SOT: Realtime DV capture & conversion to mpeg2 ?

Christian de Godzinsky wrote on 4/17/2009, 1:04 AM

Hi,

Tried to search the forum but got no results. Apologies if this is an old subject, but for many it might be of current interest...

I need to convert a (high!) pile of DV(25) material to best quality mpeg2 (DVD compatible file at highest legal bitrate with embedded audio). The source DV is PAL 50i and the mpeg should also be 50i.

The use of Vegas for such a task is not very productive. These are just a simple transfers from one format to another, with no editing involved. There must be a good application for doing this. I want to avoid capturing AVI and then rendering out as mpgeg, since that would be very very slow.

My question to you experienced users:

which application(s) do you recommend for this job ???

There seems to be quite many such applications - that can capture from a DV source via FireWire - and in realtime encode to mpeg2. I am not just looking for some freeware, I'm prepared to pay for such a professional working tool.

Using your expertise I might save lots of unnecessary dowloading and testing of trial software. What have you guys used?

The application should be able to run on Vista 64 bit.

Grateful for any input or comments.

Christian

Comments

John_Cline wrote on 4/17/2009, 1:42 AM

The old stand-alone Main Concept MPEG2 encoder could do this easily, there used to be a product from MedioStream called "CamPEG RT" that also performed this task really well. Unfortunately, neither of these products seem to be currently available. Maybe someone else has a solution.

owlsroost wrote on 4/17/2009, 2:01 AM

Why not use a stand-alone DVD recorder with Firewire input ?

I haven't checked them out recently, but some of these (e.g. Panasonic) could capture at high bitrates (8-9 Mbps) with PCM audio, so they should fit the bill.

Tony

farss wrote on 4/17/2009, 2:15 AM

Several hardware solutions:

Matrox RT2000 card.

Pinnacle DV500 card.

Bob.

ushere wrote on 4/17/2009, 3:59 AM

agree with tony....

off the shelf dvd recorder - couldn't be simpler...

farss wrote on 4/17/2009, 4:07 AM

My only concern with them is they don't give you much control over the encoding.
We use then for quick preview DVDs but I'd have doubts about using them to encode for achiving.
I've never ripped anything from them, how do they encode the audio?

Bob.

owlsroost wrote on 4/17/2009, 4:19 AM

I've never ripped anything from them, how do they encode the audio?

It varies with the recorder and the quality setting - it can be MP2, AC3 or LPCM.

Last time I looked at a Panasonic manual it used AC3 for the lower quality settings, and LPCM for the highest quality setting.

The cheap recorder I have encodes with MP2 @ 384 kbps audio and 8 Mbps CBR video on the highest quality setting.

Tony

Christian de Godzinsky wrote on 4/17/2009, 4:29 AM

Hi,

Thanx for all the suggestions. However, my need is NOT to burn to DVD's, I need to just transfer to hard disks in high quality mpeg2 format.

I have already the source providing hardware (a Canon MVX2i) that reads DV-cassettes (or digitizes with excellent quality an external analog source via its S-video inputs).

So - I have already data streaming in digital form via FireWire to the computer, and just need an application that in real time converts this into mpeg2 files on a hard disk.

What options are left? There must be something? Hasn't anyone else done this, or had a need to do it?

Christian

farss wrote on 4/17/2009, 5:06 AM

I've done heaps of DV to mpeg-2. I simply use Vegas to capture and Vegas to encode. If you can manage 12 hours of capturing per day the 8 hours of overnight encoding is about enough for you to get a nights sleep.
I use the Multirender from Peachrock to batch Vegas. Almost nothing to setup. Just tell it to process all the files in one folder using a certain template and put the output in another folder.

Really all you need is Vegas, a moderately fast PC, plenty of disk space and the Multirenderer. If your PC isn't fast enough to encode in faster than realtime then it will not be fast enough to capture AND encode anyway unless you invest in a hardware encoder.

Bob.

owlsroost wrote on 4/17/2009, 5:30 AM

However, my need is NOT to burn to DVD's, I need to just transfer to hard disks in high quality mpeg2 format.

Understood - the DVD is just an intermediary between camcorder and PC i.e. just rip the DVD contents to a single MPEG file on the PC - much quicker than tying up the PC for up to 60 minutes per tape doing the real-time software encoding.

Hasn't anyone else done this, or had a need to do it?

Yes (e.g. Ulead VideoStudio, Nero NVE), but I've always found that capture to DV avi followed by encoding, or using a real-time hardware encoder (DVD recorder or PC add-on) produced better quality.

Tony

blink3times wrote on 4/17/2009, 5:45 AM

Hardware encoding is the best deal for this... and not that expensive either. a plain old Hauppauge PVR will hardware encode mpeg2 to 12Mb/s and the Canopus systems to 15Mb/s.

A simple dvd recorder will only do to about 8 or 9M

The realtime capture however does slow things down.