ATI MMC 7.9 won't allow high resolution capture

[alandla]

After reading posts in this forum, I decided to upgrade my MMC 7.1 to 7.9, even though ATI lists it as Windows XP or 2000 drivers under WIndows 98SE.
I went to change my capture settings in the new version and lo and behold, I am still stuck with a max capture reolution of 640x240.
Has anyone else seen this? Is this improved with the version 8.x of MMC? Is it a limitation that MMC sees with my system?

[dragonkeeper]

You poor dear trying to use ATI to capture with, read the posts in the forums, concerning ATI and capturing video. Over all it sucks use VirtualDub instead by far it is the best choice.
Vdub will not use the ATI capture drivers natively becase the are WDM and Vdub relies on VFW drivers. You can download the WDM/VFW wrapper from VirtualDub.org, which will allow you to use the WDM capture drivers in VirtualDub or any other program that relies on VFW drivers.

[alandla]

Actually I am using PowerVCR II and it is working fine. I agree that the MMC sucks but the actual ATI card works great.
I thought that the newer version of MMC might work better and since it was from the same company as the card, I though that the compatability would be better. So much for that thought.
Thanks for the reply.

[dragonkeeper]

I tried PowerVCR II but quickly returned to VirtaulDub. Due to the fact it seemed to provide better quality over all, And its capabilites are endless.

[lordsmurf]

Actually, it's the TV Wonder card that sucks, and the ATI MMC doesn't always allow it to capture highest resolution all the time on all settings.

ATI MMC on a ATI AIW card works wonderful. It's the BT-based cards that have issues, and quite readily seen in ATI MMC.

[alandla]

I thought that the All-in-Wonder cards were just great graphics cards with a TV Wonder card attached (I realize this isn't exactly the way it is but that is supposed to be the jist as in still BT-based).
I wonder why the MMC would be limited by the TV Wonder card when other capture software is not?
I am currently looking at the Digital VCR options under the TV control of MMC 7.9 and the DVD capture settings are MPEG1, 352x240, 8.00Mbits/sec. I realize that you can customize a setting but the resolution is maxed out at 640x240 and the vertical 240 cannot go any higher.
Do you get more option with MMC 7.9 and an all-in-wonder card?

[FOO]

If its got a Brooktree chip on it you can get generic drivers for it

[lordsmurf]

I thought that the All-in-Wonder cards were just great graphics cards with a TV Wonder card attached .......Do you get more option with MMC 7.9 and an all-in-wonder card?

No and no.

The AIW uses Theatre chips which are better.
The MMC 7.9 does not work on ATI AIW cards, only 7.1-7.7, then 8.0-8.7

[indolikaa]

You poor dear trying to use ATI to capture with, read the posts in the forums, concerning ATI and capturing video. Over all it sucks...

I disagree.

I have already made 200+ captures with my new ATI AIW 9000 Pro and MMC 8.1. 720x480 has not been a problem, even with VBR and high Motion Estimates on an Athlon Tbird 1200 / PC133 system running a triple-boot WinME/Win2000 configuration! I can't wait to see what this card can do on the forthcoming P4 system with a generous dosage of RDRAM.

Yes, VirtualDub is an excellent capture solution, and I still have it loaded with TMPGEnc for special situations. But with a nice front-end TBC and a Sony SLV-R5U(C) VCR, who needs two processes to do what ATI can do in one? Hey, even those friends of mine who work with DLT and DVD-R(A) haven't complained too loudly about the video quality! :P

[Sulik]

The TV-Wonders have always been different than the All-In-Wonder. Only the TV-Wonder Pro and All-In-Wonder always had the capability to capture 720x480 in MMC (Though it is technically possible to do full resolution capture on a standard TV-Wonder).

I believe the latest MMC version that comes with the TV-Wonder Pro allows full resolution captures even on the original TV-Wonder, but I might be wrong (I have an AIW). I forgot if this is MMC 8.6 or 8.7.

[alandla]

Just saw this on ATI's support page:

ATI TV WONDER - Video capture resolution is limited to a maximum of 640x240

When using the ATI TV WONDER and TV WONDER VE with Multimedia Center 7.1 the maximum resolution supported for video capture is 640 x 240. Higher resolutions such as 640 x 480 and 720 x 480 are not available.

This limitation in capture resolution for the TV WONDER and TV WONDER VE when using ATI Multimedia Center 7.1 is by design. Future software releases may add support for video capture at higher resolutions.

Any updates will appear on this page when they become available.

INFO-BASE file # 4007

Keywords: TV WONDER for PC ATI MULTIMEDIA CENTER CAPTURE RESOLUTION