VS 11 Plus - Video Capture Preference

[sidbueddro]

Am currently using a DV camcorder to capture. In earlier versions of VS, I was advised to use the DV format or preference. As the eventual output will be to DVD, could I, or should I use, the DVD ouput format instead. Are there advantages/disadvantages in doing so? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Ken Berry]

It is still best to capture in DV, edit in DV and convert to DVD compatible mpeg-2 once the editing is done. Your computer is certainly powerful enough to capture directly to mpeg-2/DVD format, and you could certainly do so. However, if you plan on doing extensive editing, you need to bear in mind that mpeg-2 is sometimes difficult to edit. Just from the point of view of that alone, I would prefer to capture and edit in DV format because you don't have the same potential editing problems...

[davidddr]

I am setting my project settings to avi and editing the settings to 720 x 576 and capturing in dv. When i go to create file (same as project) the program crashes at 99% and does not save the avi file. I can create a disc with 2 pass, on dvd but the end product is very poor when i show it on my dvd player

Any Ideas what is going wrong

Cheers

Dave

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Dave

What are the properties of your captured files. Right click a clip and select properties. What are they?

Why do you say--- (I am setting my project settings to avi and editing the settings to 720 x 576 )

Are the project properties not already set to 720 x 576?

[davidddr]

hi Trevor

When i click on the capture tab the program picks up its a sony dv and the properties in the info box are 720 x 576. When clicking on the file tab the project properties are set to mpeg 2. I change this to avi file and then click edit which lets me ajust this setting to 720 x 576 file tab. I have picked this up from the online tutorial. Even without clicking on the file tab it still crashes at 99%, and the finished dvd is still poor quality

Dave

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Dave

There seems to be some confusion re Avi and Mpeg video/project properties

If you capture to DV format then the capture files should be Avi ( Dv- Avi ) These files are about 13 Gb per hour.

OK
First go to File Preferences and check ¡¥Show Messages when inserting the first video¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K¡K

Start a ¡¥New Project¡¦

After clicking the capture tab VS recognises your camera.
Select DV ( not DVD) but DV from the ¡¥Format¡¦ panel. This is normally the first in the list, scroll up if you cannot see DV.

From the ¡¥Options Cogwheel¡¦ ----- DV type¡XSelect Type 1 ( I think this is by default using later VS versions.)

Now capture your video, a short capture will do as a test.

When you stop capture you should see an info window prompting you to change the project properties.
Select ¡¥Details¡¦, the right panel shows the capture/video clip properties.
They should be Microsoft AVI files

Now select Yes

Your project properties should change to reflect the video properties.
Save the project.

Please see my Quick Guide for Dv-Avi

After editing you render the project to a single Mpeg file by Creating a Video File from Share.
Use this file to burn your DVD

Please see my Quick Guide ¡¥ Create a Video File¡¦

Hope this helps

[davidddr]

Thanks for your advice Trevor, I will read your quick guide and see how i get on

Thanks again

Dave

[davidddr]

Hello Trevor

I have managed to follow your instructions, but now i have a 1hr 8 mins worth of video (mpeg2) which will fit onto a standard dvd at around 3.7gb

I was expecting 1hr to use up the full dvd

Dave

[Ron P.]

This can vary depending on if you're using CBR (Constant Bitrate) or VBR (Variable Bitrate, and really only works when using 2-pass encoding) and what that bitrate is. The higher the bitrate the better the quality and the larger the file sizes will be. Which also lessens the amount/duration of video that can fit onto a DVD.

Now I will also add this is true up to a point. If you're capturing analog video there's no increase in quality realized with bitrates of 8000kbps, or even anything above 6000kbps. When capturing and editing DV, I generally will leave the bitrate at 8000kbps. This produces a good quality DVD and I have enough room on the DVD without having to worry about "squeezing" in just a bit more.

1-hour of DV does not equal 1-hour of MPEG-2. Even without editing, the DV file will be compressed, so theoretically you can place more than 1 hour of DV into 1 hour of MPEG video.

There are a couple of Bitrate Calculators listed in our forum FreeStuff for use With Ulead products, you can use to better figure what bitrates would be best.

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... 9741#59741

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Dave

For Mpeg 2 format:-
As a guide using 8000 kbps will allow 60 minutes of video per disc.
6000 kbps will allow 90 minutes
4000 kbps will allow 120 minutes of video.

If you used 6000 then your figure of 3.7 gb is about right.

At 1 hr 8 minutes you are getting very close to the limit when using 8000 kbps.

So the longer the video (over 60 minutes) you have to reduce the bit rate.

From the library¡K.Right click the rendered Mpeg and select properties, what is the bit rate?

But the question should be ¡¥what is the quality like¡¦, any improvement to your original?

[Ken Berry]

You also need to bear in mind that the figures given by Trevor above can be expanded by up to about 10 minutes if you used one of the more compressed audio formats (mpeg layer 2 or Dolby) rather than the standard LPCM.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

A bit more reading here, as a guide only, Variable bit rate tests may alter over longer video times. After all it is related to video content. But it gives a good idea and relationship to the bit rate.

http://uk.geocities.com/trevor.andrew@b ... -size.html