Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 analog capture bug/glitch

[L-Train]

Hello,

I just purchased a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 yesterday and I believe I have found a bug when capturing raw analog video from the S-Video or Composite input. When using VirtualDub, I noticed that some of my captures were a little bit darker than the others and decided to investigate. It turns out that shortly after capturing begins a "glitch" would occur that causes the picture to dim and stay dimmed. Now, this doesn't happen all the time and appears to be random. Here are 4 sequential frames of the glitch occurring (the first is a "good" frame):



I've uploaded a .zip containing two raw .avi captures (encoded with HuffYUV) to MediaFire here: http://www.mediafire.com/?pnjwwdavxxxk4aw . "bad.avi" has the glitch, "good.avi" does not. They were taken from the start of two separate captures and no frames were cut from the beginning.

I also noticed that under the "Video sources" menu in VirtualDub there are 2 S-Video inputs and 2 Composite inputs:



The first S-Video option displays the actual video stream, while the second seems to display either a completely green or completely red screen.

I can also get the glitch to occur (randomly) while I'm not capturing (i.e. when I'm in "Overlay" or "Preview" mode). If I go to the "Device" menu, select another device, then select the Hauppauge card, sometimes the glitch occurs. At this point it appears that if the glitch DID NOT occur then switching to the second S-Video option displays a green screen, and if the glitch DID occur then switching displays a red screen:



Notice that in the second of the "glitch" screenshots, the bottom portion of the screen has red fields. What I think is happening is that shortly after the card is initialized some error occurs that causes the second S-Video source to turn red, and also causes the first S-Video source to "glitch" and get dim.

I've tried the following to try and solve this issue, but the problem still persisted:

1) Try the driver on the CD that came with the card
2) Try the Composite input
3) Try a different version of VirtualDub
4) Try a different application (I tried iuVCS, Roxio Creator Pro 2011)
5) Try limiting the amount of RAM in msconfig to 3 GB
6) Try running at stock CPU speed
7) Try non-macrovision protected DVD
8) Try some other source (I tried an Xbox 360 via composite connection)

The test setup I have is the following:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 OC'd to 3.8 GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Drives: 80 GB Intel X25-M G2, 1 TB Samsung HD103SI
Capture Card: Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 (in Device Manager it is listed as "Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1255 (Model 22xxx, Hybrid ATSC/QAM)")
Sound Card: E-MU 1616M
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
Capture Software: VirtualDub 1.9.11 32-bit
DVD Player: Pioneer DV-343

Does anyone else have this card? If so, could you please see if this is happening for you too?

Thanks in advance!

L-Train

[Nelson37]

Not sure if this will help, but the VERY FIRST thing I would do is eliminate the overclock.

[Brad]

That's a DVD menu, so.. Macrovision?

[L-Train]

Not sure if this will help, but the VERY FIRST thing I would do is eliminate the overclock.

Eliminated the overclock, still happened at stock speeds.

That's a DVD menu, so.. Macrovision?

Ah! I felt like an idiot not having thought of that, but I just tried an independent DVD-R from a turntablist band (no copy protection on it whatsoever according to AnyDVD) and the glitch still happens . I also just tried my university convocation DVD which doesn't have macrovision and it still occurred.

Edit again: I tried an Xbox 360 idle on the dashboard connected to the capture card via the composite connection and the glitch occurs with it too.

[dfisher052]

I also have the HVR-1250 and capture VHS video on a regular basis using Roxio Creator 2011 and have never had any problems. I capture in MPEG and edit with Womble MPEG Video Wizard and my results have always looked as good as the original tape. No glitches, color or dark problems. Just an idea to think about. There may be other solutions that work, but this works for me without an hassles and has been worth the small investment.

[jman98]

Why are you capturing DVDs instead of just ripping them? I certainly applaud you for providing all the details as most new members do little more than say "My stuff doesn't work. Why?" and expect us to read their minds. But I think your basic premise is very deeply flawed here. If you're smart enough to provide all those details there is no sane reason for you to be capturing DVD output rather than ripping the disc and working with the rip. If you need help understanding about ripipng then ask.

[L-Train]

dfisher052, I'll try that program out and report back. Can you try using the latest version of VirtualDub and see if you're getting the same problem I am?

jman98, I'm capturing DVDs simply to test the capture card is all. I had my DVD player hooked up to test the card's capture window (see Determining the capture window of a capture card), which for this card turns out to be exactly 53.333 us thankfully, and also decided to capture a few DVDs to test the video quality compared to a digital rip of the same disc. For those interested, it's almost completely indistinguishable.

