capturing headaches

[Bobtheduck]

Premiere... In order to use Mpeg-2, it takes about 8 times longer than the footage I captured to prepare it on DVD... Oh, and when it's done, it looks like crap. Someone on the adobe forums said it's because I needed to reverse dominance... Ok, whatever, I haven't tried ti because it takes so long to even test...

Now, that makes no sense whatsoever... Why does it take longer to use the format that's GOING INTO THE DVD ANYHOW? The format it suggests? AVI-DV...

So, I set up my all in wonder to capture to AVI, with DV encoding format... Maybe that's not what they meant, but that's all I had listed... Stupid premiere won't accept the all in wonder as a capture device, so it makes no sense that the program was included with the card... Well, I capture about a minute's worth, at 320x240, which is half DVD resolution, and bring it into Adobe... It works, and the DVD burns in like 4 minutes, it was great. The encoding went so quickly. 2 minutes to encode the minute of video. Well, all of a sudden, the TV recorder (there is no pure capturing program on the all in wonder's stuff) stops capturing to DV-AVI... Every once and a while it works, but if there is the slightest glitch in the video (like a warped point on the tape, or a changed channel on the TV, or a TV glitch) it stops...

I discovered something, also. The AVI dV format at 320x240 with MP3 audio can only fit an hour and 20 minutes... on a drive with 112 gigs on it!!! That's over a gig a minute!! What on earth? So, it's either I capture stuff that premiere doesn't like, or i can only do an hours worth at a time (well, I can't do that at all because the recorder won't record in AVI-DV format anymore... It keeps saying "record failed" It's either that, or go like a third of that resolution, but I'm sorry... that's just too small. Standard TV is a lot better than that, and that is not worth it for something that doesn't work, or cripples me so I have no computer for 16 hours at a time, and if it screws up the burn, i'm out 16 hours of my life I can't get back...

This is pissing me off so much, I think I broke an internal organ over this (my rediculous anger is another topic alltogether... expect something in the prayer section)... i really need this, and I don't want to have wasted 200 dollars of loan money I could have used for gas or a PS2 on this crap if it doesn't work for what I need it for...

Oh, more glitches with the card, after sessions of the TV program and premiere, all new programs open past the upper left border of the screen, so I can't see them or get to them to move them, forcing me to reset... So many problem, not all of them comptuer related (the whole ordeal for getting this in the first place!!) This stress is going to kill me... I'm not even joking... It should not be this difficult...

Making a DVD involves compressing your video into the MPEG-2 format. Compression reduces your video and audio files to take up less storage space. For example, a 60-minute video in Adobe Premiere Elements takes up approximately 13 GB. However, a single-layer DVD holds only 4.7 GB. (Dual-layer DVDs hold 8.5 GB.) To maintain maximum quality, Adobe Premiere Elements compresses the movie only as much as necessary to fit it on the DVD. The shorter your movie, the less compression required, and the higher the quality of the video on the DVD.
Compressing video and audio for use on a DVD is very time consuming, even on high-end, dedicated systems. The time required varies depending upon the speed of the computer processor, the amount of available memory, and the complexity and length of a project. A standard video project of 60 minutes may take from 4 to 6 hours to burn. Many DVD producers burn a project overnight.

So, as you can see there, it's compressing the video into MPEG-2 format... Well, the video I was recording into was MPEG-2! Why does it take hours upon hours to compress MPEG-2 into MPEG-2?? ATI's export function converts any viewable video file into DVD Medium Quality (to fit 2 hours and 10 minutes on a DVD) in a SHORTER time than the actual clip... SHORTER!! This honestly makes no sense... It's DVD Medium quality, meaning no further compression or encoding is needed... Why does it take that long, but it goes so quickly using the AVI-DV which you have to compress (I mean, duh, if an hour takes up about 100 gigs, that has to be compressed, don't you think) into MPEG-2... So, it takes more time to use MPEG-2 to begin wiht??? Why doesn't anything work the way it's advertised!!!????

[Arnobius]

Well, AVI format (not to be confused with the DIVX format that shares the prefix) is massive in size because it is completely uncompressed (which makes it easier to edit) but because it uncompressed, it *IS* huge.

MPEG also stores on disc in a different order than it plays. It's what they call GOP files. I forget which is which, but to make it compress better, the computer splits the frames into three types: No movement on a frame, movement in one direction and movement in more than one direction (I'm a bit rusty on DV editing so be patient with me) and stacks these frames in a different order than when they play. This is another reason the DV pros prefer to edit on DV-AVI and then convert to mpeg. The time difference it's taking is probably because it has to re-compress mpeg 2, but is only compressing AVI

The size you quote is unusual though. When I used to fool around with it, I would rip video and convert to AVI and then convert to MPEG2, but the size was only ("only") 100mb/minute so there may be some problems. Your 320x240 size probably indicates the non-HD nature of the program being captured, since footage I ripped from a DVD and edited came in at about 720x480

[Bobtheduck]

I think the quoted size is off, because it gave the same readout for all AVI output, regardless of the codec, for that resolution... I know that's just not true... BTW, >I< set the resolution because the default resolution for DV-AVI was something llike 112 x 84... Something really rediculous like that, and at that resolution I could only hold 7 hours even.

When I would try to capture to DV-AVI at any resolution, it would stop capturing at the slightest glitch in the video, so it's pretty much worthless...

The MPEG-2 I am capturing to says it's made specifically for DVD's, so shouldn't it automatically come in the form it needs to be in? The All in wonder keeps setting everything at these bizarre resolutions (like 112 x 480? WTC??) and I can't see that being good for DVD development... I'm going to just have to take the hit on time, and let it burn all night and into the day, I guess... Provided, that is, i can take care of the glitchy video output I got with my last MPEG-2 burn...