Very poor performance on ATi 650 USB PLZ HELP

[Marto2008]

I just bough an ATi Wonder 650 USB to digitalize some VHS. Before the ATi I had an EasyCAP DC60.

I have problems capturing using VirtualDub 1.9.8, VirtualVCR 2.6.9.6252 and Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 (hangs on "starting capture device")

The problems are poor quality captures, lot's of stutter, poor FPS and weird "blue" in the VCR screen (when you are in STOP)

As a matter of fact I can only get it to work with the original drivers from the CD. When I use the ones downloaded from ATi.com (6.14.10.364) and from Visiontek (6.14.10.283) I only get a blank screen.

Also, same results with Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP 32bits, both fresh installs.

Tried changing the USB cable with another one... but same results.

I just want to capture a good raw AVI, cut it and then apply TomsMoCo deinterlacer. Thought this ATi product would be better than the EasyCAP but I was wrong.

My system:
i5 750 2.66ghz
Radeon 4870
4gb PC1066

I can upload pictures/videos of the phenomenon if you want.
Any recommendations?

[danno78]

As a matter of fact I can only get it to work with the original drivers from the CD. When I use the ones downloaded from ATi.com (6.14.10.364) and from Visiontek (6.14.10.283) I only get a blank screen.

If is fine with original drivers why you try other versions?

Some guidelines are here:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/313735-Capture-card-for-Laserdisc-and-VHS-Good-card...=1#post1940752
If live in NTSC country change resolution and FPS to NTSC value (720x480 and 29.97 FPS).

[lordsmurf]

Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 = crap, don't use it.
Use Catalyst Media Center for MPEG-2 capturing, or VirtualDub for AVI lossless/uncompressed captures.

[Marto2008]

Thank you for your answers.

I will not use Cyberlink then, i will use the latest version of VirtualDub only as I want to capture loseless video.

I tried different drivers because the ones that came in the original CD didnt seem to worked correctly. I also managed to get 6.14.10.283 (downloaded from Visiontek.com) working, maybe with a little less stutter but far from correct.

I do live in a NTSC country.

I will follow Danno78 instructions with a fresh Windows XP install and report my results.

But... what do you recommend?
1-. Installing drivers using the ATi setup ones the USB device is connected or...
2-. Installing the USB device and when is detected, point the correct drivers folder (without setup, just drivers).

[Marto2008]

I did fresh install of Windows XP.

Installed (in this order) chipset drivers, vga, sound and ati tv wonder 650 drivers.

I installed 6.14.10.283 drivers, I just plugged the USB and put use Windows Update to search drivers and it downloaded this one (I cant imagine a better driver than the one downloaded from Microsoft).

Downloaded latest VirtualDub and followed the instructions you suggested. I have the very same results.

I am uploading some pictures so you can check it.

In the first picture you can see that the image is cut or something, this sometimes work correctly and some times it looks like the picture.

In the third image you can see the blue screen from the VHS, 3 seconds and it turns to a much lighter blue almost purple (second image). I know it is not a VHS problem as I tested it with my other PC with an AIW8500DV... it gets a solid blue.

Also, when I'm watching the video,not capturing, I get about 23fps so It looks bad and stuttered.

I uploaded a little clip of uncompressed video so you can watch it. You can see the weird colors, the stutter I mentioned and the sudden jump on the blue screen. None of this happends on EasyCap nor AIW 8500DV.
http://uploading.com/files/bac45d74/test.rar/

Sorry for the size.

[Marto2008]

Any suggestions?

[danno78]

But... what do you recommend?
1-. Installing drivers using the ATi setup ones the USB device is connected or...
2-. Installing the USB device and when is detected, point the correct drivers folder (without setup, just drivers).

Whatever. At the end both ways reach the same point: the card is ready to work.

In the first picture you can see that the image is cut or something, this sometimes work correctly and some times it looks like the picture.

Try connecting/disconnects several times or switch between PAL to NTSC to get the right picture.

In the third image you can see the blue screen from the VHS, 3 seconds and it turns to a much lighter blue almost purple (second image). I know it is not a VHS problem as I tested it with my other PC with an AIW8500DV... it gets a solid blue.

About this I have no clue.

Also, when I'm watching the video,not capturing, I get about 23fps so It looks bad and stuttered.

I think you have something wrong with the recommended settings. I have the same issue when:
Enable Audio Playback is set on and in the same time with "Force audio clock when audio playback is enabled"
To fix dropped frames disable Enable Audio Playback or "Force audio clock when audio playback is enabled"
My hint is to follow exactly the guidelines and use lossless compression with HuffYUV or Lagarith.

[Marto2008]

Thank you for your answer.

1-. Cut screen: SOLVED following your instructions. It's hit or miss, sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't.

2-. Blue screen turned to light purple: SOLVED. I think it is some problem between the 3D Comb Filter and my VCR. When the screen keeps the white display (STOP;REW,FF, or time) the blue stays solid but ones it goes away the white in just 2 secs it is light purple again. Not much of a problem.

