PV-256 Software

[asprinwizard]

I have just got hold of the Provideo PV-256C. It seems to work Ok however I have a few problems. I know everyone has been slating the software and I have similar reason to. When I start the software I have to change the video mode to PAL each time, then I select VCD as the capture option, and it captures at DVD resolution (very frustrating). It seems I have to start from scratch each time I start the computer. Also there is a band of interference at the bottom. Actually I tink this is part of the TV picture flickering at the bottom. Does anyone know a trick to get rid of this? And is it possible to get rid of that annoying warped horizontal bar at the bottom of VHS recordings?

I was wondering if my problems would be eased if I got the latest drivers, but I cannot find them on the site. It only has the 1.3 drivers and software, which I already have. Does anyone know where I can get them?

Finally I have noticed that DVD captures (especially fast motion) and some SVCD captures are REALLY blocky. I realise this may be due to the speed of my system (Athlon 800, 256MB Ram), but I thought all encoding was done by the card. I will obviously be upgrading my processor before too long, can I expect an improvement or is there something wrong with the card or my system which I have missed?

Many thanks for reading. Any answers will be appreciated.

[ylong]

I am not an expert on PV256 but you may look at here: https://www.videohelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=66128&forum=2 and here: https://www.videohelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=59718&forum=2 . There are expert out there.
Good luck.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ylong on 2001-11-25 18:40:58 ]</font>

[norm]

Provideo have just released V1.7 on their web site check it out and see if that fixes your problem.
The flickering line at the bottom of the screen only occurs in PAL capture. The last time I checked NTSC it was not there. Provideo do not have a fix for this as yet.
It is actually outside the the normal scan area of a TV so if you burn your capture to a CD and playback in a DVD you should not see it.
At the moment there is no crop control for the head switching lines at the bottom of a VHS video. That maybe implemented in future drivers.
The speed of your processor will not effect the video capture performance so try V1.7 first and see if that fixes the problem.

[Anonymous65]

The trick to reduce the blockines, at least on the PV231, is to double the GOP sequence. So, if you use 15 frames, make it 30 frames. This greatly reduces the blocks on the PV231. (2x B frames, and 10x BBP groups for every I frame)

[asprinwizard]

Thanks for the tips. It seems to me that the DVD mode in has a bitrate that is too low (2.6 Mbits/sec). What is the bitrate for DVD? Is is CBR or VBR?

[asprinwizard]

Just to follow on. I am having real problems getting these drivers to download. I've just downloaded the latest driver at 200 bytes per second. I only have a dial up connection but it should be MUCH faster. If anyone has the application program could they post it or e-mail me because the provideo site is just too slow for me to wait for 4 megs to download. Also how do I upgrade the driver? Do I have to remove the old one first or can I simply install over the top? Any info appreciated.

[SHS]

asprinwizard Provideo has alway been very slow when download anything from them there real nothing you can do but wait for some person to get all of it.
Keep eye out on this page http://www.iln.com.au/