Video capture settings

[twofish]

As a video newby I have done some reading on the best settings to use for
video capture but I'm confused.
I cannot seem to get wheather capturing in AVI or MPEG is better. I also
get the impression that you want to taylor your capture to the final output.
That is, will it be a file to be played on the computer or output to video
tape (NTSC in my case).
What do you do if you want to output to both or are not sure yet that the
output media will be?
I also am confuesd about what codec to use.
I'm using the ATI All-In-Winder 128 Pro if that matters.

Any input fron those more experienced than me would be appreciated.

TIA for any responses.

TF

[Patrick J. Cuff Jr.]

I'm not exactly an expert, but here's my two cents:

If you have ample free space, it's better to capture to an uncompressed AVI.
This will preserve most of the quality of the input (though no better). If
you capture to an MPG, then render to another format you'll lose a lot of
quality.

I think it depends on your choice of NLEs too. I use Ulead Media Studio Pro
which doesn't touch the captured file when editing, so the quality of the
input file's not altered by the rendering process. Rendering to various
formats produces videos of varying quality and size. For example, rendering
to a VCD-compliant MPG uses less space but has worse quality than a SVCD or
DVD-compliant MPG. Since I capture from a camera that supports the DV-Type
1 codec I can also render back out to the camera using the DV-Type 1 codec
with no loss of quality whatsoever. For me this produces the best quality
for VCR tapes (output to camera, than manually dup onto VHS from my A/V
equipment).

If you want to render to various formats, I'd capture as uncompressed AVI,
or as a DV compressed file if using a DV video camera. You should then be
able to render to whatever output format you desire.

HTH,

-- Pat

"twofish" <ascu...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:tia067k...@corp.supernews.com...

[twofish]

----------
In article <uFoODVq8AHA.1528@tkmsftngp05>, "Patrick J. Cuff Jr."
<pat....@popmail.smed.com> wrote:

> I'm not exactly an expert, but here's my two cents:
>
> If you have ample free space, it's better to capture to an uncompressed AVI.
> This will preserve most of the quality of the input (though no better). If
> you capture to an MPG, then render to another format you'll lose a lot of
> quality.
>
> I think it depends on your choice of NLEs too. I use Ulead Media Studio Pro
> which doesn't touch the captured file when editing, so the quality of the
> input file's not altered by the rendering process. Rendering to various
> formats produces videos of varying quality and size. For example, rendering
> to a VCD-compliant MPG uses less space but has worse quality than a SVCD or
> DVD-compliant MPG. Since I capture from a camera that supports the DV-Type
> 1 codec I can also render back out to the camera using the DV-Type 1 codec
> with no loss of quality whatsoever. For me this produces the best quality
> for VCR tapes (output to camera, than manually dup onto VHS from my A/V
> equipment).
>
> If you want to render to various formats, I'd capture as uncompressed AVI,
> or as a DV compressed file if using a DV video camera. You should then be
> able to render to whatever output format you desire.
>
> HTH,
>
> -- Pat
>

Thanks for the response, Pat.
I'll go play with it a bit.

Cheers,
TF