Hauppauge PVR-250 card AVI recording

[iooi]

Does anyone know if there are any work rounds to make this card capture in AVI.
I'm doing vhs to dvd via svhs leads. So long as the source fits on to a dvd without any shrinking then they are fine, but as soon as i have to shrink the mpg file i get serious a/v sync issues.
Music tapes seem to be the worst culprits as some are 2 hours long...
I have searched round a few sites and found some new capture settings which may help to stop the sync issues but till i get a few hours to spare i cant test.
Curently using wintv2000 to capture with tempeg author to set chapter points first and have tried both clone dvd and dvd shrink to compress files, both with same result. I did overcome the sync issues with a reencode with tempeg but of course the quality wasnt as good. That could just have been my lack of correct settings in it..

[yoda313]

Hello,

Nope - the hauppauge wintv pvr 250 is an MPEG HARDWARE CAPTURE CARD. Nothing more, nothing less.

Kevin

---even if you could a hacked firmware would be unstable and you'd be better off buying a dedicated avi capture card, could get one used on ebay of course --

[iooi]

Oh well thanks.
looks like i got to get used to fiddling around to keep sync.

Any recommendations on good avi capture cards ?

[alebertaz]

Ati all in Wonder are excellent AVI & MPEG capture cards.

Go to the right way

[bitter_old_man]

iooi, take a look at VideoReDo for editing. Since using it, I have no sync problems with VHS captures with my PVR-250. A great program with incredible support. There is a 30 day trial (be sure to get a trial key).

http://www.drdsystems.com/VideoReDo/

Barry

[iooi]

iooi, take a look at VideoReDo for editing. Since using it, I have no sync problems with VHS captures with my PVR-250. A great program with incredible support. There is a 30 day trial (be sure to get a trial key).

http://www.drdsystems.com/VideoReDo/

Barry

You cykick... or what.
After much searching around on this issue i came to same result... 1 effort so far and its worked sweet.

[reboot]

What's the problem with sync?
The card captures audio and video as one stream.
Even the basic Nanopeg editor will do what VideoRedo does, and it's included free.
Update to it on the Hauppauge site.

[bitter_old_man]

Even the basic Nanopeg editor will do what VideoRedo does, and it's included free. Update to it on the Hauppauge site.

No it won't. Go to SHS's forums and search on Nanopeg and see what people think of it. It's nearly unanimous... nanopeg sucks. And it often corrupts the file. http://www.shspvr.com/forum/

Try a 90 minute capture with a PVR-250 or 350 from VHS, edit it with nonpeg and author to DVD. Then you'll see that nanopeg will not keep sync.

Barry

[bitter_old_man]

What's the problem with sync? The card captures audio and video as one stream.

To quote Dan Rosen (Mr. VideoReDo): "VideoReDo will fix your captured VHS captured file even if you make no edits. Either load and save the file, or run QuickStream Fix.

We see this problem all the time with tape to digital copies, especially VHS. Plays fine on the computer, but is out of sync on the DVD. The reason is that the tape's speed is slightly off. The PVR syncs the digital capture to the tape speed (gen lock) but records the audio assuming that the input stream is 29.97 FPS (NTSC) or 25 FPS (PAL). A software player knows how to correct for this dynamically, but DVD authoring programs don't.

VideoReDo will remove a few frames here and there to keep the output file in sync. If the problem isn't severe you'll never notice the difference. In rare cases the problem is extremely severe and so many frames are dropped it makes the output unplayable."

There is now an option to repeat video frames if too many would have to be dropped to keep sync.

Barry

[reboot]

I know Nanopeg isn't the best, but it does sorta work. I guess it depends on how many cuts.
I usually use Cuttermaran anyhow.

I don't need an ad for VideoReDo, thanks

I have NO trouble recording 6 hr VHS tapes on my 250. No sync problems.
It helps if you don't just leave things at spec, nor use the default software.
Find something with a few more options, and tweak it, especially nice if you have more than one audio and video encoder to choose from.

[iooi]

What's the problem with sync?
The card captures audio and video as one stream.
Even the basic Nanopeg editor will do what VideoRedo does, and it's included free.
Update to it on the Hauppauge site.

Right do a search on A/V sync issues and you will see this crop up time and time again.
The card does not really capture as one stream, mearly time stamps both tracks. The problem is when you use any other apps on the files it deletes these time stamps and sync issues happen.
My example of this is i was capturing u2's zoo tv. I was not editing the file in any way (managed to stop and start capture at right moment... ), just capture at higest quality poss. then use clone dvd to compress to fit a dvd-r the result was sync was out by a good 10 secs at end...... I even tried to reencode using tempeg, but that had the same result.
Running through VideoReDo has cured the problem. I think it removed 300+ audio frames.... Shrunk with clone dvd and i got one sweet dvd.

[bitter_old_man]

I have NO trouble recording 6 hr VHS tapes on my 250. No sync problems.

You may be the only one.

It helps if you don't just leave things at spec, nor use the default software. Find something with a few more options, and tweak it, especially nice if you have more than one audio and video encoder to choose from.

So, you're not using the hardware encoder on the card?

Barry

[mats.hogberg]

just capture at higest quality poss. then use clone dvd to compress to fit a dvd-r

Not related to sync issues, but that is not the best way to do it - better capture at the right bitrate for the capture length to begin with.

/Mats

[reboot]

@ Bitter_old_man...I was referring to playback/timeshifting, not capture, sorry.
I only use Cuttermaran for my editing of TV caps. Frameaccurate cuts means no sync problems.
Womble, et al seem to have a problem with this on Hauppauge captures (probably from aforesaid timestamps).
Tweaking the capture size and bitrate, as well as sharpness/bright/contrast etc., also can help a lot for video quality.
Try Cask-of-Amontillado's tweak tool, or edit the registry manually.
Lots of tips at shspvr.com

[iooi]

Not related to sync issues, but that is not the best way to do it - better capture at the right bitrate for the capture length to begin with.

/Mats

OK.
Old dog wants to learn new trick....
What is the best way to determine what the best bitrate would be then ? Many of the tapes i have, i have no idea on their length...

My reasoning behind going highest and then compress was that if dual layer come down in price i can use the highest quality file. At present i save the original mpeg file and delete everything else after burning to disk.
Thankfully i have plenty of hard drive space on the shelf..

[mats.hogberg]

OK, I see your point. But I still don't see how you can experience such troubles with your captures - might be because I've never tried a VHS capture, just TV captures.

/Mats

[iooi]

OK, I see your point. But I still don't see how you can experience such troubles with your captures - might be because I've never tried a VHS capture, just TV captures.

/Mats

I dont either but it happens.
Give a vhs capture a try and see. I did on or two and they were ok. Then i seemed to hit the wall on the last to tapes.