Problem capturing in 640x480 with ATI AIW

[nicolasd]

I don't know why but it seems like I can't capture an entire DVD movie in 640x480 with my ATI AIW.

When I try to capture in mpeg-2 mode, ATI MMC crashes after like 30 minutes.

When I try to capture in AVI it drops numerous frames.

Here is what I use to capture:

AIW Radeon 9000
MMC 9.0
Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 Ghz
2.00 Gigs of RAM
100 Gigs Hard Drive, 7200 RPM

What could be the problem? Isn't my machine enough powerful to handle it?

[lordsmurf]

HD in DMA mode?

[nicolasd]

HD in DMA mode?

lordsmurf,
To be honest, I'm not familiar with "DMA mode". Could you please tell me more about it? What is it, how could it be a problem and how can I change it?

Thank you

[nicolasd]

HD in DMA mode?

Ok I found it. It is on ULTRA DMA mode.

[Manokat]

HD in DMA mode?

Ok I found it. It is on ULTRA DMA mode.

It's obvious that you are running at least ultra dma 5, you have a quite recent computer (judging from the specs you gave) and you must be running windows xp in which case the DMA is enabled by default.

If you still have this problem, check your power management. Perhaps your hard drive tries to go to sleep mode in 30 minutes or so, check the bios or power management on control panel.

[edsmith77]

Lets not forget that XP also supports FAT32 file systems, which could also be contributing to the problem vice NTFS.

I am not certain what is meant by "ATI MMC crashes" does that mean it just stops recording or the program goes into a fault state where it has to stopped and restarted. Are there any error messages associated with this event.

Each condition could lead to a different solution.

Ed.

[nicolasd]

Lets not forget that XP also supports FAT32 file systems, which could also be contributing to the problem vice NTFS.

I am not certain what is meant by "ATI MMC crashes" does that mean it just stops recording or the program goes into a fault state where it has to stopped and restarted. Are there any error messages associated with this event.

Each condition could lead to a different solution.

Ed.

Actually ATI MMC crashes after a while, usually after about 20-30 minutes of capturing. It completly crashes and I can't even restart it. I have to reboot if I want to restart it. Just as if there was some kind of memory leak. It kind of slow down the machine when it crashes. And I simply get an error showing something like "We are sorry ATI MMC has encountered an error. If you want, you can report this error to Microsoft etc."

Note that capturing in 320x240 works perfectly. I can capture 4 hours movies without any problem. But when I try in 640x480, it crashes all the time. I tried in MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and in AVI with different settings, bitrates etc. And I always get the same error.

[lordsmurf]

That sounds like an OS issue. Something else may be launching in the background and kills MMC. Be sure no TSRs or scheduled TSRs are running or will launch.

See what runs at start in MSCONFIG.EXE ("run" if needed to start)

Run Norton WinDoctor from Norton Utilities to see if the registry has problems or conflicts.

Run the ATI MMC diags to see if anything fails. I have no idea offhand where that is. Rarely used it in my ATI years. Forum search or play around... I can't look it up now, too busy.

Be sure the HD is not full, and that the Recycle Bin is empty.

[edsmith77]

nicolasd,
I once had those symptomatic problems on my previous machine and it was due to memory/ cpu speed and dropping frames at the exact same resolution as you are. likewise when I went to a lower res caps all worked just fine. My conclusion was that I was exceeding the capacity/capability of the computer. Not to mention I was in the mood to get an upgrade anyway. Just personal justification for me. :Grin

To take care of house cleaning possibilities by ruling out the obvious, LordSmurf has given many good ideas and places to look. Especially other background tasks that may be running. In a worse case scenario you may want to consider making a special boot so that nothing else is running like internet network connection, screen savers, email, virus checkers, etc. They all take up cpu cycles which ultimately impacts caps at higher resolutions. DMA mode is often a key culprit but you seem to have that identified as OK. I would certainly make the move to NTFS if you have not already done so. That is if this file system is compatible with your other applications. XP pro can convert from FAT32 to NTFS quite easily and WITHOUT having to reformat. If you have a FAT32 system you do need to pay attention to disk fragmentation. Another often overlooked piece is the HDD sector sizes, if it is too small the HDD and coupled with an overly fragmented disk, the controlled will work itself into a froth trying to keep up and may lose the race causing the application to enter into a permanent wait state until the controller catches up.
All of these points should get you to thinking about how much data you are trying to capture in a per second basis and what all you computer is trying to do at the same time and eliminate all the unecessary items.
In an completely different vein, your power supply if undersized for all of the hardware that you have installed can cause things to get behind.
Just ideas for you to ponder.

Ed

[nicolasd]

Thanks for the tips. Actually I had already defrangmented my hard drives, this machine is only used to capture and edit movies, I unplugged the internet and disabled the firewall etc. The hard drives are already on NTSF. I didn't find windoctor but I did try some other registry cleaners.

I also tried to capture to a dedicated hard drive, not the one where Windows is installed. ATI MMC does not seem to offer this option, however there is the "Temporary Recording Drive" option. It allows me to choose another hard drive where apparently the recording is done, then the file is moved back automatically to the main drive. I'm not sure if this thing works properly but I tried it on a 250 gigs hard drive and it didn't work either.

[Manokat]

Lets not forget that XP also supports FAT32 file systems, which could also be contributing to the problem vice NTFS.

I am not certain what is meant by "ATI MMC crashes" does that mean it just stops recording or the program goes into a fault state where it has to stopped and restarted. Are there any error messages associated with this event.

Each condition could lead to a different solution.

Ed.

