Btwincap install procedure

[Mr. Twister]

I'm doing a fresh W2K install on a P4 board and would like to know from those who have SUCCESS in installing the Btwincap drivers. I have unsuccessfully done this several times before on VIA based boards and would like to get it right this time. I'm using an Aver TV Stereo tuner/cap board. Is it best to load the drivers that came with the board 1st? and then install bt drivers over the top? Does the Aver application not have to be loaded at all? Does Amcap give the same functionality?
These questions have probably been answered elsewhere, but I would like the procedure from those who got it to work! TIA

[cspuk]

hi,
im having similar problems at the moment, i just baught a hauppage card, i have an asus mobo, which has the via chipset, the card performance was less than terrible with the bog standard drivers, so i thot id try and be smart and install these btwincap ones, , no chance, the system freezes up about 10 seconds after the desktop is loaded and only works if the card is disabled, , ive read so many great report of this card, thats why i decided to buy, , but all ive seen is unwatchable tv and 50% dropped frames while trying to captur, ,
as to your question, from what i can gather- you must 1st install the original drivers and then install the btwincap ones over the top..

[pixel8or]

Hi,

I'm using an Osprey-100 card. I did have an ATI TV Wonder VE and got good results with the btwincap drivers and wanted to keep using them. I ended up following the instructoins given at the btwincap site for custom installation...

http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/custom.html

How I do it....

-Start with the mfr. drivers installed
-Run BtSpy and save the profile it generates
-Remove the capture card
-Reinstall OS... or run the btwincap installer and use "uninstall previous bt8x8 drivers"
-Install capture card
-Reboot and ignore the "New Hardware Found" message, cancel it
-Run the btwincap installer and follow the custom directions in the link above using the "import" button for the BtSpy profile.

I'm running WinXP Pro on an Abit KT7a/via kt133a board, Athlon XP1600+, GeForce II MX. Huffyuv is my preference, but I can capture 704x480 uncompressed with 0 dropped frames using VirtualVCR.

Don't know if this will help your situation, but that's what works for me.

[kenmo]

These btwincap drivers are NOT worth the effort and paint to install. You are better off using the card manufacturer's drivers and a good wdm capture application like VirtualVCR.

VirtualVCR rocks !

[pixel8or]

Well, my experience is that ATI software is crap. Nothing but frustration. Maybe it's improving, but I'm not concerned about it. No more ATI for me. Actually, the TV Wonder VE was a pretty good little card... once it had some good software.

Being able to cap at 704x480 uncompressed with NO dropped frames, to me, is worth the effort. 720x480 I get some streaking, which I think may be one of those VIA issues. With the quality of captures I get, I'm happy with the 704 width.

*edit*
Figured I'd try and post a sample of what I'm able to get. This is a 7.15 mb mpeg-1.
RIGHT click and "Save Target As..." ("Save Link As..." for Netscape, I think)

SAMPLE

This was capped with huffyuv, virtualvcr, 704x480. Deinterlaced, cropped and resized in Vdub... no other filters, and run through TMPEGenc 2 pass vbr 600/1050/1550. Source is AT&T digital cable thru s-video. Oh, and the fade in/out was done in Vegas Video 3.

[kenmo]

Well, my experience is that ATI software is crap. Nothing but frustration. Maybe it's improving, but I'm not concerned about it. No more ATI for me. Actually, the TV Wonder VE was a pretty good little card... once it had some good software.

Being able to cap at 704x480 uncompressed with NO dropped frames, to me, is worth the effort. 720x480 I get some streaking, which I think may be one of those VIA issues. With the quality of captures I get, I'm happy with the 704 width.

*edit*
Figured I'd try and post a sample of what I'm able to get. This is a 7.15 mb mpeg-1.
RIGHT click and "Save Target As..." ("Save Link As..." for Netscape, I think)

SAMPLE

This was capped with huffyuv, virtualvcr, 704x480. Deinterlaced, cropped and resized in Vdub... no other filters, and run through TMPEGenc 2 pass vbr 600/1050/1550. Source is AT&T digital cable thru s-video. Oh, and the fade in/out was done in Vegas Video 3.

pixel8or,

Your captures are quite good but to be honest I'm getting the same results with the ATi drivers and VirtualVCR. I capture at 640x480 as my target is CVDs and SVCDs. I also get no dropped frames and a/v stay in perfect synch (thanks VirtualVCR). I am perplexed why you de-interlace ?

Thanks & cheers

[pixel8or]

I am perplexed why you de-interlace ?

I deinterlaced it for mpeg-1. I know I could have done all of that in TMPEGenc. Normally, I do some noise filtering in Virtualdub but I wanted to show the quality without it for this... I just went ahead and used Vdub to crop and resize and deinterlace while I had it open. Less work for the mpeg incode, maybe? Don't know for sure, I'm still learning this stuff.

I use CVD the most, also. Is it better to post samples as mpeg-2?

ATI works for you? That's wonderful, glad to hear. I noticed a clear improvement with btwincap.

And I agree, VirtualVCR rocks!

[Gazorgan]

I never could get the drivers to work in W2K, virgin install. It would only allow me to cap at 25 fps. Very strange. OEM updated drivers work fine at the moment. No dropped frames at 720x480 Huffy/PCM.

[kenmo]

I am perplexed why you de-interlace ?

I deinterlaced it for mpeg-1. I know I could have done all of that in TMPEGenc. Normally, I do some noise filtering in Virtualdub but I wanted to show the quality without it for this... I just went ahead and used Vdub to crop and resize and deinterlace while I had it open. Less work for the mpeg incode, maybe? Don't know for sure, I'm still learning this stuff.

I use CVD the most, also. Is it better to post samples as mpeg-2?

ATI works for you? That's wonderful, glad to hear. I noticed a clear improvement with btwincap.

And I agree, VirtualVCR rocks!

Can I ask what VirtualDub de-noising/cleanup filters you use ?

Cheers

[kenmo]

I never could get the drivers to work in W2K, virgin install. It would only allow me to cap at 25 fps. Very strange. OEM updated drivers work fine at the moment. No dropped frames at 720x480 Huffy/PCM.

Yes the ATi drivers work extremely well for me and I'm using a VIA chipset motherboard.

Too much frustration with the EVIL btwincap drivers for me

[pixel8or]

Can I ask what VirtualDub de-noising/cleanup filters you use ?

Mostly...
-dynamic noise reduction (original) set to around 10 or 12
-smart smoother (1.1) diameter 3, strength 25 to 35

Sometimes I'll use the 'smoother' but only set at 1 or 2, and I might add 'sharpen' at the end set to around 12 to 16. The noise reduction seems to soften everything and I think it helps to put on a light sharpen back on. It all depends on the signal quality. I've played with '2d cleaner optimized (0.9)' some, but didn't think it worked any better than the two above.

That's really all I feel a need for. I don't like it when things start to look too smoothed out. I'd rather have a little graininess and see details than see skin look like plastic.

*edit*
I guess I should add that I hardly ever cap from VHS, which can be very noisy. It seems that more aggressive filtering is sometimes needed for that.