I have a DSS Satellite system. I record a lot of movies to VHS for my own library. VHS wears out and takes up a lot of space for the tapes. The quality from the DSS Receiver is great. I would like to output the A/V signal from the DSS Receiver to my computer and burn the movie to VCD, better quality then VHS and allot less storage space. Any thoughts on how to do this?

-- Victor Parrish (vparrish@pcconnection.com), February 05, 2001

Answers

You will need a capture card to get the signal into your computer to record it and then go thru the long drawn out process of encoding it to VCD. I have tried capturing DSS signal and then encoding to VCD and while DSS signal is excellent in its original format, once encoded to VCD, i noticed lots of pixelation and felt the process wasn't worth it. Probably better off to go buy the dvd then you have it in pristine format forever and you'll save a lot of time too.

tygrus

-- tygrus (tygrus2000@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

DSS (as with audio CD's) has two sources of input quality. Most of the new programs are recorded digitally, though some of their programs, especially the old ones, are analog. (Most of the new shows on the FOOD channel are pretty much noise free vs re-run's of "Hogan's Hero's".)

I also have experimented with captured from DSS. Due to the distance from DSS to PC, I've only made my captures via coax input rather than RCA or SVideo. Both Avi-raw and MPG1 captures of low action and animation were of higher quality than VHS. No noise or noticeable pixelation. Of course my VCR is low quality to begin with. Until my processor upgrade (later this month) my capture options are limited.

What was your set up when capturing from DSS as far as processor, input card, input connection, codec, and high/low action that produced the blockyness and pixelation?

Has anyone done a DSS capture with either the DivX;) or MJPeg codec's?

-- me (snake_mountain@hotmail.com), February 07, 2001.