Can not make as high quality VCD or SVCD

[Guest]

I have a Sony Digital 8 Handycan (DCR-TRV140 NTSC). Just purchased a Adaptec firewire card for Dell PC (2ghz, 256mb RAM, 70gb free HD Space). I want to be able to capture the same quality of video from my Handycam and burn it onto CD (VCD or SVCD) and be able to play in on my DVD player and watch it on my TV and veiw that same quality of Video as when I plug my Handycam direclty into my TV using the composite video jacks.

What settings do I use when I catpure the video and burn it to CD?

Help Please....
Thank You

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

You don't make a VCD or SVCD if you want high quality, you make a DVD.

See the chart at:
http://www.videohelp.com/vcd

 

[Rehan]

Cari, this is not exactly correct. SVCD can still provide good quality
output. Most consumer camcorders do not capture the video in DVD quality to
start with, so how can putting it on a DVD improve non-existant quality. The
issue is maintaining the quality as captured by camera all the way to final
the CD.

Furthermore, not everybody has a DVD burner so some people may not have that
option.

I would use SVCD since the media is so cheap. If I know the person whom I am
making a CD has a DVD player that can show miniDVD (DVD output burnt on a
CD), I would use that format to be able to make nice motion menus etc.

Here are some hints to maintain video quality during the editing process:

1. Capture via Firewire in highest resolution you can . WMM does capture
well with USB.
2. Output in DV AVI format
3. Use a high quality encoder like TMPGenc to encode your dv avi movie to
compliant MPEG2.

I you go for miniDVD make sure the bitrate used for MPEG2 is not high
(recommeded less than 3000kbps) as DVD player's read speed from a CD is
generally limited. You must do some experiments on a rewritable cd before
making the final cut.

 

[Rehan]

Sorry about a typo. I wrote:

[...]

WMM does capture well with USB.

[...]

I meant WMM does NOT capture well with USB.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

I go by what I see on my 65" HDTV, so a VCD looks horrible (worse than a VHS
tape), a SVCD looks somewhat better (similar to a VHS) and a DVD looks good.
HDTV looks wonderful!

An 8x DVD burner right now is about $70
(http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3932188) which is twice as fast as my
Pioneer A06, and prices will surely drop when the dual layered burners
become mainstream. Right now there are really only two dual layer burners,
the NEC and the Sony, but I'm sure the rest will follow shortly.

The other problem is of course the length of time you can fit on a SVCD...
35 minutes really isn't very long.

 

[Rehan]

Wow... 65" HDTV !!! You must have a professional camera to capture those
movies too?

However the camera in question sony tvr140 only has near vga resolution so
SVCD should be OK for Ric.

The point was that just putting the video on a dvd wont make a difference if
the resolution is lost during capture, export from WMM or MPEG2 encoding.
All these steps should be optimal quality before the choice of final media
can make a real difference.

 

[Guest]

I have firewire...and I also have a 65"HDTV. The DVD burner is on the Christmas list!

so, do I have this correct. Capture in the highest res I can and then output it in DVD-AVI. Where do I get the TMPGenc encoder. Is this something that comes with MS Movie Maker. How do I install it?

Thanks very much for your help.

Ric

 

[PapaJohn]

There's a link on my Setup > Software page to download TMPGEnc. It's a third
party utility, not part of Movie Maker.
--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2: www.papajohn.org
PhotoStory 2: www.photostory.papajohn.org
..
..

I have firewire...and I also have a 65"HDTV. The DVD burner is on the Christmas list!

so, do I have this correct. Capture in the highest res I can and then

output it in DVD-AVI. Where do I get the TMPGenc encoder. Is this something
that comes with MS Movie Maker. How do I install it?

Thanks very much for your help.

Ric

Adaptec firewire card for Dell PC (2ghz, 256mb RAM, 70gb free HD Space). I
want to be able to capture the same quality of video from my Handycam and
burn it onto CD (VCD or SVCD) and be able to play in on my DVD player and
watch it on my TV and veiw that same quality of Video as when I plug my
Handycam direclty into my TV using the composite video jacks.