Windows XP /ATI AIW /Matrox Marvel

[AT]

If you have a ATI AIW or Matrox Marvel card, and plan to upgrade to Windows XP, there is a good news.

That is, you don't need worry about Macrovision anymore, when you do DVD or VCR backups.

Here is how:

Don't install any manufacture drivers, XP will install a proper drive with capture support built-in. Take my AIW 128 Pro card for example, XP will install a AIW 128 pro AGP driver with WDM capture driver.

Then, you can use Windows Movie Maker capture right away, unfortunately, it only support up to 320X240, 768kb/sec.
So you need a 3rd part capture program, such as Ulead MediaStudio Pro.

My set up:

Windows XP RC1 evaluation edition.
ATI AIW 128 Pro
Ulead MedieStudio Pro 6 Trial edition

Set Video capture driver within MediaStudio to "DirectShow Driver" for YUVV capture or "MPEG DircctShow Driver" for real time MPEG-1/2 capture. Set parameters within "Capture Setup---Property", and you are ready to go.
No Macrovision!!!

Capture resolusion supported:

YUVV: 80X116 to 720X480

MPEG-1/2: 320X240/288 to 720X480/576 and all resolusions in between but No 480X/480/576.

Tested,
DVD "The Mask" with Macrovision turned on (Apex Ad600a)
YUVV @ 720X480 with Huffy codec 2.1
MPEG-2 @ 352X480 @ 2400 kbs

Works great!

Same as with Matrox Marvel.

It may also works with other capture card.


Notes:

Keep it quite, don't let Microsoft/ATI/Matrox know

And you did not hear these from me.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AT on 2001-07-07 19:55:35 ]</font>

[mik]

Call me stupid... but whats macrovision?

Private message me please.

Oh yeah and thanks for the info...do u know if that will work the same for an ATI TV WONDER?

[AT]

See following url for "Macrovision" on DVD

www.macrovision.com/dvd.html

TV Wonder: It depends if XP has built-in driver for it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AT on 2001-07-07 21:35:18 ]</font>

[JJamez]

A little off the topic of your post, but I am REALLY impressed with XP.

Among all the benefits I have noticed (and there are many), I can capture at resolutions unheard of for me and my AIW Pro in 98, with no dropped frames. In 98, the best I could do was 320x240 with Huffy (forget MPEG-1 or 2), and I'd still drop a frame or two per minute. Windows2000 never properly supported my card.

In XP I'm capturing 640x480, even 720x480 with NO frames dropped (AVI_IO w/ Huffy).

What exactly is the difference between WDM capture and the drivers I was using in 98 (whose name escapes me right now)?

JJ

[AT]

WDM, as far as I know, is Windows device mini-port driver, Microsoft is trying to make it an uniformed format.

In Win98, if you used ATI driver 6292, then it's VFW (video for windows) driver. Microsoft abandoned VFW support and want every body use their DirectShow interface, which WDM belongs to.

Did you noticed that XP also speed up internet a lot?

[JJamez]

Haven't noticed any increase in internet speed, but Im on a cable modem, so I don't know that I would notice anyway.

I can't get over how stable XP is. I always used to hear that about 2000, until I tried it and I think it crashed more often than 98 on my system. The only negative I can find about XP is that it requires a fairly new system and a decent amount of disk space (clean install with CD files was 2+ gigs).

JJ

[TIbrO]

Holy crap, man! 2GB!? I was surprised when my Win2K installation was 1GB. They seem to double the resources needed by your OS every new release. Good thing I just upgraded to a new processor (1.4Ghz Thunderbird) and motherboard with RAID... I should have the power and space, and I need to try out the WinXP Marvel G400 TV drivers.

[Raycaster]

Are there Windows XP drivers for the Matrox G400 Marvel or did I misread the fact that there are "generic" capture drivers for all?

I'm surprised there is any support for XP as Matrox still only has beta driver for Windows 2000.

[JJamez]

Thats a good question Ray, I really am not sure. I do know that I could never get my AIW capture working in 2000, and it works great in XP with no tweaking whatsoever - XP just detected it in the install and it works great.

I noticed with my Epson scanner and printer though, that the stock XP drivers leave a lot to be desired, in that they don't have all the changeable options the original Epson drivers do. Too 'dumbed down' for me - especially the scanner - the 'advanced' options included brightness and contrast, nothing else. Fortunately, XP seems to be a lot more lenient in installing 'older' drivers over their 'new' ones, unlike 98, so I was able to use the OEM drivers.

JJ

[suspect]

hmmm that gives me an idea. I don't have a AIW Radeon, but if i'm right to extract the drivers from windows XP (to use in win2k), go to properties of the video car in device manager, driver details to list the driver files and locations, (I forget the exact sequence of clicks for XP, just find the list of driver files), copy these files to c:\aiwnomacro or something. Then find the ati inf file (this is a driver information file) in xp directory -- windows\inf, should be atividin.inf or something, copy that and the atividin.pnf to c:\aiwnomacro. Now you should be able to point win2k to that directory for a aiw radeon driver.
If thats too confusing, i'll put together a couple driver packages when i get on my windows xp machine. btw I've done this with other drivers and it has worked.

[AT]

Ray,

Not sure about G400. But my Marvel G200 is detected exactly as named and display driver along with capture driver is installed automatically. Works stable, no problems occurs so far.

Of course, XP's driver don't support Matrox' hardware MJPEG capture. For that to work, you need install leaked Matrox Video Tools for Win2K (V 2.04). I tried this too, MJPEG hardware capture works very good.

[mik]

Someone that runs XP should start a site of all ripped out driver packages. Cause i mean theres no way im using XP if it has the product activation in it... ill just run 2k instead.

[homerpez]

I dunno... this sounds like it does the same as regustry/driver patches for 2000, where it supposedly removes Macrovision detection. It does work, but only for certain types. I bet if you try from various other sources (like VHS) that not all will work, even if the driver doesn't detect. My patched Radeon drivers made a couple VHS tapes work, but others still don't.

Beware...! BEWAAARE!!!