recording problems w/ tv tuner

[coolfish]

When I record stuff, it goes okay for a while (2-3 minutes) and then somehow changes into black and white mode only! This is recording offa the TV-tuner.
g400DH 32mb
RR-G
celery 533mhz (366 oc'd to 533)
abit bp6
win98se
pd 5.30
vid tools 1.51

I have it the compression set to --
mjepg 16.5:1. recording settings set to tv quality audio, 704x480 NTSC, 30frames per sec. the byte rate is 1.258MB/sec. If I have the compression ratio lower (higher quality) it doesn't record as well.

Any ideas?

[DrMordrid]

One thing that can do it is a flaky source. One of my Sony cams and a VHS deck have low voltages on their vidouts. This is a lot more common than you might think.

This problem can extend to antenna and cable sources as well, especially if your coax run is long or if the coax itself is of an old type.

I fixed the cam/vcr problem by getting a small composite preamp at Radio Shak ($25 USD) and putting it inline between the offending devices and the Marvel.

That became unnecessary when I got my JVC SVHS deck as it behaves like it has a preamp built in. I just feed the offending devices through it's aux input and feed the output to the Marvels BOB.

The antenna/cable solution was also easy (I have a 60' run to the lab). A cable compatable antanna amp inline between the coax and the BOB works nicely. Radio Shak again.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 30 December 1999).]

[coolfish]

What is a BOB?

[DrMordrid]

Thats a box Marvel-ites use to connect their video in and out cables to.

Dr. Mordrid