Major capture problems......

[lewisp]

I am close to the end of my tether with this. I am simply trying to capture my home movies to VCD in the best quality possible. I invested in a WinTV PVR PCI card thinking this would be the solution. Wrong. I've tried using the WinTV standard VCD recorder but the quality is very poor.

So I've tried the VirtualDub/Huffyuv method with limited success. Heres my list of problems. Can anyone shed any light on these please?

- I select s-video on WinTV then exit. When I connect to s-video in VirtualDub the pic is in B&W.
- The sound I hear is from the TV card line in, but the avi records from the microphone!
- If I have DMA selected for my HDD, I get visual interference every time the HDD fires up
- If I dont have DMA I get a slide show.

Arrgghh!!

[lewisp]

....I ought to add I have a PIII 800 with 256 RAM, 27GB HDD and a Chaintech motherboard with VIA chipset. All latest drivers installed.

[Dave B]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>- I select s-video on WinTV then exit. When I connect to s-video in VirtualDub the pic is in B&W. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Your home movie source is probably outputting composite video (through an S-Video lead) You either need to adjust your source to output S-Video or use the composite input on your capture card.
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>- The sound I hear is from the TV card line in, but the avi records from the microphone! </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Double click the speaker item in the taskbar (next to the clock) Select recording levels from the menu and move the checkbox from Mic to Line-in
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>- If I have DMA selected for my HDD, I get visual interference every time the HDD fires up </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Ensure you are using a good quality shielded lead from your movie source to the capture card. If the lead is OK then it sounds like a problem with an electrical earth/ground somewhere.
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>- If I dont have DMA I get a slide show. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Correct.

Don't lose faith... you're almost there! Carry on down the HUFFYUV or MJPEG route, they will give you far better results then using the WinTV recorder.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dave B on 2001-10-26 06:23:56 ]</font>

[lewisp]

Dave, thanks for your reply.

- When I view my s-video on WinTv it is in colour. It switches to B&W when I fire up VirtualDub.

- I dont have a 'recording levels' menu option! I'm running Win98SE and I have SB Live! 1024.

- I have an interference problem when I playback my MP3s with WinAmp too, so I'll have to check my earths. Maybe a call to my PC manufacturer is in order. I still dont understand why it doesnt happen in non-DMA mode though....

[Dave B]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>- When I view my s-video on WinTv it is in colour. It switches to B&W when I fire up VirtualDub. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Err... right. It sounds like you've got a NTSC/PAL problem when capturing. Try finding a way to change the "Input Standard" in the Virtualdub/Capture Card settings menu.

If all else fails, download AVI_IO (in my opinion, a better capturing program) and see if that has the same problem.

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>- I dont have a 'recording levels' menu option! I'm running Win98SE and I have SB Live! 1024. </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Volume Recorder Panel -> Options -> Properties -> Adjust Volume for -> Recording -> OK -> Check Line-in box

Lovely.

[lewisp]

I have solved all my problems! FWIW and FYI heres what I had to do:

1) The WinTV drivers were the problem with the B&W picture. I had a WinTV PVR card installed. I removed this and replaced it with my old WinTV PCI card. I installed drivers version 4.18 and it works. (I had exactly the same problem using 4.2 drivers with the old card too).

2) Run WinTV AUDIOSEL.exe to select line-in. Doh!

3) The interference was caused by the DMA drivers on my motherboards VIA chipset. I downloaded the latest 4-in-1 drivers and an IDETool from the VIA web page. With the IDE tool I was able to select one of 10 different DMA modes. One of them cured the interference problem completely!