causing my problem? :confused:

[tiki4]

Please tell me what you try to capture with VirtualDub from what kind of device, what other capture devices you've got and what kind of drivers you are using...

Need some more information anyway.

tiki4

[da franksta]

solved it. stupid of course, had to make the wintv driver default capture driver.
one step closer to sweetness!
:stupid:

[svcdcorder]

Finished a 'First-Step-Guide' today. I hope it will help some people getting started with SVCDCorder.
go to:
http://kickme.to/svcdcorder

Please report any Problems.

[da franksta]

@svcdcorder
Good of you to join in! :D

[tiki4]

Sorry to disturb again.

I found another problem yesterday with the lastest version. I tried to test a little bit the WDM driver support. The thing is that even in Win2K oder WinME I get better quality by the btwincap drivers from SF.net.
There is a little workaround to get that stuff working but O.K. Unfortunately I encountered a problem: If you choose your channel (the one that you like to capture) in MoreTV the bt878 card switches back to the first channel when capturing starts. This doesn't happen with VfW drivers so I'm not quite sure what that means. Did you also find this behaviour?

Please report your results.

tiki4

[svcdcorder]

confirmed... :(
it seemes that VD ALWAYS starts with the first channel. So until a new capture tool is showing up there will be no timed captures with WDM drivers... VfW is working correct.
Manually recorded AVIs can be imported and processed.
Currently i'm testing VirtualVcr but so far I wasn't able to sync audio/video.

[tiki4]

Hi there,

really nice you joined the gang. Are you still running that Duron?

I'll do some more testing of VirtualVCR pretty soon. I want to know how this AV sync routine performs. My first try was with Hauppauge WDM drivers and was pretty crap. The AVI I got had something like 50 fps interpolated to the full size (720 x 576) but 25 fps in the header. Better not talk about the quality. I deleted the complete file as I didn't figure out how to repair that.

Nevertheless, keep up the great work svcdcorder...

CU,

tiki4

[svcdcorder]

hmmm...
I guess there is no simple solution to all this.
Basically there are 2 problems:
1. There is no free DirectShow capture app available which is able to sync the streams. I tried to capture with no master stream. I thought if extracting the audio the stream would be a littly longer and then could be resized to the length of the video stream. Didn't work.
2. there is no DSShow based TV app existing which is providing access to the WDM tuning model... so you're have to use the standard dialogue for tuning(manually).

I keep thinking... and recommend using VfW drivers...

sorry
vDeus

[fluss]

There is several WDM based program for capture
look for example at FlyDS at asvzzz.narod.ru

iuVCR from www.iulabs.com

and for FREE a free 878 driver + capture programs

btwincap.sourceforge.net driver + wdmmiscutils
The drivers are recommended, works fine

-The Bosse

[svcdcorder]

hmmm....
thefly98 = VfW (but free)
theflyDS = shareware (but WDM)

iuvcr = shareware

SVCDCorder needs a FREE capture utility...
but thanks for trying to help. ;-)

vDeus

[fluss]

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/Files/wdmmiscutils2.70.zip
contains a free direct show capture program

http://www.virtualvcr.de.vu/ is a free Digital rrecorder

Yours Bosse

[fluss]

http://www.digtv.ws/ This looks like another
virtualVCR, more actively supported.

-Yours Bosse

[tiki4]

@fluss:

Well, the free direct show capture program seems to be a modified version of Microsoft AMCap. I didn't try that, but I don't think it solves the syncing problems you get during capturing.
VirtualVCR on the other hand is a scheduler for VirtualDub. SVCDcorder does a similar thing, scheduled capturing with VirtualDub. While this works with the btwincap drivers it is not really what we are looking for as you cannot select the channels when capturing, you always start with the first available to the WDM tuning interface.

So what we are looking for is an application that can do scheduled recording from an WDM capture device. While there are some programs available, none but VirtualVCR (same name, strange) from www.digtv.ws (http://www.digtv.ws) is free. And this one seems to behave a little bit strange when it comes to syncing long recordings. The author of SVCDcorder is still testing that app (just like me) to get it eventually working.

