A Video Capture Question

dear friends,
i have a wintv hvr1600 video capture card and i would like to capture video,
but i am not sure what is the best methode to go by. i am currently using the
software that came with wintv video card to capture, but the files are too dang
big. is there a capturing software that will let me capture in avi or do i
just capture in mpeg format and then convert to avi? and also what is the best
encoding way (mpeg, avi, xvid) i am looking for a balanced encoder, for example
i would like to capture a 30 min show to around a 180mb.
thank you in advance,
d

one easy way is to capture it as mpeg-2 video then re-encode it to 2 pass xvid
(guide here but use unresticted profile level, don't use global motion
comensation, or quarter pixel, don't worry about .avs stuff, use the file size
setting not bitrate h**p://www.doom9.org/xvid-vdub-11.htm) with virtual dub mod.

if the video needs to be deinterlaced one filter is deinterlace muksun (you have
to search for it to download. if possible have you make the mpeg-2 video
interlaced and not progressive). don't use the blend deinterlace that comes with
vdub. but make sure the deinterlace is before the resize in the filter list. one
way for the video filters is
1. null transform (use this to click cropping)
2. deinterlace
3. resize (use lanzcos3 filter mode)

for audio you can either extract it (streams >> streams list) from the 2nd pass
file after the video encoding, re-encode it with a program, add the new mp3
audio while disabling the previous, set video to direct stream copy, save file.
or you can get lame acm and have it encode the audio when its encoding the video
so that way the 2nd pass file can be the final file.

also you can use vdub mod for commercial editing. for fast browsing on the video
hold alt and left or right. get to just before the commercial break starts (when
the video is black screen) press home then find where the commercial break ends,
press end, del.

if the show needs to be ivtc (assuming its interlaced video) then go to video
frame rate, click reconstruct from fields adaptive, and i've found that using
deinterlace blend works better in this case but only to fix any remaining
interlacing lines (there should not be many)