Video Capture Mpeg?

Rednroll wrote on 8/21/2001, 11:21 AM

Is it not possible to capture video with the SF video capture and capture directly to Mpeg format? I basically need to create a VTR that will record for 13-16 hours. Capturing with the NTFS at 15fps 320x240 will only yield me about 8 minutes/gig. Seems like I need to be able to capture with some kind of compressed format. If Video Capture doesn't do this, then can someone recommend an inexpensive software that can?

Thanks,
Brian Franz

Comments

pb wrote on 8/21/2001, 2:35 PM

wis-tech mpeg encoder works, as does Real Video. THe WIS-Tech allows you full control of the recording parameters and is quick. We also use Quicktime occasionally.

MPEG is not the best solution for long captures, though.

Another solution is a Pinnacle board such as the DV500 or DC1000DV. At VHS quality you can get about 15 - 20 minutes per gig. I'll check the DC1000 manual tonight and confirm.

pb

Rednroll wrote on 8/21/2001, 4:56 PM

Thanks for the reply. I'm already using an ATI All In Wonder 128 already to capture. My plan is to use a 60gig hard drive for doing the recording. So 15 minutes per gig is probably not enough of a compression. That is why I was looking for an Mpeg solution. Quality of the video is not a high priority for this. I am using it for Engineering testing purposes. The company I work for has developed a 6 disk DVD player for automotive purposes and we are testing this unit and it is currently having a mechanical failure during a 15 hour cycle test. We want to record video during this time to see, what is happening to the unit during the time of failure, so we can correct the failure.

Thanks again,
Brian Franz

FadeToBlack wrote on 8/21/2001, 6:16 PM

Rednroll wrote on 8/21/2001, 8:20 PM

Yeah, that's a good suggestion too. We kind of thought of that one. A few problems with that. We wanted to let this thing run overnight, while no one was there. Plus we need the ability to run this in "Slow Motion", so we can analyze the failure. And the other problem is: Have you ever tried to find a 1 minute point out of 12 hours of VHS tape. That would be very tedious for someone to sit there and scan through that. Almost as tedious as watching it record for the entire 15 hours. Having it on a computer so you can jump along a time line would make it easier to find.

Thanks for the suggestion, we may use it.
Brian Franz

FadeToBlack wrote on 8/21/2001, 9:04 PM

Rednroll wrote on 8/21/2001, 9:22 PM

Ok, let's say we devise a device that can detect when the DVD player fails (ie jams), I still have the problem with slow motion. 6 hour VHS is not very good on a frame by frame slow mo mode, too many white lines.

I'm with ya so far though. I'm hooking up 4 VCR's that go into auto record one after the other and I could probably engineer a device that would record the smpte timecode spot on the tape, when the DVD player puts out a failure mode signal. Keep going McGuiver!!! :-)
But alls I really need is a simple piece of software that can record Mpeg video.

buzert wrote on 8/23/2001, 5:00 PM

If im getn this right you want 16hrs of mpg video.
Its easy iv got a ati all in wonder with there new player 7.1 i can get up too 22hrs on 12 gigs with the vcd format. The picture not that good but it works & you can burn right to cd from there ( you will need a file spliter) just go to vcdhelper.com