WinDVR 2 License Timeout error

[Rossftn]

Hello. I have searched extensively for an answer to this question to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a ATI Radeon 8500dv. I am interested in capturing realtime MPEG2 SVCD, burning and watching in my DVD player. I am running the latest ATI software (MMC 7.7) and the resulting SVCD captures do not burn well in NERO. I heard WinDVR 2 burns great realtime captured MPEG2, so I now have that.

WInDVR does capture MPEG2 and I can watch them on my DVD player. They look Great. The problem is this. When I try to capture for longer than 9 and a half minutes, it cuts off and says and gives me a "license timeout" error. This is a completely registered version. No matter what I try, no matter what settings i change, no matter what source i try to capture from, it does this.

I am capturing using a Pentium 800mhz, 320mg RAM, WinXP. I am capturing via S-VIDEO out from my satellite receiver, but again, it doesn't matter what my source is, I can not capture more than 9 mins of video no matter what the source. Intervideo's tech support sucks. Thanks for any help.:confused:

[Swan]

Rossftn,

If you have a paid-version of WinDVR, this should not happen.
But I've read that Intervideo's activation method is pretty unreliable.
One has to contact Intervideo to re-activate the software if one has re-installed Windows etc. Since you have paid for it, and can't get a response from tech support, then I'd take measures to circumvent the activation. I'm sure you understand what I mean. ;-)

But, also, let me just give you a friendly suggestion. Since you are capturing from TV and capture directly to SVCD (480x576 PAL, 480x480 NTSC), you should not use WinDVR, because it deinterlaces the video as you capture.
I promise, if you capture using another software that doesn't deinterlace, you will see significant improvement on your SVCD's when you watch them on the TV. All sorts of movements (people walking, cars driving, well, everything that moves) will look so much more smooth and natural. The picture will also appear sharper (less blurred).

/Swan

[Rossftn]

THANKS SWAN!

But....as long as you are suggesting that I DON'T use WInDvr, can you suggest a program to use? I know there are several programs suggested on this board, but most of them involve capturing and re-encoding. I just want to capture directly to Mpeg2 SVCD. I know this can be done. I do have a lot of experience in encoding/reencoding video, but my whole idea behind buying this card was to be able to record things real time and watch them.

The small clips that I was able to make looked great with WinDvr. I am telling you that I have been playing around with video for a long time, and I saw no artifacts, even in high motion scenes. But the timeout refuses to go away. Oh, and I have tried to circumvent the registration, and that didn't work either ;) I have not, however reloaded windows and tried that.

So if you can suggest a good prog for what I am trying to do, it would be greatly appriciated. Thanks.

[Swan]

Rossftn,
The majority of the contributors on this forum like to capture with HuffYuv or Mjpeg compression. I am with you, I too capture in Mpeg-2 and am happy with the results. ;)
If you like WinDVR, then just keep using it. I know WinDVR gives great quality in terms of blocks and so on. I was not saying WinDVR will give you artifacts its Mpeg-encoding. I was talking about the smoothness of motion in your captured clips. If you're interested, read and learn more about interlacing, what it is, and so on. It will improve your SVCD's to maintain the video field-based, as opposed to deinterlacing it. You'll get many hits if you do a search on the web for SVCD and interlacing. Like this one:
http://www.inwards.com/~dbb/interlace_myths.html
All the pictures appear broken, though.
Quote from the page:
"Bottom line on deinterlacing and SVCD:
Don’t. From the above, it should be obvious that there’s really no point. It makes quality worse, not better. Most deinterlacing algorithms will make high motion and pans look jerky."... "Deinterlacing is a good thing for VCD and DiVX ;-), but not for MPEG-2 SVCD or DVDs."


This is a good site:
http://www.lukesvideo.com/interlacing.html
Quote from that page:
"an interlaced video will play much more smoothly than a progressive video when using an interlaced display. Therefore, if you're planning to watch your output video on a TV (through an SVCD, for example), it's best to leave your video as interlaced."

If you want to try other software that can capture to SVCD-ready-to-burn-format, without deinterlacing, here are a few titles you can try: Ulead VideoStudio, Ulead DVD Workshop, Roxio Videowave 5 and Cyberlink's PowerDirector Pro. I prefer VideoStudio myself.

You may also find, depending on your driver, that some of these softwares won't work with it. Then just try another software. I can't get Roxio's software to let me set a high enough video bitrate, so I dumped that. PowerDirector won't let me change another important setting without major frame drops, so I can't use that. And DVD Workshop doesn't want to play with my drivers. :-)

You just have to test and see which one suits your needs the best.
None of these have a scheduler (timer) though. If that is essential to you, then you can try PowerVCR. It needs a hack in the registry to stop deinterlacing, though. If you are happy with the way things are, then give WinDVR what it deserves. Or rather, show that activation who's the boss! :)

/Swan

PS If anyone's figured out if it's possible to stop WinDVR from deinterlacing, and if so, how?, then please step forward. :-)
I have concluded that the guilty Directshow filter is "ivivenc.ax". If you look at it in Graphedit, the option under "interlacing sequence" (where it should be possible to choose to capture "auto"/"progressive" or "interlaced") is disabled. It looks as if is locked, to prevent users from capturing in any other mode than "auto". Is this "hackable"?