Whyyy? Oohh Why?

[rrrredrum]

I have a real problem capturing to from my TV. Dropped frames and poor quality. I have tried installing the bt8xx WDM/WFM drivers, but it won't let me isntall them. Right now I am using the WDM drivers that came wiht my Capture card. This is my PCspecs:

Windows xp 2000+
Via kt333 chipset(latest drivers).
Geforce4 4200 Videon -IN(this is my capture card)
512 mb ddr ram.
Fast Seagate HDD(With DMA enabled)

I got some application called VIVOplayer, but that one is just crap, the quality is poor, no framedropps. but you can see huge pixels, even at high quality settings..

Even when I'm running Virtualdub and choosing "preview" is the quality poor,

Now: What can I do?, Tried installing the all possible drivers.

[rrrredrum]

Maybe you cannot help me, but can you vets answer this question:

When you preview something you're about to capture in Virtualdub, by choosing " preview" instaed of "overlay" is the quality poor?

[deadpac]

It's NOT a question of quality.

Preview mode is using the TV chip to display the video to you when it is supposed to just process/feed the video to your Vid card. Since your Vid card is also your cap card you would think that preview would look like Overlay but it's not, TV chips just don't have enough power to create displays like the ones that your vid card can produce. TV chip is supposed to just receive the signal and process it so that your video card can display the signal.

When you are in preview mode you are telling your TV card/chip to display the signal.

what a ..... of

[rrrredrum]

So I will not be able to get better quality then that signal? Sorry if I sound newbish, but I gotta be sure..

[deadpac]

Once again it's not a question of quality.

Just capture a couple of clips with preview on and you should see that there is no problem in the end.

Your system should be fast enough to capture with Overlay or Preview on, but people generally turn both off when capturing in order to lessen the bandwith requirements on the PCI bus to the HDD.

Capture with Overlay On, you should have no problems.

Capture with Preview On, you should have no problems.

Capture with Preview Off and Overlay Off , you should have no problems.

Based on your system specs you should be able to capture with no problem in either of the 3 modes. Preview mode is not a "Preview" of how your video will turn out.

[tmcmvd]

What videocodec are you using to compress the video ?

For best quality try HUFFYUV (need large fast HDD) or one of the MJPEG codecs for reasonable quality.

Try reading the guide to capturing with tvcard (applies to you also, you use the same BT chipset !)

Do you have problems (like framedrops) when u use the capturetest (internal only) ?

How poor is your quality...stripes ? blocky ? low detail ? frame drops ?

Try capturing without the audio, AC97 sound onboard may be the source of some problems...otherwise capture with lowest quality sound (just to try) so the datarate to you hdd is a little lower.

Maybe stupid...but did you set the resolution right ?

Always try to use the S-Video in instead of the Compostit video in for best results.

Capturing without preview and/or overlay always keeps more system resourced available or the capture process...you won't see what you are doing though.

Hope it helped a little...