Capturing both NTSC and PAL

[Denis Redfern]

I am new to this forum, so if this question has been
answered previously, I apologize in advance and request
that a more knowledgeable person direct me to the right
place.

I have a collection of camcorder videos some which are
PAL, some are DV-PAL and some are NTSC. My Sony TRV530E
has no problem playing them all and seems to output DV-
PAL or NTSC as required through its 1394 port depending
on what kind of tape in inserted.

In Moviemaker2, I only get the choice to capture in DV-
AVI (PAL) which works fine, as does something that was
recorded in Video 8 PAL on my old camera.

My problem arises when I try to capture the NTSC stuff.
The preview window is heavily pixelated and the clip
won't save properly or playback.

Any clues on how to fix this would be appreciated.

Regards,

Denis

 

[John Kelly]

Hi Denis,

There are a couple of options in Movie Maker that you might have missed, the
first is the option to work in NTSC or PAL format. This has nothing to do with
the capture process, just the way you view it while editing or saving as a file
after editing the original...this option can be found in TOOLS > OPTIONS >
ADVANCED

The other setting is related to what format you want to have for the captured
file. As you check off the options for the file you want to capture you will
eventually arrive at a dialog (Its the third section of the capture dialog)
asking what format you want to use. If Movie Maker learns from your camera that
it is DV-AVI capable it will offer that as an option. But below that you should
see a drop down list of options for other formats. All of these formats are WMV
(Windows compression format) and basically offer different bit rates and image
size. I often use these options for the video clips on my website.

From your message I am assuming that the box below the DV-AVI option is either
not present or grayed out (Disabled) is that correct?

If it is, then it is possible that you have not installed Windows Media Player
9 and the codecs associated with it (Codecs are the smallish routines that
provide the necessary code for the creation of a video clip in a particular
format)

Hope this helps.

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply.

First of all, I have Windows Media PLayer 9 plus the
Codec pack installed. I found the advanced settings in
tools and selected NTSC, but my understanding is that is
mostly for writing back to the camera, and does not
affect capture.

When I go into capture, I am offered lots of options, but
they are all PAL options; ie there are zero NTSC options.
It's as though Windows knows I live in Australia, knows
we use PAL here but does not realize that I lived in the
US for five years, and have lots of NTSC videos.

I have a vague recollection that this used to work. ie,
you could put an NTSC Video 8 tape in my Sony DV camera
which would output DV-AVI (NTSC) and MM would just
convert this to AVI automatically. I have just
reinstalled XP on this machine, have all the service
packs etc installed but it just won't work any more.

Any further clues would be appreciated.


Denis

-----Original Message-----
Hi Denis,

There are a couple of options in Movie Maker that you might have missed, the
first is the option to work in NTSC or PAL

format. This has nothing to do with

the capture process, just the way you view it

while editing or saving as a file

after editing the original...this option can be found in TOOLS > OPTIONS >
ADVANCED

The other setting is related to what format you want to have for the captured
file. As you check off the options for the file you want to capture you will
eventually arrive at a dialog (Its the third section of the capture dialog)
asking what format you want to use. If Movie

Maker learns from your camera that

it is DV-AVI capable it will offer that as an

option. But below that you should

see a drop down list of options for other

formats. All of these formats are WMV

(Windows compression format) and basically offer different bit rates and image
size. I often use these options for the video clips on my website.

From your message I am assuming that the box

below the DV-AVI option is either

 

[John Kelly]

Hi there,

First of all, I have Windows Media PLayer 9 plus the
Codec pack installed. I found the advanced settings in
tools and selected NTSC, but my understanding is that is
mostly for writing back to the camera, and does not
affect capture.

That's mostly correct. It also affects the preview frames per second which in
Movie Maker 2 is 15fps for NTSC and 12.5fps for PAL.

When I go into capture, I am offered lots of options, but
they are all PAL options; ie there are zero NTSC options.
It's as though Windows knows I live in Australia, knows
we use PAL here but does not realize that I lived in the
US for five years, and have lots of NTSC videos.

Yes I see what you mean. I have just done a test using a PAL clip but told MM
that it was to use NTSC when saving to file. I was half way towards thinking it
was going to override my choice until I saw that DV-AVI was now offered as NTSC
format which still leaves me guessing.

I have a vague recollection that this used to work. ie,
you could put an NTSC Video 8 tape in my Sony DV camera
which would output DV-AVI (NTSC) and MM would just
convert this to AVI automatically. I have just
reinstalled XP on this machine, have all the service
packs etc installed but it just won't work any more.

Yes, my little test confirms that is the way it does work.

Any further clues would be appreciated.

I have to say that at the moment I am stumped. You seem to be very well
aquatinted with computers etc and I therefore think you must have been lead to
believe that you installed everything correctly. Obviously something did not go
according to plan, I don't have a clue at the moment.

Unless the DirectX idea works (I don't think it will) I suggest that you
re-post your message fresh and hope that someone with more knowledge than me
comes along.

 

[Guest]

AHA!

In order to get an NTSC choice, you have to start the
video manually, then MM seems to be able to figure out
that it's an NTSC stream!

When I do this, it works perfectly. The preview window
works OK, the clip saves OK, and it plays back.

So MM knows how to do this, but only offers the choice if
it detects an NTSC video stream.

Interestingly, the NTSC option does not remain the next
time, it is hidden until another NTSC stream is detected.

Perhaps the next version could offer a little guidance on
this topic or just add it to the drop down menu.

Regards,


Denis

-----Original Message-----
Hi Denis,

There are a couple of options in Movie Maker that you might have missed, the
first is the option to work in NTSC or PAL

format. This has nothing to do with

the capture process, just the way you view it

while editing or saving as a file

after editing the original...this option can be found in TOOLS > OPTIONS >
ADVANCED

The other setting is related to what format you want to have for the captured
file. As you check off the options for the file you want to capture you will
eventually arrive at a dialog (Its the third section of the capture dialog)
asking what format you want to use. If Movie

Maker learns from your camera that

it is DV-AVI capable it will offer that as an

option. But below that you should

see a drop down list of options for other

formats. All of these formats are WMV

(Windows compression format) and basically offer different bit rates and image
size. I often use these options for the video clips on my website.

From your message I am assuming that the box

below the DV-AVI option is either

 

[Guest]

Hi John,

Thanks so much for trying to help me. You will see from
my other post that I have found a workaround, although
I'd still like to know how Windows works out that I need
ONLY PAL codecs, even though I reset the time zone to
Pacific and reinstalled MM in the hope that it might
think I was living in Palo Alto again - no luck!


Kind regards,


Denis

-----Original Message-----
Hi there,



That's mostly correct. It also affects the

preview frames per second which in

Movie Maker 2 is 15fps for NTSC and 12.5fps for

PAL.

That explains the pixelation that occurs. Thanks, I did
not know that.

Yes I see what you mean. I have just done a test using a PAL clip but told MM
that it was to use NTSC when saving to file. I

was half way towards thinking it

was going to override my choice until I saw that DV-AVI was now offered as NTSC
format which still leaves me guessing.


Yes, my little test confirms that is the way it does work.


I have to say that at the moment I am stumped. You seem to be very well
aquatinted with computers etc and I therefore

think you must have been lead to

 

[John Kelly]

Hi There,

That's very odd. I wonder, is Movie Maker defaulting to the setting you first
chose after installing it. Might be. At least its good to see you have found a
way to beat the system!!