Odd Winfast 2000XP Deluxe problem. Please Help!

[studtrooper]

First and foremost, I am a complete n00b to the video capturing world. I have converted DVDs to VCD and divx a few times but thats about all the experience I have in this area. Ok, I finally decided to get me a TV tuner (Winfast 2000XP Deluxe) to convert my slowly degrading VHS tapes to a digital file. Well, after spending a hour trying to get the very awkward pci card in my case, I fired it up and hooked up my VCR. Well, the software installed just fine but when I tried to do some recording things got weird. I first tried to use the Divx 5.11 codec, and when I looked at the output of what I recorded, I saw that the video had a ton of artifacts (something you usually see like when you overclock your videocard way too high) and the framerate was very unbalanced. I tried a multitude of different resolutions and the results were pretty much the same. I took some snapshots of the artifacting I was getting. Also, when I try using a Xvid codec, the artifacts remain, but the slowdown goes away (but when ever I stop recording with the xvid codec, the damn PVR program freezes and I have to 'Ctrl Alt Delete' to get out of it). Suprisingly, when I use the MPEG1 and MPEG2 (stock options with the included capture software) codec, everything is perfect. I'm at a complete loss here. If anyone has any tips or pointers, I'd be greatly appreciated. Oh, here's some of the hardware I'm running on:

Athlon XP 2500+ 512k L2 cache @ 2350mhz
Radeon 9800 PRO 128mb (not overclocked)
1gb PC3200 DDR
Abit nForce2 NF7-S v2.0

Some pics of the artifacting:

pic 1
pic 2
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pic 4

P.S. is it possible to get stereo sound if I use composite/red & white cables (had to get a audio-->speaker spliter at Radio Shack to get sound this way) with my VHS player? For some reason it's only capturing mono this way, but when I use RF I get normal stereo.

[studtrooper]

A little update, I have gotten divx to record at full speed after a little fiddling. My only problems now is these damn glitchy artifacts that I keep getting in my captures and that I'm only getting mono audio when I use ether S-Video or composite.

[kupton]

Check your settings to make sure you are not compressing audio. It will tax your system to encode divx and compress audio at the same time. You'll want to save audio as PCM.

You should be able to capture stereo no problem. A stereo RCA to 1/8" mini stereo plug should do the job.

[studtrooper]

Cool. Yeah, seeing how capturing directly to divx and xvid isn't that viable right now, I think I'm happy with just MPEG2 capturing (with the abitlity to convert it to whatever I want later). Thanks for the help.

[Videomania]

Dear studtrooper
Sorry to interrupt. I'm also interested in this card and using it to record MPEG2. Using composite in, can you record in full DVD size, 720x576 or 480? What is max bitrate and any videoaudio syn problem?
Thanks for sharing your experience.

[thecoalman]

Studtrooper,

If your VCR doesn't have two RCA jacks you can't truly record in stereo, if what your doing is working for you stick with it. The way I did it was by using a RCA Y splitter to mini jack plugged into my soundcard. I then ran a single RCA cable from the audio out on the VCR to the red RCA jack on the splitter. When capturing I set the sound for mono. If you use this method you will only hear sound from one speaker when capturing but the file will play back in both speakers.

Videomania,

You can record up to 720x480 NTSC or 768x576PAL, and up to a bitrate of 10,000 variable or constant....least that's as high as the setting go. I haven't capped anything over 640x480 AVI with it. I haven't had much trouble with audio sync but I haven't used it that much.

[XrayDuke]

Which driver version are you using? One of the newer driver versions caused the artifact that you are seeing. Try removing the driver your using and load one of the earlier drivers (not sure which version, but before November 2003) and see if that helps.

[studtrooper]

thecoalman: I am sure I have a stereo VCR (at least I see the yellow, white, and red inputs ). I actually think I picked up the incorrect Y splitter at Radio Shack. The one I found on ebay (found here) looks correct.

To XrayDukeo you have any idea were I could find this revision of drivers? Thanks.

[thecoalman]

I thought the way you were explaining it you only had one, my buddy's cam had only one and that's how I got around it.

If it's the drivers as Xray suggested there were two versions available at he leadtek site the last ime I looked. I'm running the current ones v 5.13.1.3301 and don't experience any problems.