Slow Rendering with Video studio
 

Recently I set up a new system to copy my VHS tapes to DVD. The old way of doing it caused many dropped frames, so I started from scratch. I installed Windows 7, I bought a Analog/USB interface from K-world, and then I decided to use Debut to capture my video. I captured the video to an AVI file using an MPG4 codec. For an hour of recording, it gave me the fewest dropped frames (<100 for a 1 hr video). ANyway, I took the AVI file into video studio 11 and tried to render it after I added a title and a 20 sec music lead in. I started the rendering last nite. Its been 10 hrs now, and the video is only 60% rendered. In the past when I have rendered videos, they usually took less than 2 hrs. Can anyone tell me what I should be looking at to solve this issue?

I've never known anything from K-World to be a quality product in the past 15 years. I'm actually surprised that you had no issues with it. Or at least, it doesn't seem to be a cause of any error so far.

That's a new one for me. Not had time to test it. When I finish answering a couple of dozen posts here tonight, I may give it a quick spin, see how it does on the ATI 600 card attached to this computer right now.

I will say that NCH software isn't exactly a respected software brand. They make a lot of cloneware, often clones of freeware, but for a standard $25 to $50 price. I don't think it's typical Chinese software, but it's in that same vein of pretending it's just as good as the higher end solutions from Adobe, Microsoft, etc., or even well-respected freewares. And their programs almost always have stupid generic-sounding names to attract search engines (example: "CD to MP3 Converter Pro" or something similar).

Red flag! Never capture to MPEG-4 containers or codecs. These are highly compressed formats, and will almost always yield horribly low quality captures. Capture to something lossless like HuffYUV. Only capture to MPEG-2 if the video card is known to excel at it (certain ATI cards, for example).

This is probably entirely related to the MPEG-4 source files, which require a high amount of CPU and resources to decompress.

Thanks for the reply
 

Thanks again for the reply. Just a few words about your response...I read the reviews about K-world, and they were mixed, but I figured it had to be better than trying to make my ATI9600 card work with Windows 7. The interface itself actually works very well. Its been compatible with Virtualdub, VideoStudio, and a few other programs. As far as the software supplied, thats the major downfall. The program that they call Producer works well to capture the VHS video to the harddrive, and then burn it to DVD. The result was excellant. The other program called Director, would not even run. So for now I am using the first one with very good results. The quality is as good as the original, and the files that it creates are on the line of 11 gig for an hours worth of uncompressed video. The final rendering to the DVD is about 4.5 gig. So its all good.

I had tried to use Virtualdub for about 4 days, but was never able to compress the video enough to get it to fit on a 4.7 gig disk. I used Huffy, but when you start with an uncompressed file of about 47 gig, there is no way to get down to the 4.7 level. The biggest question I have is why am I seeing the big difference in uncompressed file size between the two programs. Why is virtualdub creating 47 gig files for an hour long video? I was told, as you also mentioned, to just capture the file as uncompresssed. This is what I did when I ended up with the large file. Can you help me understand why the difference? I would prefer to use Virtualdub, but not if it continues to generate those large files.

The ATI 600 USB card would have worked in Windows 7, which is something you might want to consider, should it be necessary.
Those are still available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B00138EOH8
... but it does sound like the K-World is okay for the moment.

Standard WDM driver interface, so that's good.

Typical for pretty much any software, with few exceptions (such as ATI).

That sounds like Cyberlink Power Producer and Power Director. Historically, those apps have not been very good, but I know there's been some inroads of success on them in recent years.

DV compression.

VirtualDub does not compressed to MPEG-2 for DVD-Video, nor does it author. That requires other programs for those tasks. VirtualDub is only good for capturing or editing (plus restoring).

You can capture to DV or broadcast MPEG-2 (not DVD-Video MPEG-2 specs), with the proper codecs being installed. Both DV and MPEG-2 can be downloaded as part of the Matrox codec package: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/show...1936#post11936

This appears to already be answered: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/show...96.html?t=2396

Think that covers all the questions. :)

Thanks again
 

Thanks for your detailed reply.

SO based on your information, you are telling me to use Virtualdub to capture the video. I am assuming that I would capture it uncompressed in .avi format. Correct?
If that is true, what program would you suggest to get the video down to a more manageable size for it to fit on a DVD?

By the way..I downloaded the Matrox codecs that you suggested. After I did, none of my video programs would work...Virtualdub, Videostidio 11, Debut, and a few others all would freeze up with the Matrox codecs loaded. I removed Matrox, and all the programs work fine. Can you shed any light on this?

You have to then compress it to an MPEG-2 for DVD-Video format.

I use the currently ~$500 MainConcept Reference application for this task, as it really gives some of the best quality possible.
More details and buy options at http://esd.element5.com/affiliate.ht...ainconcept.com

But another option is to use the $37 TMPGEnc Plus.

• Guide for how to use it: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/guides/video/convert-tmpg.htm
• Link to buy it: http://edge.affiliateshop.com/public...7389&BID=12418

The Matrox codecs slow the loading of video software. For VirtualDub, that slowness comes when accessing the codecs window (via Video > Compression). For other programs, that may happen when the program starts, as many of them check system-wide codecs at that time. It should be available after maybe 10-20 seconds on my somewhat faster systems. If your computer is slow, then maybe give it a minute. I've not yet heard of Matrox codecs messing up a computer.