Video Capture - What's in your Computer/Wallet

[lacywest]

I am using the MyHD MDP-130 High Definition TV Card ... and well ... I was hoping I would get some really decent captures but ... NOPE.

So ... my equipment profile is accurate ... and I have a few more MSI KBN Neo2 Mother Boards and a few more AMD XP 3500 64Bit ... CPUs ... I can build another one.

Maybe I need to build the next one with out all the extra stuff I have installed ... Norton Internet Security 2004 ... running in the background and all the other stuff.

What I would like to gain from this post is what are you guys using ... mother board ... and CPU ... to get decent video captures.

My capturing goals is what I can feed in from my cable and my HDTV antenna hooked up on my roof.

I have plenty of DVD Recorders in my living and my bedroom ... but I want to do this with a computer ... thanks guys.

[whitejremiah]

what program are you using for your capturing? I'm not too up on HDTV capturing, but i can tell you this much, the program you use does have a HUGE impact on the output quality...that and the settings you use......

[lacywest]

I'm on my laptop ... I'm at work.

Last year I used a ATI AIW 7500 ... programs back then was InterVideo WinDVR & Win DVD Creator. Cyberlink PowerProducer. The ATI MMC capturing programs for Spring 2005. Now I have a ATI AIW 9800 ... it plays Doom 3 just fine.

I want to find out and learn what you and the others here at VideoHelp are using.

Are using a Raid setup ?

Any particular mobo or CPU ?

High Definition is going to be harder to capture and I am wondering what other people are using to get decent capturing without losing frames.

If some of you can share your knowledge I wont need to use Trial and Error to get a good system up and running.

I basically want to get the same quality as my Panasonic or Pioneer DVD Recorder can achieve. I dont really want to burn to DVD and then transfer to the computer. I want it to be captured to my computer. I can build another computer ... that is not difficult ... but I don't want to be spending time finding what works and doesn't work.

I checked out Doom 9 and read the section on video capturing. Lots of interesting stuff mentioned about using Windows 2000 and creating a

http://www.highvid.com/hardware_tips/basic/1/hard_sel_2.shtml

" 2. In Win2K (and W/NT.4) you can create a "Software Raid". This mean that you can combine two or more Hard Drives in order to create a bigger faster storage space for the video files, with out the need to buy a special Raid Controller. "
... system.

More info here ...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2001/09/06/raid_without_additional_hardware/index.html

" RAID 0 arrays are not meant to be a long-term storage solution due to the safety issue. But they are suitable very well for fast short-term storage (swap file, temporary drive, video editing, video encoding). "

As you can see I've done some homework but ... what are you guys using ?? or are you all just using DVD Recorders these days ??

Come on ... somebody must still be using a computer system to do video capturing.

Post your comments on how you do successful capturing ... please.

[lacywest]

Oh and I do have the PicVideo codec and the Huffy codec.

I would do a screenshot of what my video capture looks like but at the moment ... I've got another hour of work here and then about 40 minute drive back home.

The video capture display is flickering badly and is displaying ... the top half of the video and the bottom half is showing two halves appearing.

Kind of weird ... I haven't seen this before ... most of my video captures in the past only suffered extreme frame drops ... when it was messing up.

After reading the ... how to ... sections from the sections I've read ... I will try disabling ... overlay / the preview feature and see what takes place.

[thecoalman]

Canopus ADVC, 0 frame drops, 0 audio problems, that is not going to help with HD unless you're trying to capture it as normal video...

I'm a bit confused though, besides the card you mention all the methods and software you mention are for standard video.

[lacywest]

Canopus ADVC, 0 frame drops, 0 audio problems, that is not going to help with HD unless you're trying to capture it as normal video...

I'm a bit confused though, besides the card you mention all the methods and software you mention are for standard video.

I am showing that I am looking and checking the guides here and at Doom 9

... so I wont get the typical answer ... check the guides

[jagabo]

Since the MyHD MDP-130 simply captures the digital MPEG stream that is broadcast your problem is likely in the decoding of the file, not the capturing.

[vhelp]

Have you seen the example of Sooparfresh's hdtv demo clip
(see the ex1.avi xvid) over here.. (he has the same card as you do)

--> Question about MyHD cards.

.
.

After reading the ... how to ... sections from the sections I've read ... I will try disabling ... overlay / the preview feature and see what takes place.

I thought the myHD card was a hardware-assisted one, for the video
I read that some of these pci cards *need* diret-X to decode what
these hdtv pci cards give out in video.

yeah.. I'm a bit surprise, because I heard some positive comments
on this particular hdtv card - suppose to be a good one - but I
am surprised that you're having some trouble with quality.

