Dropped frames

[max-c]

I recently bought a TV capture card: Medion MD9717 - it's not listed in Capture Cards (yet) (probably only available in Germany, anyway chip is Philips SAA7134).
Even using Virtual Dub with Win XP I could capture 25 frames/sec at 352 x 288 no problem.
But since I had to re-install Windows I can't get anymore than about 6 frames per sec. CPU usage shows between 15 and 50%.

The strange thing: if I reduce the fps to 15, the capture rate in the Virtual Dub status window reduces proportionally to 3.5 frames. Means, dropped frame ratio remains constant!

I tried:
1. Capture card driver update - no change.
2. Capture card re-installation - no change.
3. Re-format and partition HD - no change.

Since it was working before, I don't think it's a hardware problem, more likely I overlooked some setting somewhere.

Anybody have an idea?

[fmctm1sw]

Exactly what driver are you using? I switched to the btwincap.sourcforge.net driver and never looked back. Also, I'm not sure I'd classify 352x288 at 25 fps as "no problem." I cap at 720x480 on a celeron 366. You can probably do much better. The driver was my problem.

[max-c]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm also sure the problem is the driver.

Actually there are three drivers for this card:
1. Tevion TV Tuner
2. Philips WDM TV Tuner
3. Philips Proteon WDM 7134 Capture Driver

Unfortunately, this Philips SAA7134 chip is new and there don't appear to be any third-party drivers available for it yet. (If anybody has seen one on the net, please let me know). BT8x8 driver won't work with this chipset.

After installing the card, the first two drivers are installed automatically.
I had to install the third one manually (it's not even mentioned in the instructions that came with the Capture Card).
BUT: at the end of this driver installation I get a message like:
"the software is installed but may not be working properly" and "the device cannot be started (Code 10)".

Anyway, maybe somebody out there has some idea how I can get this driver to install properly (And what does Code 10 mean?)

Thanks in Advance.

Max-C.

[max-c]

Problem solved.

Seems that the computer manufacturer applied Win XP Home Service Pack 1. But the updates in SP1 weren't on the CD-ROM which came with the computer.

So after I reloaded Windows from CD-ROM, the updates were missing.

Now I downloaded SP1 from Microsoft. Lo and behold, capture works fine now!!

So anybody who has a TV Card with Philips SAA7134 chip running under WinXP Home - you need SP1 or you'll get a poor capture result.

Max-C