What codec are you using (to _store_ caps)

I may as well start it off. I'm using XviD - 2 pass - 512x384 - the filesizes are around 250-300MB for a 30min show (adverts cut) and 500-600MB for a 60min show. (adverts cut) I'm doing it strictly for the quality. With CDs so cheap, and myself lacking a DVD player (ruling out a benefit of (S)VCD), its what works for me. what works for you?

I capture less important daily shows to Divx and stuff that I might want to save to Pic-mjpeg and then reencode to Divx. I fit an hour show on a CD with a 2-pass file at 1500kbps with 192kbps mp3 audio. Recently, I bumped the Divx bitrate up to 2000kbps to fit 2 hour shows on 3 CDs. Capturing straight to mpeg2 gives the best video quality but I don't for convenience. The file sizes are a bit big for CD and I don't know of anything that can slice 'n dice mpeg2 files as easily as VirtualDub can with avi (suggestions?).

You both make excellent points, and I must say this is quite an intelligent discussion! @Neo: I know that using a compile from the stable branch of XviD has been proven to make a 100% compliant encode (verified with msfdam, etc.), and even today you can use the MP4 container, but there is one thing that concerns me, and that is resolution. We all know that SVCD is limited to 480x480, and DVD is 352,704,720, etc. Essentially, they all have pre-determined resolutions. Do you think that most future standalones will 1) support square pixels, and 2) play most of the different resolutions that are being used right now. Thus, even though you have a proper, 100% compliant MP4 file, if the resolution used was, say, 704x304, 352x240, 448x336, or even 720x480 without the proper aspect ratio, would it really work on a standalone? Of course this is all speculation, but it's something I've thought about in the past, and I'd be interested to hear other's thoughts. To keep this OT, I use XviD, MPEG1, and MPEG2 to store captures...whatever tool suits the job. cjv

Haha, Swan, I know what you mean. In fact I believe that many people were born without brains (how can they survive?)... By the way (and to be on-topic again): For archiving purposes I use mainly DivX and MPEG-2 (currently in SVCD format, but sooner or later I'll switch to DVD). bb

I'm sorry if I offended because someone misunderstood. I wasn't calling Swan or anyone else names only saying even an idiot (i.e. an inexperienced pc user) could use movie maker 2 to create highmat cds by following the wizard with very acceptable quality. It doesn't get any lower level than that.

Fingernailx - that was my fault, I guess I read it too fast, I understand what you were trying to say now. About you capture procedure.... Why don't you simply convert the capped file to a type 2 file and feed it directly into vdub instead of leaving it as a type 1 and extracting the audio? Just wondering. Mac