ati tv wonder ve

[dcapp1]

How come when I go into virtualdub and click capture avi, I get an error message that says capture device not detected?

[tomreedtoon]

Well, what drivers are you using with the TV Wonder VE? I have used the generic BTWIN capture drivers available from http://www.sourceforge.net and it worked with VirtualDub. Of course, when you install the driver, your ATI software (the VCR program and TV viewer) will stop working. However, you'll be able to use VirtualDub at any resolution - if you want 480 x 480 to make Super Video CD's you can.

By the way, the direct web site for the driver is http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/ - hope this helps. Also, I no longer use that card; I now use the Xtasy Everything, which doesn't have all those resolutions, but has very low noise and great video out.

[PeterZ]

This error typically happens when you have not successfully installed the drivers for your capture card.
I'd be glad to explain how you can do this, if you tell us what's your O.S. (WinME, WinXP, ...?), and what drivers you're trying to use (the ATI ones? Others? Which version?).

Btw I also have an ATI TV Wonder VE, and contrary to other people on this forum I'm able to use it with the latest ATI XP drivers - but not with the Btwincap drivers (which cause the PC to hang and reboot during driver install!). Go figure.

[dcapp1]

I am using Windows Me with the drivers that came with the card.

[PeterZ]

Allright, WinME - just FYI I've been able to install and use that same card in WinME (with both VirtualDub and ATi MMC software) so there's no reason why it shouldn't work for you.

However: I did NOT use the drivers that came with the card, instead I downloaded the "latest" ATI drivers from their Web site.

First thing you want to do is check the current state of yr hardware, in particuliar the ATI card: go to Control Panel, and select System. One of the tabs there (can't remember but you'll find it) shows a list of the hardware/devices installed.

Look inside the "Sound, Video and Games controllers" section, there should be a list of items starting with "ATI TV Wonder ...". Well, let me know which one you see in there, and if there's an exclamation mark beside any of them. Also, check whether or not you have another section named "Other" (or "Other devices"?), and if you do what are the devices listed inside. Then we'll go to the next step.

Now, if - and ONLY if - you're familiar with removing/updating/installing device drivers in WinME, then go to:

http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/misc/mmc71tvwonder.html

and carefully read all the instructions. You'll have to:
1- Download MMC 7.1 software (includes the Wonder VE drivers)
2- Download and install DirectX 8.0
3- Download and install the special "Video Capture update for DirectX 8"
4- Uninstall the current ATI TV Wonder drivers
5- Uninstall the MMC software already installed
6- Optional & Risky: Remove all files starting with "ati" inside Windows directory. Do this ONLY if you don't have any other ATI peripherals and know what you're doing. VERY RISKY (but worth it).
7- Install the TV Wonder VE drivers; normally you'll have to install 5 devices for that single card (video, audio, a & v crossbars, and tuner), one after the other. Don't worry, it guides you thru the whole install
8- Optional: Install the MMC7.1 software
9- Go get some well deserved aspirine and cross yr fingers
10- Run VirtualDub and see what happens!

Good luck -
PeterZ.

[dcapp1]

Is there another site that I can download to get the mmc software from because I have cable speed and on the ati website it is taking forever to download?

[kayfam]

dcapp1,
Use a download manager such as GetRight http://www.getright.com and make multiple connections. I run into this problem all the time especially if there has been a new driver release over at ATI.com. As far as I know there are no other mirrors that don't link directly back to the main site.

[dcapp1]

PeterZ, I am looking in the system settings and there are six things listed for ATI.


ATI TV Wonder BtCap, WDM Audio Capture
ATI TV Wonder BtCap, WDM Video Capture
ATI TV WOnder TV Tuner, Phillips WDM tv tuner (PAL Bg)
ATI TV Wonder WDM Audio Crossbar
ATI TV Wonder WDM Video Crossbar
ATI WDM teletext decoder
Specialized PCD WDM VBI codec

There are no exclamation points next to any of them.

Also could you tell me how to hook up the audio to the vcr so I can record sound plus video. Thanks

[PeterZ]

This list of ATI drivers/devices looks good to me and seem to indicate a valid installation, so you don't need to worry about re-installing them - yet.

