As stated in another thread, I have a DC-10, and I'm having a horrendous time trying to make decent VCDs.

I've now been advised to invest in a Broadway capture card. It's a little close to the edge of what I want to spend, and it looks like I can only get it through the mail. So my question is: Is it worth it?

Through verious posts on newsgroups, etc, I'm still questioning the ability to make a VCD that is VHS+ quality, particularly with video that involves a lot of scene changes, motion, panning, etc.

People's opinions are reatly appreciated-- I also need to know if there is any other purchases I'll need to make to get this setup to work... I already have EZ-CD creator.

What it all boils down to is: Can someone out there give me some advice that will either quiet my nervousness, or tell me that it's justified?

-- Michael Patterson (mike@col.hp.com), July 23, 1999

Answers

The miro and broadway and most capture card that captures to MJPEG uses the same Zoran chip. Remember to capture using MJPEG set at high quality when you are capturing and want high resolution. Also use a good capturing software such as Premiere 4 or 5. My Matrox Rainbow Runner, which costs about the same as the Miro DC10, using Premiere 5.1 kicks ass.

-- (jellyrol@sfsu.edu), July 23, 1999.

The last poster was wrong. The Broadway pro does not capture to mjpeg, (well you can but you dont have to capture to avi) but captures to mpeg-1.

Broadway Pro is used by all the VCD groups out there (the ones that release those bootlegged theatre movies) and produces STUNNING quality from even VHS tapes!

Now, I have a Darim MPEGator and I must say that that card is in many ways better than the Broadway Pro (darim mpegator can be seen at http://www.darvision.com). It provides many features broadway doesn't like vcd audio only encoding, multiple resolutions, pause/resume encoding (great for on the fly editing), realtime preview while recording, strict white book VCD file creation, bundled vcd creation software, and an SDK (see the comparison chart of Darim MPEGator vs. other MPEG capture boards at http://www.darvision.com/products/mpegator/mtrcomp.html). Only downside to Darim MPEGator is the $1400 or so price but WELL worth it.

But Broadway Pro is worth it, although it's a pricey $800 or so dollars. MJPEG (avi) to mpeg no matter how the pro's tell you how much is better, really isn't, in terms of ease of use and the amount of tiem you save with realtime encoding.

Hope I've helped

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@tsoft.com), July 23, 1999.

A couple suggestions:

To get an idea of what VCD quality is possible, try ordering a movie on VCD (e.g. Total Recall) and doing a comparison between the VCD and VHS quality.

I'd also suggest asking on rec.video.desktop, and perhaps looking at the FAQs under http://www.oldskool.org/mpeg/.

-- Russil Wvong (rwvong@geocities.com), July 24, 1999.

Broadway pro is good if you are doing stuff that exceeds the white book standard requirements for VCD 2.0. The VCD 2.0 std is only 352x240 at 29.97 fps at 1.175 compression. Anything above it won't work.

If you spend $800+ on it to make something with less than or equall tv quality resolution, then it's not worth it.

By the way if you want 704x480 at 60fps resolution, then you will also need a SCSI connection with an AV drive. You will be spending at least $2000+ for this set up.

-- (jellyrol@sfsu.edu), July 25, 1999.