Trying to improve the quality of my dvd's, I do save to the computer in
AVI format. But I cannot capture in AVI as it is grayed out. The best I
can do is use the High Quality video (large). To use the AVI capture
must I be capturing from a digital device and not a vhs input?

Bill

Hello there,

The short answer is I am not sure.

You should be able to make them look digital by importing them into the
Microsoft Media Encoder. Its so simple you will hardly believe it...simply
run the program, open the file and then close it....you will get a short
message saying its indexing the file and thats it...job done.

Hope it works for you...good luck

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

Hi John,

I think I am having short circuit in my head, can you make that a little
clearer for me? Open what file and then close it. I have a VHS machine
that is connected to a ATI video card in my PC. The MM2 input menu shows
that device and when I go to the next step, capture quality this is
where the AVI choice is grayed out.

Bill

John Kelly wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> The short answer is I am not sure.
>
> You should be able to make them look digital by importing them into the
> Microsoft Media Encoder. Its so simple you will hardly believe it...simply
> run the program, open the file and then close it....you will get a short
> message saying its indexing the file and thats it...job done.
>
> Hope it works for you...good luck
>

I believe that Movie Maker can only capture in
DV-AVI format from an IEEE-1394 port. What
kind of capture card are you using? Did it
come with any capturing software? Other software
"may" give you more options.

BTW, re-encoding your captured WMV video using
another Media Encoder will not improve its
quality. In fact, re-enoding it again will
likely make the quality even worse.

--
-Bob
____________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
www.microsoft.com/ehome


"Bill" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:SZ3vc.39480$mm1.616@fed1read06...
> Trying to improve the quality of my dvd's, I do save to the computer in
> AVI format. But I cannot capture in AVI as it is grayed out. The best I
> can do is use the High Quality video (large). To use the AVI capture
> must I be capturing from a digital device and not a vhs input?
>
> Bill
>

Bill,

Yes, the DV-AVI option is for a digital source.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..
"Bill" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:SZ3vc.39480$mm1.616@fed1read06...
> Trying to improve the quality of my dvd's, I do save to the computer in
> AVI format. But I cannot capture in AVI as it is grayed out. The best I
> can do is use the High Quality video (large). To use the AVI capture
> must I be capturing from a digital device and not a vhs input?
>
> Bill
>

Hello again,


On 1-Jun-2004, Bill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I think I am having short circuit in my head, can you make that a little
> clearer for me? Open what file and then close it. I have a VHS machine
> that is connected to a ATI video card in my PC. The MM2 input menu shows
> that device and when I go to the next step, capture quality this is
> where the AVI choice is grayed out.

Yes, I understand. and the answer is Movie Maker will only capture DV-AVI
from a device that carries the right ID (Its called DEVCAPS), so you are
limited to capturing in the WMV format (Movie Maker) If you have any other
capture software it would be worth taking a look at the quality it
produces. Remember though, Movie Maker is not too good using formats other
than WMV or AVI.

With respect to the Encoder........... I was referring to a program called
the Windows Media Encoder. Its purpose is obviously encoding video and you
can do some quite clever things with it. With regards to what I am about to
explain, its my view that it does a much better job on converting video
that Movie Maker does. So if your aim is to get to DV-AVI, this is how you
would go about doing it....

First capture the best quality video that you can using any program that
will give you the best result.....within limits it does not matter what the
format is...your aim though is to get the best picture size and quality
from that program (which might be Movie Maker capturing to the Large
format) Take note that the encoder itself can capture audio and video and
therefore might be a better route to take than the Movie Maker option.

Lets assume your original capture was to the WMV format, and lets assume
again that you want to convert it to AVI (forget the DV bit) You use the
wizard in the media encoder to import your captured file (WMV) and tell the
wizard that you want it rendered as AVI. The Encoder will then chug away
until your new video file has been created. The speed of your machine at
this point is not relevant to the quality of the created file...its not
time dependent.

What you now have is an AVI file that has been indexed (Its part of the
process) and THAT file can be imported into Movie Maker and used as a
DV-AVI file, OR, imported into DVD authoring software of almost any make
and used to create a DVD.

Converting from one format to another always incurs a reduction in the
quality of the video/audio. So, to feed a WMV file into Movie Maker and
edit it, then saving it back to WMV format will cause a loss of quality.
Converting it to AVI format would also produce a small loss of quality, but
if everything else you do is either add still images of a good size or add
more AVI of the same screen size/frame rate etc you will not increase the
loss of quality...I could have worded that better...I think you might grasp
what I am trying to put over.

This link will take you to the appropriate microsoft page :-
http://tinyurl.com/bbal where you can download the encoder.



--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

Hi there,

Just a quick fyi re analog/avi capturing (my "world" is
90% analog and 10% digial) -- there is a way to do it --
an external box (zero software) and a firewire PC port is
all that is needed. The one I use is the Canopus ADVC-100
(ADVC--->"Analog-Digital-Video-Converter") and it does it
bi-directionally, such that you could output from the PC
to the analog device through the ADVC 100... and it works
just fine with MM2. Scroll to the bottom of this link to
see the animated overview:

http://canopus.com/US/products/advc-100/pt_advc-100.asp

Note that this device has both input and output ports for
RCA, SVHS, and DV connections.

Harry


>-----Original Message-----
>Trying to improve the quality of my dvd's, I do save to
the computer in
>AVI format. But I cannot capture in AVI as it is grayed
out. The best I
>can do is use the High Quality video (large). To use the
AVI capture
>must I be capturing from a digital device and not a vhs
input?
>
>Bill
>
>.
>

Thanks John, that was very informitive. I will give it a go in about a
week. Off with the family to Kauai for a week of sun and golf. No MM for
awhile!
Thanks again,
Bill

Have a GREAT Time !! Lucky Git

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work