ATI Capture Vid to DVD

[mbbransc]

I recently purhcased an ATI All-In-Wonder Video Card. I have yet to install it, but wondered if any here have had success with it. I want to record football/basketball games to my PC and then burn to DVD. I wanted some advice in handling this.

First - I don't know what format ATI records in.
Second - What kinds of programs can I use to remove commercials and create chapter points?


Thanks for any assistance!!

[ammck55]

I'm far from being even competent on capture issues, but until someone bops in with solid help, here's the Capture FAQ (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32575/). This will give you something to sink your teeth into, there's tons of good info in this document.

ammck55

[Dimmer]

ATI cards are great if you want to make "quick and dirty" recordings without spending endless hours on video encoding. You can capture right away in DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file format in full resolution 720x480 (for NTSC) using included software. You can find DVD capture template in there and then play with bitrate settings to find best trade-off between size and quality of your video. The quality won't be exceptional, but better than VHS on a regular TV.

One of the simple DVD authoring programs that's easy to use for cutting out commercials and adding chapters is TMGEnc DVD Author.

One hint: restart the capture during commercials. It's easier and faster to work with many small mpeg files than a huge one.

Check out the FAQ mentioned above, and search the web regarding video capture with ATI cards, it's a well-covered subject.

[mbbransc]

Thanks both of you. I have started reading that FAW, but MY GOD!!! What a lot of info. I scanned it at first, then desided I had better start from the beginning. It seems there are many varied opinions of did software to use (as everything is with DVDs!). But one common issue that is arising out of all the threads I've read is audio syncing problems. Have you found that to be a major issue?

I read some about the packaged ATI software and how simple it is to use since it encodes MPEG-2 on the fly. But from everyone's opinion of it, it looks really bad. Dimmer, you mentioned that it appears better than VHS. Does it look better than S-VHS? I visited my mother for Thxgiving and she showed me some show she taped and I was VERY impressed with the quality of her S-VCR. If the packaged software doesn't look as good as basic cable in MPEG-2, I'll need to go another route.

I was reading about one method of capturing in a different format than MPEG-2, then using TMG(something) to change it to MPEG-2, then burn. How well does that work? When I capture in a different format and change to MPEG-2, will I still have VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders?

MODS... if this should be moved to the Capture board, please do so. I just started here because I have no idea of what I'm doing yet. And after starting to read that FAQ, I have LOTS to learn!!

Thanks again.

[jggimi]

Sound sync is always an issue with our PCI capture cards, because the sound is actually captured by our sound cards. When using the capture card with a tuner for RF signals -- which has its own issues -- the sound is sent to the soundcard with a patch cord.

A lot of us capture in a lossless format, such as HuffYUV/AVI. That way, the maximum detail is obtained from the capture card, and editing does not produce any losses. We then encode from that lossless format into our final format, typically MPEG-1, MPEG-2, or MPEG-4. In your case, you would be using MPEG-2 for DVD video, and then authoring your DVD from there.

I'd like to point you to two guides that may be helpful. The first is the forum's Capture Guide (http://www.doom9.org/capture/start.html), which shows you a step by step process for capturing to AVI. While it also shows post processing for a number of final formats ... unfortunately, those do not include DVD. A very good guide for that is bb's DV to DVD Guide (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=60392), from the DV Forum. DV is a form of AVI used by many consumer digital video cameras, and, while lossy, can be thought of as similar to HuffYUV from a post processing perspective. A blend of the two guides may be just what you need to get started. Additionally, Doom9 has two AVI->DVD conversion guies in his Format Conversions (http://www.doom9.org/conversionguides.htm) web page.

I hope this helps!

[Dimmer]

@ mbbransc
I didn't have a chance to compare MPEG quality with S-VHS. I mostly capture content from digital cable, and the quality loss is noticeable on computer monitor, but not on a regular TV. Keep in mind that since you perform an analogue capture, there bound to be some loss in quality in any case .

I used to have minor audio sync problems with older versions of their MMC software but they went away once I upgraded to ver.7.7. If you just bought your card, it probably comes with ver.8. Keep your sound card drivers up-to-date, too.

Since you're just getting started, my suggestion would be try MPEG-2 capture first along with DVD authoring. Then if you're not satisfied with video quality, go ahead and research other capture methods. As jggimi mentioned, usually it's lossless capture into AVI file, which you later convert into MPEG-2 and then feed to a DVD authoring program. The latter creates DVD structure including VIDEO_TS folder. Be prepared though: if you think Capture FAQ is a lot of information, there is way more than that when it come to video format conversion.