I want to use Huffy in real time capturing.
Huffy is fine for real-time capture. Perhaps the best.
I have also heard Huffy video does not play back well on the computer.
VLC, for example, doesn't play Huffy avi's worth a crap. It's not designed to. But Powerdvd plays the avi's smoothly. I would expect Windvd would, as well.
Would this be a problem on a playable dvd and what could be done about that if it is?
No problem at all. Whatever mpeg2 encoder you use, will use the Huffy avi as information, and the encoder will create an entirely new mpeg2 file.
How do I calibrate it?
If you mean color/brightness/contrast, then Virtualdub gives you basic settings. I suspect the capture card driver can give it fancier settings like gamma, if the driver is written to do that.
In Virtualdub, go to File->Capture.
Video->Source gives you those basic settings. (And this is where you choose the source (in my case: tuner, composite or S-Video).
If you have preview or overlay on, you'll be able to see the video, so you can make those settings by eye.
Video->Filters->Add gives you a choice of built-in filters. Some of those can affect color & brightness & junk. You can probably google up a gamma filter to add to Virtualdub. But a filter might slow Virtualdub down, and could potentially cause dropped frames.
You need to set the compression, of course.
And there are various other settings that are, hopefully, self-explanatory. Go through them all & see what you can figure out.
It's been years since I captured. My Virtualdub shows the capture card driver, I don't think I ever had to tell Virtualdub that it was there.
I also have DScaler installed. I know that can convert interlaced to progressive but I'm not sure if I should. My footage is all hand held and has a lot of action. I want to test it first on captured footage before I capture with it on. How do I make sure it's not on and then use it later?
I haven't read much about DScaler. I seem to have it installed, because Virtualdub has a "BT8X8 Tweaker" (My capture driver is BT848); and when I click the tweaker, it tells me to copy several DScaler files into the VirtualDub application directory.
In any case, I'm sure you would have to do something to make DScaler do deinterlacing, or to make it create 60 fps progressive.
DScaler can convert that to 60 frame per second - but then you won't be able to play the file on a normal tv. I don't believe you could even make a 60-frame-per-second dvd.
De-interlacing, (with DScaler or anything else) will lose quality, by throwing away/blending/interpolating fields.
Dvd standards allow interlaced, and all dvd players will handle it effortlessly.
If you were to deinterlace, you would have to introduce pulldown - an interlacing created by repeating fields. And that will cause a slight jerkyness in motion. (We here in NTSC-land are used to that. But true interlacing still looks nicer to us).
(I suspect all modern sports coverage is from videocameras, and is broadcast at 60 fields per second).
So a highlight reel (or any other dvd you make) will look best if it's left interlaced. Nice, smooth action.
I need really simple instructions as I don't have a clue about script settings or just number settings.
My editing system is vegas 4 with Windows XP. All the video is from Hi8 tapes.
Vegas is designed to use avi, so edit your Huffy video with Vegas.
Anything about converting to mpg, or about filtering before editing, is best left to people more experienced, with those, than I.
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