Avermedia DVD EZmaker card...is this all there is?!

[dazco]

I can't make virtual dub work, but i was able to use virtual vcr and the app that came with the card. I tried every setting i could use in them but the VHS captures i'm getting are so bad it's rediculous ! Anything more than 320x240 is just garbage. This can't be the extent of it's capabilities with all the praise here, but to be honest i got captures just as good with my old USB 1.1 Intel PC cam that has a capture RCA jack on it. I really need help.....there are just no settings to work with to change it for the better as far as i can see, and i can't find anything here in the articles of forums that have helped. If i can't make this work it's going back tomorrow or friday because unless i'm missing something, this thing is worthless. May as well use the old intel.

[brookelh]

I get fine results with the highest setting in neoDVD that came with the card. Did you try that?

I haven't tried virtual VCR, but have played with iuVCR some. Download that for a free trial and try this guide: http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/nonatiavi/nonatiavi.htm
Or perhaps the guide will give you some ideas for settings in virtual VCR.
What sort of compression are you using? Sometimes it takes some fiddling.

I haven't paid for iuVCR yet, but my trial has run out, so I plan to try virtual VCR to see how it works, but I doubt I will have time until after Christmas. How is that for a run-on sentence?

[BrainStorm69]

What are you trying to capture? What cables are you using? Are you using the huffyuv codec? If you want some help, we'll need to know more about your setup and what you are doing.

I use Virtual VCR with that card to capture. Maybe these screen caps of my settings will help you. Note that some may need to be changed depending on your particular situation, but they should be a good starting point.



The below is the dialog box you get if you click on the device settings button in the first cap.

[dazco]

What are you trying to capture? What cables are you using? Are you using the huffyuv codec? If you want some help, we'll need to know more about your setup and what you are doing.

I use Virtual VCR with that card to capture. Maybe these screen caps of my settings will help you.



The below is the dialog box you get if you click on the device settings button in the first cap.

Thanks brainstorm. Very nice of you to do this !
I'm capturing from a vhs with the same cables i use to run my standalone DVD player to my TV. So i don't think thats it since i get a fine picture. I tried using the huffy and ms mpeg4 v2 codecs. However, looking at your settings i see you used 704x480. I tried what it says on the box (740x480) plus i also tried 320x240 and 640x480. I will try your settings minus of course the obvious ones that are unique to your setup like your source being different for example. I'll post back after trying this. Thanks for the pics !

[dazco]

Hmmm.....better. Still not very good, but i have the vcr unhooked from the TV so i gotta hook it up and compare it to the VHS. I'll also burn a disc and compare that to the VHS, and last i'll record off the TV to VHS on a nice clear channel with good tape then capture that and compare. i'll post back when i see the results.

Also, i can't figure this out.....no matter what audio settings i use it gives me an error message about the audio when i start the capture and tells me it will use the default settings. Wierd.

Oh, and that capture software that comes with it....when i do mpeg capture with it, the resulting video plays fine for about 10 seconds then stops and gives me an error message.. "catostophic failure" !!

[BrainStorm69]

Can you post some screen caps so we can see what you are getting? What is it about the captures that you think makes them look bad?

Also, I've never even installed the software that came with the card, so I know nothing about it.

Finally, one other settings cap that amy be important - the huffyuv configuration dialog box

[dazco]

Can you post some screen caps so we can see what you are getting?What is it about the captures that you think makes them look bad?

I can't, but i did find that the vhs i was working with was worse looking that i remembered it. So i recorded a bit of a TV broadcast and captured it from VHS. The results were far better. Still not as good as the VHS but very close. So the quality issue is actually about what i expected....probably 90% as good as the tape if not 95%.

Also, I've never even installed the software that came with the card, so I know nothing about it.

It blows. No settings to speak of. But if you are refering to the error i mentioned when playing the resulting file that said "catistrophic error", well, heres where my next hurdle comes in. I just now got the same error with a virtual vcr capture! However, it was after trying to crop it to svcd res.......480x480. So somehow i must have screwed it up. Plus i can't seem to figure out how to pad it as i was told to do in another thread.
Also, i get an audio error when i encode to mpeg2 in bbMPEG. It tells me something about dropping a frame or something. And the audio is just horrible. Hissy as hell. Plus i cannot find a mpg 1/2 audio codec in any app, which i believe svcd needs. I have mpg layer 3....is that it?
As for the huffy config dialog, mine is set the same.

