Video output to s-video socket on analog televison

[rich1842]

I captured a clip from satellite to avi and converted it to photo jpeg (QT). The output file appears short and fat on my pc monitor and television. What settings do I need to adjust.

Also, can you recommend a codec and settings that would look the same as the original uncompressed avi without using as much storage?

[Ken Berry]

On the basis of the information you provided, it is not even clear that you have used Video Studio for any of this.

First, what was the format and other properties of the captured clip (right click on the clip within Video Studio) and exactly how did you capture it?

Next, why exactly did you convert it to QT format? That is why I was wondering whether VS was even involved... Moreover, you say you converted it to Photo JPEG format. A photo JPEG is a single still image. Are you sure you didn't mean to say 'Motion JPEG' (MJPEG) which is a large but good quality format which preceded the development of the DV/AVI format. But again, I can only wonder what the original format was and exactly why you chose MJPEG and a QT carrier format for it...

We will only be able to answer you questions, particularly the second one, when we have a better idea of exactly what we are dealing with.

[rich1842]

My mistake, I'm using Video Studio 10 se to capture AVI UYVY uncompressed 720x480, since Video Studio 11 plus wont find my board. I'm using Video Studio 11 plus to edit and render 720x480 P-JPEG video file, it's an option in the Quicktime renders VS11..

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for the extra detail, though I am still mystified why you chose the output format to be p-JPEG. What is your intended used of the video?

p-JPEG, by the way is not 'Photo JPEG' but 'progressive JPEG'. Not that I know much about it, but it was my understanding that it was originally developed for the web to give some of the same effects as interlaced GIFs.

If you are intending to burn the video to DVD, then you have little choice but to convert it to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which at higher settings, is capable of excellent quality. If you have a DivX rated DVD player, you could also convert it to high quality DivX and burn it to CD or DVD.

But if your intention is to display it on a website, then I am pretty sure p-JPEG is not the way to go. Better formats would be Window's .wmv or even QT's native .mov format, or even newer flash movies .swf...

[rich1842]

You mentioned mpeg-2, what settings would you recommend? I would appreciate a pretty much lossless file result.

Thanks

[Ken Berry]

Depends what the quality of the captured video is like -- after all, you can't expect to make a silk purse from a sow's ear, as they say...! Moreover, any conversion is going to entail some loss in quality, but how much depends on the degree of compression applied.

However, high quality NTSC DVD-compatible settings would include a frame size of 720 x 480; a video bitrate of 8000 kbps and a format of 4:3 or 16:9 depending on whether the original was widescreen or not. For audio, you could use the highest quality standard LPCM, though that makes large files in its own right and could thus limit by a relatively small margin the amount of video you could fit on a single layer DVD (if it were your intention to burn to DVD). With a bitrate of 8000 kbps and LPCM audio, you could expect to burn about 1 hour of video to a single layer DVD at excellent quality. You could fit about 10 minutes more video if you used one of the compressed audio formats such as mpeg layer 2 or Dolby AC-3.

If your captured video is only of average quality, then you could lower the bitrate for your mpeg-2 to 6000 kbps, and that would allow you to burn 90 minutes of video to a DVD, or that extra margin more if you used mpeg or AC-3 audio.

[rich1842]

How about the aspect ratio? Final file render short and fat display on tv and pc monitor.

[Ken Berry]

As I said, you have to maintain the aspect ratio of the original captured video. So if you right click, within Video Studio, on a captured file and look at properties, it should tell you what the aspect ratio is. And if it is 4:3, then you maintain that in your final project settings for the file conversion; ditto if it is 16:9.

One thing you might want to check is that when you start up VS11, normally there is a splash screen allowing you to choose between the Editor and the two Wizards. Down in the bottom left of that screen is a check box which allows you either to choose 4:3 (the default setting if you don't check the box) or 16:9 widescreen if you tick the box. You could vary that according to your captured video, if you like. But you can also change the aspect ratio in Custom when you set up the conversion properties.