Guide for Beginner

[Asterix]

Hi, I spend many hours to try video capturing, video editing, without a satisfied result. (704*586, 25Fps, Pal - SVHS or Hi-8 quality)
I posted some messages, sometimes I received replies, sometimes not... Is a guide exist somewhere ?
However, the thing I want to do seems easy...
Just capturing video Hi-8, editing in a specialized software like Premiere or MP6 and to send it to a SVHS tape.

Here are my problems and my questions, I think the replies can help many others :
1) I have a PC with Mystic G200 AGP 8Mb with TV out integrated and a Rainbow Runner G serie. 2x HD Maxtor DiamondMAx 40+ in striping with a Fastrack U66, Pentium III 700 Mhz and Abit BX6. Others things into the PC : D-Link 530TX Networg card PCI, Hollywood Plus Mpeg card (PCI), Hootech Sound Card (Yamaha PCI). No IRQ conflict. A DVD rom Toshiba and a CDRom/Power drive TEAC PD518.
2) How is the better method to capture Hi-8 ?
Capture software to use ? YUY2 or not ? MJpeg ? Morgan or PICVideo or HuffYuv 2.1 codec or ... ? I have try many things but I have dropped frames, or the playback with Windows Media Player is jerky or ...

3) After that, what is the software to use for editing the AVI files ? Premiere or MP6 ?
I try to edit a AVI captured with many methods, YuY2, HuffYuv, MJPEG, but in many cases, it's Jerky, it seems the software can't decompress the AVI with the right codec.
4) After adding title and effect, how can I output the final video to the HD ? And which codec to use ?
5) Now, having the final AVI, how can I record it to SVHS tape using the RRG Svideo output ?

I know it's many questions, but I read many posted messages and answers by "expert" but there isn't a complete method from the capture to the record on tape. So, if the "Experts" can help me, many thanks in advance, it could be interesting for all the beginners.
(Sorry for my english)

Again thanks for your help.

- Sylvain

[cjyo~]

I have an NTSC g200 Marvel on an old Celeron 300a(@450), with the same DiamondMax 40+ drive, on a normal ATA33 EIDE motherboard connection (no fastrack) and I don't have any problems capturing Matrox MJPEG (at 704x480, 29.97).

The whole point of the Marvel and Rainbow Runner is the HARDWARE MJPEG codec. If you want put your final work on tape, you should probably stay with the Matrox MJPEG all the way in and out. The other codecs are generally for making VCD, Asf or other files for watching on your computer.

2) I have had the best capture results (least dropped frames) with avi_io. It's the only capture program I use. Download the demo and try it out.
http://www.nct.ch/multimedia/avi_io/

3) Don't play back with Windows Media Player, play back to tape with the Matrox PC-VCR. It works for me.
4) I prefer Premiere (despite the bugs), because it is more responsive and I prefer the interface. Most others here will tell you to try Media Studio.
5) After editing, you make a movie in Premiere with the Matrox MJPEG codec, with the same settings as you captured, so it doesn't have to re-render your cuts only shots (only your fx, titles and transitions). Check "lower field first" in the render options.
6) The only codec you should use to render your final movies and play back out of the S-video is the Matrox MJPEG, unless you want to try displaying your desktop on the TV-Out and trying to play back full screen with another codec, which usually gives poor results.

This is all I do, and my system is almost 2 years old now. As long as my big drive is defragged, I don't have jitter or playback problems. While capturing and playing back, don't run lots of background apps in your system tray and turn off anti-virus software too.

To optimize your system:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/tech_supp/faq/video6.htm#55
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/144f6.htm

To use Premiere, put the Prem50.ini from your Matrox CD into the Premiere folder, or just add/change the following values:

[Override]
NoDirectShow=1

[codec]
keepopen=dmb1

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Please visit http://spincycle.n3.net - My System: Celeron 300a(@450/2v),Abit BH6, 128mb RAM, Win98SE, Marvel G200TV, Diamond MX300, Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 20g system drive, DiamondMax Plus 40 capture drive, IBM 8g Deskstar program drive, Adaptec 2940UW SCSI, 9gb Barracuda UWSCSI video drive, Hitachi GD-2500 DVD-Rom, UltraPlex CD-Rom, Plexwriter CD-recorder, Viewsonic PT775, Soundworks 4.1 speakers

[Asterix]

Thanks for your answer, Cjyo~
But when I capture Pal 704x586 25fps, with AVI_IO or PCVCR or VirtualDub, I have jerk.
(Many parameters to set !)
And with PCVCR, I had a desynchronization between audio and video. (2gb AVI)
I will take a look at the http address you sent me. Can we set params like mentionned in those URL with "closed eyes" ?
Last question for today :
Is the Marvel G400 better than the Mystic G200+RRg ?
Thanks

- Asterix

[This_Idiot]

You could always try visiting the main www.Desktopvideoworld.com site (of which this forum is a part). There's plenty there to digest, although I have to admit that the "Idiots Guides" themselves are somewhat out of date. Plenty of food for thought though, and it tries to concentrate on thought processes rather than specific questions and answers (although there are plenty of those too).

As far as videocapture is concerned, G400 Marvel is no better than a G200 plus RR-G (the capture stages are the same).