So as of now my biggest problem is 480x480, the svcd standard. I can't seem to do this in any of my apps and even if i do i won't end up being able to get a full screen view playing a svcd into my TV from my sony player. Plus i do crop it to 480x480 the proportions are off and i get that catostrophic failure error when playing the file. Geez....

By the way, i tried to burn a svcd in nero with the original ratio mpeg2 file and it told me i need to buy the plugin because the file wasn't up to svcd standards because of the ratio. i understand that. But i swear to you i burned a non 480x480 ratio mpeg2 file to svcd a few weeks ago and it worked ! this video stuff is just too complicated for me !

[BrainStorm69]

If you download and use virtualdubmod, you can make screen caps using it after you have captured with Virtual VCR.

If you are trying to capture to SVCD resolution, don't crop it. Change the frame size on the "video" tab to 480x480.

I would download the trial version of TMPGEnc for encoding. I use it for encoding to MPEG-2. It will also encode to MPEG-1 for VCD. And yes, mpg layer 3 is mp3 audio.

[Billf2099]

Hmmm. Now mine worked perfectly. And I even used the software that came with it. Sonic and Arcsoft. Took a few tries. I captured MANY camcorder tapes using the SVHS input on the card. Set it for DVD quality and got pretty good results. Now, this setup had it compressing on the fly, so the key to this is LOTS of memory, nothing else running, etc. Comments you can read elsewhere, but there is this. This card cannot make something better then the original souce material is. In short, VHS will give you a VHS quality capture, at best. Nothing will improve the source short of a full digital rebuild of the stuff frame by frame. I suggest Industrial Light and Magic for that sort of stuff.

I later used other tools to edit and author the DVD.

Its a very good card, much better then external devices I tried. The only thing I'll try to do different in the future is to install a real audio card to lower the load on the system. I had good synch in my captures.


good luck to you.

[dazco]

If you download and use virtualdubmod, you can make screen caps using it after you have captured with Virtual VCR.

No, i mean i have no server space at the moment. I have a screen cap utility.

If you are trying to capture to SVCD resolution, don't crop it. Change the frame size on the "video" tab to 480x480.

Yes, i finally got the answer in another post this morning where someone explained it by saying if you view the video on the PC it will not look right, but that the TV knows what to do with the ratio. This told me something i never even thought of and that i could not find the answer to. I never considered that the video should NOT look right on PC and that the TV will stretch it out ! I was trying to keep the picture proportional on the pc while getting a 480x480 ratio by cutting the width or adding to the height ! I knew that couldn't be right, but it never occured to me that the file should look out of proportion when viewed on PC. That take a load of my mind because i was stuck at an impass. Now i just gotta figure out if i'm better off capturing at 480x480 or capturing at say 640x480 and squeezing it in the final encode in order to have a normal looking video during editing for my eye's sake. (hard to see your tweaks when it's all out of proportion)

I would download the trial version of TMPGEnc for encoding. I use it for encoding to MPEG-2. It will also encode to MPEG-1 for VCD. And yes, mpg layer 3 is mp3 audio.

I think that bbMPEG is fine, and i tried TMPGEnc a while back for some experimenting and my 30 days is up. But to tell you the truth i find bbMPEG more to my liking anyway, (not to mention it's free!)and i now see it has nothing to do with any of the problems i've run into. I just need to find out why it drops one audio frame, tho that doesn't seem to matter because once i recorded from a known good VHS clip it all sounded and looked great. It was mainly that first tape that was bad.

[dazco]

Hmmm. Now mine worked perfectly. And I even used the software that came with it. Sonic and Arcsoft.

You're lucky. Mine came with a different software that bites.

This card cannot make something better then the original souce material is.

Yes, i'm well aware of that. I just didn't realize the VHS i was capturing was in such bad shape because i hadn't seen it for years and the VCR wasn't connected to the TV at the time. So i thought the picture's lack of quality i was seeing on PC was due to the card. Amazing how much a video tape degrades in a few years. I know it wasn't nearly this bad !

As for memory, i have a gig of dual channel Giel. Not a ungodly amount, but i know a lot of people do this stuff with considerably less.