AverTV Stereo: Vertical resolution of MPEG2 capture is 240

[verybusy]

After setting AverTV Stereo up and connecting the cable line, TV viewing performance is adequate but there are some issues with the recording (time shift or VCR).

Using AverTV Stereo, vertical resolution of MPEG2 video capture is never more than 240. As a result I am unable to create SuperVCDs of my favourite shows. NTSC SuperVCDs are 480x480 and I use another MPEG encoder to resize the captured video. But since the original capture is never more than 240 vertically, the SVCD quality becomes terrible. For example, if I want to capture MPEG2 at 640x480, the captured MPEG2 video is squished vertically and appears to be 640x240 instead of 640x480.

I can't use VirtualDUB at all. It pops up following message:
________________
Title: Video device is already in use
Message: You cannot use this device when another video application, such as DVD, video conferencing, video editing, TV viewers, or WebTV for Windows is already using it. To use the device for your current application, close the application that is using it. If WebTV is installed and running on your system, pause the "WebTV video and data services" on the taskbar tray by right-clicking its icon and choosing "Pause Services".
________________

I am not sure WebTV. There are no TV programs running.

System config:
- AverTV Stereo
- Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 GHz CPU
- ECS K7S5A Motherboard
- 256 MB Crucial DDRAM
- Windows 2000 SP2
- 7200 RPM UDMA100 HDD
- Sound Blaster Live! Value sound card
- Voodoo3 2000 AGP video card

I already sent out two emails to AverMedia support but got no reply. I will appreciate any help resolving the issues.

Thanks,
Ritz

[JHebert]

Although I'm not directly familiar with this particular card, it sounds like it could be a driver or software issue. Check the AverMedia website to make sure you have the latest driver version for your card, and try uninstalling/reinstalling the drivers, even if you have the latest version already. Also try reinstalling the capture application.
Is the problem limited to MPEG2 capture only, have you tried to capture in AVI format at full 480x480 or 720x480 resolution?
You might also try another WDM (DirectShow) based capture program such as iuVCR from http://www.iulab.com . However I believe this program only does AVI or Windows Media capture not direct MPEG2 capture.
Is this card based on the BT848/878 chipset like other AverMedia cards? If so you could also try the "universal tweaked BT848/878 WDM drivers" also available on the iulab.com website.

[verybusy]

Tried with tweaked driver, no change. Uninstalled and installed drivers a couple of times. It's still the same.

Using AverTV software, I can record higher resolution (720x480) in MPEG1 only. MPEG2 somehow halts vertical resolution at 240. And there's no option of capturing AVI :-(.

VirtualDUB gave same with all the drivers I tried.

[supersappy]

Did you try switching from "Overlay" mode to "Primary" ? Also try using PowerVCR II, You can download and try their demo.

[malducci]

I have had the same problem with the ATI TV WONDER. It uses the BT848 chipset( I'm pretty sure ). I haven't tried to capture higher than 240 vertical lines in MPEG1, but I do know that I can't capture higher than 240 vertical lines in MPEG2. I'm pretty much trying to achieve the same thing as you. I would like to encode directly to SVCD specs and burn to CDR. I'm currently running the captured MPEG2 480x240 file into TMPGEnc and resizing it to 480x480, but since I have to re-encode the original mpeg file, the quality doesn't look as good and takes 24hours for a 2hour video for two cdr's. I also have to encode the original file at a bitrate around 8,000k. I don't know about you, but capturing to an AVI first, before using TMPGEnc, is not an option since I do not have the room for it on the hard drive.

[supersappy]

Download the trial version of PowerVCR II, Then search the windows registry with regedit for "352 x 240" (I don't remember if you'll need to put the spaces before and after x) you'll come across a key that lists the available resolutions for recording with PowerVCR. You can add a resolution of 480 x 480, just keep the same format as the other resolutions shown in the registry key. This does work, I have recorded 480x480, however I didn't have the horsepower (Celeron 900) to record in this resolution withou dropping frames. Give it a try !!

[jeg_jason]

I have also experienced the same problem using AverTV Studio. While trying to capture MPEG2, the vertical resolution was 240 instead of 480.

I fixed the problem by installing the "universal tweaked BT848/878 WDM drivers" available on the iulab.com website. Much to my surprise it worked well. I only installed the video capture driver though. I did this by the following method: control panel->system->device manager->avermedia, AverTV WDM video capture driver->properties->driver->update driver->specify location of driver-> location of tweaked BT WDM driver downloaded. After the driver was updated and I rebooted, I captured a small clip in MPEG2 using AverTV VCR. I then checked the properties of the clip using MPEGed, a free download to verify that it was indeed 480 now instead of 240.

Now that I can record MPEG2 in 720 x 480 with the card, I need some help with being able to chop commercials from recorded TV shows. If anybody knows a good program preferrably freeware that can do this please let me know. I have been successfully cutting and joining MPEG1 files in TMPGEnc but the program hangs up for some unknown reason with MPEG2 files. Once I can do this successfully I can justify buying a DVD burner.

[ThaKidKB8]

I have problems with the same exact card, it's a bt878 type of card. i can't use virtualdub at all unless i install old ass drivers from aver's website, but then i can't watch tv if i use those drivers. but if i use the new drivers, i can't use vdub at all but i can watch tv. any help would be appreciated.

[thegig]

Remember, the Aver is a a bt878 card. WDM drivers are a pain to get VDUB to work at all because Vdub is a VFW app. If you want to use Vdub, I would recommend using the VFW drivers. If you use the VFW drivers you have to reinstall the TV software from the AVER CD. Both would then work. MPEG2 caps are only available with the WDM driver because it is software encoding. I did not try the "tweaked" driver yet, because I prefer using Vdub. Only because I can "clean" the video before encoding, which provides me a better/smaller encoding. It does take longer though. The VCR prog also does not let you cap in AVI, it also has the max of 4gig caps whereas Vdub has multisegment capping. So basically you'll have to consider the two options.
1. WDM - less complex, OK quality, no options
2. VFW - more complex, better quality, tons of encoding options.

[ThaKidKB8]

thegig, where can i get VFW drivers then?

[ThaKidKB8]

thegig, where can i get VFW drivers then? beacuse i wanna use vdub

[thegig]

They are already on the CD you got from Aver. After you have removed the current drivers and did a reboot. When it asks to install the drivers use the select from location. The are in the Win98, not Win98se folder. If you have an audio card, I have found that it too has to have VFW drivers.

[jeg_jason]

After downloading the latests drivers and application from avermedia and making sure that the full size capture box is checked under VCR setting, my avertv studio card now can capture at 640 x 480 and 720 x 480 but still not at 480 x 480 (the option is not there). I am sure there is a way to downsize the video from 640 x 480 or 740 x 480 to 480 x 480, but I do not know exactly how to do this. Try using an MPEG encoder to resize the video. If this works let me know the details of the process and the applications you used because I would like to be able to make SVCDs as well.

[jarvizo]

make sure you have "full size capture" box checked under "vcr configuration" - "capture quality" otherwise you'll get half size captures when you play them back on the vcr player the software automatically re-sizes the picture for playback, but you don't notice until you bring the file in for authoring/editing on other programs (videowave, TMPGenc ect...)
I just bought this card myself and am still trying to figure all the bells & whistles. Good Luck.