I am using an Avermedia TVPhone to capture .avi's to convert to .mpgs to make VideoCDs. The TVPhone uses the Brooktree chip to capture, and when I attempt to capture an .avi at 320x240, BTYUV, 30fps, 16 bit stereo sound at 44KHz the .avi files are about 1 gigabyte for 5 minutes. I need to capture at least an hour, and getting a new hard drive for 12GB of swap space is not worth it. I know there are mpeg capture cards, but when I converted my 1GB .avi file to a 50MB .mpg, the quality was 100%. Is there any .avi compression that I can use that will keep my resolution at 320x240, frame rate at 30, and sound at 16 bit stereo? How is everyone else capturing their .avi's? Thanks.

-- Darren L. (dllivi0@engr.uky.edu), July 02, 1999

Answers

You'll get a lot of different answers on this one....but I use the ATI All in Wonder video card on my computer to capture. With there codecs..I usually get around an hour of avi just over 2 GB with the VCD format. This card also allows me to plug in cable TV and hook up a camcorder and VCR. Also lets you display your screen on a TV(video out). The card runs a little over a hundred US dollars. www.buy.com has the cheapest price on the net.

-- Robert(Slide)Snider (rsnider1@san.rr.com), July 02, 1999.