If you'll forgive me for my stupidness..

I thought that these pci cards pushs out a .TS (mpeg-2) file ??
..and that you had to only *resize* it down to 720 x 480 pixels
for DVD purposes, unless your myHD's s-video already does the
downsizing - (my given hdtv setup does) - or maybe its when your
card is selected for other than 480i/p mode. I don't know.. I'm
just throwing out my assumptions here. Anyway.

regarding the .TS route, ..as such, why aren't you using this route
instead ?? It would be like ripping a dvd - same expectations in
terms of quality.

But, could you *elaborate more* on your opinion as to what are
your actual sources poor quality like. I mean.. could you post
a few small source files (captured through your method, and also,
a processed one) ??

It is difficult to pinpoint and comment/suggest to you, when we
don't know what to give you in a proper response


FWIW, my setup is different from yours..

I don't have an internal pci card. Instead, I have an external hdtv
receiver. And I would proceed to capture through the s-video or
rca/composite output leads - but I'm having my own problems with such
setups using s-video leads, giving me grid-like diamonds in my
finished .AVI file, and only happends when using s-video leads - and
I'm still in the testing phase with which is the all-around-best
method to use with this *new* hdtv source medium I am playing with
these days.

** indoor_amp_antenna -> 25'cable -> hdtv_receiver -> capture_device


Some problems I've learned with hdtv are:

** if signal is strong, say >95% you can still get breakup of the
digital mpeg file during the units (be it pci or external) decoding
of the MPEG-2 source.
** as with the above, ..the video *can* be fine, but the audio *can*
suffer, in the most commonly experienced form, "audio black-out",
where you don't near audio, but you see "undisturbed video" output
on your viewing screen.
** Sometimes, signal is very high.. ie, >95% but video still breaks
up, including audio.
** other times, when signal is +/- 50%, the source video/audio will
play fine without any trouble - I have a very bad reception - and
will vary from user to user, on account of the signal strength or
reception/antenna. These are just a few, w/out going into any great
"techy" detail here.

Last, I wanted to note here, for the record..
I have my own set of problems with my hdtv, though mostly on account
of my receivers' expectations, hehe

I'm sorry for not actually going into my "..capture wallet.." specs
with you here, because I really want to read what you post in a
response to my post here.

-vhelp 3807

[edDV]

I think you need to start over here and describe what you are trying to do. jagabo is exactly on target.

Since the MyHD MDP-130 simply captures the digital MPEG stream that is broadcast your problem is likely in the decoding of the file, not the capturing.

Almost any computer can manage the capture of the HDTV MPeg2_TS file from over the air or from cable QAM. While capturing on a P4 2.4 less than 10% CPU is used (if you aren't watching at the same time). What is the problem? The datarate is 19-25 Mb/s. Any ATA-100 up hard drive can handle that.

The disassemply of that file can be very CPU intensive. Simple playback in HDTV from the MPeg2_TS file in HDTV or from mulitplexed SDTV channels should be easily handled by a machine with your specs. Try VLC if you are having difficulty. 1080i playback requires use of the deinterlacer.

PS: your ATI AIW 9800 has all the needed "Theater 200" HDTV MPEG2 playback acceleration. Any 8500, 9550 up ATI card will do the job.

[lacywest]

Thank you ... Thank you

Okay the crappy video captures are related to using PicVideo and the Huffy codecs .... but ... good news is coming.

I found a update at Digital Connection ... for the drivers and such. I didn't know that I was only going to get a decent capture resulting with a tp extension ... and to get this type of captures I had to look for the sub-channel ... channels.

Yes oh yes .... the captures look excellent ... really really great ... for sure.

Now ... about these crappy captures with the PicVideo and Huffy codecs ... what can we do to improve them ... ??? I'm serious thinking about building another computer and install Windows 2000 and cook up some kind of Raid configuration ... using Western Digital 80 gig hard drives ... oh geez golly ... actually depends on Best Buy ... and what they have on sale that week.

Oh by the way ... I made this original post around 11PM Friday night Feb 24th ... and it is now going on 2PM Saturday afternoon ... I have been up ... since around 11 AM Friday morning ... please guys ... lets keep this thread alive.

I need to get some sleep ... I've been up for over 24 hours ... but the HDTV ... tp ... captures are really great ... I'm happy.

[lacywest]

Oh before I go to sleep ...

