aiw mpeg vs avi capture

[manthing]

all,

i have a aiw 9800 card and am capturing average to poor vhs tapes using ati's mmc.

i have captured samples in mpeg and in avi via mmc. both have some frame losses.

my question is : how come the audio is in sync when capturing in mpeg but not in avi?

is it due to the built in hardware capturing capability of the ati card? whereas software is used for avi capture?
but even so, how does the hardware know how to keep things in sync?

is there any way for me to capture in avi and avoid the audio sync issues?

i have tried capturing with virtualvcr but ran into audio sync problems.

i tried to use ulead moviefactory, but it kept crashing on me!

a side question : should i use any one of adobe premier, pinnacle studio, virtualdub or anything other than ati's mmc?

any help would be welcome.

ps. the reason i want to capture in avi is that the image looks slightly better than the mpeg capture. at least to my tired old eyes. if there is no other way to get the audio in sync for avi capture, then so be it.

oh and the audio is not out of sync at a constant rate. could have easily handled that. is the technical word progressively out of sync?

[lordsmurf]

What "AVI" codec is in use?
And what are the capture settings?
And what are the specs of the computer?

[manthing]

sorry LS, i knew i always would forget something.

AVI codec ... Huffuy (the good one not the latest buggy one)

capture settings ... AVI at 640x480 or 704x576, MPEG at 720x576

computer ... AMD Athlon XP 1.8GHz (rated 2400+)
Gigabyte Nforce 2 motherboard
512MB 333MHz DDR ram
200 GB Maxtor 7200 IDE hard drive
AIW 9800 graphic card
Audigy 2 platinum soundblaster card

when i capture in AVI, the cpu is never maxed out (if you believe task manager)

and i am feeding the vhs via a panasonic svhs with the TBC on.

[lordsmurf]

Try uncompressed AVI or MJPEG.
Alparysoft Lossless Video Codec is another alternative to HuffYUV, similar.

[edDV]

Your system should be doing better with those specs vs. a similar system I have here.

My processor is 2.4 GHz

The main difference is your single drive.

A second "capture" drive will probably solve your problems.

[manthing]

LS & edDV,

i know you'll have sleepless nights if i don't close this call.

so just to let you know it was a typical user fault. i must have been running some background process or got the PC into a state of flux such that i wasn't able to get AVI audio in sych with the video.

after a reboot, a quick test with ATI's MMC seemed fine. also tried with VDub and again seemed fine. will try the other capture software when i get the time.

so, sorry to trouble you chappies. as usual i rush to ask first before checking all options.

actually, i'm a sad old git and need to find someone to correspond with. hence you chaps & gals on this forum!

once again, ta from the bottom of my heart.