A few more questions:
- how long ago did you buy the TV card?
- what's the release date of these drivers? To check this, click once on any of these ATI drivers (to select it), click on Properties button, then the Driver tab, then look at the release date (build date)
- you must have installed the MMC7.1 software as well, right? This is ATI's suite of TV display, capture, scheduler, file player, DVD player, etc... tools. Well, what happens when you launch the TV viewer application? Doesn't it detect the card and ask you to setup the tuner etc?

As for the Audio connections, there are two ways to do this:

1- You use the audio signal that comes out of the TV/tuner card; this means that you must have yr cable/TV/VCR/... output signal connected to the TV tuner input on the card (RF coax). In this case, as explained in the manual btw, connect the TV/tuner card audio input (small jack) to one audio input line of yr PC (the "Line In" probably) using the provided cable, and then select the Line In on the Audio Recorder mixer in WinME (loudspeaker icon in taskbar) and adjust its volume for proper recording.

2- You use the Composite Video input (yellow cinch on TV/Tuner card); then nothing comes out of the audio output of that same card. Instead you'll have to connect the Audio output of yr source (e.g. yr VCR) directly to the "Line In" input of yr PC (and still select Line In in WinME, as explained above). This usually requires a cinch-to-mini-jack adapter since most PC's Line In inputs have a mini-jack format, while most TV/VCR/camcorder/... are equipped with cinch's for Audio output; as I recall this is also provided with the card, no?

I would strongly suggest you choose method 2) for VCR recording, provided yr VCR does have a Composite Video output (yellow cinch) and Audio output cinch's - check the back panel and yr VCR manual for this.

Hope this helps.

[dcapp1]

I bought the card the day before yesterday, and the release date was 4/24/2001. Those are the most recent on atis website. I also installed the ati multimedia package(7.1), and the tv portion of this package works fine.
Any other help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[dcapp1]

PeterZ, I still cant get VirtualDub to recognize my capture card. Any more suggestions?

[PeterZ]

dcap,

your previous post is a lil' confusing, anyway the "last" drivers from ATI's Web site are dated 'Posted: 07/05/2001' - not April 01. Anyway, if you've downloaded MMC7.1 from their site then 07/05/01 is probably the version you have, even if you don't realize it.

Now, you say the MMC TV app does recognize your card, therefore is able to display the TV picture on yr PC - right? That's good news, in that it confirms the drivers installation is Ok.

Now what's the deal with VirtualDub? First, do NOT try to use Vdub while you have MMC running, that *won't* work.
Other than that, I would suggest you go to the Vdub Web site, there's a FAQ page where I know they're discussing this issue, and you might find the solution to yr problem there.

Why are you trying to use Vdub? Isn't MMC doing the job? What about other tools like PowerVCR II or VirtualVCR? I know this doesn't address directly yr problem, but it's important to understand the impact before spending hours trying to fix a problem that's not really a problem.

[dcapp1]

PeterZ, I will try to investigate further. MMC is capturing right to mpeg2, but after capture do I have to reencode so that I can burn the file with vcdeasy.

As for wanting to use VirtualDub, the guides on how to capture on this site only deal with virtualdub so I thought it would be easier. Thanks

[dcapp1]

I went to VirtualDubs website and it is telling me to use a microsoft wrapper with my current driver. Wher can I get the Microsoft WDM Image Capture(Win32). Thanks, and sorry when it comes to encoding and burning I'm allright, but caspturing I am a newbie.

[PeterZ]

I'm not totally certain, but I believe the WDM wrapper comes with the DirectX8 Video Capture update; if you read back a previous post, I listed the s/w pieces you need, including DirectX 8 plus the capture update. Those are *mandatory* in WinME; have you installed these pieces?

As for MPEG2, this is a format you do NOT want to re-encode to anything else, it's a "ready-for-burning" kind of format. I don't have the bandwith to go thru details on the various video formats, nor do I have a clear picture on what you're trying to do, so I'll have to ask you to refer to the multitude of tutorials and FAQ's on this topic you'll find on this very site...

Good luck - and let us know if you're successful with using VDub (a great application - for free, worth the effort).

[Graham T]

Look inside the "Sound, Video and Games controllers" section, there should be a list of items starting with "ATI TV Wonder ...". Well, let me know which one you see in there, and if there's an exclamation mark beside any of them. Also, check whether or not you have another section named "Other" (or "Other devices"?), and if you do what are the devices listed inside. Then we'll go to the next step.

