Recommend a capture card that can do all of this...

[MHz]

I am looking to buy an analog capture card, but I have very specific requirements. I need a PCI video capture card which meets the following requirements:

-Can capture and display an overlay at the same time
-Have 32-bit VFW drivers for Win2k, no WDM, no wrappers.
-Can capture composite and/or S-video signals
-Can capture at least 640x480 at 29.97 fps
-Compatible w/ my GeForce3 and 1200MHz Athlon system

A TV Tuner is not important; and I would actually rather not have a TV Tuner. Onboard sound isn't a requirement either as I can use my sound card.

The problem is my new Gainward GF3 which has a VIVO module has god-awful WDM drivers which don't work with virtualdub so I want a new capture card.

Many thanks to all who respond.

[norm]

I would have recomended a Melco MegVC2 AKA gainward Video expert but at the moment there are no Win2K drivers. Not sure if they are going to write them or not. In theory they will. But otherwise it does what you want. And in my opinion does a dam good job.

[MHz]

Thanks.

[JHebert]

There is no way to have VFW drivers in Win2k or WinXP. These OS require WDM drivers only and do not support the older VFW standard. That is why the WDM>VFW wrapper is needed for compatibility with VFW based programs like VirtualDub. I do not know of any good answers yet for the WDM vs VFW issues in Win2k and that is why I haven't upgraded yet from Win98.
The site http://www.iulab.com/ has a program called iuVCR that works with WDM based capture without need for wrapper. You may want to try it with your Gainward VIVO card. Do you know what capture chipset it has? This site also has "tweaked" WDM drivers for common BT878 based capture cards.
I have a cheapo $15 CyberAV PCI capture card based on the generic BT878 chipset. I am able to capture 640x480 29.97fps with either Huffyuv or PicVideo MJPEG in VirtualDub on a P3 733Mhz with 256MB RAM and 7200 rpm hard drive.

[Anonymous65]

JHerbert,
how do you install the "new" or tweaked drivers for the Cyber card? I have the same card, and I can only capture 352x480 with Vdub before dropping frames. I would like to do 480x480 without frame drops. I have a P3/1000MHz and a 40gig ATA100 drive, plus 512MB RAM (WinMe).

[JHebert]

skittelsen,

Sorry if I didn't clarify, but I'm still using VFW drivers for the Cyber card in Win98 with Virtual Dub. I'm not using the version that came with the card, I'm using a newer BT878 VFW driver from Askey that is compatible with the Cyber card. I have NOT installed the tweaked WDM drivers in my system.
However, you should be able to install the tweaked WDM drivers by going into Device Manager, view Properties for the Cyber card, go into Driver Details, and Update Driver. When the installer prompts for a location, point it to the folder containing the new WDM drivers. You will probably have to reboot.
Note that this will NOT fix the 352x240 limit in VirtualDub. This is a limit of the WDM>VFW wrapper. Check the faq at the iulab site for more info. Instead of VirtualDub, you could try the iuVCR program which natively supports WDM and DirectShow with 720x480 capture sizes.
EDIT - I don't know if iuVCR supports segmented AVI capture like VirtualDub and AVI_IO. If not, then with WinME you will be limited to 4GB captures because of the FAT32 filesize limit. The iuVCR program supports OpenDML AVI files with almost unlimited file size, but this requires the NTFS file system in Win2k or WinXP.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JHebert on 2001-10-21 01:08:58 ]</font>

[Anonymous65]

JHebert,

is there any difference between the original Cyber BT878 driver, and the Askey driver? Have the URL for the newest BT878 driver? I download tv424.zip, is that the driver?
I wish I could get a driver that does YUY2, and did not make the image upside down.

[JHebert]

Skittelsen,

The Askey tv424.zip is the VFW driver that I am using with the Cyber card in Win98. The version date on the Askey driver was a lot newer than the Cyber driver that came with the card. I don't know any specifics about the differences beyond that.
However, since you are running WinME I'm not sure if the tv424.zip driver will work for you because its a VFW driver. I'm not positive if WinME supports VFW drivers or if it requires WDM drivers. There is also a WDM driver at Askey I think its called tv2k.zip or something like that. You can see a matrix table of all the Askey drivers at this URL:
http://www.askey.com/html/driver1.html#TV
Check there to see what they specify for WinME. If it turns out you are stuck with WDM drivers then the "tweaked" WDM driver at the iulab site might be a better option but it probably still won't help you with full size captures in VirtualDub because of the wrapper issue.
As for the upside down image, with both the Askey and Cyber VFW drivers I found that trying different YUV modes in VirtualDub fixed that problem. However I don't know which YUV options will be available with the WDM drivers.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JHebert on 2001-10-21 02:31:45 ]</font>

[MHz]

Thanks for the responses. The chip on my Gainward VIVO is the Philips SAA7102. I can't even get the WDM drivers to install any more as now it refuses to find the capture chip.

Anyway, Windows 2000 does support VFW-32. VFW-32 is the 32bit Video For Windows drivers used on the NT based oses. Hauppage happens to have 32-bit VFWs for Win2k for the WinTV card. I just don't know if the WinTV card can do everything else I need it to do as specified above.

More on the VFW-32 support by the WinTV can be found at

http://registration.hauppauge.com/support/win2000.htm

and

http://www.hauppauge.com/html/sw_nt.htm

Does anyone with a WinTV used it on Win2k with VirtualDub? This card is looking like a possible candiate for me but I am tired of being burned by capture cards that don't work.

[SHS]

MHz happauge card is using it own VfW drivers there not real a 32bit drivers more like mix 16/32bit drivers VfW is base on 16bit codec always has been out of date and been around for long time 1990-91 if I recall rigth.
You can't do 640x480 at 29.97 fps with VfW drivers I don't care how fast your system is or who made the capture unless it using hardware codec you my as forget any higher 352x240 with NTSC with out less frames drop.
You can do this with real WDM drivers and the program called iuVCR.