Specific quality settings available?

[Blaq]

I'm *finally* on the verge of going to a dealer, now that I've identified which [College St., Toronto] merchant had the best quote last summer. (It was APlus.) Because the order will include a statement detailing my acceptance test, I need to get the terms right so I don't get screwed. (e.g. if the system hiccups on higher data rates, they might turn the compression up to ensure no dropped frames) You see, I've never touched a G400-TV system to know what options are available.

When using AVI_IO to digitize on a Marvel G400-TV, what exactly are the options related to resolution and quality level/compression? Also, what bandwidth do these require?

(I'm planning to use an ABIT KT7 RAID motherboard w/Athlon Thunderbird 800 and two RAIDed video drives separate from my system drive, probably Quantum Fireball CX 20GB 5400 RPM drives -- I figure I won't need the noise of 7200 drives since I'm using two drives in a RAID)

Thanks for your help.

[This message has been edited by Blaq (edited 28 October 2000).]

[Dr Mordrid]

AVI_IO offers the ability to set any of the following capture sizes with the Marvel G400:

176x120, 352x240, 352x480 and 704x480 using the MJPeg capture mode.

320x240 and 640x480 using the RGB 24 bit capture mode.

The max capture rates for all the Marvels capture modes are;

MJPeg (built in): ~3.1 mb/s, 6.6:1 compression @ 704x480

RGB: (built in): 27.1 mb/s uncompressed @ 640x480

Using the Flying Dutchman's YUY Enabling Utility, which you can get at the bottom of the download page at;

http://www.desktopvideoworld.com

you can also use a YUY2 video capture mode, which is presented just below the MJPeg option in AVI_IO's selector box. The max throughput for it is;

YUY2 (cards native mode): 21 mb/s uncompressed @ 704x480.

As you can see YUY2 uses the MJPeg frame sizes. YUY2 is the NATIVE capture mode of the Marvel and is best used for instances where quality is paramount and when encoding MPEG, DivX or streaming formats. Using an alreay compressed mode like MJPeg can cause artifacting.

Using the software HuffYUV lossless encoder the required drive throughput for full frame YUY2 captures drops to just over 10 mb/s. The HuffYUV encoder can be had at;

http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html

Using YUY2 capture opens up all kinds of options from capturing direct to DivX or the software Pegasus PICVideo MJPeg 2.0 encoder. This is freely licensed and can capture MJPeg at about 5 mb/s. Get and register it at;

http://www.jpg.com

These alternate compressors are used by selecting the YUY2 capture mode and frame size, then selecting alternate encoder you want to use from the Compresion menu item.

YUY2 mode also allows for using the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 capture options available in MSPRo6, VideoStudio4 or VideoWave4.

YUY2 is also the best capture & editing mode for creating MPEG files with standalone encoders like TMPGEnc (a freeware MPEG-1 & MPEG-2 encoder). This encoder and the English translation patch can be had at;

http://www.jamsoft.com/tmpgenc/

MPEG and the other software capture codecs require more CPU horsepower. I'd say your T-Bird 800 might even be a bit on the light side. I'd go one notch faster.

A RAID array would be a very good option if you plan on using the YUY2, RGB or alternate codec methods. The extra throughput helps a lot with high datarate captures. You always want at least 50% more data throughput as the max capture setting you'll use just for a fudge factor.

Your decision not to use 7,200 rpm drives is unfortunate. Most of the newer ones (Maxtor DiamondMax Plus40's, IBM 75GXP) are not that noisy at all plus they offer a significant improvement in speed over the 5,400 rpm drives. Also the cost differential is insignificant. The Maxtor drives even have a noise reduction utility you can download from the Maxtor download page.

I have several of both drives in various RAID arrays and they're not that noisy. One system has four of the 75GXP's and another four of the DMax Plus 40's.

All this should keep you busy a while digesting it

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 29 October 2000).]

[Blaq]

Many thanks for the detailed reply. Indeed, you've given me quite a lot to chew on.

MPEG and the other software capture codecs require more CPU horsepower. I'd say your T-Bird 800 might even be a bit on the light side. I'd go one notch faster.

I'll look into that. What would you consider "one notch"? 50 MHz? 100? 200?

Your decision not to use 7,200 rpm drives is unfortunate. Most of the newer ones (Maxtor DiamondMax Plus40's, IBM 75GXP) are not that noisy at all plus they offer a significant improvement in speed over the 5,400 rpm drives. Also the cost differential is insignificant.

Thanks for helping me avoid an important error. I thought the 5400 drives would be enough when RAIDed but, if price and noise are such a non-issue, I'll go with your recommendation and use two 20G Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 45 7200 RPM drives for my video RAID.

The max throughput for it is:

YUY2 (cards native mode): 21 mb/s uncompressed @ 704x480.

That would fill 4G in three minutes. I know that AVI_IO has no problem capturing multiple files to get around this limitation, but what about the rest of the editing process? In another thread, I read that MediaStudio Pro 6 can deal with more than 4G of source material as long as each individual segment is no more than 2G. (4G?) But can MSP6 create final products larger than 2/4G?

[Patrick]

The Doc knows a whole lot more about this than me, but I continue to read reports of Maxtor drives having problems with raid arrays. Be careful which brand and model of drive you choose.