Capturing video in windows have certain limitations as to hard disk space (even if you have hd space above 2gb). Is there any way to extend the capture duration without sacrificing quality? Can windows capture beyond this duration?

-- Toby Tat (nexus6@jetlink.com.ph), January 29, 1999

Answers

There's no way to get an .AVI beyond 2GB, so the equation between length and quality must be balanced. In the other hand, there are programs that make buffering while capturing which allows you to make a continuous capturing untill you run out of disk space, no matter how many GB you have. These programs do the job of separating each .AVI file so when you've finished, you obtain a sequence of many .AVI files without loosing frames. "Fast capture v.2.5" from FAST MULTIMEDIA is an example of such a program.

Besides this, there is no need actually to have a bigger than 2GB .avi, as you can later merge them in a NLE software like Premiere and export all the sequence to .MPEG.

-- Matias (petrellm@telefonica.com.ar), October 04, 1999.

Matias is not entirely correct.

The capture program AV_IO will capture up to an avi size of 4G but no program that is controlled by the Gates system will accept that file size and allow it to be processed. Some of the new dv capture cards have software that will actually handle up to 4G in one file I believe, with no experience I cannot comment on that.

However, AV_IO has the ability to capture up to 100 multiple files without dropping frames between them.

I only have a 9.5G video drive and I can capture 52 minutes of video at 3M/s=9300M in one session and as long as you keep the files below say 2000M each (5 in this case) you can then load them onto a NLE editing program timeline (Premiere 5.1 for example).

If you are capturing at a size other than full frame then the data rate will be less and you can certainly approach the limit of 72 minutes for a vcd in one session.

With a program like Digigami's MegaPEG plugin for Premiere you can then encoded from the timeline directly to mpeg-1 for a VCD burn without having to loose quality by staying below 2G's and adjusting the data rate.

Cheers

-- Ross McL (rmclennan@esc.net.au), October 04, 1999.