I have a PC with a 1GHz Athlon processor, 256MB of memory, 60 GB hard disk, TDK CD-RW drive and ATI All-in-Wonder video/TV card. My dream is to able to record TV shows like The Simpsons to VCDs instead of recording them to VHS like I do now. I've been trying to make my own VCDs and not been real impressed with the results. Using ATI's Digital VCR, the only way I could get a VCD burned was to record the TV as a low res AVI file (something like 352 X 240 which is the best ATI will let me do in AVI format) and convert it to MPEG-1 format. The result was unacceptible. The picture and sound were terrible. I also tried using Cyberlink's (www.gocyberlink.com) demo copy of Power VCR II. I was able to make a VCD using Power VCR II and the sound was good, but the picture was poor, worse than VHS, but better than what I got using ATI's Digital VCR. Whenever I try to capture a higher resolution file using Digital VCR or Power VCR II, Nero gives me an error message when I try to burn the VCD. It says something like "Input file is stream encoded, which is invalid for a video CD." I have a few questions: 1) What exactly does "stream encoded" mean and how can I turn it off? 2) Any recommendations for software I can use that can also do SVCD format? 3) I'm pretty ignorant about video. Are there any good books I can get that will explain the concepts I need to know to make better quality VCDs? For example, I used Virtual Dub to convert my AVI file to MPEG-1, but since I didn't really understand what I was doing that could be a big part in my VCD looking so bad. 4) Is it realistic to think that I could get at least VHS quality (or better) on VCDs I make myself without spending more than $500 on additional hardware/software I may need? Thanks for helping this newbie out. Jason

-- Jason Shumate (Jason.Shumate@sita.int), December 06, 2000

Answers

Go to http://www.vcdhelper.com/ (I would give you the direct link but vcdhelper is down tonight. should be up tomorrow) In their How To Capture section is a link to all things ati releated. Tweaks etc.... A page dedicated just to the ati.

-- Nick D (nickdoogie@goplay.com), December 07, 2000.

1. download Divx3.11alpha codecs. 2. download Radium MP3 codecs. 3. download VirtualDub1.3d 4. Install DivX3.11 and Radium MP3 codecs and virtualDub. 5. Set your video buffer in the capture setting to 60 (max..don't try higher). 6. Set your fps to 14.99fps or 24fps if you like, since you are recording cartoon instead of live people. (The frame rate will be converted to 29.97fps during the VCD encoding process anyway). 7. Set Divx to low motion, using 1 as keyframe per second, and data rate anywhere from 750 to 950. Test it out and see what you like better. Personally, I used 750, since I record all my video to DivX AVI now...no more VCD ( 2hrs or 1 movie in a single CD..why not? and use the BookPC as my player out to TV, while my laptop is my VCR on the road ). 8. Set your sound to 48Khz 16bit stereo, no compression PCM format. You can compress it later if you choose to save the AVI(DivX). Compressing the audio to MP3 is 6:1 ratio. This compression will allow you to fit 2hr or so into one single CD. 9. Capture your clip using internal capture mode. Note: 352x240 is as good as the bigger frame size!!!! If you have S-Video input, then use it instead of composite video. The above setting should allow you to capture about 3.5 hours of video/audio, and the file size is about 3.2Gigs (no audio compression: VirtualDub can create AVI(DivX) that is beyond the 2.0Gigs barrier ).: No audio/video sync problem here either. 10. Use TMPGENc12b to convert your AVI(DivX) clip to VCD/SVCD by using the built-in VCD/SVCD templates. The conversion process should be 1:2 ratio here. 1 hour of video equals 2 hours of encoding. 11. Burn the VCD to CD-R using Nero5.x.x 12. Watch the VCD and drink a beer or milk if you prefer :P 13. Your system is exactly the same as mine...don't need to put in further $$$..you'll not get it any better..the result is equal to the $1,800.00 Optibase quality (I also i have the Optibase). The only different between them is the encoding time (2hrs).

-- lnguyen (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), December 11, 2000.