Conclusion
Use VirtualVCR over
ATI MMC. Use either HuffYUV codec for analog capture (requires 11Mb/sec) or
even better, MainConcept DV Codec
($50) (requires 3.6Mb/sec).
Read this info at www.vcdhelp.com for more info
Do not use VirtualDub – for some
strange reason it drops far more frames than VirtualVCR (and AVI_IO other
people claim – haven’t tried this myself).
Picture: AVI better than MPEG – check out
pictures below
Sound: MPEG sound is bad. It sounds like there are holes in the sound – cannot really explain it.
Video resolution
If I capture with 720x576 I loose too many
frames (yes, I have de-fragmented etc etc) using VirtualDub. Today (14/1-2003)
I tried VirtualVCR instead and
capturing 40 minutes of video I only lost two frames – and my disk wasn’t even
de-fragmented.
Take1: Capture with 640x480 – interlace
problems
Take 2: Capture with 480x576
|
&ncsp;
|
Width – pixels
|
Height - lines
|
|
DV/PAL
|
720
|
576
|
|
SVCD/PAL
|
480
|
576
|
|
S-VHS and Hi8
PAL (analog)
|
640
|
400-420
|
|
VHS and 8mm video
PAL (analog)
|
230
|
250
|
|
Virtualdub capture – take1
|
640
|
480
|
|
Virtualdub capture – take2
|
480
|
576
|
For resolutions also check out http://www.petesvideo.com/vidformats.htm.
For comparison of capturing results, check
out http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/copy/copy.html
for details. Interesting reading.
Resultat – take 2
Result was ok.
Resultat – take 1
I’m not satisfied with the result. When there are movements in the picture the quality is very low. The reason
is that I have captured in 640x480 and interlacing gives huge problems. Number
of lines must fit 576 – 288 will also work as it is exactly half of 576
(dropping every second line).
Test method – take 1
We’ll test capturing analog video in two different ways
- Capture using Virtualdub (AVI)
- Capture using ATI MMC 7.6 (MPEG-2)
Then we’ll convert the result into DV format.
Finally, we’ll compare sound and image quality by comparing stills.
Test 1 – virtualdub
Test 2 – ATI MMC MPEG
News groups comments
Sound quality
"GBo" wrote in
news:3d7e6064$0$11813$7a628cd7@news.club-internet.fr:
> Hi all,
> My ATI card works well except for the sound part of a video capture:
> when I capture from the embedded TV tuner (SECAM) or even from an
> external source (I tried a PAL VCR connected to the composite video
> input), the sound is not good at all:
> it sounds like if a kind of cheap Automatic Gain Control circuit was
> on! the dynamic of the sound is completed compressed, unusable for
> serious audio needs.
Did you check your volume control panel? If you have a sound blaster...
Microphone boost maybe turned on.
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/ /\_/_ __/\ | Lucas Tam (REMOVEnntp@rogers.com)
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Last modified: Janaury 14th, 2003
By: Morten Marquard