SVCD settings for ATI AIW captures

[skywize112]

I got an ATI AIW 128 Pro and am trying to capture straight to SVCD at 480x480.
I followed the instructions in the 'Capture' section on this site to capture straight to VCD and it works great, however I can't get SVCD working at all :(
Well...I can use the best quality template under the digital VCR tab which capture at 720x480, 8 mbits/s, but it creates HUGE files (need to fit 45 mins on an 80 min CD :) ).
So I tried setting up my own custom setting using standard SVCD values,
480x480, mpeg 2, 2.5 mbit/sec, vbr.
The result is HORRIBLE, the video stutters frame by frame and the audio is just a bunch of clicks :(
I figure since the 720x480 at 8 mbit/s preset works i should meet the HW requirements to get 480x480 at lower bitrates to work/
Can anyone help me here?

[Sulik]

Try lowering the motion estimation quality. That's the main thing that cost cpu usage (unfortunately, the capture quality will suffer as well).
Try IBBP (P=4, B=2) with motion estimation to zero, and increase it from there until you start dropping frames.

[Craig Tucker]

I have The ATI all in wonder and even if you capture using the VCR1 or VCR2 settings they are still not VCD/SVCD compliant, so they still need re-encoding via software such as TMPGenc.

I used to use AIT MMC to capture until I discovered virtualdub. If as I do you have win98 with FAT32 file system virtualdub allows you to capture much better quality for longer due to its file spilling feature.

Craig

[skywize112]

Doesn't anyone have a preset custom made profile to capture mpeg2 at 480x480?

[wwonder]

See website http://www.stinky.dosrules.com for how to capture SVCD using mmc7.5

His stuff works!

[skywize112]

I checked his site last night and mmc 7.5 had been pulled by ATI's request.
Couldn't find any profiles there either :P
Weird screenshots he had too, couldn't see the point of them since they didn't show any settings.

[ggtronic]

1 million dollars topics question !!!

let's all send an email to Ati

support@ati.com

for my part ( AiW-radeon ) i capture 480x480mpeg2, 2.39 bit/sec
and my dvd player can read it , but isn't 100% compliant

[Stinky]

The point of the screenshots are to show you whats available in my tool

if you can find MMC 7.5 then you can use the tool to help capture some very good SVCD's

maybe wwonder will post that MMC 7.5 url again ... I can't find it because the 'search' function for the forum seems to be down again

[Bud]

http://www.tweak.dk/media3.php

Try this it has MMC 7.5 it's about a 40MB file.

Bud

[skywize112]

Thanks for the link :)

Really need to get svcd working at 480x480.
Tried capturing vcd, 352x240@1850 bit/sec, which worked fine except when i tried ti edit it (cutting out commercials in tmpgenc) the audio drifted (procedure worked fine at lower bits though, but the quality just isnt there).

[Frost]

I just installed MMC 7.5 on (dual-boot) both win98se and XP and I can no longer watch TV...... OR capture.... I dont even have an icon to launch the tv! On win98 the on desktop shortcut icon has changed to a new one but does nothing when I click it... I have un-installed and re-installed drivers for the tuner before MMC.... ANy ideas? It installed every imaginable option BUT TV... even under advanced setup there is no option to choose tv..... HELP I want to use 7.5 to capture to svcd and I dont want to re-install 7.1......................

[next]

Here's your fix:

http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/thread?forumid=70438&messageid=1010687193

[Fred©]

The same problem happened to me... I live in Brazil, my O.S. is portuguese version... I hava an ATI AIW 128 Pro and Win98... MMC7.1 works great, but when uninstalled it and installed 7.5 I lost TV function... so I returned to 7.1 and TV is back...

I've read somewhere this forum that to make MMC7.5 work it needs the Guide+ for windows files installed (comes within MMC CD)... well, I can not verify cause I do not use Guide+ for windows (it does not work in Brazil TV)....

Use Virtual Dub (must install the wrapper file (search forum)) instead of ATI if you need SVCD captures...

[next]

Just a follow up on my previous post. I just did a fresh win2k install. Installed MMC 7.5 and had the same problem - no TV. I followed the advice of the link I posted above and it worked fine. MMC 7.5 TV works fine. Give it a try if you are having problems.

[doug1937@hotmail.com]

Sky, you didn't say what MMC you have. I use 7.1 on WinXP with my AGP ATI AIW 128 Pro w/32 MB.