Regards,

tiki4

[fluss]

Are you using the http://btwincap.sourceforge.net drivers ?
My impression is that these are the best WDM drivers for
the 878 available on the market !

Have any body been thinking of joining the Dscaler project,
to add capture and timed recording ?
The Dscaler Tuning and channel shifting works nicely :-).

Yours Bosse.


From the FAQ of Dscaler:

Can I record video to my hard disk with DScaler?

Sort of. DScaler now handles basic recording and playback of specifically-formatted AVI files using a compression codec of your choice. The end goal being a "time shifting" feature (i.e. pausing of live TV) and not a generic video file processor. In other words, it handles only the video files that it creates itself for this purpose. This is all currently under construction.

DScaler isn't intended to be an all-in-one desktop video utility. The development team has chosen to concentrate on making it the best video processor it can be.

If you want to record video, there are lots of alternatives to choose from, such as:

VirtualDub, an open-source desktop video application, can capture as well as edit and post-process video.
ShowShifter for TiVo-like features such as an integrated program guide and pausing of live TV.
AVI_IO is a video recording application that specializes in keeping audio locked to video even in the face of dropped frames.
Snapstream PVS is another comparable product.

Of course, if you want to improve DScaler's video recording, there's nothing stopping you! That's what open source is all about.

[tiki4]

Well,

that would be the ultimate goal, using DScaler for everything. On the other hand SVCDcorder concentrates on timed capturing AND automatic SVCD creation. You cannot expect that from DScaler. While Dscaler is a very good application it uses its own drivers to access the Brooktree chipset (just like the MoreTV in the SVCDcorder package does). For the moment DScaler and MoreTV aren't really compatible to the btwincap drivers (which are the best around). Please check the thread about those drivers in this forum.

When it comes to capturing: svcdcorder (the author of SVCDcorder) is looking for an application that can capture from WDM drivers (VirtualDub can at least capture from the btwincap drivers through vfwwdm32.dll), is free and may be launched with the right channel. The last point is not possible for VirtualDub as you cannot access the tuning interface via scripting (as far as I know). So the procedure as choosing a channel with MoreTV, then launching VDub automatically for capturing does not work at all with WDM drivers at the moment.

tiki4

[fluss]

Ok :-) We try again...

Freeware WDM TVtuner
http://www.ab.ru/~lookin/projects/vlive/
http://www.ab.ru/~lookin/downloads/downloads.htm

A free plugin to explorer for TVcards :-)
http://www.tvtonic.com/howitworks.html

jtv a free TV viewer with programmanle Tuning
http://jtvhost.chat.ru/en/files.html
http://www.tvtonic.com/howitworks.html

Hope this gives lead to a suitable application.
These program have been found by using www.google.com :-)

The Bosse

[tiki4]

We should stop this discussion now!

Either we don't understand each other or I'm just the wrong man to talk to. Did you test all that stuff? I just checked the first URL and that's Shareware, so no hope for that. It uses its own WDM driver, so no hope.

Anyway, talk to svcdcorder if you think you have good ideas. You find his email address on his homepage. I will stop now discussing about things I'm not the proper person to talk to.

tiki4

[svcdcorder]

I've written a new version. I coded a TV app to manage the cannels and switched to VirtualVCR as capture application. Please report all new bugs to this forum.
I recommend to use cinemacraft encoder 2.5 (availably at doom9 as encoding app)
The docs aren't updated yet, I hope to get this done within this week...

cu
vDeus
http://kickme.to/svcdcorder

[tiki4]

Hi there,

I installed the new version yesterday on my machine. Nice work your program! VirtualVCR in the new version now even runs fine with the btwincap drivers. But after first reboot after installation I run into blue screen with the following error message:

STOP:0x0000001E

KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

Address: 80620F64 base at 804D0000, DateStamp 3d366b8b - ntoskrnl.exe

There are no other files or drivers listed and I guess the crash occurs in the kernel itself. Do you have any idea what happens there?

My machine is:

Ahtlon XP 1600+, 256 MB DDR-RAM, running Win2K SP3, DirectX 8.1b, Hauppauge WinTV FM with btwincap drivers version 5.3.2.

