Capture results too bright colors

[Baltazar]

It doesn't matter if I try to pull down the brightness in the capturing programs. When the picture is bright in the movie, the result is way too bright in the captureprograms.

I'm using XP, MSI G4Ti-4400-VTD and have tried both iuVcr and VirtualDub.

[lordsmurf]

s-video or composite?

[upshot]

could be a ire black level issue... I had that problem with a pci cap card...

[Baltazar]

Composit

ire black level issue, what's that? can you explain and maybe how to solve it if possible?

[TheFamilyMan]

I use a aopen ti4200 w/VIVO that uses a phillips video chip. It over-staturates bright scenes such that they look like a "white out". I solved this problem by putting a voltage drop circuit in my composite cable. I got the specs for it in a post made sometime back on this site. It appears that my video input was appearing as over-driven to the on-board circuit. The voltage drop fixed the problem, but it also dims the picture ever so slightly in a compressed manner (darker areas do not seem as effected as the brighter areas). I also have a red saturation problem with my card that I fix using TMPGEnc filters (again it ain't perfect but acceptable for me). The whiteout cannot be fixed with filters since there is nothing to bring back to normal, i.e. picture data is permanently lost at the analog to digital conversion. I hope your AGP does not suffer from these problems , but it might be worth looking in to. Good Luck.

[BrainStorm69]

I use a aopen ti4200 w/VIVO that uses a phillips video chip. It over-staturates bright scenes such that they look like a "white out". I solved this problem by putting a voltage drop circuit in my composite cable. I got the specs for it in a post made sometime back on this site. It appears that my video input was appearing as over-driven to the on-board circuit. The voltage drop fixed the problem, but it also dims the picture ever so slightly in a compressed manner (darker areas do not seem as effected as the brighter areas). I also have a red saturation problem with my card that I fix using TMPGEnc filters (again it ain't perfect but acceptable for me). The whiteout cannot be fixed with filters since there is nothing to bring back to normal, i.e. picture data is permanently lost at the analog to digital conversion. I hope your AGP does not suffer from these problems , but it might be worth looking in to. Good Luck.

You could also buy a Sima Color Corrector (around $60 used on E-bay) and correct this problem before the signal gets to your capture card.

FamilyMan, do you recall where and by whom this "voltage drop" fix for your composite cable was posted? Sounds intriguing.

[vhelp]

@ Baltazar

Just a dumb question..

Are you capturing directo to MPEG ??
This might explain your brightness issue.

I'm not familiar w/ this capture card - MSI G4Ti-4400-VTD

* Is this a capture card ??

-vhelp

[TheFamilyMan]

I scoured the forum archives, I could not find the original thread. The voltage drop is as follows (excuse my teminology and poor graphics):

(edit: the original diagram was definately WRONG, so it has been removed)

I constructed one from a Y rca splitter. I cut off one of the leads completely, soldered in the above resistor network in the middle of the other lead as shown, and then wrapped the mess with tape. The resulting "device" is then connected between my VCR and my VIVO composite input. This gets the job done and does not seem to add any noise to the signal. The total cost for this was less that $10.

The above is given for historical reasons only. Attempt this at your own risk.

[Baltazar]

Are you capturing directo to MPEG ??

No, to AVI with UYVY.

MSI G4Ti-4400-VTD - Is this a capture card ??

Yes.

upshot: I still don't know what ire black level issue is. Can you explain please?

Thanks for the suggestions everyone else but I don't have the knowledge to do a resistor or the money to buy a Sima Color Corrector at e-bay. So any other suggestions are welcome here, thanks

[Steen4]

I own a capture card (Gainward Geforce3) that uses the same decoder chip (Philips SAA7108) that yours does, and I was able to solve my brightness problem by downloading the video live driver and the saa7108 evip manager. Follow this link to read a previous discussion on this matter (don't worry, all the info you need is there):

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=240772

Keep us posted on your results, OK? Too many threads in this forum terminate without a resolution, and subsequent visitors to the thread won't get a grasp of what is or isn't working.

[Wilbert]

I also used that chip (quality is not good, I advice you to buy something better). I added

ColorYUV(levels="PC->TV")

in my avs script to get good brightness. I also would like to no why this seems to be necessary. Cause, according to the specs it should cap [16,235] YUV.

[Baltazar]

According to this: http://tvtool.cust.nearlyfreespeech.net/cardbase_v.htm

My gfxcard has the BT869 or the CX25870 so I'm not sure your suggestions will work since it's for the SAA7108 chip as you said.

From what I can remember I never had this problem with brightness when I captured in Windows 2000 with the same card, not sure though.

[upshot]

Here is an good ire black explanation:
http://www.signvideo.com/dv-black-level-dvd-7.5-ire-0-ntsc-part-2.htm

[lordsmurf]

You never answered my question. The wire can affect this too.

[Baltazar]

lordsmurf: I did answer your question, it's composite wire.

Don't think it's the ire black level issue either, since I have PAL and not NTSC, but maybe it doesn't matter..

[Steen4]

Baltazar: according to the chart you link to, the MSI G4Ti4400-VTD (MS-8871) has the Philips chip (look in column 3, wa-a-a-ay down at the bottom of the page).

[Baltazar]

Steen4: I downloaded the:

VLio251.zip - Video Live WDM driver (why should I have this when I already have a WDM driver installed? I tried uninstalling my old WDM driver and installed this one instead but iuVCR won't take this new one as a WDM driver so I installed the old one again. I also tried the vlive158 but same thing here).

and the

evip7108.zip - SAA7108 EVIP Manager

from http://www.ab.ru/~lookin/

Then I installed them both but I can't change any settings in the EVIP Manager ('analog 2' tab).

[Steen4]

Baltazar: the video live wdm driver is only meant to control the evip manager. The regular wdm vivo driver must still be present for the capture function to work. Once they are both installed correctly, then you should open the capture program and use the evip manager.

[Baltazar]

I think I installed them correctly but I can't change any settings in the EVIP manager... Strange...

[Steen4]

Baltazar: after doing a bit of research, I might have found an answer for you. I apparently left out a step or 2 when explaining the video live setup. After installing the wdm driver, reboot and install Video Live Mode (since you have everything else installed, just install the program. It's at the same site where you downloaded the wdm driver). There is also a registry entry that needs to be modified; you can find an explanation here:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:BEt5i2JFZsAJ:www.envynews.com/forums/archive/inde...shooting&hl=en

I really must apologize for not recalling this step, but it has really been a while since I installed the driver on my system. Let me know if this improves things.

PS: There is a description on this page of a shortcut properties modification that will set up the evip manager automatically, but it is completely optional and declining to make the modification will in no way compromise your ability to tweak the evip manager's settings by hand.