[ncvid]

I recently "upgraded" from Videowave 7 to EMC9 (with Videowave 8). In VW7 I could define custom analog capture formats (ie DVD compatable mpg2, 704x480, ?Mb/s, Dolby AC3), however in VW8, I only see the 5 very limited canned capture formats (DV, DVD HQ, DVD LP, DVD SP, VCD). Does VW8 actually have less features and options than VW7?

I greatly prefer to to capture to the directly DVD compatable formats to take advantage of smart-rendering. Can I customize capture formats?

[james_hardin]

DV-AVI and mpeg2 are the only choices. Either will "compatible".

If you need some other format you will have to Output from VW to any of the dizzying array of choices or make your own.

[ncvid]

DV-AVI and mpeg2 are the only choices. Either will "compatible".

If you need some other format you will have to Output from VW to any of the dizzying array of choices or make your own.

Thanks for the reply James.

It is surprising to me that the later version (EMC9, with VW8) has fewer options for capture than the previous version (VW7). I had gotten so accustomed to the short (smart) renders for DVDs when I used the directly compatable format of mpeg2, 704x480, at any where from 5-8 mb/s, and the dolby AC3 sound. It sounds like I will have to get used to the overnight renders, again.

I had such good luck with that method. I never suffered from A/V sync problems. I'm worried that those will creep back into my projects if MyDVD needs to render the video. Yes AVI and MPEG2 at 8 mb/s are "compatable", when rendered at DVD creation.

[grandpabruce]

Thanks for the reply James.

It is surprising to me that the later version (EMC9, with VW8) has fewer options for capture than the previous version (VW7). I had gotten so accustomed to the short (smart) renders for DVDs when I used the directly compatable format of mpeg2, 704x480, at any where from 5-8 mb/s, and the dolby AC3 sound. It sounds like I will have to get used to the overnight renders, again.

I had such good luck with that method. I never suffered from A/V sync problems. I'm worried that those will creep back into my projects if MyDVD needs to render the video. Yes AVI and MPEG2 at 8 mb/s are "compatable", when rendered at DVD creation.

There was absolutely nothing in EMC 7 that offered a capture that would result in a better quality than EMC 8 or 9.

It actually surprises me that anyone would spend money on a product that offered the ability to capture in poor quality.

EMC 9 allows you to capture as high quality MPEG 2 or .AVI. Whatever you want to do with it after that is up to you.

[james_hardin]

ncvid: I gather your output is PAL?

If you capture in mpeg2, is the resulting file not 704 X 480 and compliant for SmartRender?

Many of our guru's work in PAL so maybe they will pile on here with a tip or two…

I can understand limiting the capture to the 2 most common formats, (V6 only captured in AVI).

But it would be very shortsighted not to include a PAL compliant capture for the rest of the world!!!

[ggrussell]

It is surprising to me that the later version (EMC9, with VW8) has fewer options for capture than the previous version (VW7). I had gotten so accustomed to the short (smart) renders for DVDs when I used the directly compatable format of mpeg2, 704x480, at any where from 5-8 mb/s, and the dolby AC3 sound. It sounds like I will have to get used to the overnight renders, again.

Not sure what you may be doing wrong, MyDVD will 'smart render' any MPEG 2 that is DVD compliant including those files that you capture using Media Import. DVD HQ, SP & LP use DVD compliant MPEG 2 encoding. I have noticed that Media Import does capture using MPEG audio, but MyDVD doesn't take very long to transcode that to AC3 and doesn't re-render the video at all.

This post has been edited by ggrussell: 08 July 2007 - 05:58 AM

[ncvid]

There was absolutely nothing in EMC 7 that offered a capture that would result in a better quality than EMC 8 or 9.

It actually surprises me that anyone would spend money on a product that offered the ability to capture in poor quality.

EMC 9 allows you to capture as high quality MPEG 2 or .AVI. Whatever you want to do with it after that is up to you.

Bruce, I must not have explained myself very well. I'm not saying the quality is better by using 704x480 at 5 or 6 mb/s. I like to make 90 to 110 minute movies fit onto 4.7 gig discs. By recording at 6 or 5 mb/s, this can be accomplished, and the quality is not bad (not quite as good as 8 mb/s, but not bad). I do use MPEG2, just at lower than the max bitrate.

What I didn't like spending money for was a later version of a product that has some features of a previous version taken away. VW7 (stand alone, not part of EMC) had very flexible custom analog capture formats. It also captured Dolby AC3 audio format in addition to MPG. Thus I could record from an analog A/V source using exactly the same video and audio formatting as my final DVD output. That saved incredible amounts of re-rendering time.

Not sure what you may be doing wrong, MyDVD will 'smart render' any MPEG 2 that is DVD compliant including those files that you capture using Media Import. DVD HQ, SP & LP use DVD compliant MPEG 2 encoding. I have noticed that Media Import does capture using MPEG audio, but MyDVD doesn't take very long to transcode that to AC3 and doesn't re-render the video at all.

James, Thanks for the tips, I will try again to see if I can get MyDVD to smart render the DVD HQ format file. I admit that the one I tried was a very complex mix of different formats (some lower bitrates). Although the asterisk was showing in the title bar, it didn't smart render.

[ggrussell]

I admit that the one I tried was a very complex mix of different formats (some lower bitrates).

You can't smart render if the files are different bitrates or different file formats. Most likely will force the entire project to be rendered. If you had 15 files that were all DVD HQ, you can edit and add transitions. MyDVD will only render those parts that were edited. If you start throwing in other MPEG 2 with different bitrates, DivX or WMV files, JPEG overlays, etc., most likely that will force the entire project to be rendered.