Help! Capture thru cable,sat, & VHS has lots of NOISE!

[fladavpam]

Hi,

I have an avertv Stereo capture card and my captures from direct off-air broadcaast (from the antenna right to my card) are perfect; however, captures from any other source are plagued by noise consisting of horizontal lines that tend to blur the picture. the lines do are not high contrast or brightly colored, but they are annoying! My system configuration is as follows:

avertv Stereo capture card
ATI-based Xpert 2000 32MB AGP Video
P4 2.26 GHZ
Gigabyte Mainboard
256 MB DDR RAM
Windows 2000 Professional
WD 100GB HDD

Any help or hints you might have would be greatly appreciated!

[maxdesai]

I have an averStudio card and saw the same problem. The composite and S-video input had alot of noise (it was less noticeable when using the composite video input). The noise was horizontal lines that looked like sidweways rain.

It is much worse when recording at 352x240 than at larger resolutions. But using the composite video helped make it less noticeable. Its still annoying.

Recently I found other SW which helps with the problem.

1) Cyberlink's PowerVCR has a built in noise reduction filter. This seems to greatly reduce the problem (I'll probably use this when capturing to Mpeg2). I also tried a trial version of Intervideo's WinVCR and this also has some sort of nose reduction filter. (you can get trial versions of either software from their respeective web sites)

2) also I just found a noise reduction filter for virtualDub. so I'll probably use this when working with AVI files. It seems to do a very good job. I recodorded a show from TV using averstudio (mpeg2, 352x240, 3500kbps) a few months back and saved on my HD. As I'm writing this message, I'm using the noise removal filter for virtual dub to remove the noise and covert to divx.

[locco]

You guys have to remember that when dealing with these cards noise is usually a sign of poor input...most cards dont just "CREATE NOISE"...they have to be given noise...the better connections are and less splits and what-not the better you quality will be...trust me Ive been dealing with about 4 different brands for the last week now and AVERMEDIA is the BOMB!!!!! Try moving you cards around from slot to slot..use the first two slots and please make sure you buy good quality fittings and leads...good luck!

[locco]

When I say "noise" i mean both audio and video noise...

[fladavpam]

I did try composite video using some hi-quality cables and got much better results. I also use PowerVCR II instead of that piece of crap program that comes with the AVerTV card. I was using RG59 cable coming from my satellite receiver, splitting the signal between my TV and the AVertv card. Perhaps that degrades the signal too much. I have seen several devices for boosting video signal. Does anyone have any experience with these devices?

Oh, well, maybe I'm beating a dead horse. In a month I will be switching to digital cable with a dedicated line for my AVerTV card. Hopefully that will improve my captures.

Any input you might have would be appreciated!

P.S. Why go thru the hassle of DirecTV when digital cable is here!

[fladavpam]

By the way, maxdesai -

how do you access settings for the PowerVCR noise reduction filters? I can't seem to find them. Do settings exist? Does the noise reduction filter need to be activated somehow?

fladavpam

[snowmoon]

Here is my Vdub video NR recipe, adjust to taste and use. My input is 720x480 MJPEG Q=18

levels ( output should be 16,235, input should be adjusted to somewhere like 24,235 will be card/channel specific )
2d cleaner optimized (0.9) x=1, y=6, thres=6
kNRC 6,10
resize ( bicubic 1.0 480,480 )

And I save to huffyuv or frameserve.

[fladavpam]

Problem solved!

I hooked up my satellite dish through the composite video connection with some gold-tipped cables, and my problem was solved! Recording in mpeg-1 format at 2200 kbps produces hi-quality video, but there are still residual macroblocks from time to time. I think I might have to sell my 50 dollar avertv stereo card on ebay and spring for a new WinTV-PVR.

bummer.