Again it is obvious from the specs that he must have NTFS as he has 100GB HD. If the drive was partition as FAT32 than he would have 3 partitioned drives. XP only supports formatting up to 30GB FAT32. Although there is a new fdisk.exe that can format up to 64GB but this new fdisk.exe is only for windows 98. As well fdisk on "pengiun" can format up to unlimited size but that is a different story.

I would lean more on the possibility that a program (scheduled) tries to run after certain minutes MMC is run, and tries to use "overlay" this will disturbe the capturing for sure. Or system instability (power management is set).

[lordsmurf]

What? I have 200GB and 180GB drives as FAT32 in WINME, and had a 160GB FAT32 as one drive on WINXP-PRO (at one time, now its NTFS).

In MMC, there is a place to change the recording drive. I capture to E:\ 200GB FAT32 on WINME all the time. OS is on C:\

This is covered in my ATI guides (I think). Been months since I wrote them, hard to remember all I put in them now.

[nicolasd]

In MMC, there is a place to change the recording drive. I capture to E:\ 200GB FAT32 on WINME all the time. OS is on C:\

This is covered in my ATI guides (I think). Been months since I wrote them, hard to remember all I put in them now.

Yes actually I read several pages on your website, good job I think what you are refering to is the "Scheduling" option mentionned at the bottom of the "Capturing MPEG with an ATI card" . When using "scheduling" it is possible to select a different drive.

I did some tests by capturing mpeg in 320x240 and the option I mentionned earlier "Temporary Recording Drive" works just fine. It captures to another drive, then it moves it to the main drive. Unfortunately, it still does not allow me to capture in 640x480.

[lordsmurf]

ONE TOUCH RECORD is what I'm thinking of. It captures there.

[Manokat]

What? I have 200GB and 180GB drives as FAT32 in WINME, and had a 160GB FAT32 as one drive on WINXP-PRO (at one time, now its NTFS).

In MMC, there is a place to change the recording drive. I capture to E:\ 200GB FAT32 on WINME all the time. OS is on C:\

This is covered in my ATI guides (I think). Been months since I wrote them, hard to remember all I put in them now.

Hmm... all i can say is I'm surprised that this FAT32 volume limitation is not known. Please search the NET, there are tons of pages discussing this.

Using windows fdisk and format, the drive can not be formatted beyond 32GB (30 in real size). Windows XP as well WILL NOT allow you to format as FAT32 beyond this size. Unless you use partition magic or that sort of tool.

Newer fdisk (upto 64GB) or fdisk of Linux/Penguin (Unlimited) can partition beyond 30GB. Partition tools (like partition magic) can format beyond the limitation on Windows 98/ME/XP.

You have must haved partitioned and formatted the drive using third party software or OS to FAT32 then used it on windows ME/XP.

[edsmith77]

From native DOS and WIN xx, yes there is a 32Gb limit on file and disk size. However, most of the new drives come with software that takes over for the BIOS functions and do allow drives larger than 32Gb to be used. Even in single partition modes. I have been using this software for many years. WD supplies it with their drives. It gets installed when you run their installation program. Maxtor also, if not mistaken, uses the same program or their own version of it.
The earlier OSes will not allow NTFS partitions but with NT, 2000 and XP all of that changed. So more options are open for users with regards to file systems.
As far as I can tell there is no real inherent advantage of NTFS over FAT32 save the (virtually) unlimited file size capability. For those in the video recording world this becomes an important consideration. But even this is not an absolute given that the software manufacturers have recognized the file size limitation and offer work arounds (i.e., file segmentation). But for the serious gamers and their programs some of which were written to take specific advantage of the FAT/32 file structure, swithching to NTFS will cause those programs to not work.
However, it is not always the file system at the root of program failures but when recording video it certainly does need to examined and ruled out before going to more expensive troubleshooting ideas.
My reasoning (due to some missing input data) was to say that there may be other causes than programmatic which may be effecting the posters dilemma and not start a thread hijacking on the merits of one file system versus another.

[lordsmurf]

You have must haved partitioned and formatted the drive using third party software or OS to FAT32 then used it on windows ME/XP.

It's native to the Promise Ultra ATA TX2 BIOS if that helps any. The WD disk installs the HD, but if this is 3rd party installation, its smooth and not like the jerky installers and overlays of the past. The XP machine is on a VIA motherboard as the slave. Neither use an overlay of yesteryear, just bypass the OS to install.

I have an overlay for my 40GB drive on an old P3 ... that's definitely a pain situation. It has that stupid "EZ-BIOS" crap on it.

My modern systems use the native BIOS and it sees the disks fine. Windows see the disks fine too. So whatever is happening is fine.

I have NTFS and FAT32 both now. I see no advantage to either. MMC splits files over 4GB easily and seemlessly.

[nicolasd]

any other suggestions about what could be the problem?

[Manokat]

I have NTFS and FAT32 both now. I see no advantage to either. MMC splits files over 4GB easily and seemlessly.

Go with NTFS, FAT32 is easily fragmented.

[dxj40c]

I had lots of problems with ATI capture until I downloaded the 'EndItAll' utility from the "PC Magazine" site (I think).

This is a great little program that stops all background operations. The result is no more dropped frames. As far as "crashing", I never ran into that. Maybe the program just stops if the number of dropped frames is too excessive to salvage. I'm sure there is an explaination on their (ATI) website under FAQ, I hardly think you would be the only one having this problem.

[nicolasd]

I formated my C: and reinstalled Windows. It seems to be working now.

[nicolasd]

Now its buggin again...anyone have had the same issue?