I have an old Marvel G200

[Belva]

Is there anybody that could tell me the best settings to capture videos with Matrox Marvel G200 either to output to VCR and to VCD/SVCD ?
Thanks a lot

Another little question: anybody has Panasonic RV31 DVD Home Player ? So we could stay tuned with some tricks ...

Thanks a lot
Bye

[Dr Mordrid]

For VCD I'd capture at 352x480/576 then encode it to the VCD presets in your encoder. For SVCD I'd capture full frame at 704x480/576. For fewer frame drops and better A/V synch I'd capture using AVI_IO instead of PC-VCR. It also lets you capture long sequences by splitting the capture up into mulitple 2 gig files.

The Panasonic RV31 is a mixed bag as DVD decks go. According to http://www.VCDHELP.com it can play VCD's and xVCD's (high bitrate VCD) at up to 2600 kbps, but can play SVCD's only at the standard bitrate; no xSVCD's. It plays DVD-R/RW and DVD+RW and MP3's up to 340 kbps.

VCDHELP.com's hack page for the RV31 is here;

http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayershack.php?select=Panasonic%20RV31

Dr. Mordrid

[Belva]

Hi Doc.
Marvel G200 could capture at 480x576 ?!?!?!?
I didn't Know that !!!

About Panasonic ... i want to play SVCD but it goes jerking ... could you give me some hints ?!?

Thanks Doc
Bye

[Brian Ellis]

I think Doc has boo-booed, for once!

My guess is 352 x 288 or 320 for VCD or 704 x 576 or 640 for SVCD is what he meant. This is what I use for these, although there is a marginal improvement if you capture for both at hi-res, edit and then use the DVD plug-in or whatever to convert to VCD or SVCD MPEG-1 or -2 resp. standards to burn your CD.

[dchip]

I've always use the standard 352x240 for VCD and 704x480 for SVCD. I did not know about these other size options for VCD. Perhaps that's why my VCD's are never very pleasing. SVCD's look very good, though. I still do like NERO for burning both formats.

[Dr Mordrid]

When using the YUY2 capture mode (courtesy of Flying Dutchmans patch or with later driver builds) and a program like AVI_IO ver 3.19 or VirtualDUB I can set custom capture frame sizes, within reason. One cannot set one, however, larger than 704x480/576 (NTSC/PAL).

With the G-cards you should be able to use a 352x480/576 YUY2 or 704x480/576 format, which depending on the driver build, and a custom size of 480x480/576. Trial and error will determine which base frame size you should use. The out put compression, if any, can be uncompressed YUV, HuffYUV or PICVideo.

Uncompressed requires a FAST RAID, HuffYUV a less fast RAID and PICVideo needs more in the way of CPU horsepower.

Been doing it for ages using HuffYUV and PICVideo.

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry, 'tis I who boo-booed Put it down to jet lag, I'd been travelling for >24 hours over 7 time zones when I replied above -- fact, not excuse!

I should, of course have said 352 x 288 or 240 and 704 x 576 or 480 for PAL and NTSC resp.

I maintain 480 x 576 or 480 isn't an option.

SORRY

[Frank Marshall]

Hi,

I use a G200 too and I think when MPEG is the end format in mind you should always capture at the highest quality possible. This means the least compression and the greatest resolution that your hardware can handle.

If you're using the hardware JPEG codec for example, capture at full resolution (704 x 576 PAL) and resize down to your MPEG specs last of all (after editing) and preferably in the MPEG encoder.

I capture at full resolution even if I'm aiming for an MPEG-1 VCD simply because you will have more pixels to retain through editing and/or feed the encoder, thus producing the best possible result. If the MPEG encoder you're using won't take different frame sizes, use a raw video format (HuffYUV) to resize your output file after editing and feed that to the encoder.

Good luck.

[Dr Mordrid]

480x480/576 isn't an option IN THE MATROX DRIVERS. It is, however, achievable in both AVI_IO and VirtualDUB by using their custom frame size options.

Dr. Mordrid

[Flying dutchman]

I always capture full-res HuffYuv (704x576) using Avi_IO. That way I keep all options open for the final output format.

My experience is that a simple 2:1 resize in VirtualDub performs best for VCD's. This simple resize deinterlaces the material in a manner that is IMHO more pleasing to the eye than a "true" deinterlacer. It also reduces video noise enormously which pleases the mpeg encoder.

[Dr Mordrid]

I prefer to capture at 480x480 for SVCD because the calculations necessary to scale down from full frame video take too long vs. encoding at the captured resolution.

Dr. Mordrid