ATI AIW 128, MME 7.1 & Microsoft Encoder

[jeremypps]

Hi, I've got a ATI AIW 128 and I have some problems.
When I used MMC 6.2 and Microsoft Media Encoder 4 everything was fine (apart from a bad quality in SVCD).
Now I've installed W2K and decided to try MMC 7.1 and (for MPEG4 capturing) Microsoft Media Encoder 7.
Disaster.
With MMC7.1 the SVCD quality remains poor (even capturing in VBR), yet when I playback on my standalone player the image results "pulled" up and down out of the screen ....
and I still have to demux and mux back ....
The Microsoft encoder doesn't allow me to capture live, giving me an error. The strange thing is that I don't find the possibility to choose the source between cable, composite and svhs.
Can anybody please help? Thanks a lot and sorry for my bad english.

[wingstar1]

If your end result is SVCD, then use virtualdub + either PicVideo or Huffyuv2.1 as your recording medium, and encode it to mpeg2 using Tmpgenc1.2beta. This is the best way of achieving quality SVCD from ATI AIW128 product.

As for mpeg4 capture....well....the older ATI version without the Rage Enhanced Theater or the Rage128 Pro chip is what you need for this kind of work.

[jeremypps]

thanks a lot for your answer, I've installed virtualdub yesterday and, as for other acquiring programs different from ati media center, I'm not able to acquire correctly.
the image, in preview window and after acquiring, is full of a strange noise.
I have the same problem with adobe premiere, I still have to try ulead video studio, but I guess the result would be the same, so I can only use ATI software.
Thanks a lot anyway, you were the only one who tried to solve my problem!

[jeremypps]

I have to add that I've seen a SVCD (NTSC, I work with PAL resolution) made with an ATI AIW, the MPEG2 captured directly with ATI acquiring software and demuxed and muxed with TMPGENC, and the result was really good. VHS quality.

[mikewg]

What is your source? Perhaps that's your problem.

[jeremypps]

I acquire from antenna, vcr, videocamera or sat, doesn't matter, the result is a really blocky image when I playback on tv.
Usually I use these settings:
- resolution 480x576 (with MMC 7.1 it seems you can do this without hacking the registry)
- audio 44khz 16bit stereo
- frame rate 25fps
- bit rate 2,3 Mbit/sec (cbr or vbr, no matter, tried both)
- animation quality slider above 75
I save the file, demux and mux wth tmpegenc e burn with nero as a non compliant svcd.
what do I do wrong? please someone help !!!

[RaleighNC]

I'm capturing with 2.6 bitrate, but my ME is set for 24 with 480x480 res and I still get 3% drops.

I would (newbie)guess ur dropping frames with ME=75 and ur encoder is making up frames to fill in the gaps. I dunno.

Check your encoder settings. If your capturing at 2mbit and ur encoder is set to 2.1mbits, it's making bits it doesn't have.

That's my guesses.

[jeremypps]

Thanks raleigh.
I can't understand what u mean when u say "capturing at 2mb and ancoding at2.1", I set MMC parameters and capture and then burn, nothing else.
I don't think I drop frames, not sure but the software gives no information (athlon 900 hdd 7200rpm 192mb ram).
In fact when I playback I don't see gaps or something, but everything is blocky, especially in black colour.
And I keep having image vertical distortion when I use MMC 7.1 instead of 6.2 ....
Everyone keeps saying they are satisfied with their svcd quality, I think I'll give up ...
Thanks a lot anyway!

[orGAZmic]

Capture using MMC7.1 and huff or picvideo to an avi file. Size to suit your needs eg 480 x 576 for SVCD PAL. Edit and frame serve to an encoder (TMPGenc or CCE). My end results are far superior to VHS depending on source.

Note depending on OS file size constraints will apply i.e if HDD is fat32 you will only be able to capture 4 gb files (approx 11 mins) Not a problem as I edit and frameserve from P6.

[jeremypps]

thanks a lot, really.
what do u mean with "frameserve"? sorry but I'm really a newbie and uncomfortable with specific language.
Do you think I can capture more than 4gb under w2000?
thanks again!

[orGAZmic]

If your HDD is NTFS then you could capture a lot more. The limit is related to the filesystem you use.

Check the guides here at VCDHELP or DOOM9.ORG for info on how to frameserve to an encoder.

[jeremypps]

ok I'll do thank you very much really!