I just bought a $600 Magewell USB 3 AIO capture device.
Tested with a stable signal (Humax 5050C digital tuner through Panasonic HD recorder), via composit input on the AIO.
Recording in 720x576 PAL, 25fps interlaced.
Tried capturing with VirtualDub and the Magewell software. I think the result is poor. Sometimes stuttering, audio is almost never in sync.
Device is connected via USB3, and the PC is not doing any other tasks at all. No other devices connected via USB3 in my first tests, recording to internal SSD.
Later tests I tried capturing to an external USB3 HD, that seems a little better but still poor results.
Anyone have any experience with this device and analog capturing?
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Tests with VirtualDub were uncompressed video, no frames were dropped according to VirtualDub.
The tests with Magewell CaptureExpress give h264 output. Audio is crackling and out of sync. I try posting some footage.
Weird thing is that the preview IS in sync (but audio crackles)Last edited by ggouweloos; 3rd Feb 2018 at 07:06.
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Here are two test captures. One with the Magewell software, one with VirtualDub.
I converted the 1.6GB uncompressed VirtualDub output to MPEG2, just for upload here.
The original file's properties can be seen here:
[Attachment 44570 - Click to enlarge] -
Just try lossless in virtualdub, not uncompressed, it is huge amount of data. Also capturing to x264 want some changes to codec to not utilize CPU 100% for real time capture. Try lossless Huffyuv or Lagarith Bandwith will be about 1/2 and I think this is main problem of your capturing in virtualdub. So try same quality with bit less bitrate.
Edit:Also when in virtualdub capture mode, setup audio mixer there, I tried it and it helped lot with sound.
Personally I don't think the picture quality is so bad. But sound is. And there are dropped frames. At least at one video.
BernixLast edited by Bernix; 3rd Feb 2018 at 07:34. Reason: Edit
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I monitored CPU during the x264 capture, it was below 30% usage.
Just tried with Lagarith, same problem, crackling audio and out-of-sync from the start.
This device should be able to capture over HD resolution. From their website:
Support for capture resolutions up to 2048Ũ2160
Support for capture frame rates up to 120fps
1920Ũ1080 YUY2 (up to 75fps)
1920Ũ1080 RGB24 (up to 60fps)
Support for 4:2:2 8-bit capture format: YUY2, UYVY
Support for 4:4:4 8-bit capture format: RGB24, RGB32
The default capture format is YUY2. More capture format can be set using USB Capture Utility
http://www.magewell.com/usb-capture-aio/tech-specs
I tried two different computers, both with SSD drives.
One of them is Win 10, 8GB of RAM and an i7-4790 CPU @4.00Ghz.Last edited by ggouweloos; 3rd Feb 2018 at 07:48.
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In virtualdub, you can as I wrote change something in audio capture settings. Default, that I try was also cracking sound, so changes was needed. Audio out of sync, it indicate that there are dropped frames. Why, when not 100% CPU, we can just guess, but uncompressed video capture is definitely bad idea. Lossless is much better. Also don't know if Bottom fieald first is right Top field first is more common, but video looks o.k so probably BFF is alright.
Bernix -
In VirtualDub, don't play the audio while capturing (disable Audio -> Enable Audio Playback). And don't compress the audio while capturing. Try disabling the Audio/Video resync option in Capture Timing -> Resync Mode -> De not resync... As others have said use a lossless video compression codec while capturing. If you use Lagarith make sure it's set up with multithreading. After doing this, if there is still an A/V sync error, check to see if it is constant over the entire video. If that's the case you can just add a delay/advance when you encode later.
VirtualDub has so many capture options it can be difficult to get it set up properly for particular devices. Try using AmarecTV instead.
In addition to the cracking on the right channel (which is some component being overloaded) there is very little signal on the left channel (and there's no crackling). Are you sure the audio is hooked up properly?Last edited by jagabo; 3rd Feb 2018 at 09:09.
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I tried another source, Philips VR 1000 VHS VCR, TBC off, via S-Video and still the sync problem is there. The crackling audio is gone though, but the sync is still off.
On the short captures I made the sync seemed constant.
I did another test, with the Philips VR 1000 VCR, TBC off, but now not to the SSD harddrive, but to an external USB 3.0 drive. Then the audio is actually in sync with the video.
Is there an issue with writing to an SSD? Or might be an IRQ issue. I still have to try on the second machine if this solves the sync issue when using a non-SSD drive.
On both machines the SSD is the primary (C) drive.
Another try with external drive failed again.Last edited by ggouweloos; 3rd Feb 2018 at 14:06.
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You should have less trouble with an SSD given the drive's higher bandwidth. On the other hand, the boot drive may have other high priority activity that can cause dropped frames. Did you follow the suggestions in my previous post?
Another thing to try: disable your antivirus while capturing. -
Yes, I tried all settings you suggested, but audio is out of sync somewhere between 400 en 500 milliseconds. Also with the Magewell software.
