tweaking bt8x8 ? or WDM? How?

[henriQ]

Greetings,

i'm not very sophisticated hardwarewise hence my hereby request for
advise.
When capturig through my PCTV card, FlyCap 2.5 offers me the sliding
rulers for 'brightness', 'contrast', 'hue', 'saturation', 'sharpness'
and others like gamma correction, etc.

Now while the first 4 above are by default at the 5000 level, the one
pertainng to sharpness is stationed at 170 (!?). All of the above
accept slight adjustments. For instance, i use 5200 for the first
and from 5133 up to 5300 for 'contrast' -- and i can notice some
differences in the resulting files.

Sharpness accepts to be positioned in, for ex.,to 580 or 5800 but...
results seem to be erratic: from nothing to good or to exaggerated.
Since 'scales' involved seem different it becomes a blind shot.
Would anyone be able to explain and advise what and how to do, in
order to ensure resulting better image sharpness ?

NB - If i pause the capture and go back to wdm filtering previous selected levels for the first 4 items are unchanged but 'sharpness'
is back to the default value of 170...

Thanks for any feedbacks on this issue.

HN

[Ookami]

Don't have any tips on FlyCap settings, but you can use the histogram function in VirtualDub (or one of it's modifications) to tweak the picture. Take a look at Luke's guides, he has also explained the different settings.

http://www.lukesvideo.com/videotuning.html

http://www.lukesvideo.com/

IIRC, VD has also some other BT tweaks build in, but I cannot say you more, as I don't use a BT card.

But, no one can tell you YOUR best settings, because you should find them by yourself. People can only guide you (grin, I can show you the way but you must walk the path alone :) )...

Cheers,

Mijo.

[henriQ]

Of course i could not agree with you more on the question of
how to define MY own settings. Of course you'll also agree that
it was not my querie.

My querie in fact pertained to what & how (and if whether in bt8x8,
within WDM or both) to adjust or tweak the 'sharpness'item. Data and
accessible parameters through FlyCap were given only for example sake.

Luke's site, respectable and expertise ridden, as it is, says little or nothing about 'sharpness' and VDub idem,idem. So i'm still on square 1...

But many thankz for your kind attention.

Cheers,

HN

[Ookami]

Er, it seems I misunderstood your posting. I thought you meant all settings...

Members like ^^-+I4004+-^^, who use a BT card and have fiddled with this setting will probably help you :) .

Enjoy.

[theReal]

I'm using a bt878 card (winTV PCI) but I can't help you, sorry.

I've never used FlyCap, only VDub in all of its flavors, and VDub doesn't offer a "sharpness" setting, AFAIK.
All I do is to tune the contrast, sharpness* and intensity values so that the picture looks fine.

*EDIT: I meant "brightness" not "sharpness", of course.... :D

[Ookami]

I think the alternative BT drivers have a sharpness setting. So if I remember correctly, it's not a software issue, but a driver thingy :) .

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Originally posted by theReal
I'm using a bt878 card (winTV PCI) but I can't help you, sorry.

I've never used FlyCap, only VDub in all of its flavors, and VDub doesn't offer a "sharpness" setting, AFAIK.


_vdub capture->bt8x8 tweaker(+some dTV dll's).....

>>Warning: Don't mistake my high post-count for knowledge!

it's ok,i won't..(hehehe)

[theReal]

_vdub capture->bt8x8 tweaker(+some dTV dll's)..... This isn't a standard VDub feature. You need DSCaler dlls for this and honestly it doesn't work for me. Maybe I haven't tried hard enough, but I couldn't get DSCaler to work and the bt8x8 tweaker wouldn't start in VDub, even the dlls were present. After this, I just didn't care anymore because capturing works ok for me without these extra features (and I don't want to totally mess up my setup because I want to capture on a regular basis).

