1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

Best way to compress video captured on a computer?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by drapg, Nov 14, 2004.

Tags:
  1. drapg

    drapg Member

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2002
    Messages:
    9,683
    Likes Received:
    2
    I know many of you use a TV tuner card to capture Rockets games on your desktop / notebook.

    I just hooked up my TiVO to my new notebook PC in my living room and have started ripping content off of it and saving it on my computer.

    2 questions:

    1. When I try to save in *.avi format, the video feed is very choppy and doesn't flow. Can anyone explain this? The only explanations I have seen online are that the machine may not be able to handle this, but trust me this mega-notebook has more than enough power and memory to handle this task. There must be another reason.

    2. What is the best s/w to compress the *.avi files? When I capture video straight off of my TiVO, a two minute clip is nearly 1 GB in size! Naturally, this is unacceptable. What s/w do you guys use / recommend?

    Gracias in advance dudes and duddettes.
     
    #1 drapg, Nov 14, 2004
  2. lpbman

    lpbman Member

    Joined:
    Dec 12, 2001
    Messages:
    4,256
    Likes Received:
    830
    If a two minute clip is 1gb in size, your machine probably can not handle that bitrate, unless you have a dedicated video processor somewhere in the line. I'm sure you can cut the quality down via the tivo so your machine can handle. There is probably another solution that I'm not aware of, so really, just ignore this post in it's entirety. Oh and the best compression I've seen is Divx...
     
    #2 lpbman, Nov 14, 2004
  3. LegendZ3

    LegendZ3 Member

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2002
    Messages:
    4,196
    Likes Received:
    5
    Ya, your best bet is to compress the clips with some kind of codec. I think rmvb codec get you the smallest size (whole game under 500mb), but it's going to be hard to convert it into DVD. I use Divx, it will compress the whole game to around 1gig in size.
     
    #3 LegendZ3, Nov 14, 2004
  4. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2000
    Messages:
    18,050
    Likes Received:
    1,271
    ok...this is gonna get kinda technical...but when dealing with digital video...there is no other way.

    first.

    capture the video to dvd quality mpeg2...unless you have tons of space, and a muy powerful machine...capturing to uncompressed avi is a royal pain. You need to capture to mpeg2, then compress the audio to mp3 and convert the video to avi(xvid is my choice), then mux the audio and video together.


    second...

    are you gonna want to edit any of this?

    third....

    specs of machine and how are you getttng the video to the hard drive? (capture card?)....what software are you using to capture with?
     
    #4 Rockets2K, Nov 14, 2004
  5. drapg

    drapg Member

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2002
    Messages:
    9,683
    Likes Received:
    2
    Alright now R2K, you are a godsend!

    I am using the TV tuner card in my laptop to capture video off of my TiVO and saving it on my computer.

    Specs of the machine are:
    P4 3.0GHZ Northwood CPU
    256MB ATI Radeon Mobility 9700
    1024MB 400DDR Dual Channel RAM
    60GB 5400RPM HD (is this the problem with choppy *.avi? to slow of an HD?)

    I will be editing the videos to remove commercials. I was planning to use Windows Movie Maker (I think that's what it is called) that is packaged with Win XP Pro

    I am using Nero to capture the video.

    Now, what software do you recommend to do the compression? I can capture and save video in MPEG-2 format. But to divide the audio and video, then do compression individually, and subsequently combine the two streams together again... what software do I need for this?

    Thanks a lot dude!
     
    #5 drapg, Nov 15, 2004
  6. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2000
    Messages:
    18,050
    Likes Received:
    1,271
    I havent used Windows Movie maker due to the fact that there are lots of better packages out there...and my natural aversion to Microsoft products......I would try to capture with what you use alredy but do it in mpeg2 format and see if you still get a lot of dropped frames....The hardware you have should be more than sufficient

    I use the default software that comes with my ATI card to capture video...
    then I edit the commericals out with mpeg2vcr from Womble...it is the best I have used since it allows me to edit and add together clips and save without having to re-encode....takes alot less time.

    The software list I use is predominantly freeware....mpeg2vcr is trialware...but well worth the cost..

    Software to get:

    mpeg2vcr
    Gordian Knot pack
    Virtual Dub
    Winamp
    CDex

    go to http://www.videohelp.com/tools to find links to the tools and the best help site out there for digital video manipulation.

    I also have a help file made by cf.net's own the YoYo that practically walks you thru the conversion process....Ill send that your way after work.
     
    #6 Rockets2K, Nov 15, 2004
  7. drapg

    drapg Member

    Joined:
    Mar 18, 2002
    Messages:
    9,683
    Likes Received:
    2
    Thanks for your help R2K!!!!
     
    #7 drapg, Nov 15, 2004
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page