3-. Stutter when not capturing:

UNSOLVED when using UNCOMPRESSED. Tried your recommended settings and got same results. This gives me out of sync audio. Partially solved using my audio card to capture audio through "line in".

When I use my sound card to capture audio I get more solid FPS when capturing and not capturing (only watching) and also get synchronized audio.

SOLVED when using LAGARITH. If I use lossless compression and follow your recommended settings I can capture with synchronized audio and no stutter and watch a fluid video as I capture.

To many variables with this capture device, but ones you give enough time for Trial and Error, you are ready to go.

You have any more recommendations on the "image quality" department for capturing old VHS??

Thanks.

[neomaine]

Marto,

You need to provide a little more computer info (hard drive setup) and follow some old-time capturing rules of thumb:

- Capture to a non-OS drive.
There's is always alot of activity on the OS drive and will get in the way (lost frames) of your captures.

- Have as few programs (foreground and background) running as possible.
You're capturing to lossless and have a quad-core so this may not affect you as much. In general, have as little running as possible on your system. You many even want to go as far as disconnecting from the internet and stopping any antivirus/malware software.

- Have as much room as possible on your capture drive and keep it defragged.
Having as much contiguous space available to stream this single file capture is fairly important. Another good set of reasons not to use the same drive your OS is on. (Note: Using a seperate partition on the same drive is a start, can isolate fragmentation, but you still have to compete with other writes, and worse, reads.

General HD setup rule of thumb:

Drive 1: OS and programs. Yes programs. They only load to memory once, when used, and are not a general i/o concern.
Drive 2: Capture drive. 'Nuff said.
Drive 3: Edit/conversion drive. Always isolate your reads and writes - read from one drive and write to another.

Keep everything defragged for contiguous and continuous reads and writes.

[Marto2008]

Thank you.

I have 2 hard drives. One with Windows 7 64bits (SATA WD 160gb 7.2K RPM) and the other Windows XP (SATA WD 80GB 7.2K RPM).

From your suggestions and some trial and error I found the best working setup for capture lossless video:

Windows 7 64bit
ATi Wonder 650 USB running drivers 6.14.10.283 (from 14-05-2008).
VirtualDUB 1.9.8 64bit version
Lagarith Lossless codec
Capturing audio thru USB (using my ATi 650 USB not the sound card).

Followed Danno78 recommended settings and neomaine advice to use different HDD (keep Windows 7, formatted 80gb HDD just for capure).

I'm getting 30fps when not capturing (just watching) and 30fps when capturing = fluid video always.

2 "problems" remain partially unsolved = 1-. blue/purple screen and 2-. sometimes one third of screen cutted --> this problems do not bother when capturing.

Maybe we should make a sticky post with all ATi 550, 600 and 650 advices.

Now I have some doubts with video capturing as I do not know how much can I improve my old VHS's picture, so I never know how good is good, but that has nothing to do with ATi 650 USB.

[roguewarrior]

Please help!

I have tried all of the recommended options to the letter (except for NTSC vs PAL). I still get stuttering. I tried both LAGRITH and Huffyuv. Either one stutters during capture. I have a quad core Intel processor on Windows XP. The CPU is at around 35%, and VDub never gets close to 20%, the System is using the rest. That is more than a full core/CPU, but I hope that VDub and Windows can handle it. I have the video being stored on the same spindle but different partition. My machine has a single drive, with two partitions. C is for the OS, D is for files. The video is being saved to the D drive.

Please any help would be great! I can watch fine but once I hit capture - I get stuttering.

I tried to use the newest drivers and that caused me NOTHING but grief. I am using ATI technologies 6.14.10.314 from 9/23/2008. I tried the ones from 2009 and it crashed my computer.

Thanks!

[usually_quiet]

Please help!

I have tried all of the recommended options to the letter (except for NTSC vs PAL). I still get stuttering. I tried both LAGRITH and Huffyuv. Either one stutters during capture. I have a quad core Intel processor on Windows XP. The CPU is at around 35%, and VDub never gets close to 20%, the System is using the rest. That is more than a full core/CPU, but I hope that VDub and Windows can handle it. I have the video being stored on the same spindle but different partition. My machine has a single drive, with two partitions. C is for the OS, D is for files. The video is being saved to the D drive.

Please any help would be great! I can watch fine but once I hit capture - I get stuttering.

I tried to use the newest drivers and that caused me NOTHING but grief. I am using ATI technologies 6.14.10.314 from 9/23/2008. I tried the ones from 2009 and it crashed my computer.

Thanks!

You have one physical drive that is partitioned. The recommendation is to use two physical drives.

The heads on your single physical drive are shared between the OS partition and the capture partition. With two physical drives, the OS drive and the capture drive each has its own set of heads to use, which means fewer dropped frames.

[redwudz]

roguewarrior, since you asked the same question in another thread, I've closed this one. Please do not cross post.

Moderator redwudz