I tried different captures this weekend and I am getting different results. I am using a VHS tape that was recorded off of the TV (In Concert 91) as my source. I captured in 3 different ways....direct mpeg capture (didn't really look good with GOP setting at 9/3 and ME at 20 with no dropped frames), AVI captured at 352 x 240 (rendered down with Media Cleaner Pro which did look better than the direct MPEG capture), and I captured again at 352 x 240 (and rendered down with Panasonic and I got AWESOME results!!!!!). One thing that is weird is whenever I try to capture something other than from the VHS tape of Predator (when capturing a real time mpeg clip only) I get a lot of dropped frames and for the life of me I can't figure out why. Is the ATI card better than the Pinnacle stuff? I am wondering if I made a good decision in purchasing it or if I should have purchased something else. The really strange thing is I can't get any audio (along with the video) captures whenever I try to capture in Ulead MediaStudio Pro 6.0, Adobe Premiere 5.1c, Virtual Dub, and AVI IO. I have the following set up and I am not sure why I can't get them to work ... - Athalon 600 - 128 RAM - ATI AIW 32 MB Version - SB Live! Sound Card - 2 Hard Drives 18 GIG SCSI and a 20 GIG EIDE I have called ATI, Creative Labs, and Adobe and no one seems to know why this is happening. I have gone through ALL of the settings in preferences and made sure that everything was set up correctly in multimedia in the control panel and it is all set up correctly but yet.....no sound. It shows that there is audio there but even if I save the video clip and then I close down the program I still get no audio. Of course I can capture audio and video just fine using the ATI MMC 6.2 program but it won't work properly in any other programs. Did ATI do this on purpose? How in the world do you get to capture audio and video in capture programs aside from the ATI MMC? I would love to capture using something that can capture past the 2 GIG parameter but I am not having any luck there at all. One thing I can tell you is...there is a MAJOR difference from when I capture to AVI and then render down than when I capture directly to MPEG. This is what I do.....I have my screen resolution set to 1024 x 468 and 32 Bit (True Color) settings. What I do to test a clip is after I am done capturing or rendering a video file I will run it full screen at my current resolution from there and that is how I inspect the quality of the video clip. Even at this resolution the captured AVI rendered by Panasonic still looks very good whereas the other two have a lot of blockiness and the picture is not as clear. What do you think? Any help or assistance you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

-- Cale Ferguson (5150@onramp.net), April 17, 2000

Answers

OK let's see

which version of VirtualDub are you using?

I'm using version 1.3b and it is normal to see dropped frames when capturing from VHS due to tape quality as it tried to keep the video synched with the audio part.. well at least from my experience. Normally the drop frames are really parts of the tape that didn't play too well (and the vidcap program detects no vid signal coming in..) If you really want ot see whether or not your machine is at fault... use VirtualDub 1.2. Also which codec are you using for vid capture?

as for being unable to capture audio... have you checked the recordng (not playback) mixer to see if your input (i.e. line in, mic, etc ) is muted?

You have such a great machine.. i wished i had one...

btw, the desktop resolution hardly has any effect on vid capture.. in fact setting it too high can erm decrease performance. You are capturing through the overlay right?

-- Flancer (huongch@bigfoot.com), April 17, 2000.

Referring to no sound, one possible cause is wrong source or input being selected. This can be at either playing or recording time. First check with Ulead or Premiere to confirm whether sound is recorded with the video. If not recorded, you need to your Recorder settings. Depending on where you connect your audio - capture card or sound card, you must select the correct source. If sound is actually recorded, the problem is most likely due to muting of the WAV sound channel. Make sure the channel is not checked as muted.

Daniel Lee

-- Daniel Lee (siangneng@hotmail.com), April 17, 2000.

Cale, I have just about the same setup as you. The problem with sound may be that all the other programs are looking for the sound from the Sound Card and not from the ATI AIW. It is a guess on my part. MMC gets the sound from the AIW Card. I capture directly to MPEG but at a bitrate of 3,000,000 bit/sec to 4,000,000 bit/sec, ME of 15 (anything higher and I have voice sync problems), GOP of 15/3, 352x240, 29.97, (No lost Frames) I have also increased the brightess just a bit. Then encode it to VCD with the Panasonic Encoder. I get pretty good results without having to use up the whole hard drive for a one hour clip.

-- TR7110 (runyont@usa.net), April 19, 2000.

Pls get rid of any ATI products, I am 100%sure it will trouble ur system one or another way... Sometimes with your scanner, videocamera etc.. ALL_IN_WONDER PRO 32MB is royaly screwing me for past 3 months . I lost my money ($199) and time.. Simply ATI products will not work... Try to contact them, then U will really understand how they are screwing u...

-- Aji Paul (ajipaul@yahoo.com), June 18, 2001.