hi easymenu,
.
.
well, here's my long explanation/experience for this evening..
>> I worked from a 352x480 MPEG2 capture (video at 4000Kbps, audio at
>> 256Kbps) of an edited/trimmed-up AMC satellite-broadcast of
>> "The Godfather".
I think I would go a little higher in the capture bitrate setting. You
did say you are (real-time) capturing to MPEG via software ??
And, I hope it's MPEG-2 (not mpeg-1, to be on the safe side)
Satellite has a tipicle 4000 or less bitrate and setting it too close
or too little might not be a good idea. I would go for MUCH higher bitrate
like 8000 becuase you don't actually know WHAT your real-time softare
MPEG capturing is compressing (that is, taking away, in order to get
best results in final capture) And as you capture at 4000 bitrate, you
could be helping to produce (more than likely) those talked about artifacts
that you are experiencing in your final encodes, and not to mention, add
to the fact that your filtering are being affected as well, and your
"manual" samples are being effected too.
All these things can and seem to be haveing a catastrafic effect on your
sample analigy thus far.
I'm a little confused though.. about what your source really is

Is it:
* Satellite records to VHS tapes, or
* Satellite captures directly
* or combination of methods ??
Tip for the day..
* If Telecined source.. always IVTC first, THEN filtering the frames afterwards
* if Interlace source.. always de-Intelrace method first, THEN filtering
the frames afterwards
* if captured source is progressive (after careful analisys) do a quick 2.BOB
in vbud to be sure you have all the remaining (or as much of it before tainting
too much of the source quality) of the leftover Interlace artifacts.
Personally, I prefer to frameserve an .AVS script into vdub to fine-tune the
source and get every bit of issue under control.
Tip 2 of the day..
when working w/ vdub..
* always swap the time-line window (to the left side) so that you can see the
effects of your filtering/debugging. If anything.. all you need to see if just
a partial of your originals' source, while still maintaining view of your
filtered source. I find that magnifying each windows (good coordination) will
help in conjunction w/ picSwitch, when analizing a frame for best filter effect.
Tip 3 of the day..
* find and use a
GAUGEing (tool or method of a scene) that can be used to
analize your source.
If you haven't seen my samples yet, have a look at the Interlace one. Using
Tip 3, I was able to fine-tune the final quality.
Tip 4 of the day..
Interlace:
* not all source materials captured are exactly the same. Interlace comes in
many flavors. Note, we are not talking about IVTC (aka, Telecine) here.
Telecine ..before the IVTC step :
* same as above. However, the Telecine process for a given TV airing are much
different than a DVD source !!
The entities involved in sharing the source mateirals w/ each broadcaster(s)
do not always do a correct or proper Telecine job, when they are "making for TV"
sources to distribute to other entities !! ie, Star Trek. This show is one
big headacke!! Note, we are not talking about Interlace (aka, Interlace) here.
This can (and more than likely) another reason/cause for your poor (or artifact)
in your final encode. A poorly done Telecine job will cause poor spacial/temporal
reading in your filtering. Bottom line.. pixels will not add up correct w/ respect
to filterings logic. Hope you understood that !! Maybe
Kwag can explain
otherwise

..that is, if he understood me hehe..
-vhelp