No Nonsense vhs to dvd

[roynjen]

Maybe I am not describing my issue in correct terms ~ is there an FTP that you guys can look at the captured video and "see" the real problem. I just do not understand the fact that I can view the video properly without problem through my PC, but when it captures it, and I replay it on my PC the "jitters" start.

Is playing it through my PC the problem? Should I coaster a few DVD just to make sure that it will look ok through the DVD player, and not through my PC.

After reading all of the above, why doesn't my ATI card have a TBC embedded in it? That is what it is, it is a capture card. If I have to purchase a digital video camera or a TBC to fix it, ..@#?!! More feedback would be helpful.

I am almost positive that my source is good, because I watched the whole thing on my PC (through my capture port), and had no problems, went bed last night, left it to capture, tested it this morning. Plays for about 30 seconds, jitters for 5 seconds, plays for another 30seconds, jitters for 5 seconds........

[lordsmurf]

My PC doesn't always playback files good either. But then again, it's not necessarily supposed to. MPEG is not something an OS natively supports.

What format are you capturing in? I suggest straight to MPEG2 when using an ATI AIW card, and then preview the MPEG2 in PowerDVD or WinDVD, not the Windows Media Player.

Sure, invest $3 in a good DVD-RW and test it on the standalone.

[roynjen]

Fresh run!

Just went and purchased a Toshiba Hi-Fi VCR Model W-528. Set-up the capture sesson for straight mpeg-2 formating. The audio works perfectly, but...................
Same problem with the video, starts playing fine (captured part), and then it jitters, and will not stop. I watched 20minutes of this video and looks great on the computer screen, but the captured video is HORRIBLE. The audio continues to play, and the odd thing is that the top 1/2 inches of viewing are capturing just the other 95% of the screen has the jitters. I tried viewing it in Windows Media, PowerDVD, MySonicDVD, same results.

Does that one-half inch of captured video at the top help anyone to help me solve this mystery. The new VCR sure is not doing it, hope I can get a refund.

[Ejoc]

hmm.

I have a 1.6Ghz system
Ghetto AverDVD EZMaker
Soundcard built into my mother board
4 Head VCR
Tape I've watched 20+ Times, ~7 years old

for a 2 hour movie I had a few dropped frames. Picture Looked fine, no problems. Justed used VD,AVISynth,TMPGEnc,VCDEasy... Drivers for my Video Capture Card took awhile to find a good one, Aver sucks in tech support, but other then that no problems.

[lordsmurf]

Sounds like Macrovision, or something on the tape that is making the card THINK it is Macrovision. That can happen too.

Grab the $40 SIMA thing, I forget the EXACT name of the SIMA product, from Best Buy and try that out. If it works, great, if not, return it. The Sima is a quasi-TBC, good for very, very minor video corrections and mostly Macrovision removal.

Can you e-mail me one of the captured video files? PM me for my private commercial account, don't try to send anything to Yahoo, it'll reject it. About 9 meg would be a good size. At 352x480 MPEG2 capture, that'll be a 20-second clip, enough for me to analyze.

What connections are you using? Most likely RCA I'd guess. Have you tried s-video or coax in addition to typical RCA? Maybe the card itself has an issue.

[dave81973]

lordsmurf wrote . . .

Honestly, MMC is the only decent software for use with an ATI card. Others may work, but MMC was made for this card, and is one of the few companies that actually provideds their OWN software to ensure quality captures. It is a WDM card too, so I'd avoid VirtualDub capturing.

First off, in defence of lordsmurf I have used his guide and my results were flawless. I have an ATI Wonder VE capture card using MMC 7.9. I am capturing at 352x240 because MMC 7.9 doesnt support 352x480 on this card as of yet, all other settings are the same. I am also using Tmpgenc Plus using the exact settings as the lordsmurf guide. The only thing I am doing different is instead of DVDiT, I am using Tmpgenc DVD Author to author and CloneDVD to burn the final disc. I was amazed at the quality it produced. Oh by the way, my vcr is an old Sony SLV-662HF and i am capturing old vhs movies.