Peter I wonder if you could give me some advice. I have an ATI all in wonder 16mb card, installed Jan 2000 and I recently upgraded ATI display drivers (4.13.7192) and to MMC 7.1. I did this by following all the steps on VCDHelp page http://www.vcdhelp.com/ATI_AIW_Guide.htm I now find that when I go to "Sound, Video and Games controllers" there is a listing for ATI Multimedia Video Driver and it has a yellow exclamation mark and when I look at properties it indicates the driver is not loaded. I have tried to update the driver box but it doesn't seem to want to load. I have been unable to correct. Have you any idea how to get this loaded.

Some info which might be relevant:

The MMC seems to be working TV tuner works VCR works ( but I have just been trying my first capture and burn and quality was poor)

[PeterZ]

Graham, not sure I can help but I'll try; I'm a little rusty on Win98, but one thing I know is that Win98SE (2nd edition) is superior to the initial Win98 - which one do you have?

Having said that: I'm on WinXP and I'm not using ATI's MMC, anyway I do not see an "ATI Multimedia Video" device in the 'Sound, Video and Game Controllers' section, so I'm not sure what you're referring to.

You're saying that MMC works and you're able to capture video, so what might have happened is that this device did not get properly uninstalled from a previous installation (though the VCDHelp procedure seems pretty exhaustive). Here's what I would do:

- uninstall this driver (with question mark)
- reboot, and see if Windows does a "New Hardware detected" after reboot
- if it does, it gives you an opportunity to cleanly re-install it (be prepared for this, and locate the ATI drivers on yr hard drive prior to uninstalling)
- if it does not, then it doesn't need it! You're all set.

Either way, after you've tried this we can talk about yr capture quality problem, which I believe is not related to a bad driver install - but I've been wrong before.

[dcapp1]

Hi again, I finally got tired of trying to get Vdub to work so I downloaded VirtualVCR. Can anybody tell me why half way through the capture an illegal operation message pops up?

Capturing stats

640 x 480 capture
29.97 fps
44100, 16 bit, mono audio
PicVideo codec with a quality of 15.


Also when I capture with the ATI MMC 7.1 the file is saved as a mp2 file. Is this the same as mpeg2, and if it isn't how can I make it mpeg2?

Thanks

[SonKun]

ok can you help me to. I am using the generic drivers. and in V-dub I cant capture in anything higher than 320x240. it wont even load the picture if its highter than that.

[Graham T]

Here's what I would do:

- uninstall this driver (with question mark)
- reboot, and see if Windows does a "New Hardware detected" after reboot
- if it does, it gives you an opportunity to cleanly re-install it (be prepared for this, and locate the ATI drivers on yr hard drive prior to uninstalling)
- if it does not, then it doesn't need it! You're all set.

Either way, after you've tried this we can talk about yr capture quality problem, which I believe is not related to a bad driver install - but I've been wrong before.

Did the above and everything booted and windows didn't report a "New Hardware detected" works the same as before. Any suggestions on the capture quality problem.

[SonKun]

I am using the generic drivers. and in V-dub I cant capture in anything higher than 320x240. it wont even load the picture if its highter than that.

please can sombodey HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ME

[PeterZ]

Did the above and everything booted and windows didn't report a "New Hardware detected" works the same as before.

AHA! So that did the trick - good!

As for the capture quality issue, you're going to have to describe in details what's your setup, what kind of capture you're trying to do, at what stage in the capture -> edit -> encode -> burn cycle does it start to look bad, how "bad" is bad, etc... Here's a starting point:

- Video capture setup: resolution, format, compression, # fps, bit rate, ...
- Audio capture setup: compression format, stereo/mono, bit rate, ...
- Software tools used to capture, to edit, to encode/compress, to burn
- Description of what "bad quality" means: ....
- Etc...

Well, you get the "picture"...

[PeterZ]

SonKun: since you're not getting it here, may I suggest you try other places/fora to get an answer to yr question. You might want to start with V-dub pages, ATI support pages, and/or Google Search... Actually I do remember seeing this pbm (with max. capture resolution) reported many times, but didn't look for the solution since I don't have that problem (I do have others though...
FWIW...

[Braxton_SV]

I am with problems to capture 480 lines... I have ATI RAGE 128 PCI, and I obtained to capture in 480 lines, I had that I reinstalled my system, and now do not obtain more to capture in 480 lines.... can help me?

I am using to driver 6133279 XP....