TMPEnc problem with determining field order.

[Tom Lewandowski]

I've been trying to convert some old videotapes to DVD, capturing with my ASUS V7700 from VCR. I've done this any number of times using TMPEnc Plus to ecnode both SVCD and DVD complient video. I've been using TMPEnc to determine proper field order by playing the captured AVI's in TMPEnc's 'Advance Window', de-interlacing the video, changing field order according to the smoothness of playback. Typically, TMPEnc determines proper field order correctly, but once in a while, it misses. This procedure for absolutely determining proper field order was obtained on this site and has been a God-send!

Except now. I'm having a problem encoding my STAR WARS videotape. I'm capturing at 704x480, 29.97 fps. I never drop frames, and the AVI's come out very good. But because of the Asus Capture driver's 2.0 GB limit, I have to record in segments which come to about 20 minutes before hitting 2.0 GB. When I'm all done, I join the segments for one continuous video file.

Anyway, after capturing the first 20-minute segment, then loading the AVI into TMPEnc, the program states "Field B" is the first field. Fine. But I still double check by going into the advance features, de-interlacing, and watching the results. Great. It looks like TMPEnc guessed right...except, about 4-minutes into the AVI, it gets jumpy! So I reverse the field order (make field A first), and once again, the movie plays fine....until I get to about 9-minutes! Jumpy again! Reverse the field order (back to "B" first), and everything is fine!!

My first thoughts -- definitely a capture problem. So, re-capture. Same problem. Try different sizes. Same problem. Encode at different bitrates. Makes no difference.

This proplem is strange because the next couple of STAR WARS segments I recorded encode beautifully! This makes no sense. I've not seen anything like this before and haven't a clue as to what's going on, and why only the first part I try to record is having these problems. Is this something someone might have some ideas as to what's happening to cause this? Can this be at all related to the copyprotection of the videotape (though I receive no warnings about it from the Asus capture driver, and the recorded AVI file plays perfectly! So it has to be a TMPEnc thing....doesn't it?

???? Any help would be appreciated.


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P4 2.66 GHz
512 MB RAM
Win98 SE

[SatStorm]

This is a problem of the older asus avi codec - If I remember correct - and win98SE. It is also a well known - but rarelly seen - problem of the vfm drivers. From what I know this could happen each time a field is missing on a raw capture. Programs like virtualdub have technics against this, but itdoesn't always work!

Anyway, I have the same card with you (asus 7700). I use to have problems like that you describe, back in the days I use to capture at win 98SE. Expecially with VHS tapes.
Today, I use win2K with service pack 4 and the nvidia wdm 1.8 drivers for this card (together with the latest asus 7700 display drivers). After I did some tweaking on my win2k (as described on virtualdub's page) I'm able to capture hours of hours with this card, at any framesize, with virtualdub, and no issues at all.

I also suggest you to use an alternative codec to capture with your card, beyond asus one. Pic Video MJPEG works excellent with asus 7700 so Huffyuv (which is freeware)
Personally, I don't use asus codec for capturing any more. Only picvideo mjpeg.

[Tom Lewandowski]

Thank you! What you said certainly makes sense, since I didn't start having this problem until the past week -- right after updating my PC from Win98 to Win98SE. I'm downloading the PIC Video codec now and am anxious to see if this will cure the problem. Thanks again!

[SatStorm]

I don't believe that it gonna cure the problem totally, but it might help more than the asus avi codec. It is a combo of win98SE, asus codec AND vfm drivers...

See if you can install wdm drivers with win98SE or if you can switch to w2k. That gonna "cure" the problem.
Downgrade to win98 might be an option too, but I bet it was a matter of luck that you haven't deal with this problem in the past. Those "issues" was the reason m$ switch to wdm drivers, beyond the fact that our needs are more than what vfm can handle (us I mean the hardware we use)

[Tom Lewandowski]

As a matter of fact, I'm in the process of downgrading, back to Win98. I've tried running Win98SE numerious times in the past and always have some kind of conflict issue with one device or another. (Usually, it's with my music gear, though.) SE also runs slower than Win98 on my systems. However, while downgrading, I just discovered and fixed another problem with Micro$oft programs: Win98 doesn't install on systems with CPU's faster than 2.1 GHz because of a NDIS.VXD (network) timing error. I just got a fix for this problem, too. SE doesn't share this problem.

I've captured quite a few movies with my ASUS card (and Win98) and haven't had this kind of a problem before, so I'm willing to bet SE is a major part of the problem. I also just downloaded the HuffYUV codec, so maybe the combination of these two changes will do the trick. Thanks again!

[jimmalenko]

According to your profile, you have a 1GHz CPU ?

Yet you talk about restrictions on CPUs > 2.1 GHz. If you have a 2.1GHz or greater and 256MB RAM, you really should look at upgrading to WIN XP IMO.

[Tom Lewandowski]

Oops....forgot to update my profile here. I just bought a Soyo P4VGA mobo and Intel P4 2.66 GHz processor, along with 512MB of RAM. I have a lot of music equipment hooked up to my PC (and some DOS-based sequencing software) that doesn't perform well under Win2K, Me, or XP. (Drivers don't function well.) They work fine in Win98. SE will sometimes balk, but I can usually get things to work...slower. I'm one of those old-timer computer users that still depend on DOS once in a while. Newer versions of Windows don't like a lot of the older DOS-based programs.

I did a quick 10-minute capture before leaving for work today. Loaded the AVI into TMPEnc Plus, and it played perfectly. Checked field order by deinterlacing, and believe this has solved the problem. I haven't even installed the Huff capture driver yet but still intend to.

[SatStorm]

Well, if works don't fix it, our friends americans use to say.