My question to lordsmurf is, what do u think of Cyberlink PowerVCR II for capturing with the ATI card. I have tried it and i am pleased with the results.

And got to say I CAN'T WAIT FOR LORDSMURFS NEW GUIDE!!!

[lordsmurf]

My question to lordsmurf is, what do u think of Cyberlink PowerVCR II for capturing with the ATI card. I have tried it and i am pleased with the results.

With proper registry edits (something you'll find in the new site), it should work... FOR VIDEO! The hacks allow interlace, 352x480 resolutions, and 4+ GB file sizes.

However, PowerVCRII may actually capture 44.1hz audio and merely slap 48hz headers on the files. I'm still debating what to do concerning that problem. TMPGEnc also has trouble demuxing the files, and you'll lose sync by doing so. Even SoundForge has issues opening the audio from PowerVCRII.

This program is one of the things holding up the site right now. It's one of the few MPEG2 interlaced capture programs available for non-ATI cards, but the audio issues are confounding to say the least.

I am somewhat pleased with Housepig's use of iuVCR MJPEG or Huffy capture and a TMPGEnc or Procoder MPEG conversion. Takes more time, but when you have a cheap card with none of it's own software, this seems to function fairly well. Done properly, on a decent system, the MPEG conversion only 2-3 times as long as the source, depending on the program (Procoder is faster).

Have you run into any issues with PowerVCRII from start to finish? If not, I'll look at the system I'm testing on for hardware/OS conflicts.

I'm including TMPGEnc DVD Author as well in there. It's nice for multiple VTS needs. Just not advanced enough for my tastes. My site will probably have samples of my work up as well.

[roynjen]

((lordsmurf ~ file is on the way))

To answer some questions ~ I use the RCA (gold plated~silver wire) patch cords. These babies cost me plenty. I convinced my wife that I needed very high-end cables to make sure all the data from the VCR made it to the PC or noise, distortion, and improper impedance issues could arise. Never tried the coaxial and RCA simultaneously.

Not sure what an SIMA card is? My home movies would not have any type of macrovision on them (well, I do not think they would). I get the same results with home videos and owned videos (VHS that was purchased).

Waiting with much anticipation on your findings with the (completely virus free) file that I sent to you.

[housepig]

Done properly, on a decent system, the MPEG conversion only 2-3 times as long as the source, depending on the program (Procoder is faster)

I gave Procoder a shot, it took half again longer than TMPG on my system... over 22 minutes to encode a 3 minute file! (TMPG took around 14).

glad you're liking the iuVCR method... guide to follow soon.

[lordsmurf]

Done properly, on a decent system, the MPEG conversion only 2-3 times as long as the source, depending on the program (Procoder is faster)

I gave Procoder a shot, it took half again longer than TMPG on my system... over 22 minutes to encode a 3 minute file! (TMPG took around 14). glad you're liking the iuVCR method... guide to follow soon.

A 2-hour movie takes me 6 hours to encode in TMPGEnc Plus 2.513 and 4 hours to encode in Procoder 1.50. Settings are 352x480 MPEG2 from a 720x480 AVI source (Huffy or MJPEG).

My only problems with your method are sync, but it may be the soundcard or a hardware issue I've not yet found. I'm still testing. The first disc I did this way is fine. The other 3 are not so great, with sync going off as much as 2 second for minutes at a time, but only in the middle of the movie. Odd.

At any rate, you've given me hope for an otherwise unusable card.

[presto]

roynjen,
This thread has gotten very long and I admit I have not kept up with it. But I noticed something in the tools section that sounds like it may apply.

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=201#comments

The purpose of ReClock is to definitely get rid of jerky playback of AVI and MPEG material on a PC or a PC connected to a TV.

Anyway go to the tools section and see if it applies to your jerky video problem.

Good Luck

[roynjen]

I will give it a shot, and let you know if it works.

Thanks~~~~

[lordsmurf]

I think you got a bonafide codec error on your hands. What are your installed codecs? I bet NIMO or another codec pack is the culprit.

