Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 Image Ghosting

[davideck]

I am capturing from my SVHS VCR to DVD using the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250. Most of the time it works great, but every so often if there is a gap in the video or if I fast forward or rewind, the card snaps into a mode where there are several image ghosts in the picture. It looks like a weak TV signal in a metropolitan area where the signal bounces off of the buildings. If I restart the WinTV2K application all is well again. Has anybody else experienced this, or perhaps my card is defective?

[Gazorgan]

Cards usually have something called AGC, or automatic gain control. It also has something called AFC, or automatic fine tune. Either one may be confused if you fast forward (the sync signal is changing, or may not be constant). I'd try a different VCR first. Can you stop capturing before fast forwarding?

[davideck]

I do not have to be capturing for this effect to occur. It will happen whenever I have the WinTV2K running, even if I am just trying to preview prior to capturing. I don't mind the fast forward/rewind condition, but if this effect snaps in 30 minutes into a 60 minute capture, it gets annoying real fast. Now I feel as if I have to verify every capture before burning.
I would feel more comfortable about all this if I knew that the card was not defective. Maybe I should exchange it before the 14 day return period runs out.

[SHS]

Which one do you see in the device manager davideck?.
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR PCI II (Encoder-16)
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR PCI II (Encoder)

[davideck]

SHS - It is the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR PCI II (Encoder-16)

[SHS]

That figer been this is new chip unlike some of first PVR 250 that come out with iTVC15 i think there a few bug in drv beeing both share the same driver kit.
The diff is that iTVC16 is encoder only smaller in size take less space where the iTVC15 was encoder/decoder.
Try install
ftp://ftp.hauppauge.com/hcws/Support/PVR250/beta/pvr48_1620352.exe
and Note: besure to unistall the the old InterVideo FilterSDK for Hauppauge first from Add/Remove Programs.
ftp://ftp.hauppauge.com/hcws/Support/PVR250/beta/hcwSMD03_21023.EXE
Hope lee this fix it.
I'm waiting for that new board to get here.

[davideck]

Gazorgan - tried a different VCR; no difference.
SHS - tried the new drivers; no difference. Do you think that the older board (iTVC15) is better?
I also notice that it is very easy to cause this ghosting by viewing the VCR Input with WinTV2K, fast forwarding for a while, and then playing; rewinding is not as sensitive.
Perhaps the newer model (iTVC16) board has this problem only. Could someone please try this on their board? It would be greatly appreciated.

[SHS]

I well davideck soon as it get there but this dran werther slow thing down.

[davideck]

With all of the posts regarding the PVR 250 I cannot believe that I am the only one experiencing this problem. Has no one out there experienced this? I would just like to know that I'm not alone. I have tried a second card (new version) and it does the same thing. Last night I had to restart my capture four times and NEVER got a one hour capture without the PVR 250 snapping into this ghost mode! I am trying to capture my home videos to DVD and every so often there is a sync disturbance because of a new scene change, or because the tapes are getting old, etc. That is when the PVR is most likely to snap. Is that so unusual?

[q1aqza]

I always get this when I fast forward or rewind my VCR. I don't get ghosting, my video playback just slows down during playback on WinTV app although audio stays ok (bit like the video phone effect). It usually records ok when it ios like this but I have sometimes experineced sparklies.

I always restart the wintv app when I have done any fastforwarding - not a big deal really.

[SHS]

davideck I reply to you on PVR forum I no idea what it could be it could very be the video card drv doing that kind sound like buffer overflow but I only seens this under game.
what may want to try dubb it to new tape.
If you can, can you sent end cut a few sec off the end of the video that will do when this happing.

[danman78]

Just wondering...I was looking a buying this card. it says it comes with an mpeg1/2 encoder.....is this just a software encoder..or a hardware encoder????


Thanks.. Win TV PVR #

[Tiribulus]

Just wondering...I was looking a buying this card. it says it comes with an mpeg1/2 encoder.....is this just a software encoder..or a hardware encoder????


Thanks.. Win TV PVR #

It does hardware encoding and quite well for the money. Can be a bit picky to get setup for some people. Took me a little while to learn a few things about using it right, but am 100% happy since. As for our friend with the ghosting issue, I honestly don't know never having had the the problem myself. If I ff or rew the video and audio just stops until I begin playing again. Then it just takes a second or two and plays normal again.
Tiribulus

[davideck]

After another evening of capture testing, it appears that this problem is actually two artifacts. I can see luminance ghosting during captures of low brightness passages. And the snap mode that I have been complaining about seems to be a chrominance ghost issue that occurs after a temporary loss of sync (or burst). Both of these artifacts can range from being very noticeable to being barely noticeable. In any event, I am hoping that I have reduced the frequency of these artifacts after trying four different VCRs. I have one with a video stabilizer option. This seems to have made things better. Perhaps I should invest in a TBC. I gotta say that the captures from this board are excellent when all is well!

[Tiribulus]

You might also want to try playing with some filter tweaks like The PVR-250 Prefilter and Graphedit .
Tiribulus