I have a ATI AIW 128 Pro I have done video capture useing their software, only to find I can't play on any other machine than my own. I have tried to convert with no luck. I have tried media player. Doe anyone know what works best, what format allows for good quality 30 minutes of video to be saved on Cd and played easily on other PC's

Help and input much appreciated

Regards,

Derek

-- Derek Campbell (davc774@yahoo.com), March 19, 2002

Answers

What version of MMC do you have? MMC 7.5 and above default to recording in this stupid ATI VCR format which is unplayable on any machine without the ATI MMC package. I would guess offhand that you are recording in this format. Switch to MPEG-1 for best compatibility with other systems. I believe MMC now has a Video CD template you could use to record in. You can get better quality if you record MPEG-2 video, but MPEG-2 requires special software to play that most PCs don't have. Most PCs can play MPEG-1 files without adding aditional software to them.

-- Jason (Jason.Shumate@equant.com), March 19, 2002.

Did you ever figure out how to do this I am having one heck of a time trying to convert mp2 to something I can burn onto a cd. I have premiere but it can't read the mp2 format.

-- TJ (tharpste@umich.edu), March 20, 2002.

I have the ATI AIW 128 Pro 32 MB video card. I use the registry hack to set my capture frame size to 480X480 (as this option is not on the 6.3 frame size list). I use MPEG-2 8MB video, I-Frame Only with the 224K Stereo audio. You have to set these before setting the registry frame size. I use ULead Media Studio Pro 6.0 to edit out commercials and render to either VCD or XSVCD set to a 4MB data rate (my particular DVD player plays these XSVCDs no problem, looks as good as broadcast). VCD looks great (as good as you can expect from VCD anyway). I hardly get any 'blocks' in the video, and then only in the fastest moving frames. TV broadcast in Surround sound really makes up for the less than perfect video.

It's important to capture with the "I-Frame Only" setting because when you edit, you have to cut on an I-Frame. If you capture with the standard GOP settings you'll be up to a half second off and this will cause you problems with audio/video sync.

I know some will tell you that you HAVE to capture to an uncompressed AVI to get the best quality, but if your going down to SVCD or VCD this really isn't a problem, at least it hasn't been for me. In fact I get the BEST quality using MPEG-2 to capture! I know that goes against everything most people will tell you but that has been my REAL LIFE experience.

BTW: My system is an AMD Athlon 850. I really like the VCD format because you can play it on PCs with no problem and most new DVD players will play them too.

-- Jim J. Donaldson (jimjohnd@bright.net), March 21, 2002.