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  1. Member
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    Hello Everyone:

    I previously attempted to get help with the quality of capturing using my Hauppauge WinTV Go card. Please see my original post here.

    I have been trying to install the btwincap drivers without success. I do not uninstall the Hauppauge drivers as explained on the btwincap web page. I just install the new drivers. Unfortunately, once I do this, VirtualVCR nor VirtualDub will work for me. I can't tune in any TV channels, and I can't capture from my VCR. I'm attempting to capture through my VCR using a coaxial cable.

    I didn't think this would be so difficult. I just wanted to gain some improvement in quality and many people suggested upgrading to the btwincap drivers. It should be noted I am running Windows XP.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Bryan
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  2. Member BrainStorm69's Avatar
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    The first thing you should do is quit trying to capture over coax. Even if you only cap over a composite connection, the improvement will be noticeable. If you have an S-VHS vcr, using the s-video connection will help even more.

    As far as your driver problems, Vdub is a VFW app and I'm not suprised it didn't work. You should try virtualdubmod if you want to cap using WDM drivers. I don't know why VirtualVCR doesn't work with the BTWincap drivers, it should. What resolution do you have Virtual VCR set up for? I've had problems on occassion with it locking up if I'm trying to capture at an oddball resolution. Try 720x480 for a safe bet.
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    I had the frame size in VirtualVCR set to 320x240. I just don't understand though why the btwincap drivers don't work for me. I can't see any kind of preview in VirtualVCR. Shouldn't I just install the btwincap drivers over the others? I really don't understand this.

    The suggestion for not using coaxial is a good one. I will try it. I'm assuming that means in addition to the video composite that I will need an RCA cable to connect from one of the VCR audio ports to that on the WinTV go card?
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  4. Member BrainStorm69's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    I had the frame size in VirtualVCR set to 320x240. I just don't understand though why the btwincap drivers don't work for me. I can't see any kind of preview in VirtualVCR. Shouldn't I just install the btwincap drivers over the others? I really don't understand this.
    I don't understand either. It sounds like you installed them correctly. And 320x240 for VVCR should work fine. To see the preview in VVCR, you probably need to go into the settings and on the "view" tab, check the box that says "Use smart tee filter for preview." When you say that VVCR isn't working, are you saying that because you don't see the preview window? Are you sure it's not capping? You might check the folder you told VVCR to place the file and see if it's there.

    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    The suggestion for not using coaxial is a good one. I will try it. I'm assuming that means in addition to the video composite that I will need an RCA cable to connect from one of the VCR audio ports to that on the WinTV go card?
    Yes, you will need rca cables to connect the VCR audio up to your card. You might even find that using the composite connection results in a big enough improvement that you won't feel the need to use the BTWincap drivers. However, some drivers that come with BT878 cards won't allow you to cap in 720x480. I don't know if that's true of Hauppage's or not. But that is another reason why some folks with BT878 cards switch to the BTWincap drivers. You might try using VVCR with the original drivers and see if it works also.
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    When I install the btwincap drivers, it asks for the TV tuner model used in my card. It says this should be autodetected for Hauppauge cards. But it is not. That's why I can't even tune through my card using these drivers. Any idea what I could set the TV tuner model to manually?
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  6. Member BrainStorm69's Avatar
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    Sorry, but nope. I never worried about using the TV tuner when I was using the BTWincap drivers. I was using my card strictly for VHS capture.

    However, if you hook up your vcr to your card through the composite connection, you should be able to use the VCR's tuner for watching TV. Most vcr tuners are better than the tv tuners they put on capture cards anyway.
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  7. Member
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    Brainstorm:

    All of your advice worked out quite well. I used RCA cables to hook up the VCR directly into the WinTV Go card. I then installed the btwincap drivers, and I used the VirtualDubMod program to capture. The results provided much better quality. The audio sounds good. There is no static which was earlier a problem for me. I do have a few more questions if you or anyone else would care to answer.

    1) The AVI files are quite big. What kind of compression type should I use? I know VirtualDubMod has options for compression.

    2) There is overscan in my captures. Is it advisable to just crop this out using VirtualDubMod?

    3) My resulting files are in AVI format. Ultimately, I'd like to wind up with MPEG files so that I can make my DVDs using TMPGEnc. (Unless, of course, there is a better option for DVD authoring software.) Any suggestions on what to use to do the conversion? I don't believe VirtualDubMod makes MPEG files.

    4) I adjusted the frame rate to 29.976 fps which I thought is standard for NTSC format. Unfortunately, I am not getting that rate. I'm getting about 23 fps with a ton of dropped frames. Any ideas on how I can improve this? I'm running a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz with 512 MB DDRAM and a 7200 RPM 120 GB hard drive.

    Thanks again.

    Bryan
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  8. Member BrainStorm69's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    Brainstorm:

    All of your advice worked out quite well. I used RCA cables to hook up the VCR directly into the WinTV Go card. I then installed the btwincap drivers, and I used the VirtualDubMod program to capture. The results provided much better quality. The audio sounds good. There is no static which was earlier a problem for me.
    Glad to hear things are working out for you

    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    1) The AVI files are quite big. What kind of compression type should I use? I know VirtualDubMod has options for compression.
    I personally use Huffyuv. Still results in pretty big files, but smaller than uncompressed and huffy compression is "lossless," so you aren't losing quality. If you need smaller files, you can try the PICVideo mjpeg codec. Use the "19" quality setting. Smaller files without much loss in quality.

    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    2) There is overscan in my captures. Is it advisable to just crop this out using VirtualDubMod?
    Personally, I just leave it alone. It won't show up on your TV anyway. But you can either mask them or crop them if you like. Just remember you are going to want to end up as a legal DVD resolution in the end

    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    3) My resulting files are in AVI format. Ultimately, I'd like to wind up with MPEG files so that I can make my DVDs using TMPGEnc. (Unless, of course, there is a better option for DVD authoring software.) Any suggestions on what to use to do the conversion? I don't believe VirtualDubMod makes MPEG files.
    I use TMPGEnc to to the encoding, and TMPGEnc DVD Author to author my DVDs. TMPGEnc is slow, but good. Some other folks like the CinemaCraft encoder, or the Mainconcept MPEG encoder. I've never tried either, but they are supposed to be good, and faster than TMPG.

    Originally Posted by brmeyer
    4) I adjusted the frame rate to 29.976 fps which I thought is standard for NTSC format. Unfortunately, I am not getting that rate. I'm getting about 23 fps with a ton of dropped frames. Any ideas on how I can improve this? I'm running a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz with 512 MB DDRAM and a 7200 RPM 120 GB hard drive.
    29.97 is std for NTSC and your DVD authoring program will probably not accept anything else. As far as improving you droppped frames: (1) capture to a hard drive that is dedicated capturing (i.e., not the same drive all your apps are running on); (2) make sure to defrag before each capture; (3) if possible, it's best to have the capture drive on a separate ide channel; (4) don't try to do something else on your computer while you are capturing; (5) close all unnecessary applications while capturing.

    If you need other ideas, try checking out the "sticky" post at the top of the capture forum about "Why my system drops frames."

    https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157660

    Good luck!
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