im new to video capturing and editing and ive been to it barely a month and i think am losing more hair than i am growing them.. so for a start id like you guys to evaluate whether what am doing is right...

i have a dazzle dvcii capture card and use its bundled software moviestar 4.24 to capture video from my handycam, a sony dcr 110, i used the vcd template to capture and "produce" my video..

then.... i have my produced mpeg file converted to .avi using tmpgenc the reason for conversion being that i would like to edit it either using pinnacle studio or vegas video of which only supports only .avi files (my copies that is) after the conversion and editing.. i send it back to tmpgenc and have it encoded to ntsc-vcd. .. and burned it using nero 5.5 and the result? argh....a video with lots of squares!

.. also i used s-video as opposed to composite connection..

... can any of you guys help me out before i loose all of my hair...

Wait!. Your problem is that you're converting first to mpeg, then to avi, and then back again to mpeg!. You're doing three generations of conversion right there!. Is there a way that you can capture to AVI directly with your DVCII? If you can't, then choose the highest MPEG-2 resolution that you can and the highest bit rate possible, and then convert that to avi. Your best bet is if you can capture directly to AVI, maybe with the Huffy CODEC, and edit that before converting to VCD. But you'll need a lot of disk space.

-kwag

i have also tried using the DVD-MPEG template to no avail..

i have also tried to just capture my video using best quality possible (dvd-mpeg2) and then just encode it with tmpgenc using the ntsc-vcd format and still to no avail .. maybe it is at this part that the kvcd templates can help me.... i would really want to use the vcd format since not everyone i know of can play svcd videos...

thank you....

also do you think it would matter if i capture via s-video or composite connection? since when i tried to capture my video from my vhs and encoded to tmpgenc it looked fine...

also one more thing.. i too, have a firewire card.. which do you think would be best to use for my sony handycam?

thanks again and more power

If you can capture via S-Video, it's better that Composite. And for transfering from your Sony cam, use FireWire, because it will be the best transfer. Better than S-Video.

-kwag

ah.. so i can safely say that i can use my capture card if i am capturing from my vhs videos right? and if directly from my handycam ill use my firewire....even if i can connect via s-video?

also, what do you think is the best video editing application?

thanks for the prompt reply....

p.s.

would it be possible for me to communicate to you through email?

Yes. Use Firewire for your camera. S-Video for anything else.
I really can't recommend any specific video editing software, because there are too many. Maybe someone reading this can suggest one.
You can E-Mail me, but I usually check the E-Mail once a day, but I check the forum about 1,000 times a day so it's better to post in the forum, so that you can get replies from many people too.

-kwag

I didn't see any mention of Virtual Dub- this proggy is great for capturing and editing in AVI format and it's FREE!!!!! So if you have an 80+gb hard disk you can capture then edit your avi then frameserve to TMPGenc to encode.

ren

Hey bapski, here's a nice link with a lot of stuff for your DVCII
http://www.spawns.dk/svcd/

-kwag

wow! what a forum.. finally a forum with more interesting people.. (other forums do have interesting people but as not many as here... ) i just started posting yesterday and look how many responses i got!

kwag, tried one of your templates cant recall which one but its supposed to make my video fit into one cd.. think its like 7??x something.. (sorry cant recall.. slept late last night .. and am bit groggy today) and the result was better than the standard vcd format but was squares where still visible on the video.. . which of the templates should i use to make DVD quality VCD ... with a video as long as an hour?

thank you and more power to you all...

..oooppps sorry.. forgot to acknowledge some of your suggestions...

been to spawns site too and have posted similar queries to no avail.. maybe spawn , tateu and the rest are busy on something

i have virtualdub to rendalunit.. . but have not explored its usage yet.. been using tmpgenc for awhile as i have not found any difficulty using it... but perhaps you can teach me how to use it...

Hey bapski,

You can fit around an hour on the 704x480 PLUS template. Remember that this is for a "Wide Screen" format and FILM movies. If your source is interlaced, 29.97fps, you'll get about 20% less space in a CD. Also, if it's a "Full Screen" movie, you'll get even less!. Read around the forum, and look at the topics on IVTC ( Inverse Telecine ). Search the forum for those keywords. In a couple of days , you'll be toasting a lot of KVCD's on your burner.

-kwag

my source is my handycam and am not sure what its frame rate is....

will the 704x480 template give me the best video quality?

What is the resolution of your Cam?

-kwag

.. am at the office right now and cant check exactly the resolution of my handycam.. been checking around at sites to see if can check out resolution to no avail...

ill get back to you ASAP...

btw my digital handycam is a SONY DCR-PC110E

the closest thing i can find about the resolution of my handycam is that under the heading of IMAGE DEVICE from my manual it says
...approx 1,070,000 pixels

(effective (still): 1,000,000 pixels)
(effective (moving): 690,000 pixels)

its 720x480x24 ....finally figured it out