A few questions about encoding captured PAL-movie

[kallekill]

I am planning on transferring some old video-tapes to DVD. The content is over three hours long so I’m thinking of splitting it over two or three dvd-r's. I'm going to use a rather cheap TV/capture-card that uses s-video as input. I plan to use the lossless HuffYUV-codec while capturing with a resolution of 720*576. I have a new hard drive with NTFS partition with about 75 GB of free space so I’m going to capture until I run out of space, then encode the captured video to mpeg2 so that I can delete the capture-file and then capture the rest. The source is PAL VHS.

There are a few things I am wondering about. First, which mpeg2 encoder yields the best result? I used Cinemacraft encoder about two years ago and back then it was much better than TMPEG's mpeg2 encoding but I have heard that TMPEG is really good now and user-friendly too.

Second, I’m not sure if I should encode the video as frames or as fields. I guess the avi with the captured video is interlaced so should I just open it in the encoder and choose interlaced when encoding? Maybe it is better to deinterlace the video first. I have heard that avisynth is the best way to deinterlace video, but I've also heard that TMPEG doesn't support avisynth and that newer versions of Cinemacraft Encoder don't support it either. Another thing I have been reading is that TMPEG is really bad at encoding interlaced video.

I think I'm going to use Virtual Dub to capture the video. I have heard that it is good at capturing.

Any answers to my questions or any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Kalle

[Arky]

Originally posted by kallekill
I am planning on transferring some old video-tapes to DVD. The content is over three hours long so I’m thinking of splitting it over two or three dvd-r's. I'm going to use a rather cheap TV/capture-card that uses s-video as input. I plan to use the lossless HuffYUV-codec while capturing with a resolution of 720*576. I have a new hard drive with NTFS partition with about 75 GB of free space so I’m going to capture until I run out of space, then encode the captured video to mpeg2 so that I can delete the capture-file and then capture the rest. The source is PAL VHS. Kalle

OK, first thing to mention here is that you are using VHS as your source, so there is no point in capturing at 720x576 because a VHS source has nowhere near that resolution - all you will be doing, if you capture at 720x576, is interpolating to a larger framesize, which is counterproductive. I would suggest that you capture to a resolution more befitting a VHS source, which, IMHO, would point towards SIF (352x288 PAL) as the likely candidate. Standard Interface Format (SIF) is fully supported by the DVD spec, and would save you from wastefully interpolating your source. Admittedly it's not as sharp as full D-1, but then your VHS source isn't sharp to begin with, and interpolating will not help matters in this respect.

Using SIF 352x288 will also have knock-on benefits for you in that you will have ample bitrate to do a great quality encoding job and still easily fit 3hrs+ onto a single DVD-R :)

Originally posted by kallekill

There are a few things I am wondering about. First, which mpeg2 encoder yields the best result? I used Cinemacraft encoder about two years ago and back then it was much better than TMPEG's mpeg2 encoding but I have heard that TMPEG is really good now and user-friendly too. Kalle

Both are excellent. CCE is faster but both offer superb quality. If using CCE, be sure to select "half horizontal" and "half vertical" options (which will tell CCE to create SIF frame size). It is also vitally important that you do #NOT# select "DVD-compliant" in CCE. If you select this, then it will ignore your other settings and still create full D-1 (720x576)...which, as I discussed above, is not what we want in this instance. I'll be honest with you, though, and tell you that if I were encoding SIF MPEG2, then I'd be inclined to opt for TMPGEnc, despite the fact that it is slower. I've always had reliable results from TMGPEnc with smaller framesizes.

Originally posted by kallekill

Second, I’m not sure if I should encode the video as frames or as fields. I guess the avi with the captured video is interlaced so should I just open it in the encoder and choose interlaced when encoding? Maybe it is better to deinterlace the video first. I have heard that avisynth is the best way to deinterlace video, but I've also heard that TMPEG doesn't support avisynth and that newer versions of Cinemacraft Encoder don't support it either. Another thing I have been reading is that TMPEG is really bad at encoding interlaced video. Kalle

The latest version of Cinemacraft (2.66.1.7) does support AVIsynth, but the Standard Interface Format does not support interlaced (field) encoding, so the choice is made for you already - progressive encoding is the only available option. Nice N' easy, huh?

Originally posted by kallekill

I think I'm going to use Virtual Dub to capture the video. I have heard that it is good at capturing. Kalle

Yes, VirtualDub is a good choice. Don't forget there is also a dedicated VirtualDub thread here on Doom9 forums, so that's a bonus if you hit any difficulties during capture:

http://forum.doom9.org/forumdisplay.php?forumid=22

Best of luck.


Arky ;o)

[kallekill]

Thanks for the reply.

I haven't tested 720*576 MPEG2 vs. 352*288 MPEG2 but I have seen divx from VHS-source encoded at about those resolutions and I think that the higher resolution looks better. I am trying to transfer my old movies that I made with a Hi-8 camera a long time ago so I want to transfer them with the best quality I can get. I will do some test and see if I get the same quality with 352*288.

Is 352*288 really DVD-standard that will play on all DVD-players? And will DVD Maestro accept it? If I should use that resolution, should I capture the movie in 352*576 so that I don't loose half the resolution when I deinterlace it? If I should use TMPEG I would have to use its deinterlace-routines. Is it as good as avisynth’s? I got some great results when I tried deinterlacing with avisynth without the ghost-effect you usually get on moving parts.

Kalle

[Arky]

Yes, 352x288 (PAL) & 352x240 (NTSC) are bonafide legitimate DVD resolutions. Beware that the bitrate is capped within the DVD spec, to about 1800kbps if you are using MPEG1, but if you are using MPEG2, then there is no such limitation (other than the usual 9800kbps of course).

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40180


Arky ;o)