I've temporarily added your file to LordSmurf.com for others to view. Here. But be sure to right-click download or Save Target As, the server won't stream. It'll just lock up your computer!

What you described is not the same as what is happening. It's an error, but this is system-related, not source as many of us suspected. This is an outright freezing effect, a system lockup of sorts. I only see this on Divx files that others give me. My system plays them green, messed up like this, or not at all, and I refuse to add divx/xvid/whatever codecs to an otherwise perfect setup.

I don't remember... have you reformatted yet? Reinstalled the OS? Give us the history of your system, codec installations, and video program installations. And maybe try to go and grab the ATI MMC 7.7 or 8.1 and then grab the newest ATI drivers. The April 2003 ones are a known-to-be-stable one, in case the new ones are not. I had trouble on my Win2K machine with the PCI ATI AIW card and the June drivers and MMC 8.x.

Drivers are a drawback of this card. Not that they don't work, but that not ALL OF THEM will work ALL THE TIME on ALL SYSTEMS. In fact, that's the biggest problem I had in my original guide. The field-order issues only applies to some setups, and at the time, I had one of them. You have to do some trial and error. In your case, I think there is a severe conflict. Hopefully with codecs, not hardware. Another codec or software hurt your ATI setup, or the ATI install was merely corrupt.

Have you EVER gotten good captures, or if this an all-of-the-sudden error?

I'm not gonna be online for a few days, so good luck. Hope I helped, and hopefully others can continue to help you. I'll take the file down in a week or so. I can do that much for you.

[dlb]

Question for Lordsmurf.

I have followed your guide and the picture quality is very blocky at the bottom.

Also where are the video soap filters in the ATI software & how do you apply them.

Thanks.

dlb.

[lordsmurf]

Question for Lordsmurf.

I have followed your guide and the picture quality is very blocky at the bottom.

Also where are the video soap filters in the ATI software & how do you apply them.

Thanks.

dlb.

When capturing VHS/tape source, a small strip at top or bottom or sides may be bad, but it's on the source, and not seen by the tv anyway (overscanning).

The VideoSoap is found in the in the MAP PRESET area when you make a new capture template. You may be able to edit an ATI template, but I never use them. Make a new one, especially since the ATI ones are deinterlaced by default.

[roynjen]

Let's see:

Fresh XP installation on brand new hard drive. Reinsured that I have the latest drivers according to your guide. The only thing I could not do is upgrade the MMC due to I did not know where to uninstall my current version from, but a co-worker said that with the new XP installation everything should be already at the latest.

Used the Pegasys codec (as per your guide), and it is only 1 of 4 codecs on my machine. I downloaded the pegasys codec (PICVideo) per the guide. Me and my neighbor have the same problem with capturing, and have the same system for the most part. My installation is only 2 months old, and his is BRAND NEW.

I have never captured with this card before, heck, my neighbor just purchased the card last week, and this is the first time that computer has ever tried to capture. He did not have any codecs until we downloaded that Pegasys codec ~ already have DiVx, XVid, AngelPotion codecs ~ but had to d/l PICVideo.

If codecs are supect, then why is my neighbors capture not there, unless the instllation of ATI software was corrupt (I built his computer and installed the software ~ everything seems right). Do I need to reinstall it, and install it a "special" way?

[lordsmurf]

but a co-worker said that with the new XP installation everything should be already at the latest............ I downloaded the pegasys codec (PICVideo) per the guide.

I never said anything about using PICvideo MJPEG. That's for non-ATI cards, though it may work for some ATI cards. You can leave it though, shouldn't cause problem.

Pegasys codec? You mean TMPGEnc Plus, right? That's not a codec, it's a program. ATI codecs are part of the driver/MMC combo, not something installed separately. I wouldn't put on Divx/Xvid, etc. More often than not, it'll just botch things up. I think Divx 5.0 Official (from divx.com) is the only thing I have installed outside my Ligos (old Premiere 6.0 with LSX) and Cyberlink (PowerDVD) MPEG2 codecs.

