AverTV HD DVR - Some questions

[Asterra]

So I'm finally going to break down and buy a capture card to fill that gaping hole in my editing suite.. unfortunately years after I captured every analog tape in my possession by passing it through a Hi8 camcorder and rendering as DV. ;p

But the focus here is HDMI capturing, and after eying the BlackMagic Intensity Pro for a while, I've recently shifted focus to the AverTV HD DVR card. And this would be because 1) the Intensity Pro is twice as expensive, and 2) apparently the breakout cable for analog capture doesn't even come with the card, and is another $50.

It'd be great if there existed a card that can capture 1080p60, because that happens to be the resolution/framerate of the footage I'll be capturing. It'd be great if one of these cards captured 4:4:4 color. But oh well.

Questions I'd like to nail down before I buy:

1) Does this thing, in fact, allow one to capture as raw? The product description neglects to say yes. In fact, it seems to rule out that capability when it says, "Users can capture HD video up to 1080i, and save it in MPEG-2 or H.264 file format".

2) What is the most convenient means of "previewing" what the card is seeing? By that I mean.. If I plug my Xbox 360's HDMI into a TV, boom: There's the 360's output. What's the closest I will see to that sort of plug-&-play functionality with this card, and is it much of a pain to get there? (For example, do I absolutely have to use the card's somewhat notoriously flaky software to even see its input?)

3) What's a reasonable estimation of the final input lag when viewing said preview? (I should mention that I have no realistic expectations of achieving something acceptable for gaming's sake, but we could be talking about 1 frame of lag or 12 seconds of lag like an earlier Pinnacle Studio owner was lamenting. This factor is also, I feel, a good indicator of the overall quality of the product, as it proved to be when I undertook a meticulous hunt for a good TV with low input lag.) Since this card does not boast HDMI out, I'd like to anticipate that the lag is minimal.

4) I've been using an old Raptor 74GB hard drive as the "fast" drive in my PC. I think it's supposed to be able to write 70MB/s. Assuming this card can capture raw, and I wanted to capture 1080i60 at 4:2:2... is it time to find a faster drive?

5) Can this card capture HDMI's audio as well as the video? (This sounds like a stupid question, but surely not as stupid as getting the card home and discovering that it inexplicably lacks this capability.)

6) Can this card capture HDMI video and analog audio at the same time? (Just in case.)

7) One person who rated this card in the "Capture Cards" list here on VideoHelp said it cannot capture interlaced video. This struck me as odd, since essentially every common video source except 720p happens to be interlaced. I'd like to make sure this guy is wrong.

8) This thread:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/331541-Intensity-Pro-vs-AverTV-HD-%28Suggestions-on...what-to-do-%29

indicates that the AverTV HD DVR introduces a great deal of artificial sharpness to analog captures (I would call it edge enhancement) which cannot be adjusted. An incontrovertible sample image is provided. Has anyone else noticed this?

That's about all I can remember for now. Thanks in advance!

[Cauptain]

For all questions read entire topic: AVERTV HD DVR BIBLE


Claudio

[NJRoadfan]

AVermedia has a 1080p capture card listed as "coming soon" on their international website. Its only a matter of time it gets released in the US.

http://www.avermedia.com/avertv/Upload/ProductImages/DS_C729_DarkCrystal%20HD%20Captur...2020110218.pdf

The card does capture interlaced video just fine. The stupid AVermedia software deinterlaces by default so you have to use VirtualDub to capture interlaced footage.

[edDV]

Questions I'd like to nail down before I buy:

1) Does this thing, in fact, allow one to capture as raw? The product description neglects to say yes. In fact, it seems to rule out that capability when it says, "Users can capture HD video up to 1080i, and save it in MPEG-2 or H.264 file format".

Oh my, both you and Avermedia are confused. Avermedia probably knows better if you read on.

Fact: Uncompressed "Raw" 1080i will result in minimal 120MByte/sec or 960 Mbit/sec (depending on audio and other padding). That means RAID. Most instead use the CPU to on the fly encode to a digital intermediate like MJPEG or Cineform.

Capture is one process. "save as MPeg2 or h.264" happens later.

[Asterra]

Yeah, I'm aware of the storage needs for raw 1080i video, considering I had to render my entire two-hour 1080i home video as raw (from AE) in order to get Encore to like it. I don't have a raid, but in the immediate future I'll only be capturing about 20 seconds at a time. I could probably set things up to capture to ram, and move it to the hd afterward.

The card arrives tomorrow. Chances are I'll be back, asking just how the heck I get VirtualDub to work with it.

[Asterra]

AVermedia has a 1080p capture card listed as "coming soon" on their international website. Its only a matter of time it gets released in the US.

I checked this, and it only captures 24p or 30p. Other cards already do this (in fact, I was under the impression that the HD DVR could as well). Not impressed. :/

[Cauptain]

AverTV HD capture in 1080i@30fps interlaced.

For HDMI 1080i record uncompressed a RAID setup is necessary. My Raid setup up 130Mb on Read and 145Mb in Write.

I use a UT Video Codec YUV422 (jagabo tip) and PCM. Awesome quality. After this, use Avisynth to deinterlace (1080p@60fps) and RIPBOT264 for encode.

Look this:

[Asterra]

For HDMI 1080i record uncompressed a RAID setup is necessary. My Raid setup up 130Mb on Read and 145Mb in Write.

It's been suggested to me that if I capture as HuffYUV, a Raid may not be necessary. Besides this, capturing to ram ought to be good enough for 20-second clips.

I use a UT Video Codec YUV422 (jagabo tip) and PCM. Awesome quality. After this, use Avisynth to deinterlace (1080p@60fps) and RIPBOT264 for encode.

These are excellent pointers. I'll be sure to check out those codecs. As far as deinterlacing goes, there are definitely better solutions than what can be achieved with Avisynth. I only (desperately) wish Youtube would start supporting 60fps. They're just about the only ones who don't. Even NicoVideo does.

[Brad]

Capture is one process. "save as MPeg2 or h.264" happens later.

Actually their software does capture directly to MPEG-2 and H.264 using CPU encoding, though the H.264 bitrate maxes out at 15Mbps so I haven't even bothered trying it.

It's been suggested to me that if I capture as HuffYUV, a Raid may not be necessary. Besides this, capturing to ram ought to be good enough for 20-second clips.

Yes Huffyuv and Ut Video will both compress enough to work with a regular drive; Ut seems to be more efficient. I can't recall the exact rates for uncompressed 1080i but going by edDV's numbers 20 seconds would be 2400MB and VDub crashes if you set the buffer size above something like 1.4GB (the x86 build, anyway). [edit: just realized you're probably talking about a RAMdisk rather than using buffers directly]