I'm trying to video capture using virtual dub an tv tuner card, but I can't seem to get any audio. Any ideas? I never have audio playback problems with avi files I play from downloads or others sources.
Make sure you have your "Line In" selected for recoring in your Windows audio settings and also you have the Right inputs selected in the V-Dub audio capture settings....
Thanks, I got it working. Now its a matter of learning the best capture settings, post capture filtering, and compression to use. Any tips? I'm learning from Doom9 guide as best as I can, but my capture card isn't very good so I can't get the same custom format settings as in the guide (I think I'm only getting 240x360) which apparently makes a big difference in which capture codecs and filtering to use. I'm not having the best of luck following the guide in those regards, my results are nothing like the guide's.
Shut down every other program you have during capture. Choose a good compression codec, such as DivX mpeg4, or DivX 5, maybe even Xvid. Don't bump capture bitrate up too high. Try a capture at 320x240. Capture to a different hard drive than your operating system, not just a different partition. And last, but not least, go buy a much faster computer with more RAM <grin>. It can't hurt! Any capture card that relies on software encoding uses a TON of CPU processing power. The faster the better.
My PC is an P4 2.4Ghz with 512MB 333Mhz DDR DIMM RAM. Would adding more RAM be recommended, or is this setup sufficient? I seem to be capturing okay at 320x240 which I believe to be the limit of my cheap capture card. My problems seem to be in the capture codecs. I was using the Huffyuv v2.1.1 CCE SP-Patch v0.2.5 codecs, but I read that was more for a larger capture size. What are some good codec options for capturing at the smaller sizes? And I'm curious as to my limitations for resizing or enlarging in postprocessing also what are some good filtering combos to use before compressing to say an xvid or divx 5? I know I have a lot of questions, but I'm very new at this and there is so much too it. I'm very anxious to learn though so any help is great!
352+240 is Not nearly a High enough resolution to capture with any sort of Quality... You should Consider spending the $30 and getting a Better Capture card that can capture at 720+480....
Absolutely a better card would help...but...there are things you can do to get the best quality with what you've got. Capturing at 320x240 is fine. Use DivX mpeg-4 codec, increase the bitrate to max (6000). Makes a GREAT VCD quality movie (don't freak out, I know you want DVD). VCD aspect ratio just happens to be a DVD spec. Now there's no point in taking a 320x240 video, and encoding it to full D1 DVD spec...so...depending on your encoder, encode to the same aspect that you captured in, that is 320x240 (or actually 352x240) to be 4:3 for TV. Choose mpeg-2 (not VCD) from any template you might have, depending on encoder. Bitrate of about 3000 max, 2500 avg, and 1000 min, will give you a decent quality mpg from the avi. You'll be able to fit about 4-5 hours per dvdr, with approximately VHS EP quality. Alternatively, you could use something like the KDVD templates in tmpgenc as well. Author it in a good app, like DVDLab, that won't choke because it's not full D1, or re-encode it (like Nero will every time!).
Thank you so much for all the tips! I'm sure I will eventually buy a better card. I found this card on ebay very cheap and at the time all I was interested in was a TV tuner. I am simply trying to take advantage of the opportunity to learn some of the principles of capturing and encoding now that I have a card. By learning the process I'm learning more about what I need. At the moment I'm not too concerned with creating a DVD quality (of course I could'nt with this card), but more familiarizing myself with the sofware and the process. Thanks again to everyone who is posting such valuable info. This site is one of the most resourceful places on the web with some of the most tech savy members. Now that I have stroked everyone real well let me pose a quick question to REBOOTJIM..."Use DivX mpeg-4 codec, increase the bitrate to max (6000). Makes a GREAT VCD quality movie (don't freak out, I know you want DVD)." Was this statement referring to the capture codecs or compression selection? Any tips on a what new cards to consider for upgrading?
The codec and compression are up to you. Higher bitrate=higher quality. Use any codec you like, the less compression the higher the quality, and something like DivX5 is better than ksmpeg2. Even microsoft's mpeg-4 is a reasonable one. Huffyuv is "lossless" but doesn't have much compression, still far better than other codecs, but takes up lots of room for avi. The VCD aspect of the video is also a DVD spec. I was referring to capture and encode at 352x240 aspect. If your source is VHS, this size will approximate the same quality. Most authoring applications will choke, saying you cannot author this file to DVD. Wrong! It (the aspect) is a DVD spec, and DVDLab will author it perfectly well. For a good upgrade, check out the Hauppauge WinTV PVR250. It has a built in hardware mpeg-2 encoder (takes all the load OFF your CPU), and is excellent quality hardware, with reasonable quality software, and has a ton of 3rd party software support. I happen to have a PAL version of that card for sale if you're in the UK.
