Video

 Update 2007.11.10 – New Video methods

For many years now we have relied upon VdieoWave IV and TMPGenc to do our video processing but recently I have become aware of several new methods that I am sure are going to replace the methods I used in the past.

These new methods involve a system called framserving where a text file is used to send the video from one application to another. This avoids encoding, decoding and reencoding which is a lossy and time consuming process.

The first frame server I started using was DVD2AVI which allowed a DVD to be ripped with DVDdecrypter and then the .VOB files could be read with DVD2AVI and a script called a .d2v script could be written and read with TMPGenc to produce and encode to MPEG or AVI. Recently DVD2AVI has been updated to a new program called DGindex which is greatly improved. The new version allows you to read MPEG files as well as VOB files and is the best route I have found to edit MPG files. Load the MPG in DGindex create a .d2v text file and load that file in TMPGenc and produce uncompressed AVI's of the clips you require. When using TMPGenc I always create a sound track and use the standard DVD template so that all my files are compatible with each other. This is important as all the files in a single AVIsynth – AVS file must be the same.

From here we would take our files to Video Wave IV for further editing but now rather than encoding and re-encoding to get to a final MPG product I have started using another frame server called AVIsynth. It is a very interesting program as it creates an ASCII text file that other programs like media players see as a video. This text file, an AVS script, is a list of AVI or .d2v files that are joined together to create a continuous video and there is also the ability to apply various changes to each file in the script. Trimming, resizing, cropping, titles, information reports, frame numbering, color correction, sharpness, and many more things are possible through additions to the ASCII text script. This script can be viewed as video in any media player and adjusted until the presentation is the way you want it and then the same AVS script can be loaded in TMPGenc for rendering to AVI or MPEG.

Since all the processing was done in the form of scripts numerous decodings and encodings are eliminated.

I played around writing scripts with Notepad to do various operations and test what was possible but in a very short time I got tired of typing long repetitious commands so I put together an interface to allow me to pick files, apply the various convolutions, and view the resulting AVS using Media Player Classic. This program is still in the development stage but I have it set up to do some basic convolutions on AVI and .d2v files. I am in the process now of setting it up to make a call to DGindex to create .d2v files from MPG.

Update: 2007.04.29 - Video Capture Device 

I am considering this Happauge Video Capture Card.  I notice it got good reviews from people using it with MythTV.  I have been thinking of adding an alternative OS boot to Linux to run Myth TV.  That would allow me to use a multimedia machine also as a Tivo. 

What is MythTV?

MythTV is a collection of software which runs under the Linux operating system, and provides the functions commonly known as a PVR or DVR (personal, or digital, video recorder) — essentially, it's a computerized VCR, similar to a TiVo or a Replay... but since it's open source software, if you don't like the way it does something, you can always change it — that's how much of its current functionality came about in the first place.

In addition to the basic PVR functions of recording and playing back scheduled programs and allowing you to schedule recordings automatically in advance, MythTV has a plugin system which permits it to be extended by other programmers; plugins currently exist for playing external video, viewing photos and listening to music files, using your TV and a web camera as a video-telephone over the Internet, browsing the web, retrieving current local weather, and many other functions.

There are two types of plugin for MythTV

The official Plugins, and the Unofficial Plugins.

About Myth TV see:  http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/User_Manual:Index

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116633

About video: < namespace="" prefix="o" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xml="true">

I spend a lot of time doing video.  My friend Vern with whom I do a lot of projects have over the years done thousands of hours of video production.  We have used a variety of software and hardware and have developed methods to accomplish our work.  I am going to tell you some of the methods we are presently using and have found good.

Video capture from NTSC:

We have used many video capture methods over the years.  NTSC devices don’t provide very good video so you can’t get DVD quality from any NTSC device.  This includes camcorders, VHS machines, broadcast tv, and even the output of your satellite receiver.  That being said, yes we still make DVD’s from NTSC. 

On our studio machine we use a Pinnacle DV500 board with a piece of software called Scenalyzer.  It produces 640x480 AVI’s, which must have some compression as there is 9.5min in two gig files.  These files edit very well with many pieces of software.   Our goal is presently to go from these AVI captures to a  DVD.   If we want to do special effects we go to a video editor with the AVI’s and edit as AVI’s there.  This is usually done in one minute sequences which will be encoded to MPG2 720x480 and joined together with TMPGenc.exe into scenes.  The scenes each being about 15minutes are authored to a DVD for the final production.  There it is NTSC to DVD!  This way we get NTSC video quality on a DVD.

On my office machine where I have a Directv satellite I wanted to be able to capture video off the satellite.  I really didn’t want to spend big money doing this so I researched capture boards and found the Kworld capture board.  Having used it for some time now I can say at $24 it’s a bargain.  For someone wanting to convert his or her camcorder movies to digital format it’s a bargain.  If I want to get the highest quality for a short sequence I can capture as 720x480 avi and process with TEMPGenc to crop, color correct, brightness and contrast correct and much more.  These clips I take to MGI video wave for transitions and titles. NTSC is just not very much resolution but the results will be usable.              

I have had bad experience with ATI products.  I hear good things about Haupauge and I am considering a USB device from them.  Note that USB2.0 is not fast enough for 720x480 avi you will be limited to .mpg.