watch & capture w/my aiw 9800pro

[chris_j11]

xp-home, sp2
2.4g, 768MB
aiw 9800pro

what's the best software i can use with my new aiw to:
watch tv shows
record tv show
capture analog input (vcr, dv cam)

tried the ati software and it suck bigtime, looking for the best software out there

[setarip_old]

Hi!

You might want to try (freeware) VirtualVCR or the builtin capture tool in VirtualDub...

[mod]

Hi,
I always use VirtualDub to capture PAL tv and it's good, give it a try.

AthlonXP 2700
1 GB DDR PC3200
Asus 9600 XT Vivo
Asus a7v880
rec device: Lacie usb 2.0 160 GB

[Piper]

I have an ATI AIW as well and for the longest time I totally avoided capturing with the MMC. The first few times I tried it I was surprised how bad the MPEG-2 recording was compared with my TMPGEnc encodes from VirtualDub captures. So for that reason I mainly stayed with VirtualDub and TMPGEnc for my DVD encodes. That was until a couple of weeks ago when one of our vcrs had the biscuit and I was forced to look for some quick & easy way of getting LOST onto DVD. (The wife's patience only goes so far :sly: )

I fired up MMC and started to play around with MPEG-2 recording. After some tweaking I was now surprised by just how good it can me. Sure it CAN look awful, but with a minimal amount of video soap and enough bitrate you can easily fit 1 1/2 hours of full D1 on a single layer DVD without nasty artifacts ruining the recording. It took a little longer to get an acceptable 2 hour preset, but it too is possible - still with D1 resolution. I've not yet played with Half D1 resolution, but decent encodes at that resolution should be easily obtainable in the 3 - 4 MBps range.

For best results I'll always use VirtualDub and a third party MPEG encoder. But for quick encodes and getting LOST onto DVD within 45 mins of it being aired...MMC comes in very handy.

[rtwaits]

I fired up MMC and started to play around with MPEG-2 recording. After some tweaking I was now surprised by just how good it can me. Sure it CAN look awful, but with a minimal amount of video soap and enough bitrate you can easily fit 1 1/2 hours of full D1 on a single layer DVD without nasty artifacts ruining the recording. It took a little longer to get an acceptable 2 hour preset, but it too is possible - still with D1 resolution. I've not yet played with Half D1 resolution, but decent encodes at that resolution should be easily obtainable in the 3 - 4 MBps range.

Hi
I have been using ATI 9000 AIW Pro (MMC 9.06.1, WDM 4.07 (Catalyst 5.2)) for almost 2 years but new to this forum. Lately it seems that my MPG2 captures have alot of macroblocks (referred to as ATI-specific chroma "UV anamolies" in the Doom9 capture guide, section 12.4). It generally occurs in large areas where there is only one color, and tends to be more obvious if there is low light in the source. Now, either I didnt really notice them before, or I played with one too many settings. If you are satisfied with your capture settings, could you post them?
THanks
Ross

[mod]

I used MMC only ONCE :D

[Piper]

I used MMC only ONCE :D

As have most I'm sure! LOL

Ok, re-reading my earlier post it does sound like I've been a bit generous towards MMC. Still, it can be useful if your objective is to get something to DVD very quickly. The tradeoff of course is speed over quality.

Here are the settings I currently use:

1 1/2 hour
Format: MPEG-2 DVD
Standard: NTSC (525)
Resolution: 704x480
De-interlacing Options: Encode Interlaced - other options unchecked
Audio Format: 48Khz, 16 Bit, Stereo
P Frames: 4
B Frames: 2
Open GOP: Unchecked
VBR: Selected
Max Bit Rate: 9.5 M Bit/Second
Target Bit Rate: 6.53 M Bit/Second
Motion Estimation Quality: 100
Audio: 224 K Bit/Second (could be anything, gets transcoded to 192 AC3 when authored)

Video Soap:
1. Combo Filter 1: 15%
2. Sharpen: 2%

2 hour
Format: MPEG-2 DVD
Standard: NTSC (525)
Resolution: 704x480
De-interlacing Options: Encode Interlaced - other options unchecked
Audio Format: 48Khz, 16 Bit, Stereo
P Frames: 4
B Frames: 2
Open GOP: Unchecked
VBR: Selected
Max Bit Rate: 9.5 M Bit/Second
Target Bit Rate: 4.88 M Bit/Second
Motion Estimation Quality: 100
Audio: 224 K Bit/Second (could be anything, gets transcoded to 192 AC3 when authored)

Video Soap:
1. Combo Filter 2: 29%
2. Sharpen: 14%

Again I should state these are just settings that I've used recently which have yielded tollerable results when using MMC in a pinch. Your definition of tollerable may indeed be quite different than my own. ;)

[rtwaits]

Piper:

:thanks:

Well I think I know my problem: Insufficient horsepower. I run a P-III 733 with 256MB. I know that I will begin to drop frames at much above 4.2 mb/s. For some reason I swore that my TV captures used to be half-way decent. It is the chroma problem that is really driving me crazy. It is less apparent in the VCD captures, perhaps because of the other quality failings with mpeg-1!

I use MMC alot because I havent used a VCR in over two years. I have an EPG and it ie very easy to program the recordings. I should have a new system up and running soon, with an AMD 3.0+ and 768MB RAM, and an AIW 9600XT.

Ross