ATI AIW 8500 + TV CAPTURE

[guht]

I am trying to capture tv shows through a ati all-in-wonder 8500 128mb video card. It is recieving the tv signal through the built in tv tuner card and a coaxial connection. I am using the one-touch recording feature, and im trying to capture into an .avi format using these settings :

720*480
30fps
44,100hz * 16bit stereo
divx 5.02 codec

It seems that frames are being dropped right and left, and that results in horrible quality. Is there something wrong with my settings? Are there other settings I have to configure? Does this card just suck for capturing? Can my current system handle this? If not what more system wise would help? Are there any urls or utils that might aid me in learning more or diagnosing whether my system can handle capturing video at these high quality settings?

Current hardware :
amd 900mhz
shuttle motherboard with via chipset and latest 4in1 drivers.
256mb pc133 RAM
windows xp pro
ibm ata100 30gb hard drive
ati all-in-wonder 8500 128mb

[dtoolman]

Try capturing at a smaller frame size like 640 x 480. If that doesnt work you have to choose PCM for audio. This is not compressing the audio much, If you compress audio your comp. it will probably not keep up. I have the same card on a P-4 2.2 Gig With 1 gig DDR and mine will barely do it t 640 x 480 with compressed audio.There is a way to compress audio after capture.I do not know much about it thou.Virtual Dub works too ,for captures. I hope this helps. Trial and error....... Audio compression seems to have the biggest effect thou.
DTOOLMAN

[dapoli]

Do you get the similar problem while capturing to mpeg2 for the same same frame rate? If yes then it could be with your Hard Drive. Do you have the DMA on for the hard drive? Also close down all background programs except the systray.
Also you may need more memory, at least use 500mb ram.

[dtoolman]

Sometimes downloaded codecs cause jerky playback,with ATI, they conflict. I save the download codecs to a zip file and install them only when I need them. then delete right after I am thru using them,saving the zip for the future.When I need them , I re-install them. This might not be needed now but it caused me a lot of greef in the past. save this note for the future.