lines recording with ati wonder ve

[silvere]

I'm pretty confused. I have used my wonder ve in the past with smurf's settings and had no problem. the other day I tried to capture avi from my vcr and I get lines (stutters). it appears that the more stress I put on the computer the worse it gets. I get fewer lines with mpeg, but they are still there. I have a fast computer (specs below) and I've tried all the suggestions for dropped frames. I've tried different versions of the software and drivers and different codecs

any suggestions?

thanks

Antec SLK3700AMB
2 mobile 2400+ @2.0ghz
MSI K7D Master
1GB Samsung Registered ECC PC2700
Highpoint RocketRaid 1540
1 WD Raptor 74GB
2 Maxtor SATA 7200 80 GB 8mb cache Hard Drives @ raid 0
ATI Radeon 8500 - Dual Monitors
Lite-on DVD RW+- 8x SOHW-812S
Sony DVD-Rom DDU1612
Lite-on 52x24x52

[jolphil]

Hi,
Just a stab in the dark but did you defrag?
Goodluck,
jolphil

[silvere]

yeah I was using diskeeper for awhile then quit, but everything should be good.

[teph-lon]

Are the lines vertical?
DO they get better/worse when you jiggle the coaxial?

[silvere]

they are horizontal and I'm recording from a vcr not tv, so the coaxial won't be the issue. the more strain that I put on the computer the worse it gets.

I have just noticed that I only have 18% free on my 74GB Raptor which my os in running on. but the files are being saved to my raid drives so whould that be the problem?

[rfielder]

I have just noticed that I only have 18% free on my 74GB Raptor which my os in running on. but the files are being saved to my raid drives so whould that be the problem?

Are you use the software is not using a temp directory on your boot drive?

[silvere]

yeah the temp files are set to another partition of the raid drives

[iantri]

Search back through the forum archives for posts by me with "btwincap" in them and you will find a thread where another person has a problem that sounds like this and provides a sample clip.

Take a look at it and tell us if it is the same problem.

I have that problem too; unfortunately the only fix for me was to use a different computer.

[silvere]

yep that's the problem. unfortunately I can't switch computers...I just built this one and it cost alot

what were your specs on your pc?

any other suggestions?

[iantri]

You said that you get "fewer lines with mpeg". I'm guessing by the line that you are using ATI MMC to record? (If so, BTW, you may want to switch to the btwincap drivers and another program. It allows full 480 line resolution captures. The 240 line limit is just a software limit ATI put in to make people buy the full ATI TV Wonder ).

There is also something else significant I get out of this; MPEG files are smaller. You say the more you strain the system, the worse the lines get. This is similar for me -- more disk bandwidth, more lines. This would imply that the disk activity is causing the interference.

Off the top of my head there are two semi-related things I can think of that could be responsible for this: crappy bus mastering drivers some sort of problem with DMA settings.

Try this: Disable DMA on your drives. This forces it to the (very slow) PIO mode. Do a capture. You'll drop loads of frames, but nevermind that; the lines should be gone.

If you are not aware (since you built a machine with a RAID I'm guessing you probably are, but for the sake of anyone else with this problem...), devices that use DMA write directly to specified areas of the system memory, instead of going through the CPU, for greater performance. I would imagine that if two devices attempted to use the same DMA address, bad things would happen. In this case, interference in the capture. With audio cards (where this problem is more common, it seems) you get clicks and pops.

Busmastering uses DMA as well, and the drivers are often very poorly written (*COUGH*VIA*COUGH*).

Check your settings in the Windows device manager for conflicting DMA settings or anything like that..

Of course, with my luck it is some sort of bizarre timing issue or god-knows-what..

I'll post a spec list for my system when I have a free moment later.

[lordsmurf]

The 240 line limit is just a software limit ATI put in to make people buy the full ATI TV Wonder ).

No it's not. It's because ATI MMC uses preview functions not supported by x480 on the BT chips.

[iantri]

I'm aware of the limitation in the BT boards regarding simultaneous preview/capture..

IIRC the only difference between the TV Wonder VE and the TV Wonder
technically is the mono audio capture on the VE.. they are both BT878 capture boards.. the TV Wonder can capture at 480 lines.

In any event, why would it be necessary to disable the modes above 240 lines? It would be just as easy to have ATI MMC only use one field for that card..

That is why I believe it is a moneygrabbing thing.

[silvere]

thanks for the replies...greatly appreciated! I'll work on it tonight if possilbe. take care

[silvere]

I reinstalled and magically it worked with no lines. lordsmurf, I noticed on your tutorial that it says the res is 640 x 480 and I can only get the 240 like iantri said. how do I get the 480? I tried to install a trial copy of powervcr and I get an error when opening it and it shuts down. so, I'd like to use MMC if possible. thanks for the help.

[silvere]

I just did a capture with the 240 res and burnt it straight to disk. it looks absolutly horrible on my tv...is that because it's the 240 instead of the 480 or is it something else. it looks like I zoomed in on it a hundred times.

[macleod]

I bought powervcrII awhile back (look on ebay, I purchased my copy of powwervcrII for $5.00 - BTW, this is the actual CD of powervcrII and not a "copy") and there is a registry hack that you can do that will change the lines to 480 (or another resultion).

You really need to get the 480 lines. I used powervcr (with the registry tweek) to capture in CVD (352x480) from TV. Got decent results (I use to say great, then I got my standalone recorder).