Problems with full screen capture

[Michelle Cox]

When I first got the E-TV a couple weeks ago, I did a lot of testing to find what settings I liked. One of the things I tried was capturing full size (704x480) with huffy. It worked fine, with only about 2 drops per minute, which is fine for me. I compressed it to divx and it looked great.

Fast forward to last Tuesday. I set the timer in AVI_IO to capture Buffy. I came in and checked on it and there was an error on the screen. I forgot to write it down, but it was something along the lines of "failed to initialize capture driver". Despite the error, it looked like it was capping fine and drops were still about 2 per minute. When I played it back in VDub, though, the video was in slow motion and the audio stuttered terribly. I tried it again, and this time there was no error, but I had the same problem. Another test came up with the error that the video source was unstable and had the same problem. I've been fiddling with it, trying to make it work, and always the same problem. Whether there is an error or not, it looks like it's capping fine, but the resulting file is a mess. This happens in both AVI_IO and VDub.

If it wasn't for the fact that my early full size caps were fine, I'd say it was my processor or my HD. But it worked fine then, even with other programs running. Now, even after closing everything non-essential and applying all the suggested Matrox tweaks, I keep ending up with a messed up AVI.

The only thing I've noticed different is it used to list two drivers for the card that looked the same to me. Now there's only one. I was going to try updating the driver, but the E-TV isn't on the list.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

Michelle

------
My system:
Windows 98SE
P3-600 (not overclocked)
IBM Deskstar 75GXP 75GB (67GB free, defragged, used just for capturing and a little for overflow from C
Matrox G450 E-TV video card

[Dr Mordrid]

I'd just uninstall the drivers and reinstall them. Something took a hit....

Dr. Mordrid

[Michelle Cox]

That's a good idea. I didn't even think of that. Now that I'm thinking of it, I think I know what might have caused it.

Between my working test caps and my current failed ones, I tried to capture a custom size. That didn't work at all. I wrote the AVI_IO author and he thought it was the drivers not being able to handle it. When I say it didn't work at all, I mean it totally crashed my system when I tried it. So my guess is that messed things up somehow.

I'll try re-installing them and see how that goes.

PS: That smiley face in my system specs is suppose do be "C colon + close parentheses", not a smiley.

[Michelle Cox]

Well, I got it all uninstalled and reinstalled. I'm back to having two drivers named the same thing again.

Unfortunately, the problem is still there. It still looks like it's capturing fine, but the resulting file is bad. The video is in slow motion and the audio is choppy.

I can capture to 352x240 fine. It only happens when I try to capture to 704x480.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Michelle

[gibverse]

Did you use Matrox's utility to uninstall the drivers? If not, you can download it here:
ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/utils/pd_unin.exe

I found that the Windows uninstall doesn't fully remove the drivers.

John

[Michelle Cox]

RE: Uninstall

I did add/remove programs and chose "Matrox Graphics Software (remove only)". It told me it would remove everything and restart in 640x480.

I'll try the utility you suggested to see if it does anything different.

Thanks,

Michelle

[Michelle Cox]

Well, I ran the utility and it came up with the exact same dialog box. Unless you really think it's going to do something differnent this time, I'd rather not go through all that again.

Thanks,

Michelle

[renedk]

I've also had some problems with AVI_IO when I capture in custom frame size. I would do the capture in one size, and when I looked at the captured file under 'properties -> details' it would show a different frame size. When I played back the file all pictures would be messed up.

I found a way to fix that, by resetting the compression every time I changed the capture frame size. I use Huffyuv, so I would choose 'no compression' and then back to Huffyuv, and things would work. It's easy to try.

[Michelle Cox]

Thanks, but that's not it. It is capping to the right size. When I tried to cap to a custom size, the video looked like a scrambled cable channel those times where it didn't outright crash my computer. When I cap regular full size, you can see the video; it's just in slow motion with horrible audio.

Anyway, I checked the properties and it's right. Besides, I've switched to 352x240 for other captures, so that would have reset it.

Thanks,

Michelle

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by renedk:
I've also had some problems with AVI_IO when I capture in custom frame size. I would do the capture in one size, and when I looked at the captured file under 'properties -> details' it would show a different frame size. When I played back the file all pictures would be messed up.

I found a way to fix that, by resetting the compression every time I changed the capture frame size. I use Huffyuv, so I would choose 'no compression' and then back to Huffyuv, and things would work. It's easy to try.</font>

[This_Idiot]

Michelle,

Sounds like you're capturing to the same drive constantly. How full is this drive now ? What sort of benchmark are you getting from it now compared to your benchmark after installation ? If you're deleting unwanted (or finished with) footage off the HD, are you remembering to empty the recycle (not usually necessary with AVIs since they don't fit in it anyways) and defragging the capture drive afterwards ?

Am I teaching my grandmother to suck eggs ?



Chris

[Michelle Cox]

Right _now_, 16.5 of 71.5 is full, but when I was trying to figure this out, there was only about 5 gigs on there. I defragged before I captured. There's nothing in the recycle bin because I turned it off per the Matrox tweak sheet.

I didn't benchmark it when I got it, but I did today and it scores just fine. The drive is only a couple weeks old. I bought it specifically for capturing.

The wierd thing is that I captured full size when I first got the card and there was a bunch of test caps on the HD, plus I was running mirc and some other stuff at the same time. It worked fine, then.

I don't know what happened between then and now. I've been playing around with settings, experimenting with capturing, trying to learn the ropes. All I can think of is that I changed something in the last week and just don't see it.

Thanks,

Michelle

PS: I don't understand what the bit about your grandmother means?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by This_Idiot:
Michelle,

Sounds like you're capturing to the same drive constantly. How full is this drive now ? What sort of benchmark are you getting from it now compared to your benchmark after installation ? If you're deleting unwanted (or finished with) footage off the HD, are you remembering to empty the recycle (not usually necessary with AVIs since they don't fit in it anyways) and defragging the capture drive afterwards ?

Am I teaching my grandmother to suck eggs ?



Chris</font>

[This message has been edited by Michelle Cox (edited 19 April 2001).]

[Michelle Cox]

Still haven't fixed this. Anyone else have any ideas?

Michelle

[droidman]

Just curious, but are you trying to view the huffy file or are your recompressing to another format before viewing.

[Michelle Cox]

Both. I thought the problem might have to do with the fact that huffy isn't meant for playback, even though I can play back the smaller ones just fine. So I tried compressing them first and VDub totally chokes when I try to do it. There is definitely something wrong with the files.

Thanks,

Michelle

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by droidman:
Just curious, but are you trying to view the huffy file or are your recompressing to another format before viewing.

</font>