Lesser of capture evils

[BarryTheCrab]

What is the lesser of the two evils?
A) Capture lossless AVI 4:2:2 at 640x480
B) Capture MPEG2 4:2:0 at 720x480 with high bit-rate
Just wondering.

[lordsmurf]

What is the source?
What is the goal of the project?

[BarryTheCrab]

I cringe at answering that...I'm reinventing my wheel, because I can't, even though I have all the perfectly functioning wheels needed thanks to this site.
Maybe I'll put on my helmet before I 'fess up. Sanlyn isn't around yet is he?
......
As you all despise Powerdirector this should be very popular.
I have an old version I no longer use of course, it's old. So I install it as a 32bit app and that gives me the AVI interface via
VFW and it allows me to use capture and produce using lossless codecs and those wonderful filters.
Butt, it does not allow me to alter the 640x480 capture to 720x480, and the dongle does not matter, it seems.
My AVI profiles jump from 640 to 1024, nothing in-between.
It's just a thing I can't bypass.
Of course, in Divx, or MPEG 2 profiles, it's there (720), but not in AVI.
It is a Quixotic pursuit, I know.
Uh-oh...INCOMIIIIING! Duck and cover.

[BarryTheCrab]

Wow, I can almost hear the mocking PMs...not much else, though.
It's just a question.
Capture VHS with the intent of performing a few "fixes" and doing one render to streaming 4:3 file.
If you had choice A or B.
640 lossless or 720 lossy?

[themaster1]

lossless is better, assuming your capture need fixes
If it's a matter of disc space use UTvideo codec, it really use less space than huffyuv or lagarith

[BarryTheCrab]

Thank you. It’s just a little playing around with old software,
tilting at windmills.

[msgohan]

There is no detail loss capturing a VHS tape at 640 instead of 720. You do lose the ability to properly re-center the image; one side may end up a bit cropped by the capture card.