Problems!

[rrrredrum]

I have a real problem capturing to from my TV. Dropped frames and poor quality. I have tried installing the bt8xx WDM/WFM drivers, but it won't let me isntall them. Right now I am using the WDM drivers that came wiht my Capture card. This is my PCspecs:

Windows xp 2000+
Via kt333 chipset(latest drivers).
Geforce4 4200 Video -IN(this is my capture card)
512 mb ddr ram.
Fast Seagate HDD(With DMA enabled)

I got some application called VIVOplayer, but that one is just crap, the quality is poor, no framedropps. but you can see huge pixels, even at high quality settings..

Even when I'm running Virtualdub and choosing "preview" is the quality poor,

Now: What can I do?, Tried installing the all possible drivers.



Maybe you cannot help me, but can you vets answer this question:

When you preview something you're about to capture in Virtualdub, by choosing " preview" instaed of "overlay" is the quality poor?

[BaronVlad]

Why didnt you choose a name for your topic, that describes your problem ?

"When you preview something you're about to capture in Virtualdub, by choosing " preview" instaed of "overlay" is the quality poor?"

No, overlay is a bit faster in movements, but preview is still ok.

What cpu do you have ?

What resolution do you use for your captures ?

Did you try the hints in the FAQ to pull down the number of drops ?

Cheers

BaronVlad

[rrrredrum]

Thanks for the reply

Whatever resolution I use, the quality is equally poor, and the numbers of frames dropped is the same.

When I "wiew" in preview the quality is as bad as the AVI file gets, is that the same to you?, With the speed of my CPU I shoud'nt drop any frames.
When you watch in preview, are your qulity bad?
I've tried all the tips in the faq, noting helped.

When I asked you if the quality of your movie was poor when choosing preview, I meant if it looked bad when previewed in the window.. not the movie file.

Is the quality of watching the movie get previewd the same as your AVI file?

Btw: I was really tired when I wrote the first post so excuse all my silly typos and errors.. (like "Windows xp 2000+", supoosed to be Athlon AMD XP 2000+)

Thanks.

[BaronVlad]

The quality of my preview is good.

Please be sure that you tried the settings recommended in the FAq, especially defragmented HD, disable windows buffering etc.

You should capture (nearly) uncompressed into huffyuv or an Mjpeg Codec, compressing afterwards with divx, Xvid etc. Try full PAL or 1/4 PAL, your cpu at 2000 should do this normally without many drops.
If you get some drops (~75 in a 3 hours capture, please dont beat me @all the freaks) IMO it is ok, just choose adjust video clock dynamically...in the timer menu, nobody will see or hear this in the complete movie, cause there are only 3 seconds missing.

When you fixed your dropprob try to find "your" settings by using filters, diffrent solutions etc.

For me 384x288 works quite good, I dont have to use any filters but get a good movie quality, this may be good luck but it works.

Cheers

BaronVlad

[rrrredrum]

Which FAQ are you speaking of?, I know several, mabe I've read the wrong one.. just making sure. Could you post a link? Really appreciate if you do so..

[BaronVlad]

Just the FAQ in the sticky of this capture forum

[rrrredrum]

Okay, read that one..

Is it at all possible to capture video from a Geforce 4 4200 video-in card, with very low or no quality loss? Can't get this to work..

btw, I really appreciate you giving advice, I tend to forget to thank people.

[rrrredrum]

Okay, here is an update: When I capture at low- mid resolution. I can capture with no/very dropped frame, but the quality is really awful, the picture is very flimsy and you can really see those "digital boxes".. not sure how to explain them, but they are always there on low quality digital video. When I try to capture at higher resolutions I get framedrops AND bad quality.

What I really need to know: Is it possible to capture "high quality" video vith low quality loss from a Geforce 4 4200 vide-in card(from leadtek). If anyone have a clue it would be really helpful if you told me what you think..

[theReal]

What codec are you using for capturing, and what color format?

These two things can seriously mess up the quality, no matter what resolution you capture in.

Color format should either be YUY2 or RGB24, the best (because lossless) codec is HuffYUV, but you can also try MJPEG or maybe Ligos Indeo 5.11.

[rrrredrum]

I don't know why, but I cannot choose another format but the default. Every else I try to choose leaves me with "unsupported format error". If you mean what "compression" i am using then it is Pic video Mjpeg.

[theReal]

With the Picvideo MJPEG, set quality to 19 or 20 - everything less looks ugly.
I use 18 for capturing animated stuff like the Simpsons, but for other tv programs I'd either use quality 19 or the HuffYUV codec(because quality 20 gets almost as big as HuffYUV).

btw. what is the default color format of your card?

[rrrredrum]

I have no idea.. and I usually capture at the highest quality rate(altho I have tried a lower). I think something is wrong with my driver or something, cause eh quality really should be better..
How do I know what default color format my card is using? What is color format? Is that the 24 or 16 or 32 bits things?

[theReal]

Yes, that's the colorspace the video uses. 16bit RGB or 24bit RGB should be good quality, better is YUY2 because it pre-compresses the data lossless (it's the format that DVD uses).

There may be other color formats available (depending on your capture card) that already apply a heavy compression to the video before it is getting compressed by MJPEG (i.e. 'btyuv' for brooktree chipsets, my webcam has its own compressed format called i420, your card might have an internal mjpeg codec)