WinDVD recorder produces hell of a dropped frames :(((

[arminio]

When I capture with WinDVD recorder I keep getting tons of droped frames no matter what profile I select - except the lowest quality one which turn preview window off.
So, I suspect that there is problem with overlay mode which is obviously active during cpature and can't be turned off in WInDVD recorder (I can't find any option for that). I have Brooktree/Conexant chip card - how to turn off overlay before capture (need to be turned off fr BT chips AFAIK) if capture program haven't got any option for that?

Everything works fine in other capture programs (AVI_IO, VirtualDub wven PowerVCR which I wanted to use but resulting MPEG can't be authored to DVD because of lipsync that occurs when it is demuxed while recorded file is perfecty synced) which indicate that everything with hardware and OS (WIN2000) is fine.

[communist]

I tried a trial version of WinDVD recorder and never got it too work. It was just crap - I couldn select source etc.. and the interface wasnt very helpful.
PowerVCR II does an ok to good job with realtime MPEG capturing but it sill way too blurry for me.

I'm stuck to huffy / xvid - yeah I know that you need MPEG2 capturing but I guess there isnt any good stuff out there (maybe I didn search hard enough).

[arminio]

Originally posted by communist
I tried a trial version of WinDVD recorder and never got it too work. It was just crap - I couldn select source etc.. and the interface wasnt very helpful.


Well, I solved that problem with source :) but I can't get it to work right without dropped frames :(((

PowerVCR II does an ok to good job with realtime MPEG capturing but it sill way too blurry for me.
I'm stuck to huffy / xvid - yeah I know that you need MPEG2 capturing but I guess there isnt any good stuff out there (maybe I didn search hard enough).

PowerVCR is fine but I can't do authorig with MPG file that I get with it because after demuxing and authoring, resulting DVD has large and progressive lipsync :(
Huffyuv and CCE or even PicVideo and CCE is fine solution but I have no enough HD space for qquality capturing of material over 60 minutes :(

[communist]

You could try to capture with XviD @ const. Quant 2, interlacing is fully functional (yay :) ) and the new "Turbo"-mode should also speed up things.
Then you could author the DVD from it.

[2ZOD.COM]

Xvid is a lossy codec. Not good if you plan to author to DVD.

What are the stats of your computer? Maybe real-time MPEG compression just can't be done. If your computer can't handle it you might want to look into upgrading or getting a card with realtime MPEG-2 compression, then you can burn straight to DVD.

I don't understand exactly what you're doing. You say the file isn't in sync after you demux? That doesn't make any sense. To burn to a DVD you have to multiplex it. Un-doing that is demuxing (demultiplexing). If you're multiplexing an MPEG-2 file then there should be no change in quality/sync from there, it's only changing the data around for the DVD standard.

[arminio]

>Xvid is a lossy codec. Not good if you plan to author to DVD.
Absolutelly. I think that best solution is ccaptuire to Hffyuv ad encode later into DVD or, if there is no enought disc space, capture in PicVideo (lossy codec but very good quality even in lower quality settings) ...

>What are the stats of your computer? Maybe real-time MPEG
>compression just can't be done. If your computer can't handle it you
>might want to look into upgrading or getting a card with realtime
>MPEG-2 compression, then you can burn straight to DVD.

1Gz PIII ... it is enough for realtime MPEG2 compresion because PowerVCR do it excellent and without a single droped frame!
But, resulting MPEG after demuxing, has progresive A/V lipsync (while in original "state" - in MPG file that PowerVCR create everything is fine). I wanted to try WinDVD recorder but it capture using preview window which can't be turned off and it "eat" CPU so capture is full of droped frames... (that is obvious reason becasue at start of cpatue, peview is turned off for a 2-3 seconds and then turned on and result is perfect during that 2-3 seconds while rest of captuire video is totally crappy + capture in lowest quality settings keeps turned preview off and result is smooth but very pixelated due to low qualtiy settings)

>I don't understand exactly what you're doing. You say the file isn't
>in sync after you demux? That doesn't make any sense. To burn to a
>DVD you have to multiplex it. Un-doing that is demuxing
>(demultiplexing). If you're multiplexing an MPEG-2 file then there
>should be no change in quality/sync from there, it's only changing
>the data around for the DVD standard.

Resulting file from PowerVCR II is perfectly synced. To author DVD, I need to demux resulting MPEG file into video and audio files. Then I import these files in DVD Maestro and make DVD which is sadly out of sync progressively.
Problem is visible immediatelly after demuxing - audio is longer than video for a few seconds .... nothing helps here to fix this - even options from Mastro which can create synced auio ...

[arminio]

I just tried MainConcept MPEG encoder and its capture tool and I have the same problem as with WinDVD recorder - tons of dropped frames in DVD profile no matter what I do !

Now, looks like only PowerVCR II do the job well on my PC (but I can't fix A/V sync after demuxing to produce correct files for DVD authoring) ... other MPEG2 capture tools won't capture well ... !?!?!?

[2ZOD.COM]

It seems like what you might want to look for is something that can capture in elementary video and audio streams. Then you can directly import them into Maestro. I'm not sure if such a program exists, but maybe this would help your sync problem.

You may also want to consider buying a new, larger, hard drive. I do pretty much exactly what you do, except I use HuffyUV to capture, then encode to elementary MPEG-2 video and PCM audio streams with tmpgenc, and author with scenarist. The quality is probably better doing it this way because the MPEG-2 compression is much better when it's not on-the-fly.

I have an Athlon XP 2500+ with 512mb PC3200 DDR, and it still takes about three times real-time to encode the video to MPEG-2. A good 120gb hard drive can be found with rebates and discounts sometimes for as low as $80. This may be a better option for you overall.

[arminio]

>It seems like what you might want to look for is something that can
>capture in elementary video and audio streams. Then you can directly
>import them into Maestro. I'm not sure if such a program exists, but
>maybe this would help your sync problem.

That would be a solution ... but still no trace of such a tool :(

>You may also want to consider buying a new, larger, hard drive. I do
>pretty much exactly what you do, except I use HuffyUV to capture,
>then encode to elementary MPEG-2 video and PCM audio streams with
>tmpgenc, and author with scenarist. The quality is probably better
>doing it this way because the MPEG-2 compression is much better when
>it's not on-the-fly.
>I have an Athlon XP 2500+ with 512mb PC3200 DDR, and it still takes
>about three times real-time to encode the video to MPEG-2. A good
>120gb hard drive can be found with rebates and discounts sometimes
>for as low as $80. This may be a better option for you overall.

Oh yes - encoding after capture is far superioe but sometimes on-the-fly soultion is acceptable.
Buying a new HD is also option ... now, I hae only 20GB for capture so I am forced to use PICVideo with settings of 13 and resolution of 640x480 but after "postproduction" (resizing, filtering and adjusting brightness/contrast) I can reduce macroblocs to alost unvisibe degree ...