ATI AIW128AGP MPEG Capture Problems

[PC Master]

Hardware:
Processor - AMD Duron 600MHz
RAM - 192MB PC133 SDRAM (3 x 64MB) - 1/2Gig Swap File
MBoard - AzzA KT133I (VIA KT133TX chipset)
Video Board - ATI All-In-Wonder 128 16MB AGP2x (not pro version - I checked the chips)
Sound - Creative Labs SBLive! MP3 5.1+ Retail (not using onboard sound)

Software:
OS - Windows `98 SE
DirectX - 8.0a with vidcap update
ATI MMC v7.1
AIW 128 Drivers v4.13.7078
ATI DVD Player v1.2 (got it with the card)

Problems:
1) AUDIO SYNC - Some captures I do have the highly common audio sync problem, even though MMC reports no frames dropped. This happens from the start of the file on every file I capture. Is there any way to correct this that I am unaware of.
2) CHOPPY AUDIO - I have had problems with the audio captured on some MPEG1/2 files having "blurbs" of static about every 1/2sec. Is this due to the SBLive! card (as reported on another post)?
3) What kind of processing power is req'd to use the PIC MJPG codec realtime. What is the speed/disk space tradeoff? I may use this if the mpeg just won't work. I would need to capture at no more than 2GB/hour.
4) LO RES - On some of my MPEG2 video captures (trying to capture SVCD 480x480 (or any higher resolution than 320x240) at 2Mbps), the audio is fine (although still out of sync), and the first 20 or so lines of video are fine, but after that the rest of the image looks like an extremely low res capture (like 40x40 pixels). If I increase the bitrate to about 6-8Mbps it's fine. Is this related to using only I-Frame compression. If i try any (and yes, I have tried them all) P or B frame compression settings, I drop about 20-30% of frames.
5) Is there any other capture program that can use the ATI hardware MPEG codec? Are the settings for MPEG compression available through the drivers at all? If so, please tell me EXACTLY how to get to them. I understand that MMC is processor intensive and would like to use another software if possible.
6) The fix12c program 1.3 crashes on my system. How do I fix it or is there another way to fix the files (without HEX editing).

[patrickm]

-use drivers 4.12.6292, not 4.12.7078, with MMC 7.1, and install the DVD 4.1 update to fix MMC 7.1's cpu use problem. (it's more than just the dvd update, it's a total update packaged w/ the dvd 4.1 software)

-your CPU might be a bit slow for realtime IBP MPEG-2. i do it with an athlon 900 though at SVCD bitrate and no problems with good quality

-install the via 4-in-1 update for your chipset. the problem with sync might be the SB Live. also set PCI Latency=0 either in the BIOS or through a software utility

-the reason your captures look blocky is that at high-res/low-bitrate that's as much detail as you can get from the data rate you're giving it. you should be able to do some near-SVCD stuff on the 600 Duron though, try lowering Motion Estimation and using 480x480 or 352x480.

-use fix12c version 1.2b.

-picvideo takes way less CPU than realtime MPEG, but the conversion back to MPEG can take quite a while.

[PC Master]

awwww...You're tellin` me I've gotta go back to the VFW drivers after spending hours getting these to work? Does MMC work better with VFW or is it just for compatibility with other progs? Does this allow them access to the MPEG encoding settings? I guess I'll try `em and see if that works any better.

Also, I had to install the 4-in-1s to get the AGP working in the first place so no probs there (checked version numbers). I'll check the latency.

[patrickm]

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awwww...You're tellin` me I've gotta go back to the VFW drivers after spending hours getting these to work? Does MMC work better with VFW or is it just for compatibility with other progs? Does this allow them access to the MPEG encoding settings? I guess I'll try `em and see if that works any better.
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6292 is a combo vfw/directshow. it works better overall, but still has the directshow to work with MMC 7.1 then you can easily do MPEG in directshow or MJPEG in virtualdub w/o the wrapper