A few basic clarifivations please

[alanparrott]

I have read many FAQs & guides, this is the most complex PC subject I have encountered in many years!

The guides and FAQs are great and I am sure I will get there, but I have a few basic questions. I am confused. For Info I have an MSI FX5700 VT2DR which has a Philips SAA7115HL chip. I have also the latest NVIDIA Capture Driver.

1 Dscaler (v1.1.8 Beta) is very unstable with this card and like the warning says can upset the drivers for future/continued VirtualDub use. This has certainly happened to me and I have found no easy way to uninstall VirtualDub. You have to remove every trace from the Registry and start again.

2 Is VirtualDub supposed to work with NVIDIA or not? The guides say it does not but it seems to work, at least at the level I am at to date which is beginner. I have tried VirtualVCR but it is unstable and seems very basic.

3 Where can I download the VirtualDub wrapper which I read I need but can't find it?

4 I keep seeing that most TV capture cards have either a Connexant or Brooktree capture chip. Does this also apply to Graphics cards with Video In?

Many Thanks

[trevlac]

Hi,

I'm no expert but I hope this helps. All of your questions are about drivers.

The underlying structure of video in Windows has changed over time. VFW is a reference to the old architecture. WDM is a reference to the new structure. Both are supported by the OS. However, the drivers that work with a given piece of hardware will be of one type or the other. WDM is the new type and what you most likely have.

1 Dscaler (v1.1.8 Beta) is very unstable with this card and like the warning says can upset the drivers for future/continued VirtualDub use. This has certainly happened to me and I have found no easy way to uninstall VirtualDub. You have to remove every trace from the Registry and start again.

It is my understanding that Dscaler interacts directly with the hardware. AKA it provides it's own drivers. If it's internal drivers and the drivers that came with the card both talk to the hardware, no doubt there may be a problem.

For me VirtualDub needs no installation or uninstallation. I just unzipped it. I know this is true because I can use it with an account that has no installation rights.

2 Is VirtualDub supposed to work with NVIDIA or not? The guides say it does not but it seems to work, at least at the level I am at to date which is beginner. I have tried VirtualVCR but it is unstable and seems very basic.

VirtualDub needs a VFW driver. The OS comes with a wrapper that allows a VFW program to use a WDM driver. There may be limits to how well this works. Not all functionality may be supported by this 'bridge'.

3 Where can I download the VirtualDub wrapper which I read I need but can't find it?

According to the VirtualDub site, it comes with your os. There are also links to various wrappers in this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32575

4 I keep seeing that most TV capture cards have either a Connexant or Brooktree capture chip. Does this also apply to Graphics cards with Video In?

Philips chips are also common. So are ATI chips.


Personally, I believe you should use a capture program that uses the WDM structure. VirtualVCR is a very good one. iULabs also has one. On the BTWincap drivers site, you can get AMCap which is a very simple one based upon a Microsoft demo.

[TOMMO]

Hi alanparrott

I accept it can be confusing. But what you have to do is focus precisely on what you want to do, and what hardware you have.

What I and others would like to known is what is your source?

If it is from a DV camera then you only need a firewire card to capture video.

If the source is Analogue, then if I were starting out I would be looking at the ADVC100 or even the ADVC50 to capture as DV.

Editing can be done using XPs Movie maker the output it as a DV AVI file.

After this you need to encode it to MPEG2. You could use TMPEnc to do this or Sonic MyDVD which would convert the files to MPEG2, allow you to make menus and write the DVD.

I am not being sarcastic when I say Focus, you need to get rid of the information you dont need.

[alanparrott]

Thanks both for your comments. No offence taken I agree with your point (Tommo) about focus. However I do like to at least try and understand what I am doing and I have read so many guides I have gone around in circles and probably lost site of my original objective.

So to focus:

My main aims are to:

• Buy a UK Digital TV Freeview card and capture from it to burn to DVD
  Copy from my Sky+ box to my PC, then to DVD ( I know I could buy a DVD recorder for this, but not for now)
  Copy the odd download from web to DVD
  Watch TV on a TFT near my PC and watch DVDs via main TV in lounge

I do have a notebook for transional work and a wired & wireless (108superG wireless LAN)

However as I have just built a new PC which is in my loft 2 floors from my Sky+ and I have yet to buy the TV card I have been experimenting with the (only) composite output from a (cheap) Freeview STB

Before I embark on the next stage I am just trying to learn and experiment.

Thanks

[pippas]

alanparrot - I'm not a technical expert like some of your respondants, but I have been 'playing' with this for about 2 years --

I have come to the conclusion that there are 2 different ways of doing this ' TV capture' idea:

1) Use a TV capture card for 'general' direct Mpeg 2 capture - no real serious editing - burn to DVD -- (bit like a time consuming VHS capture, but better quality!)

Simple modern variation -- buy a DVD recorder!

2) Capture something special - that you want to keep!

Use a DV convertor (like the Canopus ADVC100 or 50 )-- capture direct from DVB (Freeview) as DV.AVI, -- edit, convert to Mpeg 2 using something like TMPGenc, at the highest quality, and then burn to DVD -

The results can be significantly better!

Time consuming -but worth it for something special, IMHO!

[presto]

trevlec,
Very well written and informative post. I never new what vfw and wdm meant.