MSPro 5.2 with Matrox Marvel G200

[Les]

I have been using Avid Cinema with Matrox Marvel G200 with success but the usual limitations. Having read that you can get hold of a full version the MSPro 5.0 via Egghead in the States I managed to do this.
I duly received my MSP and also upgraded it for free to vers. 5.2.
My problem is that I can't get a picture in the MSP capture screen when playing my VCR into the breakout box. I can hear the sound, but just see a blue screen. Nothing I seem to try will give me a picture to capture. Is there a subtle difference between the MSPro on sale in the States and that which may be available in the UK?
Any ideas about what I should try? The frustrating thing is that I know my setup is fine for capturing into Avid Cinema.

[fluggo99]

Try these things:

Set View->Overlay.

Go to Setup->Video Format... and set it to MJPEG (every once in a while, I find problems with RGB).

Go to Setup->Video Source... and set it to the appropriate connection and standard. If you encounter errors here......

Go to the Control menu, and if the second item says Unfreeze, select it. (I've gotten myself worked up many times only to find out that the display was frozen.)

If all else fails, see what happens if you try to capture; an error message may appear.

fluggo99

[Les]

Thanks for your reply fluggo99. I have tried what you suggested where I can but no luck yet. One puzzle is that on setting up the standard, NTSC is supported and PAL M and PAL N but all other PALs and SECAM is greyed out. In the UK we require PAL I, and that was the reason I asked if there was any difference between the MSPro I bought in the States and that available here.
Originally, I had thought that the different PAL standards were only relevant when using a TV input off air, and not a recorded signal from a PAL VCR.
None of the guides for MSPro which I have give me any clues as to why I should not get a picture up on 'Capture' straight away - very frustrating as I know my card is capturing fine when I use Avid Cinema.
Anybody out there with any steps I might try?

Les

[fluggo99]

Not much more useful info I can give, but have it anyways:

Understand at least that Avid Cinema, MSPro, and the Microsoft sample VidCap all use the same methods for capturing, all the same drivers, all the same API. There's just a different..."skin" on them...shall we say?

So the fault of standards lies not with the capturing program necessarily, but with the capture driver. This goes for just about every problem you might have. The fact that it was bought in the States won't matter unless Ulead fixed a bug in one but not the other.

All settings relevant specifically to the capture driver are set by: View->Preview and Overlay; Setup->Video Format...; Setup->Video Source...; Setup->Video Display...; and Control->Freeze; View->Preview Options... applies when using the preview view (which you should never use).

Just out of curiosity...what happens if you hit "spacebar" twice? (freeze/unfreeze) (This all assumes that all hookups are correct...)

Then there's the other question: If Avid Cinema works for you, why not use it for captures?

[Dave Lawton]

Les. You are correct that in the UK we use PAL system I which refers to the spacing between the vision and sound carriers on the UHF transmission. In Europe they use a different spacing.

However PAL M and PAL N are a different matter. With composite video we have PAL and NTSC colour coding systems, we have 525 and 625 lines with 50 and 60 Hz field rates and colour subcarrier frequencies of 3.58 and 4.43 Mhz (approx)

UK PAL is 625/50, 4.43 s/c with PAL coding. PAL M as used in Brazil is 525 lines, 3.58 s/c but with PAL coding. PAL N as used in Argentina is 625 lines, 3.58 s/c and PAL coding.

[This_Idiot]

Les,

Are you able to capture properly using PC-VCR ?

[Marijn]

Hi there,

have you tried to uninstall and then reinstall the Matrox videodrivers and videotools? I believe it is the videotools that have to be installed AFTER installing MSP. I don't know whether it is really nessecary, but somewhere in the manual there are a few lines about this. There are also two patches on the Ulead website. Maybe they help.

Marijn

[Les]

Thanks people for all your input on this but I'm still drawing a blank. However, I have made some discoveries. When I try to capture I only get the blue, silent screen but there is something capturing because it forms an avi file. When I look at the properties of this it tells me that I have several thousand KBs of avi file representing so many frames etc., etc. I can even import this captured file into the editor where it appears on the timeline as the quoted avi file but in silent blue! This then seems to be a display problem which brings me back to the greyed out PAL I on the 'standard' settings on my setup. Could this be my problem, and, if it is where do I go from there.
All captures work fine into the Matrox PC-VCR and into Avid Cinema, but I would naturally prefer to use the capture on MSPro as it is more versatile.