questions about Matrox Rainbow Runner G

[dZeus]

Due to some problems with my Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro, I've decided to ditch it and get a new tv card. I especially am looking for a Matrox RRG. But before I get one (or can get one), I would like to find out some stuff about it:

When you watch live tv with it, does it de-interlace the video stream on the fly? I was quite annoyed by my Pinnacle's card due to the unavailability of this feature (full res viewing was always interlaced).

Can you capture at full res. with the RRG? Can I see some samples of captures at full res.? Can I capture with stereo audio? (my Pinnacle somehow only decoded mono as soon as I captured something... when viewing it had stereo decoding).

[Dr Mordrid]

If by delacing you mean is the TV display on the monitor stable, yes.

It and the Marvel can capture at 704x480, 352x480, 352x240 and 176x120 using MJPeg.

Using a hack and the AVI_IO capture program it can also capture YUY2 uncompressed analog and compress it to HuffYUV. These files can compress into excellent MPEG's.

It captures stereo audio at 44.1, 22.05 or 11.025 khz 16 bit.

Dr. Mordrid

[dZeus]

Good to hear about the sound and the de-interlace filter! Is it also possible to capture at custom resolutions with that YUY2 hack? Like 480x480 ? I am interested in making SVCD captures :-)

I suppose you can also capture at 768x576 for PAL input?

I'm getting more and more excited about the RRG the more I learn about it! Why did Matrox ever stop producing it? Now it's real hard for me to get hold of one!

I just read the manual and found that you can use the Hardware DVD upgrade on the RRG... does that mean that you can use it with the G400 to do hardware MPEG-1/2 decoding?

[This message has been edited by dZeus (edited 28 February 2001).]

[AmSci]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by dZeus:
I'm getting more and more excited about the RRG the more I learn about it! Why did Matrox ever stop producing it? Now it's real hard for me to get hold of one! </font>

Hi, I'm looking forward to a rr-g too. I got an email from the Matrox Store a few days ago, and they are getting more in soon.

[dZeus]

Cool! I can't wait to get one!

[Dr Mordrid]

The RRG & Marvel can capture NTSC (what I listed), PAL and SECAM in their native rez's.

As far as capturing custom sizes the AVI_IO software can handle that from version 3.15 on.

Using the 1.52 drivers, YUY2 patch and HuffYUV compression I can set my Marvels up to capture 480x480 for SVCD rather easily, although for some reason some cards prefer being set up for 704x480 while others prefer doing it from 352x480. RRG's are functionally similar so....

The hardware MPEG addon was, I thought, just for the G200's. The G400's do MPEG-1/2 just fine without hardware addons here.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 28 February 2001).]