Also, try capturing at a TV aspect resolution. 640 x 480 or 320 x 240.

Well, I have no idea why I was doing it that way. I am learning as I go. So, you are telling me to edit the AVI file in VF? Thanks for your guidance. I am very new at this and appreciate the tips.

Ok, let me see if I understand what everyone is telling me.
Capture at a TV resolution, 640 x 480 or 320 x 240.
Do my filtering in Virtualdub.
Edit the AVI file in VF
Save the edited file as AVI. (352 x 240)
Convert to MPEG2 with TMPGenc
Burn with Nero

I thought I had to use 480 x 480 in Nero to get the proper format on my TV? Do I convert to 480 x 480 when encoding with TMPGenc?

Thanks for your patience with me.

Bob

When you convert with TMPGEnc, it will change the resolution to 480 x 480. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that since your original capture was not a TV ratio, then during the encoding, the file information does not include the expand to full screen command. That is why you have black on the edges. JUST A GUESS.

also, by capturing at 640 x 480, you are starting at a little higher quality so there will not be as much loss in video quality.

You should always edit in AVI rather than MPEG when possible. MPEG is a very lossy compression scheme and is not really designed as a editing format. You will get much better quality by captureing to an AVi, editing and then converting to MPEG.

Dave T2

Thanks very much Dave. You and Chienworks have been very helpful. I sincerely appreciate it. I have done a capture at 320 x 240 so I can test the procedure a little faster. If it all works as expected I will recapture at 640 x 480 and do some more but I want to work through the whole process first.

I also apply a series of filters with Vdub after capturing since these are VHS tapes with a lot of noise. That is running now.

I guess there are no options when saving as avi from VideoFactory. Looks like 352 x 240 is it but TMPGenc should convert it back to 480 x 480 as you point out.

If you are in PAL, those capture resolutions might be slightly different. I am in NTSC so normal analog is 640 x 480, or 320 x 240 and DV is 720 x 480.

Good luck

Dave T2

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I still get the black borders on each side after:

1. Capturing in Virtualdub at 320 x 240
2. Filtering in Virutaldub
3. Editing the AVI in Video Factory
4. Saving the file as an AVI (VF saves at 352 x 240)
5. Coverting to Mpeg2 with TMPGenc (converts to 480 x 480)
6. Burning in Nero to SVCD

What the heck is going on?

Ok, I think I found the problem. I am burning a new file now. There are a bunch of settings in TMPGenc regarding video formats. One of them expands the image to the edge of the format while the other, the one I think I had selected, pads the image to fill it out. I think that was producing the black bands on either side of the image. We shall see in about 15 minutes when this one finishes encoding.

Lets start over.

If you're making SVCD's what are you doing messing with lower bitrates? If you DO want to make low bitrate MPEG-1 (plain VCD) encode at the standard which is 352x240 for NTSC or 352x288 for PAL. Capaturing at 320x240 is wrong and bumping it up to 352x240 in the next step or 480x480 is why you see black space on either end which represent the 'empty' portion of the frame.

Now if you want to make SVCD's capature at 720x480 for NTSC.

If you are going to run the file through VirtualDub (pre processing) first have a reason, don't do it, just to do it. One example would be to get rid of block noise. Save as AVI. Note the file size will probably grow substantiality in size.

Now either skip processing VirtualDub on open the file you created in VD in Video Factory. Do your editing and bells and whistles. If you are making a SVCD select the appropriate template which for NTSC would be the 480x480 format. Render to file.

If you are not using the MC MPEG-2 render engine and you're going to use TMPGenc instead render again to AVI! Open in TMPGenc, unlock the appropriate template use highest setting (from first page) and select 2 pass variable bitrate be sure to pick the 480x480 NTSC template. Finally finish up in Nero or some other program like Ulead's DVD Movie Factory which can make SVCD's with DVD menu style chapters.

Have fun. Lots of work. Been there done it. <wink>

Thanks BillyBoy. I have learned a lot in the last 12 hours doing this. More than anything, I have learned how little I know. I have been wrestling with the capture resolution since the save from VF is at 352 x 240 why not capture at that resolution to begin with?

I'm not sure you can capature at 352x240 with many cameras if any or if you could if it would be a good idea. I'm in the dark too :-(

what capture card are you using?

I am using a Haupauge Wintv card. In Virtualdub I am able to capture at 352 x 240 with no problem. Have not tried a capture in VF yet.

The TMPGenc setting was the problem with the black banding on left and right of the image. There is a setting that expands the image to fill the format selected. Worked great.

Now I am running a capture within VF after setting the resolution on my Haupauge BrookTree driver to 352 x 240 within VF. Looks like it is working great.

.............after setting the capture resolution at 352 x 240 within VideoFactory and selecting 15 bit RGB as the format the capture went very smoothly and it looks as though there are few if any artifacts in the clip. I edited in VF and added my music track. Now rendering to a 352 x 240 avi which I will encode to mpeg using TMPGenc since it seems to do a better job. The render is going really fast and I assume that is because there is no change in resolution required. Total time for a 2 GB avi to be rendered looks like around five minutes.

You might want to read up on pixel aspect ratios as well (media & project), and how they related to frame aspect ratios. These are what let SVCD 480x480, VGA 640x480, and DV 720x480 all fill a 4:3 screen.
///d@