Graphedit error: "All pipe instances are busy"

[ksimmons]

I'm trying to create a Graphedit graph that would allow me to use my Theater 550 capture card to capture to MPEG2 (using the card's hardware encoder) and AVI simultaneosly.

My purpose is to compare quality between using the hardware encoder and capturing to AVI (Huffyuv) then encoding to MPEG2 using TMPGENC.

When I try to play the graph with the Huffyuv filter connected to either the Preview Output or the Capture Output while the MPEG2 hardware encoder is connected to the YUV Output, I get this message:

This graph can't play

All pipe instances are busy.
(Return code: ox800700e7)

[Nelson37]

This is similar to what I got when trying to capture video and closed captions at the same time.

I am almost certain that what you are trying to do is not possible.

For a repeatable test, and also to best eliminate source qualtiy as a variable, use a DVD player as source and run 2 captures.

IMO, having done this test, you will find that the two are very, very close and one is a whole lot more time-consuming.

[ksimmons]

Well, hopefully someone will prove you wrong Your approach will work I guess, but I would much rather be able to make a "frame to frame" comparison, and that's possible only if I do it my way.

I can help you with with the closed caption thing though...



the "capture.txt" and "capture.mpg" are DirectShow dump filters. If you can't find the Dump filter under DirectShow, then goto

http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/audio-extract.htm

to find out how to install it.

[Nelson37]

Have you tested this and it works? Is the caption text in raw, binary format or formatted as an ATI caption file?

I have not found any way to convert the ATI text file to a usable subtitle format. The raw file I can convert, but I have to paste the captured ATI VCR file into graphedit, play in real-time, convert that, and then convert the VCR file, including audio sample rate.

I used McPoodles sample graph and kept getting an error similar to yours, indicating an attempt to use something already in use.

Crap, I was just finishing a Guide for this and now I have something completely different to test. Cool.

What you want, however, would be using the video stream twice and that's what I don't think would work. 2 caps, using a DVD source, would give you an input that can be duplicated precisely and make for a valid test. Capping an MPG and an AVI at the same time could lead to dropped frames and encoding errors due to higher than standard CPU utilisation, i'm thinking an MPG captured while nothing else was going on may be better or at least different than an MPG captured while other activities were happening.

It is interesting, and may work, but I'm not sure it would give a valid quality comparison.

[Nelson37]

Just noticed you have the Theatre 550 card, that may make all the difference. I have the AIW 7500, no hardware encoder, different animal.

[ksimmons]

Yeah, I got the error using mcpoodles graph too. Remove the preview and it should work.