Am I the only one.....

[AlfB]

I have been trying for several weeks to get my setup to work reliably. I currently am using a Pinnacle PCTV? card for capture of cable TV with iuVCR using PCM 48Hz sound (recommended by iuVCR help file for use with Sound Blaster Live!), Huffyuv codec with settings of RGB and 480x480 and being saved to an AVI file. I then encode with TMPGenc using basically defaults except High Quality Sound setting under Enviroment Settings. Using this, I seem to always get either sound out or sync (offset by a set amount or variable amount that is in sync at one end and not at the other) or a high pitched whine that shows up after encoding. Sometimes I can get a short clip to seemingly work correctly and think I have everything solved. Then I go an try a complete program and something invariably happens.

Well after a lengthy discussion, my question is this. Am I the only one that has these type problems. Is there really a setup out there that can reliably capture TV from cable with sound in sync and allow me to to encode offline (or realtime) but have good quality (I am happy with video quality of my current set up). I do not want to spend time readjusting audio to be in sync, it should start out that way. Is my wish a pipe dream as everyone else has these same issues and just learn to live with them?

[Will Hay]

I'm far from an expert but I would suspect it might be due to the fact you have a 950 processor, coupled with the fact that you're capturing to your primary hard drive.
Capturing to your system drive is not ideal.
Also, if you have a VIA chipset on your motherboard then...
...
Are you intending to output to dvd?
What are you playing your files back with?
If it's windows media player then don't, it's unreliable.
I was getting sound sync issues playing back with WMP, until I tried the same files with my ATI player.
You haven't said at which point the out of sync sound/video occurs, is it before enocoding or after, ie. is the avi file okay but out of sync after you encode?
Finally, the huffyuv is a massive, massive drain on system resources. I don't use it and I have an Athlon 2000XP+ processor.
I prefer the PicVideo MJPEG codec at quality 19/20 which for me produces excellent results at virtually one quarter file size.
I then encode, as you do, using TMPGEnc Plus, generally at 8000CBR (I'm burning 45-60 minute home movies to dvd-r).
Also, I suggest you change your thread title.
'Am I the only one.....' is not helpful and if you read the website policy is quite rightly frowned upon.
Will Hay

[Will Hay]

Well after a lengthy discussion, my question is this. Am I the only one that has these type problems.....Is my wish a pipe dream as everyone else has these same issues and just learn to live with them?

Sorry, I didn't answer your questions:
No and no
Will

[AlfB]

Maybe a few more details are in order. Sorry for the cryptic title but I tried a few with specific titles and did not seem to get response. I am not capturing to my system drive. I have a separate 180GB WD 7200RPM drive on its own controller (ATA100) for capture files. While I agree a 950 Celeron is slow, I do not have issues with CPU utilization or with dropped frames. My utilization is 40-60% and I might have 1-2 dropped frames after 1 hour of capture. Let me give you an overview of what I have found and run into.

Originally I was capturing at CD quality and 480x480, RGB and Huffyuv. The reason for the video settings is that I found the quality of the video to be best this way and I had huffyuv and did not own PIC codecs. The problem here was audio sync problems with the AVI file. It started out correct and was off by a few seconds at the end.

Next, I found the suggestion in the help files of iuVCR (what I am capturing with) that the Sound Blaster Live! card had problems and I needed to use 48KHz for audio sampling. I changed to that and did not have problems with audio sync in the AVI for the tests I did after this change. But when I encoded with TMPGEnc, I got a high pitched whine in the MGEG1 (VCD) file.

Next, I found that using the High Quality setting under environment settings for TMPGEnc fixed the high pitched whine and I thought I had it. Well now I am back to audio sync problems. Sometimes it does it, sometimes it is fine. I will think I have it licked and try to capture something I want to keep and use the same settings I had before and I will have a problem with sync.

I then thought I would try AVI_IO. But I cannot get it to run. See https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=152909.

I am now at a loss where to go. I am planning on purchasing a faster computer soon but really do not expect for that to fix my problems. Another option is another capture card, but I am not sure it is the problem either. I currently have a Pinnacle PCTV card.

I think I have a VIA chipset. Will have to check - don't remember and I am not there at this time. What is the problem there?

For output, I am trying to go to VCD currently but may change to DVD in the future. I do not have a DVD writer at this time.

I am playing back with Ulead V7, but also try in VDub as a double check.

Thanks for the help.

[Gazorgan]

In IUVCR don't use the default where video syncs to sound; Make the video the master and let the sound sync to it. This cleared up problems for me.

[Will Hay]

I think I have a VIA chipset. Will have to check - don't remember and I am not there at this time. What is the problem there?

Via chipsets have a significant problem with the PCI bus, but the resulatant problems are frame loss so I clearly you're not suffereing as a result of your chipset.
One way I resolved my spound sync issues with Virtuldub is to uncheck the box marked 'lock video to audio'.
Will

[Will Hay]

Incredibly, considering I hadn't read 'Gazorgan's' post before I wrote mine, we're saying the same thing, albeit with different capturing programs.
Will

[AlfB]

Tried changing the setting to video master with no effect. I still get audio in sync at first and out of sync at end. Also tried updated drivers for my capture card. No good.