A 2.5 hours test capture gives me 8 dropped frames with VirtualDub, also unacceptable.
I will return the device, start looking for a standalone solution. -
From another man with Magewell Pro HDMI (maybe this can give some idea):
The card does not like apparently to provide two different color spaces one for capture and a different one for preview . If I capture in YUV and preview in YUV ( and the card always tried to go to yuv in preview when capturing in YUV I was forcing it to delivery rgb for preview) I can use any resolution, any bit depth and any number of frames per second everythings runs flawless. it was a relief. -
Even disabling the video preview gives a 400-500ms difference in the video/audio sync. in VirtualDub.
It also happens in the Magewell capture software that they offer on their website. -
A recent post: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/387764-AMD-ATI-TV-Wonder-HD-600-PAL-VHS-issue/page2#post2510768
That's a different capture device but a lot of it will apply to other devices. But if you have with a constant 500ms A/V sync error after capture you can easily fix it with a simple audio advance/delay while editing/encoding later.
Also, spending big bucks on an HD capture device is a waste of money if you only need to capture SD video. The SD circuitry is usually an afterthought on such devices and not any better than an average SD capture device.
And 8 dropped frames in a 2.5 hour capture isn't so bad. -
It seems the audio/video issue is only happening when I select the DirectShow version of the capture device in the VirtualDub list.
When I choose VFW (Win32) it seems to be ok. Well in a first test. -
I tested the Magewell USB 3 for another few days. But unfortunately problems all over again.
Audio out-of sync from the start, dropped frames on hardware side, while VirtualDUb reported NO dropped frames at all. **
Maybe the device is broken, or just analog is not tested/criticized at all. Analog is over, I know.
** I understood the device has a build in 256MB framebuffer, I tested the same analog footage directly to the Magewel USB3 to Computer, and directly to an ADVC 300 to a Pioneer harddrive recorder (from around 2005). Sorry to say, but the ADVC/Pioneer combo is definitely the winner here...
The old Pioneer has audio synced and image quality as expected. The Magewell only brought frustration, re-captures, trying-to-ry-sync-the-capture-from-the tapes-that-were-somehwere-butIdontknowhere-for-recap. -
I do have a Magewell Pro Capture Hdmi PCIe for about one year and a half and my experience with this card has been till now completely opposite to yours.
So far itīs the best card I have tested and I have tested more than a dozen and I do use it currently most of the time now. Even if the card is not full optimized for analog capture (none actually are ) and fail to provide time-base correction (TBC) with frame synchronization and adaptive 2D comb filter ( provided by the chipset but not activated) and in these context is not optimal itīs a very good capture card and the 256 Mb frame buffer makes a difference avoiding dropped or inserted frames.
I have never had problems with SD captures only in HD and or 10 bit while approaching the card limits ( =>1080p , > 60 fps ,10 bit/HD , etc ), so something is very wrong in your workflow eventually as you said a broken device.
However I think you can try some additional steps to try to detect what exactly your problem is. Some ideas
1- Make a clean boot ( without any startup items ) , without network access ( card disabled not only disconnected), anti-virus disabled in order to assure that no application is interfering with your capture and preferential capturing to a different disk other than boot or capture application disk.
2- You must confirm exactly what your capture settings are as the card as so many settings and inputs that you can eventually have some wrong settings. For this you can use the Magewell USB Capture Utility V3 or v2 ( depending on firmware) that gives users extensive control of capture parameters, video processing settings and advanced functions. Do a firmware upgrade if there is a new one , just in case.
3- You speak about capturing SD using composite , if itīs not a laser disk or similar you will get probably better results with s-video and I assume you are capturing audio directly using the same capture device not the pc audio card or any other Daw interface.you must capture audio and video using the same device.Try a new interconnect audio cable.
4- You must check your usb 3.0 port and try another one, also a 3.1 if you do have one ,as you can have a problem with the usb ports. Some usb capture cards do have problems with some controller chipsets (Renesas, Nec, etc) I dontīknow of any incompatibility of Magewell with any specific chipset, but itīs always a possibility.
5- Capture in lossless ( huufyuv, lagarith, Utvideo) For SD/8bit lossless capture any standard disk has enough bandwidth. You can try as already said, another capture application as Virtualdub FilterMod or amarectv for instance but if you do have the same problem with the capture express application from Magewell probably is not an application issue, however you must review your capture settings sometimes there are default capture settings that are not desirable.
6- You can try to capture using a workflow in grapstudionext or using FFmpeg featuring ffdshow capture mode that are more direct capture options to see what happens
7- You can try the device in a different pc as it is a plug and play device so it easier to try it in a different machine and check if you do have the same poor results
8- If everything fails contact Magewell support, they usually answer in 24-48h
Good luckLast edited by FLP437; 10th Feb 2018 at 23:04.
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