DirectTV capture with ATI AIW

[woodeinc]

I'm running my DirectTV through my ATI AIW. Can I capture video to my drive and then just open this file in Media player and be able to watch it. I'm not having much luck. It saved as a .vcr format. I must be doing something wrong or not enough. I'm not really interested in burning to DVD yet, just want to play back the capture stored on my hard drive.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Sulik]

Change the settings (setup->map preset) so that you're capturing in MPEG2 format instead of .VCR (If you want to play the VCR files, use the ATI file player).

[tigerman8u]

check here for excellent guides using ATI cards. www.lordsmurf.com

[indolikaa]

And when it works for you the first time, you will be in Nirvana.

[bottle-necked]

VCR is ATI proprietary version of mpeg. YOu need to capture MPEG2. ATI has a pretty good preset to start with called 'DVD HIGH' if you're using MMC version 8.1 or higher (i think it started then). It could use a little tweaking but to start with it's not bad. Another one of their presets thats not too awful bad is called "DVD Medium". It's a smaller frame size and bitrate and will be easier to capture if your computer is having trouble with the other setting.

With these versions of MMC these two presets will have Video Soap enabled. You might want to disable this feature. It uses more CPU power when enabled although it does tend to clean up a weak or noisy input signal. That's up to you.

Good luck.....

PS. And welcome to the forum....

[duhmez]

www.lordsmurf.com know it, love it.

However, if you aren't going to burn to DVD, I sugest make a custom highres mpeg1 profile. Mpeg1 is much easier to edit later if you feel the urge.

or stick with .vcr. It works fine and will play fine on the pc, just open the vcr file in any media player.

[au7usa]

I've seen MacroVision protection on Cable-Broadcasts, and was able to capture only a blank screen with audio.

After disableing "ATI Macrovision protection" everything worked just fine.

Have you considered that your source might be protected?

[bottle-necked]

Just wanting to play those .vcr files in WMP you'll need to change the 'type of file' to *.* when using the open command. Exa: WMP, open, type of file *.*, then browse to the file. WMP might give you a warning box about the filetype but it's no big deal, just have it to play the file.

Best of luck.

[woodeinc]

Thanks for all the help and information. I've got it capturing out in MPEG2 format and it will play back now but I don't have any sound with the playback. I'll need to check a few more settings. Also the playback quality doesn't appear to be as good as the actual footage. I may need to do some custom tweaking to get it to work.

Again thanks for the replies and any additional info is appreciated.

[duhmez]

I've seen MacroVision protection on Cable-Broadcasts, and was able to capture only a blank screen with audio.

After disableing "ATI Macrovision protection" everything worked just fine.

Have you considered that your source might be protected?

How did you disable macrovision?!?!?!??! There is an old patch to do it but it does not work on newer cat drivrs. Do you know how now>?

[indolikaa]

How did you disable macrovision?!?!?!??! There is an old patch to do it but it does not work on newer cat drivrs. Do you know how now>?

It's called a TBC.

Actually, I never could disable it on my 9000 Pro, either. With any version of Catalyst.