Analog Capture Quality

ramayes wrote on 2/1/2002, 10:38 AM
I'm using a Radeon 64DDR to capture from an analog camera. Right now I'm really disappointed with the quality. When I play back on a TV from a VCD the images are pixalated and there is alot of noise in the picture. (the blacks do not stay black)

I'm starting the process of reviewing my settings to see what works best but some direction would be very helpful. For example:

-I noticed that the capture is about 320 pixel big, would increasing this do any good?

-The ATI card comes with a capture program that saves the files as MPEG-2. Will I get better quality if I buy the add-on MPEG-2 plugin for use in VF?

-The VCD format is using an MPEG-1 format when it renders will using MPEG-2 make a difference? Is it possible?

-What are the key setting that will impact the capture the quality the most?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

jimcho wrote on 2/1/2002, 11:08 AM
First, the most trouble-free method of getting high quality analog captures is by using a DV media converter like the Sony model mentioned elsewhere in this forum or using the analog inputs of a DV camcorder.

If that's not possible, then you can still get good quality results from your ATI card, but you'll have to capture using 640x480 AVI uncompressed (select custom in your ATI capture software) but you'll be looking at about 1 gig per minute of capture. Capturing at 320x240 is more practical but will result in a noticably blockier finished product.

Again, the media converter is probably your best choice.
ramayes wrote on 2/2/2002, 10:46 PM
Thanks for the reply. I'm saving for a DV camera and don't want to spend the extra $ on a converter right now.

I'm not sure how to change my settings to 640 x 480. In the video capture window, I have the option under video to select:

ATI Rage Theater Video Capture Properties, I can select NTSC_M or NTSC_M_J or some PAL settings

ATI Rage Theater Video Capture Capture Properties, the only output size available that is 640 wide is still 240 high.
jimcho wrote on 2/3/2002, 9:38 PM
You must be referring to the settings inside the VideoFactory capture program. I see the same settings you do except I have a wider range of resolutions including 640x480. I have a Rage Fury Pro which is a generation behind yours. Do you have to latest video drivers from ATI's web site?

In any case, I'd recommend using the ATI multimedia software for your captures. There really is no advantage to using the VideoFactory capture program and the ATI program will give you many more capture options.

As a test, I tried doing an analog capture (with my recently upgraded Audigy sound card and Athlon XP processor) using the Videofactory capture program at 640x480. After a 7 minute capture, the audio was out of sync by only 3 frames! That's the best performance I've ever managed to achieve.

However, it generated a file of over 7 gigs. Not very practical. If you use the ATI software, you will have the option of selecting differenct codecs for your AVI captures. You might want to try the HuffyUV codec (do a search on google). It will give you some lossless compression. But before you capture using the HuffyUV, you need to set the RGB flag in the Huffy configuration settings in order for the captured files to work with VideoFactory.

Good Luck!