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Intermittant noisy picture with G400

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  • Intermittant noisy picture with G400

    I am using a Matrox Marvel G400 P866 512M Ram 40G HDD Sound Blaster Live to capture with a composite input. This configuration works exceptionally well most of the time, however occasionally while capturing from VHS source I have experienced a problem with a substantial flicker or flashing bar over the top 15-20% of the screen. This problem is not restricted to just one tape, I have found it to occur on a few different tapes. This flicker is not continuous but will occur randomly sometimes every second or so. It appears to have a pink colored bar associated with it. When this occurs I experience dropped frames. If it occurs with a particular VHS tape, I can change to another VHS tape and the problem disappears. If I use a different VCR the problem still exists. When a problem tape is played back on a TV through eitherVCR the picture is stable and clean it is only into my PC that I have a problem. I thought it was perhaps to do with low quality recordings but recently I tried to capture from a Sony 3/4" Umatic tape source (this Umatic tape and player is part of a system used to mass produce retail copies of VHS tapes) and experienced the same problem. One thing that was interesting is when I had a "bad tape", I tried it in another PC with a cheap TV card and the image on the screen was perfect!
    My PC runs a very clean install, is defraged and will play/capture perfectly from TV or most other VHS or similar inputs. I am at a loss to understand why this occurs. It appears to me to be some bad input signal but I have no idea what to try next. I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem and managed to resolve it. I have tried the packaged PC-PVR software and AVI_IO, both show the same characteristics.
    I even put the RF output of the VCR into the antenna input of the blue box, then tuned this signal in. The picture still has the same problems. It sounds like it is a characteristic of the particular tapes I try to play but it is strange that when played on any VCR into a television the picture is perfect. A couple of my problem tapes happen to be home movies of my kids, on one tape the image is fine until a series of scenes shot on the same day, for all these scenes there is a problem evident, it’s got me beat.
    I am hoping someone out there can shed some light on this one for me.

  • #2
    Just a thought, I have installed the Macrovision patch but is it possible that it is not 100% affective in some instances????

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    • #3
      No takers????

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      • #4
        Hi,
        I am from Italy and I have a Matrox G450 eTV.

        I have exactly the same problem you described and I am also looking for someone who can give me some suggestion.

        In addition to your tests I have done another significant
        test.

        I have connected an Analog VideoCamera (VHS-C format) directly to the Matrox and images on the PC-monitor was stable. The problem reappears with the same tape connecting
        the Matrox to a VCR for the playback.

        I have some suspect on the PAL60 format

        If I have news I will give you

        bye Marco

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        • #5
          Marco, some of the tapes I have a problem with are VHS-C format, they still give an unstable picture when played through a C-Format Camcorder or a standalone VHS tape player. The one thing I have noticed is that somedays the level of noise is significantly less compared to the same tape / player on another day.
          I will let you know if I have any breakthrough.

          Regards Misho

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