Cheers,

tiki4

[svcdcorder]

ohhh...
but I don't think I'm responsible for this crash... (I hope so...)
in fact the new release has no system components.
did this crash happen while booting or while starting or using svcdcorder??

I got this KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED thing on my asus board while heavy traffic on the bus. but after installing sp2 it happend just once or twice.

try to deinstall the btwincap drivers and see what happens...

i found a small update at microsoft:
should have no effect but you can try...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/downloads/vidcap.asp

cu
vdeus

[svcdcorder]

checked the new version on my win98 and win2k... no crashes
I used the btwincap drivers, too. I got I strange behaviour when using the hauppauge wdm drivers.
i upped a new version with minor improvements. please see my site for details...

cu
vDeus
http://kickme.to/svcdcorder

[tiki4]

Hi svcdcorder,

sorry for that, but I was able to reproduce the crash several times after installing SVCDcorder. I tried several ways: I only installed PicVideo MJPEG, no crash, I only installed VirtualVCR, no crash. Then I installed the SVCDcorder package from your site and whoops: next reboot results in blue screen. The question to me is, what causes the crash. It doesn't happen when using SVCDcorder or any of the included apps. I will try to find out at the weekend if it still happens with the new version or if it is related to Service Pack 3. I don't have any experience with that yet, as it is only three days old.

The capture update is only for DirectX 8.0a, I use the latest 8.1b which includes the relevant bdant.cab.Another point is, I didn't test that on Windows XP yet (got it last week), but maybe it is really a SP 3 issue. I try to find the list of fixes in SP3 at microsoft.com...


Another point, as far as I know VirutalVCR doesn't work at all with Hauppauge's WDM drivers. Until now I only got tons of dropped frames. Maybe I should try the new version bundled with your application.

Thanks svcdcorder for the great work, I'll go on testing later on and post my results here.

tiki4

[svcdcorder]

when i'm home I'll post a list of files that are included in this release...
maybe the vb runtimes i included, but that was no problem so far...
i'll check this by installing SP3, too.

sorry for any trouble i'm causing...

cu
vDeus

[svcdcorder]

uhhh..
i won'tinstall SP3...
read this:
http://forum.pcwelt.de/fastCGI/pcwforum/topic_show.fpl?tid=66125

i guess it's a sp3 issue...
cu

[svcdcorder]

as i promised the system files of svcdcorder
all files are installed with 'overwrite if newer' flag
VBruntimes:

OLEAUT32.DLL
OLEPRO32.DLL
ASYCFILT.DLL
STDOLE2.TLB
msvbvm60.dll
COMCAT.DLL

other with comment:
MSCOMCT2.OCX common controls
MSCOMCTL.OCX common controls
TABCTL32.OCX tabbed dialog
AutoItX.dll typelibrary to send keystrokes to apps
avosynth.dll modified avisynth
Redirect.dll dll and typelib to redirect stdout
Redirect.tlb
comdlg32.ocx commondialog control
SCRRUN.DLL windows scriping host
wavdest.ax wavdest filter
FSFWrap.dll typelib to add a crossbar to a vb filtergraph

as you can see - nothing critical to system's start...

does anyone else have similar problems on a other OS(win98/XP) or a win2k SP2?

cu
vDeus

[tuco]

Quick question...
So svcdrecorder can only work wdm drivers? I don't need it to change channels for me or anything. Just wondering :)

[svcdcorder]

hmmm... don't know if I got this right...
sc was designed to serve as vcr... so channelswitching is neccesary.

if you're looking for a capture app (and only capture) that can do whith wdm easyly I recommend VirtualVCR (http://www.digtv.ws)

cu
vDeus

[tiki4]

UPDATE:

Tried to install SVCDcorder on my Windows XP (same machine as Win2K). Same problem: Next reboot after installation leads to blue screen with an STOP error. Maybe this problem is related to DirectX 8.1?

tiki4

[svcdcorder]

i didn't get any crashes under xp, too...

try to install the ms vb-runtimes and directx afterwards.
i have no clue... ;-(

cu

[tiki4]

So I guess it is somehow related to my hardware or drivers. I'll have a deeper look in that later. It always takes quite a while to reinstall a Windows and test that problem with different DirectX versions. Sorry, for causing trouble with my setup.

tiki4