Leadtek tv2000xp - help with capturing needed

[kikkegek]

Please help!

I have been trying to setup my system so that it will capture in at least 352x288@25fps so I can make VCDs from my old VHS tapes.

But for some reason these problems come up all the time:

- I can see a lot of horizontal lines flimmer in the overlay screen
- the quality of the overlay screen is absolutely not the high quality that Leadtek promises

My system:
PIII-800MHz
128+256 Mb of SDRAM ~ 400 Mb SDRAM (enough I think)
Nvidia 32MB Geforce 2 MX (tv-out)
Leadtek Winfast tv2000xp deluxe
SB 5.1 Live Player
60GB Maxtor 7200rpm Harddrive

I am using the PICVideo MJPEG compressor @ 20 for quality with yuy2 colors.

Please help. I cannot get the system to make a decent capture of anything. I have tried to install the BTWincap drivers, but that has F...-up my entire system...

I hope somebody can help me!!!

[knoertploert]

I don't know what the cause of your problem is, I need more information, but for viewing you can use Dscaler and for capturing you can use virualvcr. These free programs are better than the leadtek application.

Stick to the leadtek drivers, those btwincap drivers suck

[harrymj3]

I have the same card with simular results but don't give up, there is hope. First thing I did was install iuvcr and his drivers. Also went to wdm site and installed his drivers. I don't remember witch one but one of those sites also had nvida capture drivers that I installed. After all this I could capture at 640 x 480 (with iuvcr) and convert with ulead studio 6 or ulead movie factory to vcd or dvd and burn with nero vission or movie factory. The results were pretty good, maybe not as good as a ripped dvd but when you start with less you end up with less. (can't make chicken soup out of chicken s--t) Have fun, this has kept me crazy for many long nights. ........ harrymj3

[harrymj3]

Forgot to say, use huffey codec, for capture, very nice. ....... harrymj3

[kikkegek]

I have the same card with simular results but don't give up, there is hope. First thing I did was install iuvcr and his drivers. Also went to wdm site and installed his drivers. I don't remember witch one but one of those sites also had nvida capture drivers that I installed. After all this I could capture at 640 x 480 (with iuvcr) and convert with ulead studio 6 or ulead movie factory to vcd or dvd and burn with nero vission or movie factory. The results were pretty good, maybe not as good as a ripped dvd but when you start with less you end up with less. (can't make chicken soup out of chicken s--t) Have fun, this has kept me crazy for many long nights. ........ harrymj3

My videocard from Nvidia is not integrated with the TV card. So I dont see what the use of the nvidia capture drivers would be. I am already using the detonator newest drivers and the newest drivers from Leadtek. I have done some more reading and I found that I need to check the CPU-usage. If it is low and the quality of the movie sucks, then probably it is the speed of my hard-drive that is keeping back the system.

Ill get back to you when i have new results.

thanks sofar, personally i prefer PICVIdeo code for MJPEG. It is easier on the CPU...I am guessing...

[knoertploert]

The tuner won't work with those iulab drivers. As long you use wdm-software those leadtek wdm-drivers are ok. Your hard-driver is fast enough, so that's not the problem. Maybe you need to defrag the drive or (if possible) use a sepperate hard-disk. You also should check that your hard-disk is in UDMA mode and not in PIO.

I would suggest: get virtual vcr, use picvideo mjpeg-coded (quality 19) and capture at a resolution that makes the CPU-ussage at about 80-90%.

iuVCR and VirtualVCR are both wdm-sofware, but virualvcr is free and you can a higher resolution.

When I capture with my winfast using 720*576, mjpeg (19), preview off and virualvcr, my cpu ussage is 27%(pentium IV 1.8 GHZ)

[kikkegek]

I had tried the BT Wincap drivers from sourceforge...but I am nog able now to fully uninstall these drivers and to reinstall the WDM drivers from leadtek...

any help is welcome...i want the WDM drivers back..

[knoertploert]

Sorry, I need more information. Why can't you uninstall those drivers? Do you get an error Message.

Can't you just rollback your drivers (this is an option in XP)?
Otherwise, use update drivers and point to the directory on the leadtek cd-rom where the originial drivers are located

[kikkegek]

I un-installed my complete XP installation, was time for it anyway, and installed windows 2000 pro.

Tomorrow I will start testing again...

[Don2050]

Kikkegek,

I have the Leadtek 2000XP and I went through the same issue ( lines flimmering) when trying to capture VHS tapes....I spent alot of time adjusting settings thinking is was a software issue. I found out for me that is was the tapes themselves. I put a commercial VHS movie in and it captured fine...it was only on older dubbed tapes that the problem occured.

If you find this is your problem also....you can use TMPGenc 'Remove Noise' filter to do a pretty good job of removing those lines...which I believe are due to the tape slowly loosing synch. As far as the VCD's doing that I have no explanation for that so maybe this is not your problem but try a commercial VHS tape that is relatively new to be sure and also capture from TV to see if it still has the same problem.....

I use Huffyuv at 720x480 and have no problems with this card under Win XP Pro and AMD CPU

[kikkegek]

thanks everybody for the help.

