Terratec quality

[Kanon]

Hello, this is my first post btw I'm going to bother you all really often
I need to change my TV-capture card (capture from VHS and Video8), now I have an ATI TV-wander VE. I menaged to reach some nice capture with this card using bt8x8 universal drivers + virtual dub but there are some anoying "sprites" (thin lined zones spread all over the frame) that I can not override anyway. I changed VCR (Orion to Sony), cables (gold plated) even pci slots and so on but nothing to do, it just a card bug (I found the same problem even in a review online). Well, it's time to change TV-card, I'm thinking about the new Terratec Cinergy 400 (mainly because of the cool remote control :P ), so, is there anyone who can tell me how the terratec tv card works? I'm talking about capture quality "raw" (I have no problems capturing in Picv quality 19 or Huff 720x576 PAL with my PeeCee). Any calibration problem? (since I capture a lot of anime, I had some saturation-brightness-range problems with the ATI) I know you are going to tell me "Pinnacle or Hauppauge" are more common and well known but this Terratec coasts less than a PCTV w/o remote, also I recently bought a Terratec SixPack audio card that works way better than the Creative Live 5.1 I had before. So is there anyone who tryed this card or had the chance to see something made by this card?

P.S. Sorry for my crap english

[la_bomba]

Hello Kanon,

I was wondering the same thing, even posted on this forum a while ago without any replies.
as the card is pretty new to the market, I think we still need some time for it to come out and for the users to find this forum....

But I'm tired of waiting, so I will get one within this week.
I will gladly tell you how it works then.
the only real negative aspect with this card looking at the whitepaper,
is the utilization of the new PHILIPS SAA7134 chip, that makes it rather limited in terms of drivers and software (i.e. one will have to rely on terratec) but hopefully this will change if it gets widespread. (and I dont see why it wouldnt, with THAT price!)

regards. /bomba


ps. kanon? you're not .SE?

[Mavrick]

I’m not sure I’m following you or not. It sounds like you are seeing the difference between interlaced and non-interlaced in your capture. TV’s and camcorders show a interlaced signal, where computers show an non-interlaced video.

If you play an interlaced video on a computer, you will see “lines or saw toothed” edges on objects. This shows up worse during fast moving scenes.

The key is: If you are making a DVD or some type of VCD – keep the image interlaced. Just render the MPEG file field order B first. It will look right on your TV. If you are making a PC video – Then de-interlace the video when rendering it.

I have the ATI Radeon 8500 All-In-Wonder DV card and has worked great for me.

[edsmith77]

Mavrick,
Please let me piggyback on this thread. I am relatively new to the VCD/SVCD/DVD creation activities. I have read as much as one can from all parts of this forum. I even have managed to create some VCDs that play well on my TV and PC. However, now to my question, I have never quite fully understood, when to specify the correct frame rate, intelaced vs non-interlaced, as aspect ratios.
I am about converting numerous VHS tapes to digitial media (mostly VCD). I capture via my VCR to composite input on my ATI card then via Vdub to Tempgenc+. All seems to work fine just about regardless of settings (i.e., frame rate, aspect ratio, interlacing). The quality seems to be acceptable but that part I am not sure about. Maybe the quality would be better if I altered some of the questionable settings.
I would presume that, for my case, that I would capture at 29.97 interlaced and output at the same settings (TV is the preferred media for output). For capture should I use 1x1 VGA and for output use NTSC 4:3 525??
Thanks in advance for any help .

Ed Smith

[Mavrick]

Ed,

I’m not an expert at this either. I can tell you some of the things that I have learned and save me time. I make XSVCD’s only, as I’m converting home videos to CD. I have managed over time to get it down to 4 easy steps.


Step 1: Capture the video as uncompressed AVI as close to the final output resolution as you can. This will save encoding time if it does not have to resize it. In my case 480x480

Step 2: Edit the captured video. I use Media Studio Pro 6.5DC for this.

Step 3: Save the edited video in Media Studio as an MPEG2 480x480 with a VBR of 4000. Field order B first. (make sure your player can play this).

Step 4: Burn the MPEG file(s) to CD with DVD Movie Factory. Make your menus etc…

That’s it!!


Works every time and I get video as good as the original… I would say its DVD quality. The down side is I can only get 20min per CD with a bit rate that high… but with this quality, I’ll take it!!! For most home videos 20min is ample to get a "theme" on one CD.

[Kanon]

HI all and thanx for replaying, again sorry for my bad english (I'm philippine )

Mavrick:
I have no prob with interlaced video, I usually capture in losless and deinterlace with Vdub smart deinterlace filter, but as a result I still the famous "thin lines" spread oll over the screen (a website confirmed me that it's a bad artifact with some ATI TV-VE cards). I generally make file for PC only (rarely SVCD while I leave interlaced mpeg2 in my SVCDs) so I need to interlace the final works.

Let's go back on topic... anyone knows about this Terratec card? I'm waiting for you la_bomba

[la_bomba]

hello Kanon,

I was really close to buying it, but now I've got some more info that made me more interested in something else..

this is the info that made me uncertain..

->this is very good
the ADC for the PHILIPS SAA7134 is operating at 9bit (Analogue to Digital Converter) compared to the BT8x8 chips that are 8bit.
which means theoretically the quality of the cinergy should be surpassed that of the BT/CN based cards (if all other components are the same)
+ it has some other nice hardware implementations compared to BT

-> this is not so good..
many people have reported compatibility problems with the cinergy card. (some have this as a reason for selling their cards, but dunno if it's true..
anyway, these people havent specified what systems they use, and I for one am not willing to spend time and money just to be a guinea pig (again...)

-> and this is really great news!
I heard conexant (former Brooktree or BT as you know it) released their new chipsets, the cx23880 and cx23881.
These support 10bit ADC, and will more likely have a broader support (as they are based on the BT878A chips)
already I have seen 2 manufacturers using these chips, pixelview and MSI. the MSI card I've seen available at ~60 USD

so my decision now, is to try to find some more info about the cinergy compatibility issues and if it doesnt look good, I will wait for the new CX chip cards to become available in europe and go for those.

/bomba


ps. kanon, there's nothing wrong with your english, it's my tagalog that is bad