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Here are alternatives for video capture settings I was thinking:
| Resolution: PAL (NTSC) | Chroma | Comment |
| 480x576 (480x480) | 4:2:2 (YUY2) | SVCD format |
| 720x576 (720x480) | 4:2:2 (YUY2) | SVCD x 1.5 and DVD format |
| 768x576 (768x480) | 4:2:2 (YUY2) | Maximum and 32 multiple |
| Codec | Tuning | Comment |
| Huffyuv | Fastest | Best quality, from 300 to 500MB/minute |
| PICVideo | 20, 18, 16 | Better compression (smooth picture) |
| Indeo 5.11 | 100, 85, 70, 50 | Excellent compression (keeps the details) |
| DivX (MPEG-4) | Extreme compression |
I tried to capture with 4:2:0 chroma with I420 setting but PCTV can only capture YUY2 (4:2:2) and RGB. Native format YUY2 is preferred.
Here are alternative for video capture settings (audio is PCM 44.1KHz 16 bits stereo, numbers for 1 minute film, 25 frames per second, no drop frame, capture done with my Dell Computer 4100):
| Codec | Setting | Resolution | CPU usage | Video rate (KB/s) | Compression | For 1 minute | For 1GB | Comment |
| Huffyuv | Fastest | 480x576 | 70 % | 6,523 K/s | 2.1 : 1 | 372 MB | 2:40 | Perfect quality |
| Huffyuv | Fastest | 720x576 | 95 % | 8,170 K/s | 2.5 : 1 | 488 MB | 2:03 | Perfect quality |
| Huffyuv | Fastest | 768x576 | 100% | 8,155 K/s | 2.7 : 1 | 486 MB | 2:03 | Perfect quality |
| PICVideo | 18 | 480x576 | 60 % | 1,145 K/s | 11.8 : 1 | 76 MB | 13:09 | Good quality (*) |
| PICVideo | 18 | 720x576 | 90 % | 1,351 K/s | 15.0 : 1 | 90 MB | 11:06 | Good quality |
| PICVideo | 18 | 768x576 | 93 % | 1,299 K/s | 16.6 : 1 | 86 MB | 11:37 | Good Quality |
| PICVideo | 16 | 480x576 | 50 % | 629 K/s | 21.5 : 1 | 48 MB | 20:50 | Quality acceptable (**) |
| PICVideo | 16 | 720x576 | 82 % | 735 K/s | 27.6 : 1 | 54 MB | 18:31 | Quality acceptable (**) |
| PICVideo | 16 | 768x576 | 85 % | 735 K/s | 29.4 : 1 | 54 MB | 18:31 | Quality acceptable (**) |
| DivX | LM (***) | 480x576 | 100 % | 600 K/s | 22.5 : 1 | 46 MB | 21:44 | Quality acceptable |
| MPEG-4 | 8s (****) | 480x576 | 100 % | 408 K/s | 33.2 : 1 | 34 MB | 29:24 | Quality acceptable |
| MPEG-4 | 1s (****) | 480x576 | 100 % | 408 K/s | 33.2 : 1 | 34 MB | 29:24 | Quality acceptable |
| MPEG-4 | 8s (****) | 720x576 | 100 % | 405 K/s | 50.1 : 1 | 34 MB | 29:24 | Quality acceptable |
(*) sometimes PICVideo provides with a corrupted AVI file which means to remake
the capture.
(**) artefacts are visible on stills but movie quality is correct.
(***) Low Motion, key frame every 10 seconds, crisp 80, 6Mbps and I was unable
to capture higher resolution without drop frames.
(****) Microsoft MPEG-4 V3 codec, key frame every 8 seconds or 1 second, crisp
75, 3Mbps (can be captured with Windows Media Encoder 7 to ASF or WMV file).
I was not able to capture at higher resolution without drop frames. At 720x576,
buffering was much required.
I was absolutely unable to capture with Indeo 5.11 (maybe because interlaced signal). Please note that DivX and MPEG-4 codecs should not be used fro capture because their require too much CPU power and key frames, which are very distant, could be a trouble when editing video.
After encoding with TMPGEnc beta12a (default SVCD template), all clips are good quality, better than VCD. Picture got too much brightness and "jumpy" when a lot of motion when seen on TV set with Philips DVD-950. On PC, display is correct but interlacing is visible. The only clip with good brightness and no "jumpy" on TV set was the one capture with Huffyuv 480x576.
What we can state now is :
So I've summarized capture settings for SVCD in the following table:
| Codec | Setting | Resolution | Video rate (KB/s) | Compression | For 1 minute | For 1GB | Comment |
| Huffyuv | Fastest | 480x576 | 6,523 K/s | 2.1 : 1 | 372 MB | 2:40 | Preferred |
| PICVideo | 18 | 480x576 | 1,145 K/s | 11.8 : 1 | 76 MB | 13:09 | The best if compression is necessary |
| PICVideo | 18 | 720x576 | 1,351 K/s | 15.0 : 1 | 90 MB | 11:06 | Common format for SVCD and miniDVD |
| PICVideo | 18 | 768x576 | 1,299 K/s | 16.6 : 1 | 86 MB | 11:37 | Common format for SVCD and PC |
| PICVideo | 16 | 480x576 | 629 K/s | 21.5 : 1 | 48 MB | 20:50 | Preferred if higher compression needed |
| MPEG-4 | 8s | 480x576 | 408 K/s | 33.2 : 1 | 34 MB | 29:24 | For maximum compression |
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Version of the document: 1.0EN
Created: March 9 - 2001
Updated: March 14 - 2001
Author: Leon