I have uninstalled WinXP en installed W2K Pro. Installed the WDM drivers from the CD...I use Virtual_VCR for capturing...and PIC-Video MJPEG codec for compression. Audio is recorded in PCM 44kHz, 16bit, stereo.

I am now able to capture at SVCD quality without any problems...

The only problem i no have is that when using TMPGenc...during an encoding session is just closes down when it reaches about 70% of the total file. The program quits by itself....for no reason it seems...

please help me woith this final step...

[harrymj3]

I use Ulead Vidio Studio 6, that came w/the card for encoding. It works very well. still expermenting w/speed and quality settings. I capture w/ iuvcr at 720/480 and 48000 pcm using huffy. Encode to mpeg2 720/480 w/48000 audio w/UL V S 6 and author w/ Ulead MF1 to vidio ts DVD and burn to DVD w/nero. Works well no out of sync issues, good picture. I have a HP Pavilion 1.3 Athlon, 120Gig HD XP Home. Didn't think it would have enough power but it uses only 40 to 50 percent and never skips a beat, rarely drops a frame. Tried for a while w/900 Athlon and ME but it was futile.
Don't forget, you're having fun.
Harrymj3

[kikkegek]

I use Ulead Vidio Studio 6, that came w/the card for encoding. It works very well. still expermenting w/speed and quality settings. I capture w/ iuvcr at 720/480 and 48000 pcm using huffy. Encode to mpeg2 720/480 w/48000 audio w/UL V S 6 and author w/ Ulead MF1 to vidio ts DVD and burn to DVD w/nero. Works well no out of sync issues, good picture. I have a HP Pavilion 1.3 Athlon, 120Gig HD XP Home. Didn't think it would have enough power but it uses only 40 to 50 percent and never skips a beat, rarely drops a frame. Tried for a while w/900 Athlon and ME but it was futile.
Don't forget, you're having fun.
Harrymj3

thanks,

i think i also will start using Ulead software that came with the card...what is that ulead software u r using vor authoring?

[knoertploert]

I dont't know anything about your TMPGEnc problem, but try not to use the internal MPEG-decoder from Ulead. The quality is not that great.

It is possible that your file has an error at 70%. You can try to frameserve from VirtualDub to TMPGEnc. Maybe this will solve your problem. This also gives you the opportunity to use some denoise-filters (the Dynamic Noise reduction 2.1 from steven don & Avery Lee is very good).

Harry is using Ulead Movie Factory 1 for authoring. You can also try Ulead DVD Workshop. This one is more advanced, but expencive. You can find trials for both at the ulead-site

[knoertploert]

If you want to use that denoise filter, you can find it at:

http://www.shdon.com/

[harrymj3]

I personally like the UL Vid Stu 6 very much for encoding. It's pretty straight forward and accepts many MPG files without lots of other tools being necessary. It also works for capturing directly to vcd, svcd, dvd and many other templates but the quality of the capture leaves a little to be desired. If you got it with your card give it a try and go to their website and get the updates before you use it. If you don't like it you have lost nothing but a little time. You can also use UL Movie Factory for capture and encoding but Vidio Studio 6 has better quality results and you already have that.
harrymj3

[kikkegek]

thanks a lot, but i found the problem.

It was indeed the problem i had. I selected a source range and the file ewas encoded without any problems.

Will this happen with each conversion-software package? Or is this a specific problem of TMPGenc?

I am thinking about using Ulead Video Studio or DVD workshop for conversion and authoring from now on...

Or is there an even better solution?

[kikkegek]

I have been trying and trying, and I am unable to capture at a good quality...

the quality does not come close to the VHS or Hi-8 tape it is taken from...

I do not understand what I am doing wrong...

setup:
software: virtual vcr and the WDM drivers from leadtek
Picvideo quaility 18, 19 and 20 tried
resolution: 352 x 288 and 720 x 576 tried
2 fields if more than 280, 240 and 288 tried

different cables, high quaility composite and normal cables that come with the camera...

but for some reason the capture is dissapointing me...I dont understand what I am doing wrong...

please help or suggest something...



maybe the capture is good, but the conversion wrong...can somebody help me with what bitrate to choose in TMPEG encoder!!!!!

[knoertploert]

Hi,

Each person has a different perception of good and bad quality. Maybe you think a capture is bad while I think it's great. So you have to descripe why you think your capture is bad. Do you see a lot of noise, macro blocks, lines and so on. A screen shot will also be helpful

[kikkegek]

Hi,

Each person has a different perception of good and bad quality. Maybe you think a capture is bad while I think it's great. So you have to descripe why you think your capture is bad. Do you see a lot of noise, macro blocks, lines and so on. A screen shot will also be helpful

oke, heres one...if there is a lot of moving around, the quality is even worse...lots of lines, blocks and so on....please help...

[knoertploert]

Is this a picture from the capture file or from the encoded file? It looks like a encoded file. What settings did you use? (bitrate, dimension, VBR/CBR, which encoder etc. Also did you use some virtualdub or avisynth filters?