It should be easy for you to make good SVCD captures. Here's what I did, just tonite:

1) In the Digital VCR, I created a new preset with standard SVCD compliant settings: MPEG-2, 480x480, 29.97 FPS, and 2.57 bitrate (damn MMC makes it difficult to be precise, so I just picked one of the rates it let me choose). I believe 2.6 is the maximum for SVCD compliance.

2) I captured from a HI-8 source with the S-video connector, though this of course isn't required.

3) After the capture ended I renamed the capture file from the default .MP2 to .MPG (another gripe I have with ATI).

3) I used TMPEG 2.02 to Simple De-Mux the capture into .M2V and .MP2 files.

4) I used TMPEG 2.02 to Simple Mux the two aforementioned files back into a new MPG file. NOTE: this did NOT reencode the file...the mux took all of, oh, about 5 minutes or less.

5) Using Nero (the new XP version), it accepted the capture file with no complaints about SVCD compliance. I even added a menu to the thing.

6) Burned it with Nero and played it on my Apex AD600-A. It looks great, except I admit it's a bit jumpy at times. When I replayed it a few times the jumpiness went away, not sure why.

I burned only 26 minutes of video, but the "fuel gauge" bar in Nero was about the 520MB mark, so I think I could have had about 38-40 minutes total on a 80 minute CD. You might want to drop the bitrate down to 2.20 or so.

If you like, you can contact me on ICQ @ 283864.

--Doug

[ggtronic]

for doog

have you try to keep your capture original ( no mux..)
and play them on your ad600 , is it working?
my ad1500 play directly the result of mmc7.1 Svcd

[doug1937@hotmail.com]

Through reading postings here I realized that I didn't need to demux and then mux...all I need do is mux the original MPG into a new MPG. That passes Nero's compliance check.

I've tried adding captures straight from MMC to Nero, with no muxing, but Nero complains that they are not compliant. I've tried skipping compliance, opting for a non-compliant SVCD, but all I get from the DVD player is the audio, no video.

Funny, tho, my AD600A will play an SVCD regardless of whether it's set to save the MPGs in the MPEG2 directory or the MPEGAV directory...

[Frost]

NEXT: thanx for the linkage but I must have some other problem... Those dll's I already had on both drives in multiple locations. When 7.5 installs (i have over and over and over) it just "refuses" to install the tv portion. The quicklaunch bar has NO reference to that function, nor does (X):\Program Files\ATI Multimedia even contain a folder called \tv as it does when I install 7.1. When I re-install .1 all is dandy. The installer package for 7.5 includes a tv directory so I know it's there it just doesnt install. Even in custom install, there is no option for tv.


doug1937@hotmail.com : You say you use 7.1 and u mention setting 480x480 but that is not an option in 7.1 so how did you do it? If I could capture at 480x480 things would be peachy as I could use Tmpgenc cu/join to create proper file headers for compliant files........ After all, I thought the reason for 7.5 was being able to capture to 480x480......

[ggtronic]

with Ati AiW-radeon
there is a 480x480 setting , mpeg2 , p b 4,2 in the MMC7.1
i set it to 2.39 Mb/sec ( that's wat most prog. convert to Svcd )
and my player read it directly in data burned cd or Svcd
( with nero compliance bypass )

[Frost]

The card I capture with is the TV Wonder PCI w/MMC 7.1.

[doug1937@hotmail.com]

GG, I'll try usign 2.39 bitrate and see if Nero likes that better.

Frost, I have an AGP AIW 128 Pro w/32MB, not a TV Wonder like yours. Perhaps that explains the capture difference? I dunno.

I DL'd it from ATI...on their driver search page, I set AIW 128 Pro and WinXP. It's listed as "Alternate - ATI MMC 7.2", posted 11-27-2001. Strange that it says v. 7.2 on the webpage but it says 7.1 when it loads on my PC. But hey, it's got the 480x480 setting.

I looked at yours and it has a different version of the MMC, posted in July 2001 or so. Obviously they're a bit different, I guess.

You could try capturing at a size larger than 480 and running a filter afterwards to adjust it down to 480...

[Frost]

I'm gonna go get the "alternate 7.2" to see if it will work w/in win98se for me, I can't capture anything in XP it is rediculous. With a program called RAMDISK XP (creates virtual drive from RAM) I "made" a 600 MB ram-drive. With the process priority at real-time capturing strait to RAM it still dropped MAD (that is; a stupid unwatchable amount of) frames. I would prefer to capture strait to 480x480 as any re-encoding comes at the cost of quality. Thanx for you guys help, If you know of anyother reason I cant capture in XP or why I cant get TV to install w7.5 MC please let me know.