TV Wonder VE Help.

[kiroshi]

I have an ati tv wonder ve card and I'm trying to rip video using the software it came with but it dosnt let you rip in 640x480. Does anyone know of a better program that'll rip 640x480?

Thanks,

[bgrieb]

I was able to get mine to capture at 640x480 but the quality was not as good as I had hoped. (I've since bought a Pixelview X-Capture which blows it out of the water). If you want to experiment with the TV Wonder VE at 640x480.....


First:

Make sure you have a copy of the ATI drivers handy in case you decide to go back to them. ATI says on their web page that the card won't do 640x480. With their drivers, that seemed to be true. With reference drivers....


Second - Get New Drivers:

Download the BTWincap drivers from http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/download.html . I would suggest running the BTWincap program and have it remove all previous drivers. Reboot. When Windows tries to reinstall the drivers at system startup, don't let it (cancel it). Run the BTWincap driver install program again and select the TV Wonder VE. If you use the composite input, tell the install program that you have no tuner. If you use the coax input, select the right tuner (I think mine was a Philips NTSC, but take a look at yours as it may be different). Don't mess with the FM radio stuff as it didn't work for me. This driver may cause the ATI multimedia software not to work. Don't worry, all those features are available through other programs (almost always for Free). For TV Viewing, DSCaler was actually better than the ATI TV Program once I got it configured (and it's free). For capturing software....


Third - Capture Software:

After you have installed the drivers, get a program like VirtualVCR (a free WDM capture program) and set the capture size to 640x480. The file sizes will be about double what you're used to having so plan accordingly. iuVCR is also a good program, but it requires a small fee to register. I also used Virtualdub with the WDM Wrapper, but I was getting weird effects in the captured file (like a sporadic horizontal line that looked like static). It may have just been my setup so your results could be better. Experiment a little until you find what works best for you.


Good Luck!

BG

[Nitemare]

Just wanted to assure you that the advice given above is exactly the way to go. The ATI TV Wonder VE is designed to capture at no higher than 240 lines using the ATI software and drivers. The alternative drivers are a must if you want higher resolutions. Read the instructions carefully before installing.

[Jack_aa]

Really appreciated the helpful information on this issue. But I am not sure if the specified drive can also capture real time 480x480 MPEG-2 for SVCD on ATI TV Wonder VE Card. Does that also allow to change the Constant bit rate (CBT) for MPEG-2 ?

Thanks,

Jack

[macleod]

jacka wrote:
But I am not sure if the specified drive can also capture real time 480x480 MPEG-2 for SVCD on ATI TV Wonder VE Card. Does that also allow to change the Constant bit rate (CBT) for MPEG-2 ?


try powervcrII. it will capture at 480x480 realtime. I have the same card (actually 1 step up) and powervcrII allows me to capture real time at those resolutions. Do a search for powervcr and there are a couple of posts that show you how to tweek powervcrII to capture at 352x480 (and other resolutions as well as break the 650 meg split issue.

You also might want to try IUVCR for avi captures (although a number of other cap softwares will do just as good if not better).

I, personally, would not use the BTWincap drivers as they caused me a lot of problems. That is me on my computer. 1 experience, not "it sucks". There will be a number of other people that will post that they are great vs they stink. You'll have to make your own decision, but just know that 1 person had problems with them. Rathere than troublshoot, I began using powervcrII.