Newbie TV capture questions

[GLE3]

Just got into the world of TV capture and I have some general questions. I have just a plain jane analog capture card that tops out at 720 X 480 captured resolution. I have the video quality sliders as far up as they can go. I then move the captures over to my laptop and play them on my 35 inch analog TV. Here is where the questions come in….

I get artifacts/blemishes in the background while playing them on my TV. I’m guessing it is because the picture is blown up to fit my tv (playback on my PC shows no artifacts)? Would capturing at a higher resolution minimize/eliminate the artifacts? Am I doing something else wrong?

Can you capture analog TV at a higher resolution than 720 X 480?

[imkidd57]

Hi GLE3 and welcome to CD Freaks

720 x 480 is NTSC full standard definition resolution, but it’s not the only important factor and the picture quality also depends on the bitrate used to capture the transmissions.

Which make and model number of capture card are you using, and is there any adjustment for bitrate available?

[GLE3]

[QUOTE=imkidd57;2239300]Hi GLE3 and welcome to CD Freaks

720 x 480 is NTSC full standard definition resolution, but it’s not the only important factor and the picture quality also depends on the bitrate used to capture the transmissions.

Which make and model number of capture card are you using, and is there any adjustment for bitrate available?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the response! I have a Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP. Here’s a picture:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1574&page=1

There is a place to change data rate. It is set at 6000 kbps but I could move it up to as high as 10000. There is also a place to select either Variable or Constant Mpeg-2 bitrate mode.

[imkidd57]

OK try setting to 10,000 Kbps (10 Mbps) with variable bitrate, and see if that makes a difference.

Can you describe the ‘artefacts’? Are they the usual blockiness around moving objects, or something like large pixellations which could be more due to reception problems rather than the encoder?

[GLE3]

[QUOTE=imkidd57;2239332]OK try setting to 10,000 Kbps (10 Mbps) with variable bitrate, and see if that makes a difference.

Can you describe the ‘artefacts’? Are they the usual blockiness around moving objects, or something like large pixellations which could be more due to reception problems rather than the encoder?[/QUOTE]

I changed the bitrate, I didn’t notice a visual difference.

I included a screen shot of a captured movie off of my pc. You can see there is a little ‘noise’ in the picture. When I play this on my TV, the background along the top where the heaviest shadows are is where I see the most pixellation(kinda like a enlarged dark spot). As the screen gets brighter the flaws are harder to see.

[GLE3]

So your thinking it would be just flaws in the capture itself then? It’s just that the flaws are magnified a bit when blown up on my TV?

Could another analog capture card give better quality? If I bought a HD capture card could I play a higher captured resolution on my analog TV?

[t0nee1]

Why don’t you try the Avi uncompressed option…According to info from the link you provided, it should give you better quality…Providing HDD space is not an issue for you…Personally I would only capture uncompressed AVI if it was [B]family video/clips[/B], all else is not worth the space or time (for me)…I’d purchase the original(s)…
To each his own…

The uncompressed AVI files gave the best picture quality and speed of course, but as they take up well over 200MB per minute, so this is not really a viable option

[Dartman]

That looks more like film grain/analog noise to me then pixelization from the small sample. I use a Dvico fusion3 gold here myself, it’s a analog/digital card that does OTA HDTV and Cable HDTV.
It works nice but I almost 100 percent do hdtv caps at native TP streams then convert to Mpeg and edit later. Analog always has some noise to it, digital caps provided I’m getting a good feed and signal can be flawless.
You really might want to consider getting some kind of digital HDTV tuner card, they can be had really cheap to expensive but good ones are around 100 to 150 here.

[GLE3]

[QUOTE=t0nee1;2240280]Why don’t you try the Avi uncompressed option…According to info from the link you provided, it should give you better quality…Providing HDD space is not an issue for you…Personally I would only capture uncompressed AVI if it was [B]family video/clips[/B], all else is not worth the space or time (for me)…I’d purchase the original(s)…
To each his own…[/QUOTE]

Not a bad idea. I do only have one hard drive though(160 G)… I’d have to maintain frequently…

[GLE3]

Thanks for the info… I’m kinda new to tv capture lingo, what is a “native TP stream”.

So are capturing a digital feed then? Or can you capture analog at a higher res than 720 X 480? Or should I be focused on a better bitrate than I have currently?

I am definitely interested in getting a new card that gets ATSC and NTSC. Maybe I should make another thread for this, but what would I need to get when upgrading a capture card? I have a Dell Dimension E310 - 2.8 P4 with HT and 512 of Ram. Right now I’m using the integrated video. If I bought one of those 100 – 150 dollar capture cards, would I need to get a newer video card with it too? I also heard that if you get those newer video cards that you should upgrade you power supply too (mines 250 watts).