PX-M402U capture woes

[jolphil]

Hi all,
I have searched this forum(and others) and have not been able to find a solution to my problems..First let me explain my system..WinXp pro,sp2 fx-5600 nvidia card,MoBo sound(AD1985), directx 9.2c, and P4 3.0gig CPU with dual pc3200 memory(512megs) and storage,uses 80gig C:\drive and dedicated D:\(250gb)ntfs drive for video...
Now to the problems..
When using the m402u to capture(MPEG2/MPG audio) via dvd2creator from VHS tapes with a quality tape player(jvc sr-v101us) I find that I get poor audio sync as well as stuttering of the video with fast motion scenes..I tried GoCap but really do not know the best settings..It seems a bit better than dvd2 software..I think the plextor is droppig frames thus giving me the audio sync problem(oss)..
Can anyone here using this device help as to their findings or to their method to get the
best results..
OBTW I went thru the list of firmware drivers and the later the version the makes the
problems even more severe..What a letdown..When I wrote to plextor their solution was to go back to an earlier driver(1.05)..Incredible..
Any help will be appreciated..If more info is required please let me know..
Thank you,
jolphil

[chetansha]

Please try the other firmware 2.3.03c or 2.3.0.5c. I am using plexm402U and its really nice. I had a minor problem wid it and then found that to be a problem with WINDVD . It works really nice.
http://www.plextor-europe.com/technicalservices/downloads/drivers_converters.asp?choic...o%20converters

[chetansha]

Also, if ur using a PCI-xpress graphics card, u might need to update your capturing s/w.
Also try WINDVD RECORDER. That might help you.

[jolphil]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply..
In the states our latest firmware is 2.0.2.2 not 2.3.0.5c...
I wonder what the difference is and if it will work here..I have tried the 2.0.2.2 and it
just is horrible..Stutters or jumps in the video at any fast motion scenes..
I have as an act of desperation even checked my USB ports for speed and with
a USB hard drive copied a 2.94 gb file to my C:\ drive several times at110 seconds..Near as I can figure that translates to a 26.7 mb/sec throughput..That should be more than
enough...
Thanks again
jolphil
Anyone know if that driver will work in the states?

[chetansha]

Why dont you try 2303c

[disturbed1]

If you're playing back from VHS, you can have sync problems from the tape. It's common for VHS recording. I believe your model of JVC has a TBC built in. Try messing around with those settings and even disabling it. Some JVC also have another feature, I believe it's called either video blanking or sync timing (not TBC) try to disable that.

With my JVC on some tapes I could only get a solid capture if put it in edit mode, which would disable all of the extra signal processing feature the unit had.

If all of that fails, along with the firmware upgrade to the plextor, try to capture something off TV. If the TV capture also displays the same problems, then I'd trouble shoot further into your system. As far as I know, the plextor unit is a hardware based encoder. Monitor your system to make sure that there are no background tasks running. Some antivirus programs will notice that the unit is creating a file, and constantly monitor that file for changes, which will cause problems. I would also contact Plextor tech support, you could actually have a bad unit.

[jolphil]

chetansha : I just may try the 2.2.0.5c which is for the M402U device...

disturbed1 : Yes I have played around with both the TBC feature as well as the Vertical stability
feature...Some very small benefits with each..Neither seems to affect dropped frames though..
I generally copy from VHS tapes,and to make matters worse,mostly recorded years ago in EP
mode..
The last project was from a VHS-C tape in (yes you guessed it EP mode)..These tapes were from family members who knew little about recording..There was some tracking errors and noise but my concern is from other tapes that have no visual drop outs or tracking errors..I have made recordings from the TV in SP mode and used the very same machine to go into the Plextor and still had high motion jumps or stutters(whatever you call it) plus OSS..
I know about garbage in = Garbage out but this seems to go farther than that...
I think the trouble is in the plextor device itself but unfortunately it is too old to send back..
I thank you both for you insight and helpful replies..Like I mentioned above the older drivers seem to work much better than the newer versions..
jolphil

[disturbed1]

If possible, here's 2 tricks I've heard about, and have actually used. If you happen to have, or could borrow one of those Go-Video/Copy-Plus devices, these happen to work wonders for some people. Unless you can find one extremely cheap, I wouldn't run and buy one, just incase it didn't work.

On some older tapes, I've actually dubbed them from VHS-VHS. This will write a new time code. Granted there will be a slight quality loss, but quality loss is better than no video I would dub from my JVC to my Panasonic 4 Head (non SVHS). I did attempt to dub JVC to JVC using S-Video out, and recording in SVHS mode, but this only amplified the poor original quality.

[jolphil]

disturbed1: You must have read my mind..Since my last project is the VHS-C one, I
actually did just that..What I did was copy from the VHS-C to another machine and recorded in the SP mode and used the vertical jump feature in the source(JVC machine) as I recorded on the second machine..
Then I removed the tape and inserted it back into the JVC machine with the TBC feature on into my Plextor device input..My machine will not allow both vert stability and TBC at the same time..This seemed to help in a cleaner source video..I will have to see if my machine has an edit feature..That means digging out the book..
I have tried the third party stability devices but returned them as they were no help at all..I even went to the very deluxe device by sima but found that when noisy video was present, the device just blanked out the noisy video and inserted a blue screen..That was also returned as noisy video is better than no video at all to my way of thinking..

chetansha: I decided to try the 2.3.0.5 driver and I hope I am not speaking too soon but I captured (SP mode video and mpg audio) with Windvd2 the whole mentioned above 36minute video clip with source dropouts and all and the captured video matched the source video..There was no audio sync issue and no noticable jumps in the video that was not in the source..
A Major victory indeed..
What is the difference between the states latest driver and the Europe one? I surely don't know but it seems to work worlds better in the 2.3.0.5 driver...
Again thank you both for your help..
jolphil
:Edit later..After much deliberation I decided to look at my captured video frame by frame in a very high motion area..What I found was, by advancing each frame, one by one, there were spots where no apparent movement of the video was present..Another words each adjacent frame was exactly like the last(frame repeats)..They varied anywhere from 7 to25 frames randomly)I guessed there was a dropped frame and my cap software with MPEG2, IP and GOP 0f 15 is predicting the next frame or something beyond my understanding...I looked at the plextor specs at the MPEG2 table and noticed that audio was encoded at 48KHZ whereas my onboard AC97 audio chip clocks at 44KHZ..My supposition was that
the video was locked to the audio and it had to synchronize the video to the audio by dropping frames.. To test this thoery,I decided to insert a Soundblaster live PCI card and remove the onboard ac97 from the BIOS..The reason was that the SBlive encodes at 48KHZ..I did a another capture with the blaster and examined the video..Much to my surprise, still points where there were the previous frame repeats were not cured..That shot down my onboard audio thoery that some had suggested in the past..I am left with questions that I cannot explain..Those small jumps in the picture may just be "the nature of the beast" and thats the best I can expect with a device(plextor M402U) that encodes in MPEG2...
Anyway I thought I would throw that out to some of the video Guru's ...comments?
Thank you for reading this post..
jolphil