Hi all, newbie here and hoping I can get some help/advice! Have recently got myself an Easycap USB video catpure device (one of these). It came with Ulead VideoStudio SE DVD. What I am trying to achieve is recording TV shows onto my laptop, to be watched later by plugging the laptop into the DVD, via it's built in S-Video port. So have no desire to capture great quality video, no desire to edit or burn what I capture. Three main considerations are I need the video/audio to be in sync (more later!) and the pic to be good enough for a 27" screen, and the video size to be manageable, have only 5gb spare HDD left! So, I tried using Ulead. Works a treat using avi settings, but file size too large. So tried WMV instead. File size great, but stuttering jumpy picture. MPEG gave good file size, great picture, but left me with audio/video out of sync (in sync at start, then gradually out of sync, upto 3 seconds after 30 mins of playback!). So I thought I'd try different software. VirtualVCR didn't help, as only produced huge file sizes. Windows Movie Maker only seems to produce in WMV format, with same stuttering issues as above. Anyone any suggestions?! 1) WMV is great for size, but picture keeps stuttering, anything I can do to make this better? OR 2) MPEG works fine too, bigger file than WMV, but not so big that I can't cope, but then there are sync issues, how do I solve these?? Really hoping for some help/advice, and am hoping to either use the software I have, or any freeware.
Sorry, should say plug straight to TV, not DVD as original post. Also, I would be looking to record shows of 1 hour length, 2.5 hours max (for sports). With WMV I have been using the highest settings (640x480, 2.1mpbs bit rate) Lastly, my spec; Toshiba Tecra M3 Pentium M - 2GHz 1.00 GB RAM 60GB HDD (5GB Free)
I would definitely suggest you get another HD! I try to keep 20% open on all drives and keep them DEFRAGGED! 10% is almost mandatory. Do not capture to your operating system partion. It is the default location for most apps to place files. Move the default to another partition or hard drive. You can skunk your PC right out if you slip up and fill your hard drive or operating system partition by accident.
In both applications that capture to WMV, make sure you have the correct frame rate for the TV signal you are recording: 25 fps for PAL and 29.97 f/s for NTSC. If this is not set, audio will lose sync gradually.