No, XP has nothing. You need to visit ATI.com and download the drivers and the MMC for your card. The uninstall is the same place it's always been, under CONTROL PANELS, then ADD/REMOVE programs. Take off the old MMC.

At ATI, it's easy. Front page, DRIVERS. Enter your info by clicking. First do the GRAPHICS drivers. Then after doing all that, go back to ATI and repeat process for MMC (Multimedia Center). You may reboot a few times, and BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS PERFECTLY.

After all that, go back to my guide (lordsmurf.com) and try to capture with the settings I've given. Only difference is MMC 8.0 and above has slightly different wordings in the options, but it still looks the same. And videosoap is in this version as an added option. The current site is just a link to the current guide, but the new site will have more of this information. ATI should give me a kickback for it too!

[roynjen]

My apologies, it was not your guide that said to use the PicVideo codecs from Pegasys software. I do know the difference between TMPGEnc and a codec.

I will try it again when I get home from work. I have the latest drivers from ATI, just need to upgrade my MMC (did not know if that was multimedia from ATI or the MMC drivers) ~ heard that there are basically 2 MMC.

My neighbor purchased his card and used the installation disk, I told him to go and get the latest drivers from ATI.com as well, so we can see what his captures do. We both have the same problem, and are getting the same results.

I really do appreciate you help.

[lordsmurf]

XP Home is known to cause issues also. Are you both on XP Home? That's by far one of the worst OS's to date. 2000 is best, maybe XP Pro or 98SE. My computer was preloaded with ME, and it works fine for me, though I've had it fail when I tried to install it on other systems.

[roynjen]

We both are running XP Professional.

I am gonna try this again, be back in a few.

[roynjen]

CRAP!!

Ok, I have uninstalled all my video drivers, MMC, DVD, and anything else that was close by. RE-downloaded the latest drivers (have already done this) ~ reinstalled all the ATI drivers ~ current with 7.7 per guide. I have the EXACT same problem in the capture session. What gives, and as for a codec ~ where do you specify what Codec you are using in the TV Capture area (Not in the guide). ATI made me install Windows Codecs but it did not do anything else to solve the jitters, or the freezing.

This is the same problem on 2 different computers, EXACT same problem. There has got to be a solution.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lordsmurf]

Be sure to have DirectX 9.0a or higher. Be sure to install all the DAO, WMP9, etc components as per the ATI install pages. Be sure WinXP is updated. Could be an OS issues on early version, not sure, I don't have XP.

The ATI MPEG codecs are not specified. You cannot see that info. Remember, it's partially hardware too, not a pure software codec.

I'm implying ANOTHER codec is affecting you. Not an ATI issue. It's like a cold. Nothing wrong with you, but something is affecting you. ATI is fine, but something may be affecting it.

Again, the guide is months old. I'm running MMC 8.1 on my good system. And I have June 2003 drivers (WinME, AGP ATI AIW DDR32/7200). My other system had issues, so it's got MMC 7.7 and February (or April?) 2003 drivers (Win2K, PCI ATI AIW DDR32/7200). Try the newest of new, and work your way backwards if things fail.

[roynjen]

Have the June drivers, and also have removed all codecs minus 4 Window based codecs that ATI recommends. Problem still occurs, but now I get a green screen on 95%, and the other 5% is capturing with audio. Bascially the same problem as before, with the exception that I do not have to watch the jitters ~ now I have a green screen !~ not much better.

Anyone know how to capture without the green screen or a reason for the green screen in lieu of a properly caputured video?

[lordsmurf]

As far the green screen, that's an error I get on Divx and Xvid files myself. Since I rarely use them, I never cared, but I've seen "green screen" errors on the site. I normally go to another computer to watch them. Search a bit in the forums. I don't really know what to tell you. It's either beyond my knowledge, or so easy I simply overlooked it. That's how these things normally go.

Texas? Where in Texas? Sooooo many of us here. Me, you, flaystus, adam, txpharoah, cecelio, macleod... list goes on. Lots of guide-writers, top posters, and mods from here. Wow. Small world. Yeah, I'm amazed by the simple things. I need a new job. Any of you Texans hiring? I'm decent at web design, decent with video, and an excellent news photographer and writer.

