TMPEGenc and Marvel g400-TV .avi problem

[Chrisp725]

I have come across and interesting problem with TMPEGenc. I use a Marvel G400-TV capture card to capture videos. The video is in MJPEG format. For a while I never had a problem just record video and encode the .avi file to MPEG1 and record VCD. Recently Matrox came out with upgraded video software for Windows 2000. This new software elimined the MJPEG recording ability. This didn't bother me since I use a dual boot system and record all my video under Win 98SE and then encode it under Win 2000 (which uses my dual CPU to encode quicker). When I installed the new video software for Win 2000 TMPEGenc no longer would recognize the MJPEG .avi file, it gave me an error message. Finally after reinsalling TMPEGenc and all my codec's with no luck, I tried reinstalling the old Marvel beta video software and everything worked again. What is with this? I was able to encode the .avi with Ligos LSX encoder with the new video capture software installed but I like TMPEGenc better. The only way TMPEGenc recognizes the MJPEG .avi file is with the G400 beta video software installed. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen? Thanks

Chris

[iant]

Chris,
Unfortunately, the answer to your problem is simple. If you check the Matrox forums, I think you'll find that they no longer support MJPEG under Win2k. The easiest way around this is to install any other MJPEG codec such as the PicVideo one under win2k and let that do the work instead. ( I had to take a similar approach getting a networked machine to share the encoding load. No Matrox card = no MJPEG support. Installed PicVideo. No more problems. )
Good Luck
Ian

[Chrisp725]

I have PicVideo installed yet TMEPEGenc still can't read MJPEG avi files unless the Win2k beta video software is installed that supports MJPEG recording (that is what is frustrating me). The reason I use the PCVCR function instead of something like Virtualdub is the timer ability. I can program it to record TV shows when I am not home then edit the comertials and encode to VCD. I figured it was something to do with the MJPEG codecs not being installed by the Win2k video software but then why would Ligos's LSX encoder work? I have no problems when using the beta video drivers, but when I am home I like to use Virtualdub for a little better quality and last night it froze and I had to reboot. When I rebooted TMPEGenc no longer would read the MJPEG avi files again but the beta video software was installed and worked fine. Upon reinstallation the Win2k video software TMPEGenc worked again. It is just getting annoying having to reinstall the W2k video software for the G400 TV over and over. I will have to work more with Virtualdub. Thanks for your help.

Chris

[iant]

Chris,
Wierd. Okay, next query. Pardon me if I go over a bit of 'Been there......Done that' territory.

You have Picvideo installed under Win2k. Do you have it active? ( I know that under 98 i can't recompress an AVI to Matrox MJPEG unless the PicVideo is deactivated using the advanced options. )

Failing that, sorry but hanged if I know.

[Chrisp725]

How do I tell if Picvideo is active? I just double clicked on the exe file and installed everything that it would install. I took a look last night when I got home and couldn't find anything that said if it was active or not. I noticed that this is just a demo and it said everything would be watermarked if I use the demo, what does that mean? Is it worth getting the full version? Thanks again.

Chris

[Chrisp725]

I figured out how to tell if it is active, under multimedia in the control panel. Here is the problem with Virtualdub whenI select compression their is nothing listed yet I have installed Huffyuv and PicVideo and nothing is listed. What gives. It seems that this would be the problem. Could it be Win2k are these items compatible with Win2k. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Chris

[tacosalad]

Regarding compression formats:

No compression codecs are listed at all? If this is in the main VirtualDub program, there ought to be at least a few items like "Indeo" which are installed by default. VirtualDub's capture program, on the other hand, doesn't list codecs unless they're compatible with the current video format settings. Try different formats like RGB and YUY2, and try again.

Regarding mjpeg:

In my experience, VirtualDub's mjpeg decoder can accept AVI from my Marvel G200. No reason it shouldn't also work with the G400.

This gives you the option of loading your matrox AVIs into VirtualDub and frame-serving them to TMPGEnc, or re-coding them into another format. This arrangement works on my Sony laptop, which doesn't have an mjpeg codec of any sort installed.

[iant]

Chris,
I'll go along with Tacosalad. Get a copy of VirtualDub and frameserve to TMPEG. ( See the help file in VirtualDub or the how-to section on the left at this site. ) VirtualDub has an inbuilt MJPEG decoder so you shouldn't have to put up with this foulup, whatever the heck is causing it.

The info I left off ( sorry about that ) on checking whether the codec is active, I find, is easiest accessed by opening an AVI in VirtualDub and selecting Compression from the video option menu. This then displays a list of available output codecs. Select PicVideo ( if it's there, of course. ) and select 'Configure'. You should then be able to select 'Advanced' in the configuration window. This is where you would have the 'Activate Codec' ( Or somesuch selection box. Scuse me, I'm at work and going from memory ) which should be selected. This is for the full version. I'm not sure about the demo.

Good Luck.
Ian

[Chrisp725]

Thanks for all your help. I did figure out how to get the Picvideo codec to work. The only problem I have now is to many frames being dropped. It may be due to the fact that I haven't de-fragged my hard drive in a while. I wish I knew how to see if DMA is enabled in Win2k, it is easy in Win98. The Hard drive bench test says I am getting around 25M/sec but I am using an ATA100 hard drive and ATA66 both at 7200RPM. I would like to improve that I will see what a defragment will do. Does Virtual Dub have a setting to use both CPU's in a dual processor system? I am running a dual 733MHz system. Thanks

Chris

[iant]

Chris,
Regarding the frame drops, by all means defrag the disk. That'll certainly help. But you'll probably find you'll get less frame drops if you use a different capture utility.
I used to find I'd get about 30 to 50 an hour dropping with VirtualDubs captures. I tried AVI-IO and got zero! Note that this is on an AMD K62 500 and a 5400 rpm disk with DMA disabled. ( I get sound and video interference if I set DMA active. Crazy VIA chipset. )
Give it a try. I think you'll find it will be well worth it.

Ian