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You've got it all connected, but now what?

I will talk about using ATI's capture software for capturing PAL format 720x576 DVD compliant MPEG 2. Generally, the same settings and theory will apply across the range of capture software settings in various shapes and forms.

In my opinion, for ease of use, MPEG 2 is the best format to work with as its already ready to be turned into a DVD - if you capture as .AVI then you will need to convert the file to MPEG 2. As current standards stand - MPEG 2 is also the broadcast TV standard format for Digital TV. Given the right techniques MPEG 2 can be as good a quality as a standard DV AVI file and equally editable if required.

If you captured as an AVI you would need to do a two stage encode - once to turn the high quality .avi into a DVD compatible format and once again if you wanted to make a compressed DivX AVI (MPEG 4) for multiple title DivX DVDs. Using VirtualDub MPEG or DrDivX its easy to compress from MPEG 2. If you are interested in capturing AVI then once again - I'll refer you to the excellent DigitalFAQ site for further reading.

Settings to consider - MPEG 2 type, Interlace and Bitrates

As already mentioned in part 1, I use an ATI All-In-Wonder card to do my capturing, as it gives me access to the wonderful ATI capture software in the Multi Media Center programme - which for a beginner is easy, intuitive, customisable and reliable. Firstly - you need to decide what sort of footage you want. This is important as it affects what you can do with the file later. If you want to edit the footage then you need to set up a certain kind of MPEG format as only one variety is easily editable.

I won't pretend I understand this fully, because I don't. In an MPEG stream, the can be I frames, B frames and P frames, which refer to the way the internal encoding in the file works - there's more detailed information here. If you want to edit MPEG 2 in an external editing package like Premiere then you need to use the editable MPEG format which is I frames only. For simplicity I will stick to this format as the output format is fine for both editing and archiving to DVD. I will briefly discuss bitrates and interlacing when we get there.

Setting up a new recording preset

Firstly, fire up your capture software. For the ATI card this comes in the form of the TV software, part of the Multi Media Centre. Select the set-up button on the console (illustrated at the bottom of Fig. 1) and the Personal Video Recorder tab.

Fig. 1

Select 1. DVD radio button and 2. Map preset to pop up the presets window (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2

This is where we create a relevant setting for your capturing. You can if you choose use one of the defaults, but for me they aren't automatically suited to my needs so I like to tinker. You can pretty much set up the same sort of parameters in all capture software. They may labeled slightly differently but should be fairly straight forward.

Now, to my mind the below (Fig. 3) stage should be the last screen of the wizard - I always find myself coming back to update it. I have a pretty poor memory so I like to leave myself a note as to what I've set up - Give your preset a name and write any comments you want in the appropriate field. If you're not sure, you can always come back and edit this.

Fig. 3

When, you're done click next to move on to the next stage of the wizard.

Fig. 4

Fig. 4 - Ok, here we're going for good quality MPEG 2 - that is DVD compatible from the off. Firstly select MPEG 2 DVD for the format, PAL (625) for the standard (or NTSC if that's your local standard) and resolution at 720 x 576 (the fullest resolution that DVD supports.) You can play about with smaller resolutions if you require - but I stick with this as my machine can handle it and I don't want to be loosing any video data in the frame.

This is where it gets fun - as my main concern is to capture from VHS, which is an interlaced source, I always encode interlaced - to avoid losing any video data. Now - start searching for information on whether or not to interlace or de-interlace your footage then you will find enough info to keep you going for an age. I'm not going to go into interlace theory here as, quite frankly it drives me batty and confuses the hell out of me.

Take a look at Lord Smurf's piece on interlacing to start and then get really stuck in over at www.100fps.com. As I always plan to watch my DVDs on a bog standard interlaced TV, I maintain the interlace which helps to keep a good picture quality as well.

Now encoding interlaced is one way to keep the maximum video data - so is encoding the video uncropped. Basically - watch the captured footage on the PC and you'll see noise as the frame edge - watch it on a TV and that noise disappears into the overscan area of the TV. Crop it and you are essentially zooming in on the source, losing even more detail at the edges as a result.

The audio setting is the default for DVD - leave it be - then move on two the next stage of the wizard.

Fig. 5

Fig. 5 - Now remember in Part 1 I mentioned I B & P frames? Now this is where we set that - if you're not interested in editing the footage, you can leave it as the default. As I want an editable MPEG 2 at the end, I select I Frames only and move on to the next bit.

Fig. 6

Fig.6 - The next stage of the wizard is where we set the quality of the file, the Bitrates of picture and sound. Here for simplicity's end I'm using a constant bitrate (CBR) as I've found that using a variable bitrate can cause audio synching problems when you come to editing the file. It also gives you a better idea of how big the file will be. If you want to fiddle with the variable bitrate (VBR) setting then you just set the average bitrate on the bottom slider which becomes available when you select the variable bitrate option.

DVD can go up to 8MBits a second bitrate - basically the bigger the bitrate the bigger the file size. At 8MBit a second, you would only get about an hour of footage onto a single layer DVD, so I we drop the quality to get more on the disc. Bare in mind now that digital TV (like Freeview) has a bitrate of around 2MBits a second (but you notice the lower quality) then here I'm using 5.5Mbits - which means a lot better picture quality - good enough for your average viewer.

If I was going for a variable bitrate I would use an average of 5.5 and a maximum of 7. That would mean in quieter times the bitrate would drop - then when extra detail and bitrate is required (like during heavy onscreen rain) the extra data would be brought it to effect and the higher bitrate used. Play about with the different qualities then you can settle on one your happy with.

As for motion estimation - not sure, but Lord Smurf recommends 98 - so I go with his expert knowledge. Audio encoding you can fiddle with as well - for me 256kbps should give me ample audio quality - anywhere between 160 and 256 should be fine, it all adds to the file size so you may be able to squeeze some extra video quality out with a lower setting. Play about with it and compare.

Fig. 7

Fig. 7 - VideoSoap is ATI's video filtering part of the capture process. It can be very CPU intensive, so use with care. I often use heavy if the video is noisy as older tapes tend to be. If its a newer tape then I turn it off. Play with 'em to see the different effects and the improvements it can make. Video is a noisy medium so it can come in useful for old and grainy tapes.

Fig. 8

Once you've selected your type, you can tweak it on the next screen and get an idea on how much processing power it will take. I tend to leave them as their defaults.

Fig. 9

Almost there - leave the file size at windows Maximum if you're on XP or Windows 2000 - otherwise you'll have to go to 2.4 gig which is the fat32 file size limit. I think it breaks your capture into two files rather than one.

Click finish and you now have your preset and are ready to start capturing. Turn off all other processes and press record on the console. Its worth having a little fiddle and trying a few different settings, especially the colour sliders on the Video tab.

Also, whilst recording, right click on the elapsed time and select 'Show Total Frames' as this will give you an indication if you are dropping frames whilst you capture. I won't go into anymore detail on the capture set-up as the basics are covered here, and a quick google search should help you.

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