Anyway, I've finished the design templates and menu system for LORDSMURF.COM. Check it out! The ATI guide is still there, but that's about all. I'll activate more of the pages when I find time. When at least half the site is done, I'll post an official announcement somewhere in the forums. This kind of project just takes a while. Especially when I try to actually convert cartoons in my spare time, not just write guides for it. :P

[Don2050]

Lordsmurf, or anyone, if I already have a regular 4 head Toshiba W-522 VCR, would you recommend the external DataVideo TBC or getting the JVC HRS9800 SVHS VCR ? I am wondering which produces better results ?

thanks....

[dave81973]

lordsmurf wrote:

Have you run into any issues with PowerVCRII from start to finish? If not, I'll look at the system I'm testing on for hardware/OS conflicts.

I just got done tinkering with PowerVCR II. And you were right, it is great for video, but the audio is disappointing. I recorded a movie under the advanced profiles mpeg 2- excellent setting which captured the video at 640x480, this was the closest thing to 352x480 i could get. The audio captured at 224kbps 44,000hz. The movie was 2hrs long so it split it up into nine 800 meg files, which is annoying. It recorded without a hitch! All the mpeg files played well and the audio was in synch (on the computer). I joined the files with TMPGEnc Plus using merge and cut. I played back the file after merging and the audio was still in synch. I then demuxed the one large mpeg file with TMPGEnc Plus so i could tinker with the audio.
I used Sound Forge 6 to dehiss the audio. After doing so I used BeSweet to set the sampling rate to 48,000hz, normalize the audio. The audio file sounded pretty good, but not as well as it was capturing with MMC but u can live with it. That is as far as i have gotten. I have not re-encoded the video yet with TMPGEnc. I plan on doing so later in the week. Hopefully I will not run into any synch problems. I will post my results.
In conclusion I will probably use MMC for now, until the new lordsmurf guide is up with the registry edits for PowerVCRII. After which i will tinker with it more.

[FulciLives]

Well ...

I've had very limited CAPTURE experience eventhough I've read A LOT of guides and posts in many forums.

I've been itchy lately to try even though I have a stand alone PANASONIC DVD recorder.

So Friday night (just the other day) I went to CompUSA and bought the AverTV Stereo analog type TV tuner capture card for $49.99

Included software seemed mostly suited to doing 320x240 captures. No good. So I tried VirtualVCR and iuVCR. I did many short captures at different resolutions such as 352x240, 352x480, 640x480 and finally 720x480

The amazing thing is I can capture at ANY of those resolutions and I installed all this in a second "old" computer that is a SONY VAIO that is SO slow that by today's standards it is SAD. This is a P3 650Mhz with 256MB RAM with a 30GB HDD and a some-what recent 80GB add on (the original memory was only 128MB but I added another chip to make it 256MB). I'm running WinXP Pro with the NTFS file system on both of my hard disk drives.

I thought that with an analog TV tuner card on such a slow computer I would be stuck at VCD resolution captures OR othwerwise suffer massive frame drops. Instead I found that I can do full D1 (720x480) with very little frame loss. Now, I'm still testing, so I haven't done a single capture over 30 minutes yet (mostly capping 30 minute TV shows) but so far the "worst" thing I've had is 6 dropped frames in one of my 30 minute captures. Most have had NONE or maybe 2 dropped frames within the whole 30 minute capture. My understanding of the whole dropped frame issue thing is that 6 frames (over 30 minutes) is nothing to worry about as far as image quality and synch problems. So I'm very happy

I'm using mostly iuVCR (I didn't care much for VirtualVCR) and I am using the HuffyUV codec set to YUY2 and PREDICT MEDIAN (BEST) settings. I downloaded and tried the PICVIDEO MJPEG codec but I had A LOT of dropped frames. So I'm sticking with HuffyUV although I had always thought from my readings about capturing that HuffyUV was more computer intensive than the PICVIDEO MJPEG codec. Perhaps my settings are "all" wrong for the MJPEG codec?

