Problems with capturing

torpare · 18th October 2008, 09:54

Hi,

For a long time I've been struggling to capture from VHS tape to .avi, without success. I've used mostly VirtualDub, but also VirtualVCR.

I began by using the 'TV in' connection on my Asus V9520/GeForce FX5200 graphics card (which I found to have a Philips capture chip), with NVidia's capture driver. I couldn't get either VDub or VVCR to work at all.

Recently I dug out the Avermedia A761C DVB-T card I'd retired some time ago and installed it in a Shuttle PC with on-board graphics (GeForce4 MX), 500 MB RAM, Athlon XP2500+ The Aver has a Conexant 878A chip. I installed the btwincap drivers for this, and I'm using VDub.

At least I can now see a preview, and I can capture (with no dropped frames, on a short test clip anyway). Trouble is that the video I capture is junk

-to call it "stuttery" would be the understatement of the year. On double-clicking on the file to play it back in MPC, instead of MPC I got the attached 'AVI Chunk Viewer', which mystifies me but may give clues to the experts. For the heck of it I also used Graphedit to bring up the filter chain VDub was using (attached); I thought it might be useful

To my inexpert eye it seems strange that VDub seems to be using the Conexant 'Tv Audio' filter as the (only) source for what is output from the crossbar filter as video. I have the Conexant Video driver installed as well but VDub doesn't seem to be using it. (But I don't understand what Graphedit is telling me either).

Can anybody suggest where my problem might lie?

torpare · 19th October 2008, 09:50

In the absence (so far) of any suggestions, I've been continuing to try to solve the problem on my own. This has thrown up a different - possibly unrelated - problem.

I thought I'd try to force VDub to use the Conexant BtPCI filter as source rather than the Conexant BtPCI TV Audio filter. I found that both are shown in Filmerit as having a merit of 00200000 - which I had understood to mean 'do not use'. Baffling. Anyway I changed the first's merit to 00600000 and left the second unchanged. After restarting VDub in Capture mode and running Graphedit I found that the second filter was still being used and the first ignored. Going into Filmerit again I found that the first filter's merit had been reset to 00200000.

If in Grapedit I delete the second filter and then insert the first, what happens is that the second reappears, and the first is greyed-out. If (with the second deleted again) I try to connect the first's 'capture' pin to the crossover filter's 'video in' pin Grapedit says they can't be connected. I don't begin to understand what's going on here.

As a further check I opened Radlight Filter Manager. This too shows the merit of both filters the same, but as '0x00000000'; clicking on the 'Set Value' button brings up the error message "Cannot update merit". Checkmate!

Why, I wonder, do Filmerit and Radlight show differing values for the same filters, and why can neither do anything to alter those filters' merits? Is there no way in which these merits can be changed?

Or am I barking up the wrong tree anyway? The task seems to be hopeless.

dat720 · 20th October 2008, 07:39

Give DScaler a go, i have always had goo dsuccess with that, it's been hit and miss for me with virtual dub, mostly miss.

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19th October 2008, 09:50	#2 \| Link
torpare Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 22	In the absence (so far) of any suggestions, I've been continuing to try to solve the problem on my own. This has thrown up a different - possibly unrelated - problem. I thought I'd try to force VDub to use the Conexant BtPCI filter as source rather than the Conexant BtPCI TV Audio filter. I found that both are shown in Filmerit as having a merit of 00200000 - which I had understood to mean 'do not use'. Baffling. Anyway I changed the first's merit to 00600000 and left the second unchanged. After restarting VDub in Capture mode and running Graphedit I found that the second filter was still being used and the first ignored. Going into Filmerit again I found that the first filter's merit had been reset to 00200000. If in Grapedit I delete the second filter and then insert the first, what happens is that the second reappears, and the first is greyed-out. If (with the second deleted again) I try to connect the first's 'capture' pin to the crossover filter's 'video in' pin Grapedit says they can't be connected. I don't begin to understand what's going on here. As a further check I opened Radlight Filter Manager. This too shows the merit of both filters the same, but as '0x00000000'; clicking on the 'Set Value' button brings up the error message "Cannot update merit". Checkmate! Why, I wonder, do Filmerit and Radlight show differing values for the same filters, and why can neither do anything to alter those filters' merits? Is there no way in which these merits can be changed? Or am I barking up the wrong tree anyway? The task seems to be hopeless.

20th October 2008, 07:39	#3 \| Link
dat720 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 870	Give DScaler a go, i have always had goo dsuccess with that, it's been hit and miss for me with virtual dub, mostly miss.