Artifacts from previous frame

[wonko]

I'm not sure if I should post this in the capture forum or the newbie forum. I am a n00b and I'm capturing video ! I have searched the archives and I haven't found an information about this problem. I apologise if it has been discussed before and I missed it...

I am attempting to do the predictable and make DVDs of my Star Wars Definitive Collection laserdiscs. I recently purchased an Asus TV FM Tuner Card which is based on the Phillips 7133 chipset. After a lot of initial frustration in choosing an app to capture with (wdm drivers only, vfw wrapper in XP doesn't seem to work...), I am currently using VirtualVCR. I have plenty of harddrive space, so I would like to capture using HUFFY but I have a problem with it: I see a lot of lines in the frames which appear to be left over from previous frames. I am not talking about interlacing - the lines are there in one frame and gone in the next, usually in areas of motion. I am trying to capture in YUV2 with HUFFYUV 2.1.1 using "Predict Median (Best)". I have also tried RGB24 with similar results. Here are some pictures to illustrate the problem:

http://wonko.dyndns.org/images/lines1.jpg
http://wonko.dyndns.org/images/lines2.jpg
http://wonko.dyndns.org/images/lines3.jpg
http://wonko.dyndns.org/images/lines4.jpg

The first two images were captured using YUV2 and the second two used RGB24.

I have read that YV12 seems to be the current favourite colourspace, so I've tried capturing using VBLE in YV12 and that seems to work ok. The problem is, I would like to do some editing in VirtualDub which doesn't support YV12. Just for fun, I tried capturing using VBLE and YUV2 and the lines were back but not as bad as with HUFFY.

I have re-installed Windows XP numerous times over the last week trying to resolve this issue. I have swapped my cards around to try and reduce IRQ sharing as much as possible but nothing seems to help. I have a fairly decent system and there shouldn't be any problems. When capturing in HUFFY, my CPU doesn't go above 25%. I have a new 120G Serial ATA harddrive with 8M cache dedicated to video data, so write speed shouldn't be an issue. My system is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP 2100+
1G PC2100 RAM
Asus AVN8X Deluxe motherboard
Asus TV7133 tuner card
SB Audigy 2 Platinum (for audio playback)
M-Audio Delta 66 (for audio capture)
MSI Geforce 4 Ti4400
80G Western Digital ATA harddrive with 8M cache (OS)
60G IBM ATA harddrive (misc)
120G Seagate SATA harddrive with 8M cache (video data)
LG 4020 DVD writer
Plextor 16X CD writer

I would be grateful for any help or suggestions.

TIA,

Wonko

[Tommyknocker]

They appear to interlacing. How does the video run on your TV?

[D_Knife]

those black lines on the last sample image are not interlacing lines
also on the first image you can see the interlaced fields and next to them these lines
I have seen this with another person in the forum. I seem to recall it was a memory transfer issue or similar - perhaps you could check/update your PCI chipset controller drivers - I see you are using an Athlon...
The other thing you could try is disable overlay previews - you would need to do a blind capture but as a short test

actually does this occur on all captures?? or only the Starwars stuff??
I you cap something from TV or similar do the lines come back?

I know you have said you already searched but perhaps you could have another look?

Have you tried a Mjpeg codec - although since the errors also occur in RGB24 I doubt this would fix things - try checking chipset drivers and have another look in the forum for
athlon pic chipsets
black lines across frame
and similar topics

[wonko]

Thanks for the suggestions. I am running the latest drivers for every device in the machine plus the latest bios for the motherboard. I've read about other people having similar problems but they were always narrowed down to via chipset issues and my motherboard has the nvidia nforce2 chipset...

Your comment about memory transfer is interesting though. I believe I have the ram overclocked from cas3 to cas2 at the moment. I am at work right now but I will try setting it back when I get home and see if that helps.

Thanks again,

Wonko

[D_Knife]

ah yeah now I remember they were older chipsets

If you get it going with the memory speed change - let us know usefull info.

