Hello all . . .

I'm new to this forum, so forgive me if I've posted in the wrong place. The story thus far is this: I've been using a tv capture card (a BT878-based card) and various generic apps to capture VHS video and, via apps like DVD2AVI and TempgEnc, turn them into a suitable MPG file for VCD creation.

At the risk of swearing, I've been using Windows XP for all this work. I've toyed with the idea of using a flavour of Linux for this (mainly 'cause of performance issues) but don't want to move over until I know the required software is available for Linux.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, ideas etc.

B.

Ok, yes this software is available. Well, at least to capture the video, I know how to compress it, but I haven't delved into the world of VCD in Linux yet. The prog to compress is called AVI2DIVX.

To capture, bttv is what I have seen is recommended... If you see Trickykid on here, ask him. Either Acid or him know more about this (I bet both of them).

i've nerev had too many good results from tv capture. bttv is just the driver, and nothing more, so can't capture video in itself. results from vcr and dvr work, i.e. they are usually sync'd, but the output file formats are fairly restrictive, and the divx they create is fairly poor and easily corrupted. better quality programs such as ffmpeg, FFMPEGrec, mp1e and a few others. i'd recommend using these, assuming you can get a/v sync ok, to record to a large mpeg file and then encode it using MPlayer's Mencoder IF you want divx. avi2divx is pretty poor, and there are better divx codecs around than avifile, e.g. ffmpeg, which mplayer uses. MPlayer's tv support is sadly video only but hopefully before long audio should be added and then mplayer will be the only decent way to do it.

MPLayer also comes with a video cd creation script, mencvcd which will enocode mpeg to vcd or svcd format and automatically burna disc if you want it to.

Mplayer is like the freakin Swiss Army knife of computers, only better. Usually if a program is a "do all" program, it really doesn't do anything real well. But Mplayer freakin rules! Thanks Acid for the clarification.

well there are still holes in it, like i said i *REALLY* want a decent way to copy from tv card... we're getting there but the MPlayer developers don't know anything about bt878 cards, the guy that did what is implementedhas gone his own way now. audio is implemented on BSD tho, so i may well just use it under there as well.

I was using vcr, avifile and xawtv to capture off my tv card (ati tv wonder pro) and the tests I ran 1 minute captures approx 11-15 megs depending on how I set it up. The main problem that I had was when things moved fast on screen the picture had lines on it. I suspect this is from the default divx garbage that avifile has. I'm going to attempt to use xvid for the codec this time around, I hope to have some results to post within the next week.
When I get it down I'll post the software to my web site with detailed setup text files. (although no idea how long it will take me to get it right )

well now that I have mandrake 9 installed I attempted to get avifile running, it said it installed and I did not see any errors in the make process. However when I tried to compile/make vcr it gives me a bunch of errors... so I'm trouble shooting that. When I have versions that work I'll make it available.

i *REALLY* wouldn't recommend vcr, it's shit. mplayer looks a slight bit more complex as it's a much more complex program, but the results are vastly better.

Really? I'm trying to setup recording of tv shows for when I'm not able to watch them. Does Mplayer support this? I have it installed and it's sweet for watching stuff but I was not aware it did this.

Cheers,
Muddy

Who's that idiot? Oh wait, it's me 6 months ago...

he he he, I don't even remember replying. Oh well...

I do have a question, this wasn't just a bash on the idiot reply

What is the VERY easiest TV card to get rolling on linux right now? I'm lookin for one and just don't want to get something that is going to be amazingly rough as I've got enought problems atm.

Thanks

I bought the ATI Tv Wonder (NOT the VE) and installed it in both redhat and mandrake both auto detected it and once I clicked xawtv it ran thourgh programmed in the channels and I was in business, it was very simple and easy.

I have the VE wonder tv card and other than the channels and wanting to take over my sound card (as of yet, i still have to unplug the jumper so as i dont have to listen to the static from the tv)