problem with huffy codec and tmpeg encoder captured from ATI

[Coluph]

I'm wondering if anyone else has run into this and might know a work around for it....

When I capture AVI's from my ATI AIW 7500, using MMC 8.8 in the AVI mode, set to the huffy codec and pcm audio, and then try loading it into TMPEG Encoder, I get some really strange results.

If you have TMPEG try to determine the field order...it will bog the computer down and will take about 20 mins for it to complete this little task for a 25 min video...which normally would only take a few seconds.

If you forward scrub you are ok...but if you reverse scrub...it's time for the doom song...you will get a whole bunch of HDD activity and literally again have to wait for about 20 mins before it recovers...(if you let it finish)

If you just forget about the filters and editing and just tell it to encode...it will usually tell you it cannot read the file....

It's rather annoying and prevents me from using Tmpeg these days...I'd kind of like to be able to use it again.

Mpeg capture works fine in MMC, so I don't think it's anything I've done wrong, and also did this with a previous install of windows, and another ATI card.

I'm not sure what would cause this, or if there is a way around it. I've used huffy with another capture card and tmpeg seems to handle the file fine there, so I'm not too sure what is being done differently with the ATI card.

Anyone have any ideas?

The reasoning behind this is that I'd like to be able to make complient DVD's, and MMC lacks the ability to make mpeg video with wav or AC3 audio files

[FOO]

You could save a lot of time by capturing in MPEG2.
Then all you have to do is extract the audio and convert it to whatever you want. ...or just leave it as MP2.

If you insist on Huffy , you might frameserve it through Vdub
That takes the decoding load off of TMPGenc and usually works better.

I regularly capture directly to MPEG2 with MMC and author it directly to DVD
...no processing

[Sulik]

You can select LPCM audio for your preset in MMC, which is 100% NTSC DVD compliant, though it will produce larger files. Technically, MPEG audio isn't NTSC DVD compliant (though it is PAL DVD compliant), but all DVD players support MPEG Audio for NTSC DVDs (it's the same decoder chips than for PAL).
Only some very strict DVD authoring software will reject MPEG Audio, so you might want to consider using a different authoring tool.

[lordsmurf]

Sounds like your OS is hogging your system or too much is running in background tasks for that kind of TMPG error.

ATI MMC 8.8 may also take some blame for the maybe-bad files. Use 8.7 or below only.

[Coluph]

FOO wrote: You could save a lot of time by capturing in MPEG2.
Then all you have to do is extract the audio and convert it to whatever you want. ...or just leave it as MP2.

If you insist on Huffy , you might frameserve it through Vdub
That takes the decoding load off of TMPGenc and usually works better.

--

Normally I do use MPEG2 direct, but I have a few tapes I'd like to do some clean up and restoring work on, and figrued I'd get a better quality capture going to a non mpeg codec to start with...I may try capturing at the highest possible bitrate it will allow me to do and see what kind of results I get...perhaps it won't be too lossy re-encoding it...I'm not sure

As far as the audio, the MP2 works ok for most purposes, but I'd like to be compliant if possible, just to ensure that say 5 to 10 years from now it won't have issues if some other form of equipment comes along...I only want to do this once

Sulik wrote: You can select LPCM audio for your preset in MMC, which is 100% NTSC DVD compliant, though it will produce larger files.

I wasn't aware of this...I'll definately take another look at it. I don't mind demuxing and using a different audio encoder to put it to ac3 after...it only takes an extra minute or two.

lordsmurf wrote: Sounds like your OS is hogging your system or too much is running in background tasks for that kind of TMPG error.

ATI MMC 8.8 may also take some blame for the maybe-bad files. Use 8.7 or below only.

I don't think too much is running...I don't do anything else on that computer...the only other things that are even installed on it is an email program (thunderbird) and an old version of MS Works I use to database what I'm working on....neither of which are in use when I'm working on video...

I was using an older version of the MMC and it did the same thing so I'm thinking it may be an issue with the huffy codec and the MMC software somehow. I also have audio issues with 8.7 (out of sync) that 8.8 fixed. 8.9 I don't see any reason to upgrade to.... I don't want to touch it it's working

Perhaps I will try a few other codecs and see what happens. Huffy just seemed the most convenient.

Also loading the file into Vegas produced some strange results too...upsidedown...snowy (like as if it was on a tv channel that was badly tuned) and ORANGE!

Beats me....

[autodidact]

What version of Huffyuv are you using? I know the very latest version (2.2.0?) gave me considerable trouble. However, even with earlier versions of Huffyuv I have encountered the high CPU usage problem with AVIs captured using various versions of MMC. Frameserving with Avisynth nicely did away with the problem for me.

[Coluph]

Looks like I have Huffyuv 2.1.1 - CCESP patch installed

I'll try the avisynth software when sourceforge comes back up. (of course it has to be down when I actually have a few mins to fiddle with this