ATI TV Wonder, is it possible to capture avi at 640x480?

[Y2Bogus]

In order to improve my capture quality I'm thinking of capturing lossless avi at 640x480 in virtualdub using my ATI TV Wonder. The problem I have is that in MMC 7.1, when I capture to AVI, my maximum vertical resolution is 240. When I capture to MPEG though, it lets me capure 480 vertical. When I use Virtualdub (my first choice for capture), if I select a vertical resolution greater than 240, I get a prompt that says it's an invalid resolution and it switches me back to 240.

After searching through these forums, I found that people using WDM drivers from Source Forge to replace their ATI drivers, and this lets them capture in Virtualdub at vertical resolutions greater than 240. My only concern is that the people using this driver are using it on ATI AIW. I only have a TV Wonder. Will this work with my TV Wonder?

[Digitizer]

It'll work, but you will probably lose S-Video.
It's also a one-way street since your computer may crash when you'll try to uninstall the driver. Using an drive imaging utility is a must if you don't mind reinstalling Windows a coupla times

I assume you have Win2K or XP. You should not have this problem with Windows 98.

[Y2Bogus]

Yes, I'm using windows 2K. SVideo is a sacrifice I'm willing to make, after I saw the quality difference in my resulting MPEGs between 352x240 and 640x480. Reinstalling an OS isn't too much of a problem, since I'm used to microsoft operating systems.

[Digitizer]

It's tricky. When you install the custom drivers, REJECT all the "found new device" prompts and ACCEPT "do you want to install device x" prompts.

[CobaltBoy]

I have the same problem with my ATI TV Wonder VE. I can only capture at 352x240 using VirtualDub.

Is there a way of setting capture to 352x240 using Adobe Premiere 6.0? The ATI capture window only allows the defaults, and 352x240 is not one of them.

If I wanted to use these "other drivers" where would I find them?
I'm using WinXP Pro.

[MarkLV]

Hi CobaltBoy,

You can download drivers from btwincap.sourceforge.net.

But keep in mind that these are WDM drivers, it means, that you can use
VirtualDub, BUT, may be, you will experience frame drops during
capturing with high resolution.
In this case, I suggest to try some WDM compatible capturing program,
because VirtualDub (old VFW compatible program) works not so good
with WDM drivers on WinXP/Win2k.

Mark

[CobaltBoy]

Thanks Mark,

I'll give it a try right now and see how things go...

[CobaltBoy]

The other drivers worked perfectly. The only problem I still have is not being able to set 352x240 in Adobe Premiere, the only close option is 320x240.

Is there a way I can customize this setting for capture in Premiere?

[Y2Bogus]

Well, I managed to get the sourceforge drivers working, but now when I capture, I get thick horizontal white and green lines that flicker when the scene changes.

[Digitizer]

What format do you capture in?

[Y2Bogus]

I capture to uncompressed AVI and then apply filters in Virtualdub, then I encode it into Mpeg.

[MarkLV]

Hi CobaltBoy,

The other drivers worked perfectly. The only problem I still have is not being able to set 352x240 in Adobe Premiere, the only close option is 320x240.

Is there a way I can customize this setting for capture in Premiere?

According to my little experience with Adobe Premiere on WinXP,
this one makes even more troubles than VirtualDub, when you capture
from WDM device. The reason is the same: old VFW interface,
that is not implemented natively on WinXP/2K, but use buggy, badly
optimized DirectShow wrapper.
Do not waste your time, capture high resolution (640x480 or 720x480)
by any WDM compatible application and edit/produce by Adobe Premiere
(really great editing application).

Mark