Highligh saturation problems when capturing video (i.e white wash)

[funkydude74]

Hi everyone. I have a problem when capturing video from my VHS via RCA lead using my 128mb Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200. When capturing video with bright light backgrounds e.g. bright white or bright blue, what happens is the highlights (the bright white or blue etc...) tend to saturate and bleed over not so bright objects and I have not a clue of how to fix this problem. I use Ulead Video Studio 6 SE Basic and when in capture mode going to "Capture Properties", "Video Capture Filter", "Video Proc Amp" there are the following settings:
Brightness
Contrast
Hue
Saturation
Sharpness
Gamma
White Balance
Backlight Comp

BUT, the last four settings sharpness to backlight are nulled out so I cannot adjust them:mad: :angry: !!!!! And I may need these settings to fix this whitewash problem!!!!!

I've tried lots of things, finding answers from all over the net but nothing works:angry: !!! And even my uncle whom intstalled the card is baffled.

If ANYONE knows how to fix this problem with Nvidia Ti4200 cards and can help me I would most appreciate it as I DESPERATELY need this problem fixed and at wits end trying to find a solution to this :mad: :mad: :mad: BLASTED :mad: :mad: :mad: problem!!! I've got to put wedding videos on VCD for people and I want to do a good job of it as I'm getting paid to do it for them.

[Ookami]

>I've got to put wedding videos on VCD for people and I want to do a good job of it as I'm getting paid to do it for them.

Ugh.

Erm, why don't you just try another software to capture? :readfaq:

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

whole lotta uncles here...(hehe)
anyhow,have you tried decreasing
brightness,contrast and saturation?
if still no luck,post few screenshots
so we can look at the problem;
VCD?
huh!

[funkydude74]

Hi ^^-+I4004+-^^. Decreasing brightness and contrast doesn't do anything, the highlights are still saturated even at darker brightnesses and contrasts. Anyhow I've pulled two video stills of the best example of this white saturation problem. These video stills are of the same clip but one's at just over mid brightness and contrast and the other is at very low brightness and contrast. Anyhow before I send the stills to you I need your email address so I can send them to you please. Here's my email address ac_dc_rocks@hotmail.com .

You'll see what I mean by white saturation. The clip I selected is one of the extreme examples as the clip has a lot of brightness, bright yellow background which clips at white and saturates.

Cheers

Troy

[808state]

funkydude74

It’s not just you...there is a known bug with certain GE-Force chips. I have the same problem with my ASUS GE-Force 3 Ti500 Deluxe.

The good news is there is a fix!!! Check out this thread.
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45890

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

if your screenshots look like 808's,then i might not see anything
(it's pure white)
and if not,send it over at
kosta_@net.hr

[808state]

LOL…my screen shot was a bad choice. I was an eager beaver trying to get my shot posted and getting some help on the subject. I should have used a different source.

[^^-+I4004+-^^]

troy,thanks for the images,sorry you waited this long (but not that long i hope...hehe)

so here are few thoughts of mine ;
anyone who has toyed with contrast/brightness on cap card know that overdoing these ends up in useless video;

you can decrease the brightness/contrast as much as you want in postprocess but the image is still washed,too bright and generally not watchable (if you were a bit too low/bit too high on these settings,it would be easily repairable...but going to either extreme (too low light or too high light) destroy the image and it cannot be recovered...)

seems like this is what's happening; somehow,this card has regulation of contrast/brightness on two places->the FIRST place (closer to the video input itself) is always (if this happens with all your sources) doing it too much (like reallly going 150%)
-> and the 2nd place is doing normal regulation,but it cannot compensate for the input itself being too bright...

now, i can see regulation is doing it's stuff,but the FIRST place is waaay to sensitive so that 2nd regulation cannot rectify it!

in a way,this is the same thing i can recreate here on my system when i capture with too high contrast and try to lower it in postprocess....the results will be the same as with your images (poor)

if you have tried the method that 808 linked,and still no luck,you might want to try putting a small trimmer potentiometer (if you're hot for electronics..heh) between the source of video and the capture card input.....(so you can manually adjust the contrast (ie. video signal amplitude)) to see what happens..simillar to the mentioned transistor trick but easier....

if this helps,you can get some better circuit (again,electronics) that will "clamp" your contrast to the value your capture card prefers....(as trimmer (ie. variable resistor) is clamping the sync signals too...and that would lead to complete loss of image if you clamp it too much...you want to leave sync as is,and clamp the usefull video amplitude alone.......)

mentioned circuit shouldn't be a problem for anyone into electronics (and access to web..heh)
[i've found (searched as 808 stated it was mentioned over at dvdr help forum) simillar solution here;
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/images/guides/p455359/Asus%20V8200%20solution.jpg
but the one i speak of would be better as you could change the resistance of the variable resistor,and that way adjust it as you like it...
this image shows more crude "fixed resistance" version of same thing...you can try this too....]

/ivo

[cweb]

Curious ... I have a Geforce 4 (MSI) and no such problems.

I use Virtualdub+VCR and VirtualVCR to capture.

[808state]

Cweb

The bug only affects certain chips...if you have one you will defiantly know it! There is no fixing the problem by simply adjusting *Brightness & Contrast* settings.

[funkydude74]

Thanks guys for your help. I really appreciate it. Anyhow I'm going to have a crack at using a a variable pot to attenuate the video signal a bit like you's mentioned and see if that will work. I've got a feeling it might. I know electronics pretty well as I've done Certificate 3 electronics at college.

I've already had a crack at loading the WDM and Video Live software following the instructions step by step, however I had trouble doing this and the end result was still the same over white saturated picture. Basically steps 1-3 I followed smoothly, I got a little confused on step 4 as I wasn't sure if it was referring to programs used for capturing video eg "Ulead Video Studio" or drivers. I know when I wipe all the video drivers it will automatically reload drivers like WDM Nvidia capture (universal), TV tuner, Video capture pin etc..... Step 5 was the real pain in the bum as what happened is I downloaded it, unzipped the files to a directory and when I run "SETDRV" I get some sort of number code error, though I've just double clicked it recently and it successfully loaded them. I've followed the rest of the steps to a T but the end result was STILL a overly saturated brightness in the picture. Then again this Video Live stuff is for ASUS cards and mine is a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 card so I guess this software is just not compatible with my card.

Anyhow I'll see if attenuating the video signal a bit using the variable pot will work.

Thanks and Cheers

Troy

[funkydude74]

YIHAAAAAAAA!!!:D WHITE SATURATION PROBLEM IS FINALLY SOLVED!!! AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE! OI! OI! OI! :D :D :D

^^-+I4004+-^^ I had a crack at making that video signal attenuator using a 100 ohm resistor in series with the video signal cable and a 500 ohm variable pot in parallel with the video signal cable and ground cable and adjusting the pot and adjusting the brightness/contrast on the capture program I was able to get a GREAT:D picture with good level of brightness/contrast without that awful clipping on the highlights which whitewashes the picture. I think the Nvidia and ASUS firms should do some redesigning of their cards adding some resistors to keep the gain below clipping when inputing video signal or make a refined signal attenuator addon circuit and release it on the market for people to buy, I'm sure they'll make a fortune hehehe.:D Anyhow thanks for the suggestion, well most of the credit goes to the person who designed this little circuit, simple circuitry but it goes a long way:D . Thank you so much everybody for helping me out!:D

Cheers
Troy