Capture all F***ed up, help

[PhR34x0r]

Hi there, i dont know what to do. I cant get a nice sharp image of the capture.
The image is like this :
__________
|////////////|
|////////////|
|////////////|
|_________|

There are these / lines all over the image and the bottom of the image is coming in at the top again. Also its 98% Black n White with some weired colors here and there.

Im using an ATI9800se@pro AIW card, Win2000 SP4, Omegadriver based on v4.2 + the capture drivers from the ATI page and VirtualDub.
I connected the card with the cables that came with the card + an extra Scart-Connector with the VCR.

Everything seems to be in order, i dunno what to do. It just wont work.

Please help me, im totally lost.

greez PhR34x0r

[PhR34x0r]

is there anybody out there ?

[jggimi]

If you can post an image from a website (using the IMG button) that might help others understand exactly what you're seeing. If you do not have access to a website, PM me for an e-mail address and I will post your image on your behalf.

[avih]

the lines might be a ground loop issue (use search).
the image might be either method (pal/secam/etc) or macrovision??

have u tried with a different source?

i suggest that u 1st solve the incorrect image issues, and only then the noise issue (diagonal lines)

[Arachnotron]

Sounds like you set the source wrong. Capping a PAL source with the composite (s-video?) set to NTSC or vice versa.

[PhR34x0r]

since an image says more than a 1000 words, i'll send jggimi some pix when he replys to my PM. i hope u'll know whats wrong with my stuff.
in the meantime i found out another interesting thing.
i get a stereo audio signal according to virtualdub, but the red bars are very very very short and they hardly ever move, just like theres only noise. but once i had great audio. i dunno what i did wrong, but 4 once at least the audio worked great. its all getting more f!"§$ed up as i try to fix it on my own.
damn, im so clueless as to what to do...

ps: about the wrong pal ntsc thing : i dont know where to configure that. wheres that option ? im in austria so pal would be the right setting. im trying to capture from my digital sat receiver right know, but what i really want to do is to record my vhs tapes to divx-cds before they're turning into dust.

thx in advance
PhR34x0r

[jggimi]

Here are the three images, I'll keep them available here for a week:

[Arachnotron]

ps: about the wrong pal ntsc thing : i dont know where to configure that. wheres that option ? im in austria so pal would be the right setting. im trying to capture from my digital sat receiver right know, but what i really want to do is to record my vhs tapes to divx-cds before they're turning into dust.

I don't know exactly, since I don't own an ATI. Somewhere in the ATI software (MMC?) the option should me available.

If you cannot find it, go here and download the WDMControlUtil. Its a small proggy that gives you a shortcut to the settings sheet of yhe capture driver. Very handy in combination with vdub, since not all settings are available from within vdub.

p.s. judging from the pictures I'd say you are indeed trying to cap a PAL signal while the composite or s-video input is set to NTSC

[PhR34x0r]

holy f***in sh*t !! i love u all. what a difference a 5kb app can make. indeed the input was set to ntsc_m, i set it to pal_b and i got the nicest, sharpest, clearest image u can image - in COLOR . im so freakin happy now.

but theres still one last thing :
i only get mono audio now, and that consists just of noise. so the graph is barely moving. i'll try to fix this on my own but if u guys already know what the problem is so please let me know.

---- edit

ok, i've got stereo audio. i didnt change a thing, but suddenly there it is. but its still very silent and quite much noise. and also the video i just captured is interleaced !! i thought pal would be progressive and only ntsc is interleaced. is this normal?? in the preview window in vdub it looks great.
oh one last question : the video is just 16bit, where do i change it to 24 ?
OT: i just realized i get no dropped frames, although my hdd is fragmented like hell and seti, getright, miranda and what not are running....cooool

greez from a very glad
PhR34x0r

[Arachnotron]

ok, i've got stereo audio. i didnt change a thing, but suddenly there it is. but its still very silent and quite much noise. and also the video i just captured is interleaced !! i thought pal would be progressive and only ntsc is interleaced. is this normal?? i

Depending on the source this is perfectly normal for PAl. Only stuff originating from 24 fps movies and the like is not interlaced, since they simply speed it up a bit to 25. For NTSC they have to blemd some fields together to create the extra frames. That is called telecining by the way, not interlacing.

As to the sound: you did adjust it on the recording tab of the mixer (and select line-in as the source)?
(open the windows mixer, Options, Properties, Recording bullet)

The slider you see in standard mode only controls playback.

[edit]
about the 16 bit thing: since most cap devices cap 16 bit anyway (or YUV) and convert later to RGB24 when asked, there is no point in cappping 24 bit, and many reasons not to.

anyway, most of this stuff is in the Doom9 capture guide.

[edit2]

You are the second ATI user on this forum that had this problem the last few weeks. While this little proggy works, the settings must be there in the standard ATI software too. Perhaps another ATI user can tell where it is hidden?

[PhR34x0r]

... That is called telecining by the way, not interlacing.

alright, thanks for the background info.

As to the sound: you did adjust it on the recording tab of the mixer (and select line-in as the source)?

yep, i did.

about the 16 bit thing: since most cap devices cap 16 bit anyway (or YUV) and convert later to RGB24 when asked, there is no point in cappping 24 bit, and many reasons not to.

ok, so i'll leave it at that.

anyway, most of this stuff is in the Doom9 capture guide.

i already had that through, but i'll go have a closer look.

You are the second ATI user on this forum that had this problem the last few weeks. While this little proggy works, the settings must be there in the standard ATI software too. Perhaps another ATI user can tell where it is hidden?

i searched all the ati software for an option like this, and i can tell ya if its really there, u have to unlock it by some wierd keypressing-combination or something like that. its impossible to find. u better add this app to the faq.

thank u all so much. i was stuck with this problem for months and u helped me in a matter days. (+ the 5 days i had to wait for the account to activate ..)

greez
PhR34x0r

[PhR34x0r]

oke, one last time i need ur help.
all of a sudden i get a massive amount of dropped frames. like 10 per second. as i said before i had no problem capturing with seti@home runnin in the back @ 720x576 and no dropped frames. but suddenly even when i set the res to 80x60, and no other apps running, i get the same amount of dropped frames. compression is huffyuv.
i couldnt find any solution to that, hope u know it once again.

greez PhR34x0r

[Arachnotron]

There are so many things that can cause dropped frames, it is difficult to say.
Few basic things to try:
- disable any form of preview while capping;
- use the taskmanager to check if any app is hogging the CPU;
- check your audio settings too;
- Do a forumsearch. Dropping frames is one of the most common problems, but also the most difficult to pinpoint.

[PhR34x0r]

i already did a search in the forum and through google but couldnt find anything helpful.
i mean theres no logical reason why i get dropped frames. even with seti in the back i only had max 40% cpu usage and not one dropped frame. but now, for no reason, with all settings at lowest quality im still droppen frames big time.
either this capturing stuff is for pros only or this so called OS windows, is goin nuts again.

[Arachnotron]

either this capturing stuff is for pros only or this so called OS windows, is goin nuts again.

Probably the last
Droping frames on such a massive scale points to something fairly fundamental going wrong.

Last wild shot (then somebody else can try ) :did you install both the last DirectX 9 AND the DirectX tuner update for non-NTSC users?

[PhR34x0r]

Last wild shot (then somebody else can try ) :did you install both the last DirectX 9 AND the DirectX tuner update for non-NTSC users?

i installed directx9.0b + some directx ati patch i once got. i guess its that one ur speakin of, but im not sure. do u mean directx hotfix kb825116 ?

--edit : yeah, its exactly the same. thx anyway for your great help.