what should i do if my video capture card only supports video formats like 160x120(1/4 screen), 320x240(1/2screen) and 640x480(full screen).. what video format should I use? Ive heard that in order to play vcd in a vcd player it needs to be in the format of 352x288 etc etc..

I've tried 320x240 and converted the frame size to 352x288 but the color of the image became kinda blurred.. please help..

btw, whats the minimum requirements for encoding mpeg1? got amd k6-2/350.. is that enough? thanks

-- franklin chang (ripclaw@edsamail.com.ph), December 31, 2000

Answers

You can encode mpeg1 using practically any CPU; The question is how patient you are. The CPU you've described will do the job but at 1:11 ratio, i.e. 1hr of video will take 11 hours to encode assuming you don't use any kind of filtering options or resizing. I have worked on the following CPU's K6-2 3D now 350Mhz, K6-3 3D now 443Mhz, K7 Athalon slot A 550Mhz/600Mhz/700Mhz/950Mhz, K7 T-bird socket A 950Mhz, and K7 Duron socket A 750Mhz. Encoding mpeg1 VCD at 600Mhz, the encoding time reduces to 1:4 ratio and it gets to 1:2 ratio at 950Mhz. I'd imaging this time will reduces further when you do it with a 1+GHz CPU.

As for capture card's frame size, are you sure you are locked into these three modes by the manufacturer's software or it is the limitation of the hardware? What type of capture card do you have? Does it has Video For Window (VFW) driver? If it does, then download virtual dub and see if you can custom set it to the frame size you need, 352x240. Most capture card's frame size limitation is due to the application software that drives it, unless it is a specific hardware encoder card.

-- lnguyen (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), December 31, 2000.