Guys, once again I need your help.
1. What is the best captuing software available for compressed or uncompressed avi capturing???
2. Which is the best format for capturing?: compressed avi or uncompressed avi??? I am looking for highest quality final video???

Thanks in advance!!!
Geek

1) Probably Virtual Dub, although I would argue that it's not simple to use and if you don't know what you're doing, it has so many options that it's pretty easy to record garbage by setting/changing something you shouldn't. The options give you incredible control over the final result, but they also make it real easy for newbies to shoot themselves in the foot.
2) Uncompressed is best. Using a lossless codec like Huffy is fine. You will need a LOT of disk space if you are going to record AVI video, especially in uncompressed mode.

I just want to give you something to think about. In my opinion, it's not worth the extra time and trouble to record AVI video and then encode it to MPEG-1/2 as opposed to just recording directly to MPEG-1 or 2 as the case may be. Quality is subjective though. For some people, it may be worth spending many hours to improve the quality of videos of they make. Other people have more important things to do with their time than to record AVI and encode. Some people think that AVI encoding is barely, if any, better than recording directly to MPEG-2. I suggest you try some tests and see if you really think it's worth the time and effort to go down this path. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't,
but that's your decision. No doubt some will respond on how great AVI->MPEG-2 conversion is, but I can show you some directly recorded MPEG-2 clips that look pretty terrific too.

I agree that some Programs are good at Captureing Directly to Mpeg2 and you can get some fairly good results if you find the Best settings and are useing a Good Mpeg capture program..But the thing is that Captureing from an analog Source can be quite dirty at the best of times so every Thing you can do to achieve the Best Quality is worth it in My opinion, Cuz if it is worth doing it is worth doing right.And as My estimed Colegue said a lot of poeple will say that captureing to Lossless or nearly lossless AVI then encodeing to mpeg with a Good mpeg encoder is the best way to go if you don"t mind spending more time at it..With me it is actually Quicker to Capture to AVI then encode to mpeg Cuz I usually capture Movies on TV so I have to edit out Commercials and Mpeg files Can be Difficult to edit properly..and even when I do Capture to Mpeg I usually Re-Encode it anyways Cuz To capture the best Quality Mpeg you have to use Quite high Bitrates which make files that are much to big to fit on a CD-R But will fit on a DVD if you are Doing DVD"s..But I guess it is Up to you to determine what is Good enough Quality for you..So I would sudgest if you want to capture to AVI then encode to Mpeg to Use "Virtual Dub" to capture to AVI useing something like "HuffyUV" or if you don"t have very much Disk space then Use "Pic-Video Mjpeg" which is a Good Quality Codec But definately not lossless, and you should capture to YUV or YUY2 ColorSpace, and to encode to Mpeg ProCoder is Good for Dirty or Noisy AVI sources and so is Tmpgenc, and I have gotten good results useing CCE SP 2.64-2.66 with AVISynth or Virtual dub or Tmpgenc filters..But if you want to try to capture directly to Mpeg2 then I would sugest trying "Intervideo WinDVR or WinCoder" which are Both Very good at captureing to Mpeg, But you will need a Fairly Fast CPU if you want to capture at High resolutions....anyway Good Luck....

avi_io is the best capturing app out there for avi's. Very small, stable and locks A/V sync. Allows custom resolutions and enough options to get you some nice flexibility without gettting into trouble. Markus Zing also gives great tech support and it is only $25.

The BIG Problem that I have found with AVI_IO is that it only Captures to 4gb files even if you have NTFS so if you want to capture say 2 hours of Uncompressed AVI you will have something like 35 avi files to deal with instead of one big one..And another BIG problem That I get with it is that The IO Buffers Overflow all the time, so I am limited in the Resolutions I can capture and the codecs I can use Cuz higher resolutions and Some codecs Cause the IO Buffers to overflow...One Really good AVI Capture program That I have really Been Getting into is a Program Called "Video Edit Magic 1.8" it is a Great Editing Program and It has a Great little Capture app with it, the Cool thing about this program Is that It has a Lot of the Functionallity of Adobe Premier of Ulead Media Studio Pro But the Program Is under 10MB, and it has Features that neither of the Have..If anyone wants to give it a Try let me know by e-Mailing me and I"ll try to hook you Up with it.....

I will try using virtual dub...I don't care about how long does it take..I do care about the quality though.. I agree with Luisifer...I preferred capturing in avi format and encode avi using either CCE or TMPGEnc.

Thank you guys for your very helpful advice & opinions..
You guys are the great!!!!

Thanks
Geek!!!

Greetings:
I'd like to give Video Edit Magic 1.8 a try if you can hook me up.


Bob

Buddy
I need it and here is my e-amil address:
pamin@charter.net

Thanks
GeeK!!!