Comments

farss wrote on 9/9/2007, 12:12 AM
You mean capture say down firewire and encode to mpeg-2 at the same time?
If so one can buy hardware that does this, prices range from a few hundred dollars to $10k+ if you want top shelf encoding from SDI.

Problem doing it in software is having the CPU run out of steam and how the heck do you do 2 or more pass encoding.

Bob.
Chienworks wrote on 9/9/2007, 3:55 AM
HD and HDV capture are MPEG2 and Vegas already does that. Of course, that's capturing a stream that's already MPEG2, not encoding to MPEG2 on the fly.
DJPadre wrote on 9/9/2007, 6:06 AM
im specifically talking about software encode on teh fly from DV

In the old days we used to use our Rx100 (hardware encode on tehfly) and now on the older machine, weve got Studio which surprisingly good. Basically all we want to do is give people tehir footage without much fuss.

2pass encoding is non existant but u can allocate bitrate size..i prefer 4800 constant for 2 to 2.5hours and it looks ok..
obviously its nto for output, but in any case, it ouwl dbe nice if vegas did this now that V8 offers smertrendering of long GOP... it defeats teh purpose of womble in any case..
farss wrote on 9/9/2007, 7:06 AM
Why not just buy a little hardware encoder, very cheap.
Someone here recommended one that got the job done for around $100. Firewire and composite inputs, I think USB output.
From memory some of the video cards will do it as well.
DJPadre wrote on 9/9/2007, 7:46 AM
i think il stick with Studio coz i know it works..

was hoping to stremaline the process by capturing in Vegas and letting it allocate the media in the timeline for me (Im lazy) for render to ac3..

oh well..
RBartlett wrote on 9/9/2007, 8:05 AM
I believe this is where the import-DVD option also serves. So many folks have PVRs that record to MPEG-2 directly, even directly wired up from DV via firewire on some models. Yet it doesn't tie up your computer and costs maybe $60 to set something like this up.

I use a USB2 capture device made by CreativeLabs to capture DV25 from analog inputs (using an adjusted version of a freeware vidcap tool). If I want a hardware based MPEG-2 CBR/VBR encoding - then the onboard chipset does that too. When you look at the unit you'd be forgiven if you thought it was a USB2 audio I/O box. It is that too.
"Audigy2 ZS Video Editor" - it cost about $100 and provides me with a USB2 hub also. Drivers for Vista32 and Vista64 are available, so it is a current product still.

DV captured can be converted to MPEG-2 by letting the software run the DV up through the USB2 to the C-Cube compressor and then back up to create your file. If you want quick and you've already got the files or are simply ingesting - it works well for that too. Lots of gear for the money, although the RRP is a lot lot higher than I paid.

MPEG-2 generation, like you point out - without too much 2-pass VBR opportunity, is quite a commodity and quality is fairly assured. I'm not sure that Studio, Mediostream, soft-PVR with the Ligos engine etc can offer the best results if your PC suddenly becomes busy with a microsoft patch or some other general purpose duty that you have going on. This is the balance you have to consider when doing realtime things in software. If Studio gives you a dropped frame counter then you can probably be quite comfortable with it.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 9/9/2007, 11:11 AM
> i think il stick with Studio coz i know it works..

Yea but a hardware encoder will give you must better results. I use an ADS Tech Instant DVD 2.0 box which is USB2 and I get much better results than using Studio. Don't forget, any software encoder is going to sacrifice quality for time because it must keep up with real-time. The hardware encoders can easily encode at full quality in real-time and do look better. I think you can pick one up for around $89 USD. Well worth the money IMHO. I bought one to easily encode old VHS tapes to DVD to save them. It really works well.

~jr