Capture Cards: PDI Deluxe vs Snazzi V DVD Pro

[Seraphic-]

The image is 640x480, but internally it's stored as 720x480 with garbage on the right hand side. Who came up with this format, drunken monkeys?

I'll have to think about how to fix this, it's not possible to get around it with the avisynth filter alone.

So in other words it's 720x480 resized down to 640x480?

[Revgen]

The only thing I want is as good an analogue capture card as possible. The PDI is very intirguing, especially as it has been recommended to me before, but its $230 price tag is too steep for me. Guess I'm going to take a risk and try the X800 then, at least it's not that expensive (~$74). By the way, the Ultra has a Philips SAA7133/7134 chipset, not a BT8x8 one, and the X800 has a Conexant CX23883.

Well, good luck. The only reason I got this card was because the S-video out on my digital cable reciever looked like crap. So I got this one with component inputs. It's also the only one that I knew of that capped lossless. Apparently the Snazzi does have a lossless compression too, but it seems to be problematic.

[Revgen]

So in other words it's 720x480 resized down to 640x480?

I think he's saying that the image is resized to 640x480 in a 720x480 space. But somehow the decoder only shows the 640x480 image with junk on one side.

Maybe he can clear it up later.

Well, I'm glad I have the PDI Deluxe instead. The Snazzi doesn't seem attractive for lossless capping.

[Seraphic-]

I think he's saying that the image is resized to 640x480 in a 720x480 space. But somehow the decoder only shows the 640x480 image with junk on one side.

Maybe he can clear it up later.

Well, I'm glad I have the PDI Deluxe instead. The Snazzi doesn't seem attractive for lossless capping.

Yeah, it just doesn't seem to be a very "open-source" card. Their support (if you can ever contact them) "recommends" you only use their "Snazzi 5 DVD Pro" capture program (which has no lossless format by the way).

The only way to capture lossless is with 3rd party programs like DScaler/VirtualDub, but then you get the CXF2 (it's basically YV12) format that I'm having a hard time with. Although, squid_80 came up with a perfect working solution to decompress 720x480 CXF2 to an editable 720x480 YV12.

[squid_80]

I think he's saying that the image is resized to 640x480 in a 720x480 space. But somehow the decoder only shows the 640x480 image with junk on one side.

Maybe he can clear it up later.
Clearing it up:
http://216.75.63.164/andrew/cxf2sample.jpg
(The dark-blue stripe on the right is normally more random.)
The image stored in the cxf2 avi file is 720x480 with the right-most 80 pixels filled with junk, so the usable region is 640x480. Unfortunately since the avi header says the file is 640x480 the full scrambled image doesn't make it through avisource() to reach cxf2convert() and it can't unscramble it properly. Which is why I said I'll have to think of a different solution.

[Seraphic-]

No hurry or anything, but I wanted to know, have you had and luck as of yet, squid_80?

I e-mailed both Snazzi and Conexant Systems but have gotten no reply.

Might just return this damn thing. (if I can, lol)

[squid_80]

If you've still got the card, I made a new plugin for you to try: http://216.75.63.164/andrew/avisource_cxf2.dll

Load it into the avisynth script (or just put it in the auto-load directory) and it will replace avisynth's internal avisource command with it's own version which can handle your CXF2 files. It should still be able to load all regular avi files as well, so you can just use avisource() all the time rather than treating cxf2 files differently. It definitely works ok with 720x480 and 640x480 but I'm not sure how it will go with other resolutions, if they don't work and you would like it fixed just post sample files and I'll figure it out from there.

If I were you I would try and return it, just for the fact that it seems it can only capture in 4:2:0 uncompressed.

[Seraphic-]

If you've still got the card, I made a new plugin for you to try: http://216.75.63.164/andrew/avisource_cxf2.dll

Load it into the avisynth script (or just put it in the auto-load directory) and it will replace avisynth's internal avisource command with it's own version which can handle your CXF2 files. It should still be able to load all regular avi files as well, so you can just use avisource() all the time rather than treating cxf2 files differently. It definitely works ok with 720x480 and 640x480 but I'm not sure how it will go with other resolutions, if they don't work and you would like it fixed just post sample files and I'll figure it out from there.

If I were you I would try and return it, just for the fact that it seems it can only capture in 4:2:0 uncompressed.

Thanks, it works great!

But even if I was to keep the card I couldn't use anything other then 640x480 or 720x480. This is because if you change it to something other then 480 for the height, the computer will blue screen, shut down, and restart. This could be my computer, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I really appreciate your work to decode the CXF2 codec. And yes, I plan to return the card in the next few days. Snazzi support got back to me saying I would need to pay for a developer kit for them to go over the process to decode CXF2 "their" way.

The only downside with the return is there might be a 10% restocking fee...

Thanks again for your help. Maybe someone else who owns the card will find and use the work you did.

[Revgen]

Good luck. If you decide to get the PDI Deluxe, lemme know if you have any questions.

[taneal1]

Revgen: You mentioned in an earlier post that the PDI Deluxe was really meant for viewing, not capturing. Is this assessment due to the limitations of Dscaler? If so, would using Vdub allow it to compare favorably with other cards intended primarily for capture?

Thanks for any thoughts!

[Revgen]

The card is only bundled with Dscaler. No capping apps are provided. Heck I just downloaded the latest Dscaler beta and didn't even use theirs.

You'll just have to do BTWincap driver installation and VirtualDub capping on your own with no support from Pixelmagic.

As far as other cards are concerned. You have to make sure that you have VFW drivers that VirtualDub can use. I was fortunate that the PDI Deluxe is a BT8x8 chipset that has tons of third-party driver support.

[squid_80]

As far as other cards are concerned. You have to make sure that you have VFW drivers that VirtualDub can use.
You mean WDM drivers. VFW sucks for capture.

[Revgen]

You mean WDM drivers. VFW sucks for capture.

Does VDub support WDM? Are BTWincap drivers WDM?

If so, then my mistake.

[squid_80]

Yep, WDM/Directshow is supported since v1.6.2 (Released Dec 12/04).

[squid_80]

Edited post with new URL below, in case anyone still needs this:
If you've still got the card, I made a new plugin for you to try: http://digitalfoundry.org/andrew/avisource_cxf2.dll

Load it into the avisynth script (or just put it in the auto-load directory) and it will replace avisynth's internal avisource command with it's own version which can handle your CXF2 files. It should still be able to load all regular avi files as well, so you can just use avisource() all the time rather than treating cxf2 files differently. It definitely works ok with 720x480 and 640x480 but I'm not sure how it will go with other resolutions.

[seggitek]

Yeah, thanks. Hauppauge WinTV application crashes all the time. With your DLL I can open my captured video.

Capture device: Hauppauge WinTV-PVR USB2
Settings: 25fps (PAL) with 720x576

Your DLL is working perfectly. Awesome.:D

[royia]

Which USB VHS Recorder is recommended?
I'm looking for a one which is Windows 7 (64 and 32) compatible (WDM Drivers).

Something that won't drop frames and work with Virtual DUB.
Thanks.

[rogerdpack]

I just figured out how to get chroma working - it's packed, transposed and then the (packed!) planes are swapped.

Download the new .dll from the same location and see how it goes. The big upside of this is you should be able to run avisynth deinterlacers on the original YV12 captured data rather than the (wrongly converted) YUY2 output of the directshow decoder.

(sorry to resurrect but this is the closest to a working discussion of CXF2 I could find anywhere on the 'net...) would it be possible to see the source for the decoder? I would like to add something like it to FFmpeg thank you!