Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Outrage! PC-VCR can't capture LONG video correctly?!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Outrage! PC-VCR can't capture LONG video correctly?!

    Ok.. this isn't nice... knowing you can't rely on correct captures!???

    I was watching the MTV Movie awards, and actually test driving my new 20 gig 7200 rpm HDD - so I went ahead and started recording the whole thing - it was going to be 2 hours, I had 8 gigs to spare, Fat32 partition. Was recording at MJPEG medium,audio tv quality , 352*240 30 fps..
    ok. the two hours just passed, I hit the stop button.
    HMMMM I get two warnings "Can't read file information" (or something) and one good statistics (xxx frames captures, etc etc.)

    Now - I 'know' that there is a 2GB limitation on files isn't there? and that pc-vcr overcomes that by cutting at 2gb and creating a new file no? Well my drive lists 3 files: the first: 3.32GB ?! the second: 2.48 GB, the third 382 MB. Trying to play the files in media player 6.x fails except for the last one... now I'm trying in pc-vcr... hm. UNABLE TO PLAY FILE...

    ok.. anyone knows what happened?
    BTW Norton disk doctor shows no 'errors' in my drive... (here's a dir listing. 4dos 6.x btw)

    6-10-99 22:05 3,570,450,432 Recording.avi
    6-10-99 22:55 2,673,230,336 Recordinga.avi
    6-10-99 23:02 379,664,024 Recordingb.avi

    Thanks,

    Eddie


  • #2
    Ok - staight from matrox display properties:
    VGA BIOS 2.3
    Display driver version 4.11.01.1000
    VDD driver version (same)
    Matrox Powerdesk: 4.51.010
    DirectDraw... 4.11.01.1000
    DirectX: DirectX 6.0

    Yes. I use matrox's 4.51 drivers, directx 6.1 to be preceise. Video tools 1.21.
    Marvel g200-tv pci, 8mb. SDram. 250MHZ ramdac.

    Windows 98 SE. It upgraded Win98. The partition in which the files were created is an 7.79 gig partition.

    Nope - using no hacked drivers.


    Does this mean I can't recover my recordings?

    Eddie

    Comment


    • #3
      Hi Eddie

      You could give avi_io a try. This tool is designed for long captures, keeping the framrate at the requested rate, keeping video and audio in perfect lipp sync, does not loose frames at the file boundaries, and creates files which are in the size you define. Check out

      http://www.nct.ch/multimedia/avi_io/

      Markus

      PS: Ok, I'm the author of avi_io, but this seems to be the really perfect scenario for avi_io.


      ------------------

      Comment


      • #4
        I'll second the motion: Markus's avi_io was the thing that worked for me... it's a really nice piece of work, certainly better than the spanning function that Matrox squeaked out for us!

        Comment


        • #5
          Yeah - I've heard miracles about AVI_IO! I'll try the trial now... I'm sure it works ; I just don't understand why on earth PC VCR didn't do what it was supposed to .. The sizes chosen for each file is so.. "random".... 3.4gig? then 2.5gig?

          Oh well...

          Thanks for the plug!

          Eddie

          Comment


          • #6
            Eddie,

            I have seen this myself once before. What combination of drivers & video tools are you using, and are you using any of the "hacked" dlls (either for Macrovision or the Marvels brightness problem) ?

            Chris

            Comment


            • #7
              Hi Eddie,

              perhaps you should try to use the PowerDesk 4.33m driver with the VT 1.21.

              I don´t know if this will make any difference, but Matrox doesn´t recommend the use of the VT with the 4.51 drivers.

              Bye, Uwe.

              Comment


              • #8
                I agree with Uwe.

                The 4.51s are beta only, and I know that Matrox warned about using them with videotools when the betas were released

                Comment


                • #9
                  really? I never heard that :I Well... it seems MTV is going to air the MTV Movie Awards again; this time I'll give AVI_IO a try.. but I noticed the eval version creates '100MB' files - thus I'm going to end up with TONS of 'em! arg.

                  oh well... thanks for the info. But I'll hold on about switching drivers seeing as how we might see new powerdesk 5 soon...(HOPE SO!!!!!)

                  Eddie

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hi Eddi,

                    certainly it´s your decision which drivers you want to try, but I wish you would try the 4.33m nevertheless.

                    On the one hand we all would know if the reason for your file-size problem is the 4.51 driver. This could help other users in future.

                    On the other hand nobody knows when you will be able to use the PD 5.x drivers with your Marvel/RRG. At the moment there is no official statement from Matrox if and when there will be a G400 Marvel/RRG. So even if the PD 5 drivers will be released in some weeks (?), it could be, that you will have to wait for fitting VideoTools once more.

                    Bye, Uwe.



                    Comment


                    • #11
                      All,

                      From Haigs comments, it appears that there is at least some hope that G-RR will work with the G400. Since the G4 will be using PD5, it has to be at least imaginable that suitable VTs will be available soon.

                      But the curent beta release of PD5 is not the shipping version, so if anyone is trying to use these with VT2.1, my advice is to revert to 4.26/4.33.

                      Still, at 25 bucks, AV_IO is a steal, and anyone who wants long captures SHOULD be using it. Apart from the ease of use and ability to specify filesize, it locks audio sync dead on no matter how long you capture for.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        anyone that has any solutions for playback of more then one avi file back-to-back seamlessly without skipping(like the matrox vcr using playlist).

                        please contact me,

                        nar@stargazerlily.com

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Hi nar,

                          Your best bet is to open Ulead Veditor and start inserting one clip after another, Once your done hit the ENTER key providing you have all the proper settings and the frame rate converted to the required rate hit the ENTER key, Ulead will do a quick scan
                          and playback from the timeline "The beauty of Cut-List editing"

                          If you don't have Ulead, I mean you must have some NLE package with your RR/RR-G, you can try Avid Cinema kinda does the same thing, dfferent steps though.

                          Regards,
                          Elie

                          [This message has been edited by Elie (edited 09-28-1999).]

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Markus

                            Having heard wonderful things about AVI_IO, I downloaded it and quickly tried it for about 5 minutes. A couple of weeks later, when I wanted to put it through its paces, I found it had time-bombed out. That you have a restricted trial version, OK. That you have a time-bombed trial version, OK, provided it is for at least 4 weeks (even MS give you 3 months on some trial software). That you have both, with time-bombing in such a short time: NOT OK, bordering on the paranoic. Result: I cannot try your software, so I don't know whether I want to buy it or not.


                            ------------------
                            Brian (the terrible)

                            Brian (the devil incarnate)

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              i can't do it under ulead(or premiere). i get dropped frames...

                              but if i play back with microsoft's media player or matrox vcr i get no dropped frames..

                              my only guess is that under ulead and adobe premiere is that there is more overhead thus slowing my system thus drop'd frames...

                              settings:
                              video-352x480 (4.1:1) audio 44.1k 16-bit s
                              computer-400mhz k6-2, 64mb, 36gb raid(13.6mb/s)

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X