Changing SHARPNESS Registry settings for Marvel MJPEG codec (to get best quality)?

[cjyo]

I'm doing a project where I need to crank the absolute best quality out of my MarvelG200 to SVHS tape (for mass duplication on VHS, so I'll loose another generation). The project was shot on 16mm film and I originally tried capturing an SVHS dub of the Digital Beta video master into the Marvel, with disappointing output results.

Now, I'm trying a second method. I had the DigiBeta professionally encoded in Mpeg2 video at a high bit rate, and now I'm transcoding (using Power Ripper), for one pass of processing in Premiere, before output to SVHS.

I tested various combinations of codecs with different settings and found that transcoding Mpeg2 first to the Pegasus PICVideo software MPJEG (www.jpg.com), then Making a Matrox MJPEG movie in Premiere yields a better final result than going directly directly from Mpeg2 to the Matrox Hardware codec (at the highest quality lowest compression setting) and rendering a movie.

When comparing the first generation Mp2 transfers to the two MJPEG codecs at a similar bit rate, I noticed the most disturbing thing about the Matrox MJPEG is an overall blur/softness over the whole frame, which is especially noticeable on faces. I'm wondering if it is possible to reduce this blur (to improve final output SVHS quality - which adds its' own blurring quality) by changing the Marvel Sharpness settings in the Registry.

Any suggestions for Sharpness setting values, or which keys to edit?

Matrox/RainbowRunner/0/VidCap/CurrentValues/Sharpness = "500" or
Matrox/RainbowRunner/0/Mjpeg/DefaultValues/Sharpness = 0x0008000(32768)???

I'm also open to any other suggestions in how to deal with the Mp2 video for final SVHS output after going through Premiere 5.1...

TIA and Regards,

cjyo

PD5.15, VidTools beta 1.5, Windows 98, Abit BH6,128mb RAM, Celeron 300a@450,8.4GB IBM Deskstar system drive, 2x 9gb Seagate Barracuda UWSCSI video drives, Adaptec 2940UW controller, Diamond MX300 soundcard

[cjyo]

Now I am also trying another approach, that I can't get to work...

I am trying to get PICVideo (www.jpg.com) encoded .avi to play directly out through the Matrox Decoder, by changing the PICVideo FourCC tag to dmb1, as described here:
http://www.lwe.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/~roeder/rr/codec.html

Any suggestions about changing the regitsry, to add the dmb1 codec? Should I add a "Compress FourCC" entry to the following key? What type of entry should it be String, Binary or DWORD?

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/PegasusImaging/apps/AVICodecs/PVMJPG20

Thanks again!

[Grigory]

Are you tied to Matrox MJPEG for analog video output?
I think DV format editing and then exporting to tape is a way better. You need DV card and DV camcorder for this.

Grigory

[cjyo]

For this project, I am tied to the Marvel analog (SVIDEO) out. I am saving my pennies, though, to get into DV in the future.

I am still looking for suggestions on how to output the PICVideo codec out through the Marvel hardware decoder...

I have converted the whole project from Mp2 to PICVideo, then I put the project in Premiere at 24fps (and shortened the sound to 99.90% for sync - previously the project was at 29.97). I have done a full render out in the Matrox codec and it looks better than my last attempt (SVHS captured through the Marvel codec), but I would still like to squeeze a little bit out of the picture by outputting to tape through the PICVideo codec...

Any ideas?