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All reviews for Windows Media Capture
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The ratings I give this tool are completely subjective and I posted the listing for this tool. I'm a web designer needing to capture short sample video clips from a indie-video label client's DVDs and encode them for their web site. I've found this tool meets my needs perfectly. It's free and unsupported by Microsoft but a chimpanzee could use it.
I was already using a Matrox X100 card to capture DV and analog for video production and it includes a VFW codec to capture non-Matrox AVIs, in addition to the Matrox AVIs that I often use in normal DV work. I hooked up a set top DVD player to the X100 breakout box using S-video and analog audio to the RCA inputs. Any card that captures plain AVIs without subjecting them to a proprietary CODEC works. My matrox VFW utility allows me to do that.
When I want to capture clips, I start Capture Series 9 and make sure the settings are correct. When I set the Source I see my Matrox VFW settings controls appear in Capture 9's window. Using a simple combination of Capture 9 controls and the Matrox VFW controls - which are controlled via Capture 9 - I set the Source to S-video, which brings up the DVD players video signal in Capture 9. The Format setting is RGB which is proper for Internet video. I capture in 44.1 Mhz stereo audio although I could capture surround audio if desired. There are not many other settings to deal with. I shut off preview to my PC monitor through Capture 9's window since I can see the DVD playing in my NTSC production monitor. The directions say that - depending on your system - fewer frams may be dropped that way.
I capture at 320x240 and doubt many frames would be dropped at that size with Preview Video turned on using my system anyway. But capturing at 720x480 Capture 9 reported that a few frames were dropped - although after compressing for Internet, I doubt one would notice anyway.
In Capture 9 I can optionally pre-name a file that's designated as the capture file, i.e. "CapturedAVI." Then I can allow it to allocate disk space for all captured AVIs in the session. Doing this enhances capture performance. After capturing a clip is complete, the file must be named for real and the .AVI extension added since it doesn't do that automatically. After it saves the file with its final name and .AVI extension, I use the same "CapturedAVI" file to capture the next clip. The allocated capture space (my setting is 1000MB) remains allocated for subsequent captures. Since my captured files are about 500MB, Capture Series 9 dumps the excess upon naming and saving but keeps the 1000MB space allocation for subsequent captures - again in the interest of enhanced capture performance.
A 60 sec, 320x240 clip of uncompressed AVI is about 500MB. Compressing to high quality video of 600kbps from such a large AVI is the secret to superior compression, I have found. A good encoder has more raw material to work with.
I can very easily cue up the DVD to exactly where I want to snatch the clip from and then play in WMV Player to check the quality before compressing. They look great.
I can set Premiere Pro to handle this Microsoft AVI and not do any Matrox CODEC rendering of it. I can apply a video and audio fade in and fade out with needing to render. Then I export to whatever format I want using Adobe Media Export from PPro.
I will soon upgrade my batch compressor which will do the same fade ins/outs. Then I will be re-endode the raw AVIs again in batch mode when the need to arises since I'm archiving the AVIs. I just encoded to RealVideo version RTSP streams for this client and I already wish to do them over in RealVideo version 10, for 30 percent lower datarate at the same quality.
Of course captures could also be done from VHS using composite if desired.
If there is an easier, more efficient way to do this at such high quality, I'd love to hear it.
I was already using a Matrox X100 card to capture DV and analog for video production and it includes a VFW codec to capture non-Matrox AVIs, in addition to the Matrox AVIs that I often use in normal DV work. I hooked up a set top DVD player to the X100 breakout box using S-video and analog audio to the RCA inputs. Any card that captures plain AVIs without subjecting them to a proprietary CODEC works. My matrox VFW utility allows me to do that.
When I want to capture clips, I start Capture Series 9 and make sure the settings are correct. When I set the Source I see my Matrox VFW settings controls appear in Capture 9's window. Using a simple combination of Capture 9 controls and the Matrox VFW controls - which are controlled via Capture 9 - I set the Source to S-video, which brings up the DVD players video signal in Capture 9. The Format setting is RGB which is proper for Internet video. I capture in 44.1 Mhz stereo audio although I could capture surround audio if desired. There are not many other settings to deal with. I shut off preview to my PC monitor through Capture 9's window since I can see the DVD playing in my NTSC production monitor. The directions say that - depending on your system - fewer frams may be dropped that way.
I capture at 320x240 and doubt many frames would be dropped at that size with Preview Video turned on using my system anyway. But capturing at 720x480 Capture 9 reported that a few frames were dropped - although after compressing for Internet, I doubt one would notice anyway.
In Capture 9 I can optionally pre-name a file that's designated as the capture file, i.e. "CapturedAVI." Then I can allow it to allocate disk space for all captured AVIs in the session. Doing this enhances capture performance. After capturing a clip is complete, the file must be named for real and the .AVI extension added since it doesn't do that automatically. After it saves the file with its final name and .AVI extension, I use the same "CapturedAVI" file to capture the next clip. The allocated capture space (my setting is 1000MB) remains allocated for subsequent captures. Since my captured files are about 500MB, Capture Series 9 dumps the excess upon naming and saving but keeps the 1000MB space allocation for subsequent captures - again in the interest of enhanced capture performance.
A 60 sec, 320x240 clip of uncompressed AVI is about 500MB. Compressing to high quality video of 600kbps from such a large AVI is the secret to superior compression, I have found. A good encoder has more raw material to work with.
I can very easily cue up the DVD to exactly where I want to snatch the clip from and then play in WMV Player to check the quality before compressing. They look great.
I can set Premiere Pro to handle this Microsoft AVI and not do any Matrox CODEC rendering of it. I can apply a video and audio fade in and fade out with needing to render. Then I export to whatever format I want using Adobe Media Export from PPro.
I will soon upgrade my batch compressor which will do the same fade ins/outs. Then I will be re-endode the raw AVIs again in batch mode when the need to arises since I'm archiving the AVIs. I just encoded to RealVideo version RTSP streams for this client and I already wish to do them over in RealVideo version 10, for 30 percent lower datarate at the same quality.
Of course captures could also be done from VHS using composite if desired.
If there is an easier, more efficient way to do this at such high quality, I'd love to hear it.
Review by artistdomain on
Mar 1, 2004 Version: ver 9.0
OS: WinXP Ease of use: 10/10
Functionality: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
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