best resolution for capturing with ati tv wonder pro

[syeager]

I have an ATI TV Wonder Pro, which I understand uses the Conexent BT-883 chip. What is the best resolution to capture with this chip? I understand that other chips, like the 878, do not resize well, so you must capture at one of its native or preferred resolutions.

Currently, if I attempt to capture at 352x480, I see unusual vertical breaks or echoes in images. If I capture at 720x480 or 704x480, I do not see these flaws ( it could be that at these resolutions, the difference is much smaller, but I don't think so ).

Either my card is defective or the software is not working well (ATI MMC 9.02) or the capture resolution of 352x480 is not a good resolution for this chip.

Any thoughts?

[syeager]

Please help. Someone has to have had some experience with this chip.

I would like to capture at 352x480, but with these abnormalities in the video, it is not acceptable. I am thinking the card may be defective, but you know how ati tech support can be.

If anyone knows where I can go to get more info, please let me know.

[lordsmurf]

the capture resolution of 352x480 is not a good resolution for this chip.
Any thoughts?

[rsgars]

I have recently been working very intesively with this same card. I know that I downloaded some kind of a driver upgrade that helps this card work to its full potential. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly where I found the information about that download. It might be in one of the guides here at dvdhelp.

Also, and I have no real basis for this, but considering ATI's reputation for weak drivers I have no interest in using MMC for capture purposes. Use VirtualDub, iuVCR. I would suspect teh software before suspecting the capture card.

[syeager]

Thanks rtgars. If you can find that information on the drivers you use, I would appreciate that. I use ATI MMC because it has many features I love. It also captures utilizing hardware that other capture programs do not. I can capture 720x480x15mb in ATI MMC and only use about 60% of my 2ghz processor, while capturing 720x480x8mb in Ulead VisualStudio 7 or MovieCreator 2 uses 100% and drops frames.

Lord Smurf, I have read on several threads (some you have participated in), identifying some capture chips as only capturing well at certain resolutions. I was hoping that was not the case with the ATI TV Wonder Pro. However, if it was, I need to know.

It could be the driver. I will test a capture with VirtualDub and MovieCreator2 at 352x480x4mb and see if that produces the same visual flaws, that will remove ATI MMC from the enironment.

Any other suggestions?

[Heywould3]

@syeager
You might find some of LS faqs, etc usefull.. in his signature hes got links to his ATI pages.. havea look.. he has lots of very usefull info there.. no need to re-invent the wheel here.. hes been through it for you.

[syeager]

Lord Smurf works mostly with ATI MMC and ATI AIW, using ATI Rage Theater 100 and 200 chips. Mine is an ATI TV Wonder Pro and that uses a different chip, Conexent BT-883.

I am familiar with his site. Great site and I have learned a lot there. However, this is possibly a hardware issue outside his expertise. Lord Smurf, any insight here?

[Wilbert]

I don't know about vertical breaks or echos, but when capping at 352x480 (or lower) a vertical blur filter kicks in (at least for bt8x8, I assume this is also the case for your chip). So, you don't want to cap at that size anyway.

Btw, did you try the btwincap drivers?

[lordsmurf]

Pretend the card is not an ATI . Forget about the ATI brand. You have a BT card. use the BTwincap drivers if you can, and then some AVI software like VirtualDub or others.