ati aiw using mmc 8.1

[dvd_maniac]

Can somebody give me suggestions for all these new settings in mmc 8.1 for capturing mpeg-2 or tell me how to get huffy to work right. I get dropped frames.

[mdk]

We will need more info. What CPU? HardDrive (size and rpm)? etc.
Try dropping the resolution down to 320x240 to reduce the demand on your system. If that works, you (probably) either need to optimize what you have or upgrade a component.

[dvd_maniac]

My hardware is as follows

Win2k Pro
gigabyte 8pe667 ultra Mainboard
p4 2.66
1 GB DDR400 Running at (375MHZ)
ATI All in Wonder 8500 128MB Using all updated drivers
Promise raid tx2 ata100 card
2x80GB 7200 rpm/ata-100 Western Digital 2mb Cache H/D's in striped raid stores OS and Programs
1x60 7200 rpm/ata-100 WD hard drive to store video and swap file
Pioneer dvr-a05 with speed rip firmware
I keep 130GB free on raid H/D and defrag before each capture.
Turned off all nonessential processes and diskperf -n, installed DX9.Tried all the capture tweaks I could find to optimize system.
at 720x480 I get 30% dropped frames
at 640x480 I get 19% dropped frames
I wish not to capture below this as I think it would be worse than just doing 720x480 straight mpeg-2. Or am I wrong?

[mdk]

Well, your system seems quite capable indeed, and you are correct that low-res HuffYUV will not give as good quality as full size mpeg-2 (with a high-enough bitrate). I meant to suggest the low-res HuffYUV just as a system test.

I've got mmc 8.1 installed on Win2k with an Athlon 1800+, but with an AIW 9700. I'll double check my settings and post back.

Have you tried to capture in HuffYUV with VirtualDub? You may want to try that (or any other program) just so we can limit the problem to mmc.

[dvd_maniac]

can virtualdub do 720x480?

[wongck5]

My MMC 8.1 also got drop frames easily with Huffyuv but such problem disappeared after using Virtualdub.
Try to get the special version of virtualdub and follow the TV capture guide in doom9.

Virtualdub supports capture at 720x480 (using custom format).

[mdk]

Sorry for the delay, something is wrong with my boot record for my dual boot.

The best I can tell you for now is that I was able to capture in HuffYUV in Windows XP Pro using MMC 8.0 without dropped frames, but when using Windows 2000 Pro and MMC 8.1 I get about 7% dropped frames.

This might be due to me capturing to the boot drive (due to above issue). I hope VirtualDub works for you.

I'll follow up if/when I get my hardware issues fixed.

[NeVeRLiFt]

MMC (all versions) sucks for AVI capture. Works good for Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 though.
For AVI capture I use AVI_IO. Virtualdub works and iuVCR is pretty good.