[xxiangg]

I have responsed another post earlier today, which has similar problem
as yours. Actually, the noise lines in my captured AVI is much much
worse than what is shown in your picture. I am using WinTV GO card.
I have tried the card on my two computers. The first computer is
Celeron 1G with non-intel motherboard and non-intel chipset. The captured
AVI is full of horizontal noises. The second computer is P4 2.4G with
intel motherboard and intel chipset. The AVI is clean and free of noise.
I read it somewhere that the problem is probably related to frushing of
video buffers.

[wonko]

ah yeah now I remember they were older chipsets

If you get it going with the memory speed change - let us know usefull info.

Well, I didn't get a chance to try the memory change yet but it looks like that's not the problem after all. I discovered the cause by accident last night.

I decided to try using iuvcr to capture, so I downloaded and installed the trial version. The first thing I tried was capturing from laserdisc at 720x480 YUY2 using Huffy. I forgot to set the file location, so I had to search for my capture but when I found it, it was perfect - not a nasty line in sight ! Thinking the problem must've been VirtualVCR all along, I set the capture directory to my shiny new 120G Seagate SATA harddrive and started another capture. This time, the line were back ! I tried changing my capture directory to my temp drive (a 60G IBM) and once again the lines were gone.

So, it looks as though my SATA drive is causing the problem. I don't know if the problem is the drive is just not fast enough or if it's a driver issue. I have the latest driver for the SATA controller.

Anyway, it's working now, so I'm happy - thanks for the suggestions.

Wonko

[dphirschler]

I get the same lines in my capture. I am currently searching the forums looking for a solution. I have doubts I will find the answer though as this artifact seems to not have a name.

Here is a link to my capture (which as a matter of coincidence is also Star Wars).

http://pigseye.kennesaw.edu/~dhirschl/starwars/glitch.jpg

It happens on all captures if I capture both fields. My hardware is as folows:

AMD 1600 XP (1.4 GHz)
Pinnacle PCTV Pro capture card
ATI Radeon 7000 video card
Capturing using Virtual Dub with Picvideo MJPEG set at 18
Win 98 SE

I just updated all my mobo drivers, capture card, and video drivers last night. The problem is still there however.

I never had the problem when I captured using 16bit color. Could our problem be slow RAM?


Darryl

[dphirschler]

A possible workaround for us...

I don't remember if Vdub allows for capturing either the even field or the odd field. If it does, then capture even field, then odd field. Then synchronize, and finally weave them backtogether in AVIsynth. Not very elegant, but should work... IF Vdub allows it.

I will be testing some faster RAM this weekend. Also, will be testing an ATI All-in-Wonder card. I'll report back with my results. I may also test capturing blind. I don't think I'vre tried that yet.


Darryl

[dphirschler]

I just encountered this bit of text from iuLabs' website.

Q4: My tuner/capture board is not in your compatibility list. What next? Will your driver work for me?

A: As long as your card is based on the bt848/878 chip, it should work, but cards not in the list may experience a few problems. First, the default card type, Уbt848 tweaked WDM Video CaptureФ assumes by default that your chip is a bt878. If your card is based on the older bt848 chip, you'll probably see some garbage stripes in the video picture. This can be fixed due by changing the value of InitPLL from У1Ф to У0Ф. The change can be made using a registry editor after you install, or by editing the Bt848.inf file before you install. The value in the [bt848.AddReg] section of the bt848.inf file needs to be changed from "0x01" to "0x00".

I will look more into this tonight, but this is a huge clue. Perhaps all we need to do is change over to the WDM driver and then find a new capture program. VirtualDub requires a VFW driver which is why I have been stuck with my current driver. But now I am ready to move on if this fixes it.


Darryl

[dphirschler]

Ahh.. That driver did nothing for me. I will try faster RAM tonight. But at this point I am starting to accept that it is the card. After all, the specs on the box do not specify it can capture both fields. Only through Virtual Dub am I able to do that. But still I hope for a solution.


Darryl