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Originally posted by theReal
This isn't a standard VDub feature. You need DSCaler dlls for this and honestly it doesn't work for me. Maybe I haven't tried hard enough, but I couldn't get DSCaler to work and the bt8x8 tweaker wouldn't start in VDub, even the dlls were present. After this, I just didn't care anymore because capturing works ok for me without these extra features (and I don't want to totally mess up my setup because I want to capture on a regular basis).

did i say dscaler? i said dTV!
this is vdub feature in which it uses dTV's dll's to take control over bt8x8 chipset...it can sharpen picture +50%.....i won't send any samples as anyone can see for themselves!
this cannot messup anything as it's turned off by default....

i won't get into considerations on what good does sharpening do or not(on particular signals)....i've said enough already....

[\AX]

The ones from dscaler do work....i use the currently. I think i had to rename the files however....as far as DTV ive never used it. Try to name the dll's correctly...because it works.

[theReal]

from http://www.dscaler.org/Help/FAQ.htm

What is dTV ?
dTV is the old name for DScaler, we changed the name as people use dTV to refer to digital television and this was causing confusion. In the source and on the website you will still see references to dTV but please refer to the program as DScaler from now on.

...

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

dTV files work,dscaler's don't to put it simple....
so you judge are they the same dll's etc.

@AX-renaming dll's?
well i wouldn't even try to copy them to vdub folder if they
hadn't the names VD requires....

[henriQ]

Greetings for everyone on this thread.

Just let me explain & ask for details:

1 - Explain: "what good does it or not" - well, when i capture VHS
i use either my tnt-videoIN/OUT videocard or my PCTV card
- depending on source basic caracteristics, case by case.
When through the latter, image quality while reasonable enough
is somewhat 'flou' and would benefit from a bit of 'sharpness'
enhancement.

2 - Asking for details: What type/name of misterious .dlls are
you talking about? Would you please identify them?

Thanks for your possible attention.

Regards,

HN

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Just let me explain & ask for details:

1 - Explain: "what good does it or not" - well, when i capture VHS
i use either my tnt-videoIN/OUT videocard or my PCTV card
- depending on source basic caracteristics, case by case.
When through the latter, image quality while reasonable enough
is somewhat 'flou' and would benefit from a bit of 'sharpness'
enhancement.

2 - Asking for details: What type/name of misterious .dlls are
you talking about? Would you please identify them?

Thanks for your possible attention.

_you got it this time (hehehe)

1_sharpening also accentuates the noise!you have to account for that on
post-processing..no codec likes noise....

2_here's copy-paste from some stuff (on croatian but you can get it...)

note:bt8x8 tweaker su nekoliko dll-ova('dTVdrv.dll', 'dTVdrv95.vxd', and 'dTVdrvNT.sys'.) iz programa dTV 2.1.2(možete ga dload-at sa:
http://www.dscaler.org/downloads.htm) koje kopirate u virdub direktorij_
dll-ovi iz novijih verzija NE RADE!

cheers ("zivili" on croatian.)

Ivo

[henriQ]

Thanks and zivili to you too, IVO.

But, come on, "NE RADE" what???

And \AX: Rename what to what??!

Good Lord, we're drawing riddles here?

Regards,

HN

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

Originally posted by henriQ
Thanks and zivili to you too, IVO.

But, come on, "NE RADE" what???

And \AX: Rename what to what??!

Good Lord, we're drawing riddles here?

Regards,

HN

_what?you do understand croatian?(hehehe)
"NE RADE" ("DON'T WORK") dll's of newer versions (ie.dll's from
dscaler.....)

rename "DS" to "dTV" in each dll.......
(i'm not sure if this works...i don't remember if i did this renaming after all this time(but i think i did and it didn't worked..not 100% sure though)..try it if you have DS dll's..)

[henriQ]

Dobro juteo, Ivo. Hvala.

(Translation: Good morning...Thanks) No i do'nt speak croatian - just
visited your beautiful country just after independence, as a reporter.

Well, Dscaler dlls: nothing (nijedan?); dTV's 2.1.2: yes! They allow
some tweakings with a bypass influence on 'sharpness'.

Regards for everyone.

HN

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

"enable luma peaking"
(for both even and odd field.....)