[L-Train]

I just tried Roxio Creator Pro 2011 and it still does the same thing.

[L-Train]

Hi guys,

I just received a JVC HR-S9600U S-VHS player in the mail today and captured a small part of a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" VHS tape via S-Video. The bug/glitch still happens, as seen in this sample I've uploaded: http://www.mediafire.com/?s79ceknxid4387z

I contacted Hauppauge shortly after I created this thread and gave them a link to it, hopefully they can determine if this is a driver issue. Jerry @ Hauppauge has been pretty quick to respond and has been very helpful so hopefully we can find the solution to this problem.

[jagabo]

The levels are better after it gets darker -- at least in that short sample clip.

[L-Train]

Yeah, initially the levels are too bright, but I think the glitch is a bug in the AGC where it suddenly overcompensates. For example, if you look at the "The Incredibles" menu capture samples linked to in my original post, "bad.avi" gets too dark after the glitch, while "good.avi" adjusts the gain smoothly (look at the yellow "i" on the hero's chest).

[jagabo]

Yes, it's a firmware or driver problem. Don't expect much from Hauppauge. As far as I can tell there's nobody there that knows anything about video anymore.

If you're running Win7 I would suggest this: remove all the Hauppuage software and registry settings (they provide software to do this -- HCWCLEAR I think it's called). Then let Win7 detect the card and automatically install drivers for it (either from the Win7 DVD or Microsoft's online database) -- do not use drivers from Hauppauge. See if that works.

[L-Train]

Thanks for the suggestion, jagabo. I uninstalled the Hauppauge drivers using HCWCLEAR but Windows could not find any drivers for it automatically. So I went to Device Manager and tried to locate the device drivers for it manually but it only listed "Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 (Model 79xxx, Hybrid ATSC/QAM)" and not "Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1255 (Model 22xxx, Hybrid ATSC/QAM)" as mine seems to be. I installed the HVR-1250 drivers anyway, and they installed fine, but previewing in VirtualDub via S-Video showed garbage/noise and no video. I guess those drivers simply don't work with the HVR-1255.

I've come across a new development while playing with my JVC HR-S9600U: in VirtualDub while in "preview" or "overlay" mode, if you switch to the "second" S-Video source and it shows a green screen, and if you then switch to the "first" S-Video source, press "Menu" on the JVC remote to show the OSD menu, and then switch back to the "second" S-Video source, it will show a red screen.

Intrigued, I did a test capture in which I paused a VHS tape and then entered and exited the JVC OSD menu. I then compared the frames before and after entering & exiting the OSD menu, and they were identical in color and brightness. I also confirmed that the beginning of the capture didn't have the glitch, so the picture wasn't dim to begin with. What this leads me to believe is that the "glitch" (and subsequent dimness) I'm getting isn't related to the red screen at all, and that the red screen is an indicator for something else.

[jagabo]

Too bad Windows didn't find a driver for your card.

You might try using a macrovision striper. I have an ATI 650 USB2 capture card and its macrovision response circuitry is over sensitive. Even on non-macrovision protected sources (VHS, cable box, home made DVD) the AGC wanders around inexplicably (though it didn't trigger the full macrovision response -- a screen of complete static). I happened to have an old macrovision stripper and found that it eliminated that problem. I wonder if your problem might be similar.

By they way, I have an old HVR-1250. I never used it much (I got it because it was really cheap and I wanted to experiment) but I don't recall seeing problems like yours. I was using Windows XP at that time.

[L-Train]

I may look into using a macrovision stripper, but I think I'd prefer to keep the signal chain as short as possible to preserve quality. I've also been thinking about trying a 32-bit OS (Windows 7 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit), and at this point I think it's something I may try this weekend. I'll also try exchanging the card for another tomorrow to see if this isn't a one-off issue.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: Would you happen to want to donate your old HVR-1250 to me, for science? I wouldn't mind paying for shipping, if it's reasonable...

[classfour]

jman: Why are you capturing DVDs instead of just ripping them?

I'd like to field that one for the OP.

I only transfer from VHS to DVD (or other video) when that is the only source that I have. Example: find the long version of Tommy Thompson's "Celebrity", or the 1983 "Chiefs" with Charlton Heston on DVD. (Region 1)

For a few of us, there are movies that were released on VHS that may never make it to DVD or BlueRay.

[jagabo]

Why are you capturing DVDs instead of just ripping them?

there are movies that were released on VHS that may never make it to DVD or BlueRay.

Your answer is a non-sequitur. jman was asking why the OP was capturing from a DVD rather than just ripping that same DVD. The OP's answer was that he just using the DVD player as a stable video source to capture from, for testing purposes.