Anyway this brings me to my final thoughts and the "point" of this post.

How anyone CANNOT capture on a P4 2.8Ghz computer with 1GB RAM and a 120GB HDD is simply well BEYOND me.

I've read many horror stories about this particular capture device being SHITTY or capture devices by company X being SHITTY etc. but I guess the type of capture device you use DOES have a BIG affect on the final outcome.

I guess I was lucky that I choose the AverTV Stereo since it seems (from my readings) to be one of the highest rated analog type TV tuner capture cards next to the ASUS and FlyVideo (which seems to work for most but sounds like it has to be tweaked BIGTIME to work correctly).

So ... in short ... if you can't capture on your Ghz + computer then you either need a new capture device or you need to look into the CONTROL PANEL device settings of your computer for any "strange" IRQ type hardware conflicts. I suppose drivers here can play a big part too.

And to think I was ALMOST tempted by user comments from the likes of TX and LORDSMURF to buy an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER card.

DISCLAIMER: Not to be rude to anyone. I'm sure with the correct setup an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER card can work great BUT I have read many posts from people having trouble with them which leads me to believe that they are far from PERFECT as far as driver issues and other TWEAKS that need to be made to get the MOST out of them.

Ok well good night and cuss me if you wish for being able to capture at full D1 using a $50 TV tuner card and a P3 650Mhz computer hehehe :P

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Now I need a network setup or an external USB/FIREWIRE HDD so I can transfer my captures to my FASTER computer for encoding. A P3 650Mhz computer + TMPGEnc software MPEG-2 encoding = ******* FOREVER!
I'm 1hour 25minutes into an encoding (of a 30 minute TV capture whichis only about 22 minutes with commericials cut out) and I've got 2hours and 11minutes left according to TMPGEnc Forever Plus :P

[lordsmurf]

And to think I was ALMOST tempted by user comments from the likes of TX and LORDSMURF to buy an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER card......I'm sure with the correct setup an ATI ALL-IN-WONDER card can work great BUT I have read many posts from people having trouble with them which leads me to believe that they are far from PERFECT as far as driver issues and other TWEAKS that need to be made to get the MOST out of them.

It's strange how that works.
You: "ATI card working? WTF?"
Me: "Aver card working? WTF?"

I've got an Aver card that I can't use. No matter what software/codecs are used, there are sync issues. Anything below 720x480 AVI is garbage video, which is a bit ridiculous too. Tried the hardware/software in two top-of-the-line computers. The only reason I have it to begin with is because the original owner was fed up with it and figured maybe I could figure it out. He converted to an ATI and has been happy since.

That aside, the ATI doesn't necessarily need tweaks as much as it just needs to be setup. The out-of-the-box settings are crapola for capturing interlaced tv footage. Most people just never notice and don't know anything about interlace. A year ago, I was one of those people, and I hated my cartoon captures. Ever seen a cartoon deinterlaced? Yuck!

Actually, most ATI drivers work (except that odd driver/MMC combo that recorded field order incorrectly), just that newer ones are better, and the MMC comes out with new features at each release... for free. If anything, I think my experience with PowerVCR (tweaking registry) and iuVCR (tweaking codecs/drivers) would probably be technically described as "tweaking" as it requires steps beyond the obvious settings pages, which is what my ATI MPEG capture guide shows for the most part.

It just depends on what you consider tweaking. I wrote my own firmware upgrade (to use 4x media) for my Compaq 103 DVD-R drive... now that's tweaking! Compared to that, using the mouse to change a few ATI MMC settings on the option screen is "cake." It's just that not everybody is a "baker" that knows which "ingredients" need to be used or changed. :P

As far as that green-screen error by our poster, I have no clue. It's got to be a codec issue or something related to Windows XP. I had XP for one day when it came out, and then immediately reformatted my system after seeing how it acted towards my ATI card. Was not acceptable. Bad Microsoft! Bad! What we need is an ATI user that knows about XP as well. Unfortunately, that would normally mean another tech, and most techs still use Linux or Win2K or Win98SE.