I want to ask ... what programs are used to convert ... tp videos to ... mpg videos ... and avi videos ... like the sample .... " the example of Sooparfresh's " .... ex1.avi xvid

[edDV]

Basic concepts:

1. The HDTV tuner saves the already compressed and multiplexed MPeg2 TS or TP stream. It is a 19-25 Mb/s stream that is easy to capture.

2. The MPeg stream is a multiplex that can include multiple HD and/or SD streams + data streams that can be anything including MPeg4. For ATSC DTV these must add up to 19Mb/s. Cable QAM channels can be an ATSC rebroadcast or a single stripped subchannel. Cable often uses as much as 25Mb/s for single HD channels.

3. There is NO WAY that you are going to demultiplex and fully decompress a DTV stream to SD on the fly with current computers, software and tuner cards. This would require purpose built hardware. Disk drives are not the issue. The tuner card will send a partially demuliplexed stream (the tuned subchannel) to the video display card for display. Decoding is done with a combination of software and hardware or in some cases, all in hardware. The HD or SD video is displayed locally on the computer monitor or output to an external HDTV.

4. After you capture the stream, you can demultiplex, decompress, and rescale the video but this is hugely CPU power dominent and will take a very long time. 720p to 480p can be done in a reasonable time but 1080i to 480p takes just short of forever. Certain cheats exist such as tossing a field of 1080i and half the horizontal resolution for a quick (but jerky) 960x540p/29.97.

5. The solution is hardware processing. The ideal solution would be a DV or SDI widescreen conversion but all we can get out of a typical Scientific Atlanta or Motorola HD cable box is a realtime downscaled letterboxed S-Video output at 480i but this is fine for SD PVR use.

Higher end ATI and NVidia display cards include hardware detinterlacing and scaling for display use. In the near future these functions may become available for extermal software transcoding via DirectX.

[jagabo]

what programs are used to convert ... tp videos to ... mpg videos ...

I have limited experience with HDTV streams but I think this is what you want: HDTV2MPEG2.

and avi videos

VirtualDubMPEG2 or VirtualDubMod.

[lacywest]

what programs are used to convert ... tp videos to ... mpg videos ...

I have limited experience with HDTV streams but I think this is what you want: HDTV2MPEG2.

and avi videos

VirtualDubMPEG2 or VirtualDubMod.

HDTV2MPEG works ... I tried it ... but is there a program that will accept a TS video and convert it to an avi file ...

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1465305#1465305

VideoHelp member: Soopafresh ..... shared some info and has a avi video file ... displaying some really nice qualities.

[jagabo]

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1471244#1471244

[lacywest]

okay ... cool ... I'm at work and I'm on my laptop ... working 8AM to 4PM on Sunday ... so will check this out when I get home.

Thanks guys

[Soopafresh]

There are two ways to capture with the MyHD card:

1) HDTV Digital Channels directly to hard drive, creating a .TP Transport Stream MPEG2 file. NO encoding happens here. It's like copying a file across a network. This is very cool in operation, as the CPU utilization is so LOW that you can use your PC for other purposes while you're recording. Remember, I have a junky 2.4Ghz P4, and I've seen this card work perfectly in 1.8GHZ machines. Files created this way take up around 8GB per hour.

2) Analog captures of non HD channels, ala "encoding while capturing". I have two coax connectors on the back of the MDP120 card. The first connector is attached to the indoor rabbit ears and it is set to capture .TP files of HD over the air (OTA). The second connector is attached to Cable TV coax (I have basic cable, all analog channels). Anything I capture from the second (basic cable) connector must be encoded on the fly via Huffy, Lagarith, Xvid, etc. THIS method uses a ton of CPU utilization.

The card is designed for option #1

Make sure your software is set to:

Config Panel-->Capture-->Digital-->TransportStream
Config Panel-->Capture-->Analog-->MotionVideoCapture

Playing Back the .TP file:

You have 2 choices

1) Use the MyHD card to play back the file (associate .TP with MyHD app). Since the card does the MPEG2 decoding, your CPU utilization will be low.

2) Use MediaPlayerClassic, or VLC, or your favorite media player software to play the .TP file. Big CPU utilization hit, especially on 1080i material. I can barely swing it with VLC.


Finally, remember to do a full sweep of both your analog and digitial TV channels with the channel scanning app in the software setup. Make CERTAIN you've scanned the DIGITAL bands, otherwise you won't be getting the good stuff

Oh, and here's the FTP site for the latest drivers and software:

ftp://ftp.mitinc.co.kr/pub/MyHD/