VS 9 won't capture to DVD fmt with Quality setting > 85%

[jd_hupp]

Wanting to produce DVDs of basketball and volleyball games (lots of action), so far I have been unable to produce results that even equal what we can already get by recording the video camera's output to VHS tape over the camera's composite video outputs. The results so far are lower resolution and exhibit more interlacing trails during player movement.

Working with a digital Canon ZR-10 (about 5 years old) with a Firewire connection to a new Acer laptop running an AMD Sempron 2800+ processor and 512MB RAM (and plenty of room on the 40GB hard drive). I have the laptop's power management profile set to Home/Office Desktop so that laptop-style CPU speed stepping does not come into play. This configuration surpasses VS 9's System Requirements, though it does not rise to the level of the full Recommended Configuration (Pentium 4 2.4GHz -- presumably not as happy with Celeron or Sempron. And wanting 7200 rpm hard drive -- mine is ATA/100, but don't know the rpm).

In the capture settings, I am capturing to the DVD format option (preferable to the MPEG-2 format option for my purposes??).

Other capture settings:
- not capturing to Library
- currently capturing audio (figuring it does not take much more processing power to handle that, though I also tried one capture without audio)

Among other capture settings, I see a Quality slider that seems to be directly connected to a Speed setting. This was initially at a Quality setting that equated to 80% speed. It captures successfully at 80%, though as I say, with unsatisfactory resolution and interlacing movement trails.

If I slide that setting up to 90% or 100%, the capture ends after 1-2 minutes with a dialog/progress box showing me the DV Transcoding buffer being emptied. I take it that at 90-100% my computer can't keep up and the buffer overruns.

Are my unsatisfactory results to date probably the result of capturing at 80-85% Quality?

Is the Quality setting that I can successfully use being limited by the specs on this laptop?

Can I get more out of my existing (new) laptop? For instance, is there a hack or setting that will allow me to turn off the Capture Video Preview pane, which sometimes doesn't work anyway, and when it does is choppy? (We already have the ability to disable the audio Preview.)

I have already turned off Antivirus during capture, and am not running any other apps during that time. Background services and systray apps are rather minimal already.

Should it affect camera output quality if we are running output from the camera over both Firewire and composite video at the same time?

NOTE: Someone may suggest that I simply capture to AVI/DV Type-1 to avoid the Transcoding problem, but I need to burn the source game file to DVD to give to a coach right after the game to take home and edit, so dealing with 13GB of source would be a problem.

[bryave]

How bout capturing them first in AVI format and not in MPEG-2 (DVD)? This will make you capture to the highest resolution possible in uncompressed format and later convert it to MPEG format setting it to a high quality DVD output. Hope this helps. ^_^

[THoff]

jd_hupp, the CPU in your system is not able to keep up with the realtime transcoding, so unfortunately there is no way you'll be able to burn a disk immediately after the game.

The poor quality is also a direct result of trying to transcode in realtime. If you instead were to capture to DV AVI format first as bryave suggests and transcode afterwards, you'll not only avoid the transcode buffer overflow, but also the poor quality of the video which does get transcoded.

Why don't you try to capture a few minutes of video at home (it doesn't have to be a game for this purpose), and then try DV AVI capture with separate transcoding to see how the quality comes out.

[Ken Berry]

I agree wholeheartedly that your computer just ain't up to capturing direct to mpeg-2 or processing on the fly. Moreover, though I also strongly recommend you capture first to DV/AVI format, you have to be aware that the files are quite large: 1 hour of DV video will take up about 13 GB of disc space, as you seem to be aware. So if you are doing multiple hours of video, and then processing this (which also requires a fair amount of free hard disc space), your 40 GB hard disc is just not going to be able to cope. Look into buying a cheap external hard drive of about 100 GB or preferably more. If your computer has USB 2 ports, then my personal preference would be for a USB 2 external hard drive as external Firewire drives can have issues.

[GeorgeW]

Reading your NOTE, it appears the coach is going home to do some edits.

For that purpose, it could be better for the coach to work with dv .avi anyway.

As suggested -- get a couple of external drives, and capture DV .avi to those drives. Then give the coach the external drive to take home (with the captured dv .avi's).

The next game the coach brings back the external drive he has, and you should also have a spare external drive to work with (in case the coach forgets to bring it back)...

Make sure the coach can connect the external drive also (either USB2 or Firewire). I would get external drives with both formats.

If you don't want to go the external drive way, then I would suggest a standalone dvd recorder. Feed your camcorder video into the dvd recorder. At the end, you just give the coach the recorded dvd -- make sure you finalize the disc (if finalizing is needed).

[jd_hupp]

It's not what I wanted to hear -- that there is nothing I can do to allow my current processor to encode to DVD/MPEG-2 format in real time. But I'm glad that you all replied so quickly and with such unanimity on the basic issue.

So I plan to get set up with a large external hard drive for capture purposes.

Thanks again!

[maddrummer3301]

You can also purchase a dvd recorder or camcorder from panasonic or sony.
(I would suggest brand names only).
You can give the coach immediate results.
You can also perform live recording at the game.

You can take the videos recorded on the recorder and import them into
VideoStudio for editing. Then create a custom dvd.
It's easy to extract shots of plays or the final seconds using VideoStudio
by marking the IN and OUT points and exporting that section. Still keeping
the entire video in one piece. Then when you create a custom dvd of a game
you can have special clips and also the complete game.

What you can do is endless after it's recorded. The point is it's fast and productive.

Dvd Recorders compliment any video equipment setup you have.

Hope this helps,

MD

[jd_hupp]

That's a very helpful suggestion, MD. I didn't mention this earlier, but I was also planning to buy a DVD player as part of the setup. But if for a little extra cost I buy a DVD recorder/player that records to DVD in real time, then I sidestep the issue of the weak processor in the notebook. It looks like a 1-hour DVD might then be imported into Ulead (for editing and custom DVD authoring) in about 20 minutes.

I see that some of the DVD recorders have Firewire inputs for lossless digital transfer. This should also mean that DVDs could be burned with the notebook (back to the DVD recorder via Firewire). That would give us an alternative to the desktop in the coaches office.

Were you just being cautious with the major-brand-Panasonic-Sony recommendation, or do you have some current knowledge about the quality of lesser-known brands? I ask because I see Ilo and Cyberhome DVD recorders, with Firewire and 1-year guarantee, are now on sale for $100.

[GeorgeW]

so my suggestion for a standalone dvd recorder was no good

[jd_hupp]

Truly, George, kudos to you as well. In fact, I was sold on your first thought about the external hard drive. Indeed, I ordered one. But I did not initially seize on your alternative thought about the DVD recorder. That idea grew on me as I pondered more. When MadDrummer picked up the torch, I was in position to see the DVD recorder as part of an overall-best solution.

[maddrummer3301]

>>If you don't want to go the external drive way, then I would suggest a standalone dvd recorder. Feed your camcorder video into the
>>dvd recorder. >> At the end, you just give the coach the recorded dvd -- make sure you finalize the disc (if finalizing is needed).

Quote: Jackie Gleason -> "ALICE!!! oneeeeee of these days!!!!!!"

jd_hupp,
Personnally I go with brand names for quality and reliability.
6th Avenue electonics has some nice deals.
Many recorders have dropped considerably in price.
Unlike previous models the new recorders like sony & panasonic record
Multi-format to many different types of media. When Panasonic first made
recorders they only recorded to dvd-ram or dvd-r.

Hope this helps,