Incredible TV-capture problems (different softwares)

[stounedi]

Hello people! I hope some of you have some sort of result for my problems... I havent been able to capture even a single decent video from TV source. Following the problems I have.

1. WinDVR 2 (bundled with my MSI Personal Cinema) & WinDVR 3 (latest version):
* Very good video capture, no complaints about the video quality!
* Audio errors. The audio has sort of wobbling or wavering effect, similiar with old, banged up tapes. Seems like the higher voices are affected only, speech etc are excellent but the strange noise can be heard and is very disturbing with music (quite annoying).
* I have tried three different sound cards, so that is not the problem. I've tried C-Media integrated, Sound Blaster 5.1 and Sound Blaster Audigy 2. All have the strange sound. I have read that people with different brand sound cards have similiar problems (Hercules etc).
* I have tried to re-install Windows XP and then a clean install of WinDVR with nothing else on the PC, still have the problem. So it is not a codec conflict or such.
* I thought it might be because my PC isnt powerful enough for the capture, so I tried with the worst video settings possible. It didnt use even near full of my CPU capacity, yet the problem with audio remains.
* I've read from the internet that other people have been having similiar problems but havent found a real solution yet. Seems like it is Windows XP related problem though, I remember someone wrote that he install Windows 98 and it did not have the sound problems. But Windows 98 isnt an option for me (figure why)
- I'd love to use WinDVR, so solving this would be the best solution. The reasons; WinDVR is able to capture LONG videos (4+ hours) into single MPEG2 still keeping the audio in sync. I like to capture in single file, then later split into smaller captions if needed.


2. PowerVCR II:
* Ok video capture quality (not as good with moving objects and WinDVR)
* Ok sound capture quality.
* Splits capture into 600mb chucks or so, but I could live with it (merge the videos), UNLESS.....
- I have tried at least 10 different software to merge the videos, but with no success. Here are the examples:
- TMPGenc: Audio is way out of sync
- Pinnacle Studio 9: Audio is way out of sync
- Easy video joiner: Strange lags every now and then, seems like the merged final video has lost 5-15 seconds of video material every now and then, it just hangs for 1-2 seconds and skips over that 5-15 seconds of time. Audio is fine, though.
- Womble Video Wizard: Audio is great plus it streams without re-encoding, excellent! But... The video seems to lag, every 1-2 seconds there is a VERY SHORT (two tenths of a second or so) pause, but it is VERY ANNOYING to watch... What could cause this? Not likely to be a processor / memory problem, even though I have only 1900+ and 512MB DDR266, since the Womble software is not a real-time capture software.

I hope someone has a solution for me...

[pchan]

Can try these.
1. Please let us know what TV card that you use to capture your video. Some TV cards need to jumper from the sound card.
2. Try download the latest drivers for your Tv card.

[stounedi]

Oh, sorry. It is MSI Personal Cinema system, based on some nVidia graphics card / tv tuner combo.

It is not a problem with the card, I have tried to connect with the tv-cable and also tried to use s-video + direct link to sound card's line-in. Same problem with WinDVR.

[jbodin]

2. PowerVCR II:
* Ok video capture quality (not as good with moving objects and WinDVR)
* Ok sound capture quality.
* Splits capture into 600mb chucks or so, but I could live with it (merge the videos), UNLESS.....
- I have tried at least 10 different software to merge the videos, but with no success. Here are the examples:
- TMPGenc: Audio is way out of sync
- Pinnacle Studio 9: Audio is way out of sync
- Easy video joiner: Strange lags every now and then, seems like the merged final video has lost 5-15 seconds of video material every now and then, it just hangs for 1-2 seconds and skips over that 5-15 seconds of time. Audio is fine, though.
- Womble Video Wizard: Audio is great plus it streams without re-encoding, excellent! But... The video seems to lag, every 1-2 seconds there is a VERY SHORT (two tenths of a second or so) pause, but it is VERY ANNOYING to watch... What could cause this? Not likely to be a processor / memory problem, even though I have only 1900+ and 512MB DDR266, since the Womble software is not a real-time capture software.

I hope someone has a solution for me...

Here's your solution for PowerVCR's file size limit -- go read this guide, then apply the registry hacks listed therein:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/capture/nonatimpeg/nonatimpeg.htm

The part you want to pay attention to is the part that details how to change the Change maximum allowed filesize parameter -- this will help you break that 600MB barrier.

Next, the best tool to use for joining files captured by PowerVCR II is the "Video Trimmer" editing tool/utility that comes as a part of the PowerVCR II package. Check out this guide for more details that might help:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=262683

I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting with PowerVCR II -- hopefully this will help get you pointed in the right direction.

[reboot]

What type of audio are you capturing? MP2, AC3, LPCM, MP3? At what frequency?

[RabidDog]

I also have recently acquired a xfx personal cinema card with an windvr 2. I use this to capture shows and films with no real problems(rt hw mpeg2 d1 66% cpu?) . I use to capture everything in one large file at best bitrate , this resulted in large files 6gb plus which were a bit unweildy. I found the best solution was to capture in 400mb chunks and simply author DVD's with tmpgenc DVD author.. this also allows you to ignore the warnings about too high a bitrate and also create oversize dvd's. This solution doesnt require any joining of mpeg files. mp2 audio @ 224/48khz works fine for me.