Who wins the YUY2 shootout: G450-eTV or G400-TV?

[AndrewDV]

Hello,

It's been a little while since the G450-eTV has been out and about. I'm hoping someone can answer a question. Given that the latest win2k drivers open the YUY2 capability of the G400-TV, what reason is there to upgrade to a G450-eTV? Is the YUY2 of the G450-eTV ability better, same, or worse than the G400-TV's YUY2 captures?

Any insight at all?

Thank you

[Christrati]

Not sure about being better but the only problem I have with YUY2 on the Marvel G450 eTV is dropped frames. At least with my card, I loose 1-2 frames every 1-2 mins. No big deal, but probably just a fluke with the video driver. Besides that, it uses very little system resources and gives a good image on capture.

The main benefit I like with YUY2 is MPEG2 capture. One Matrox gave me the registry key to enable interlace encoding, the quality of my MPEG2 files is dramatic! I record hours now straight to MPEG2 with no dropped frames in PC-VCR! That's awsome! As for image quality? As long as you use a high bitrate (8000), you can't tell a difference on the TV at all. Sure MPEG2 is a lossy codec, but if it looks the same as the actual broadcast, who cares right? Just my $.02.

Chris

[Technoid]

Wich registry key is that?

[AndrewDV]

Well, I tested out the YUY2 with the new VTs. Using AVI_IO, I tried to capture half-frame (encoded using PIC MJPEG). The results were below acceptable . Captures would stutter every 5-10 frames. AVI_IOs buffers would go up to compensate, but the result is a very choppy playback.

This is distressing. I expected much more than this. I just wanted it to perform on par with the WinTV.

As it stands now, the card is going away as soon as a replacement can be found. More than likely, I'm going to pair the WinTV with a G550 or GeForceMX card. I'm leaning toward the G550 to keep the excellent DualHead features.

Hope others have better success.

[Indiana]

If you don't take the G550, then why consider the GeforceMX? I'm sure the KyroII with TV-Out (the Videologic XS! is said to have a quite good TV-Out with Overscan output) combined with the WinTV would make a good combo.

[Indiana]

If you don't take the G550, then why consider the GeforceMX? I'm sure the KyroII with TV-Out (the Videologic XS! is said to have a quite good TV-Out with Overscan output) combined with the WinTV would make a good combo.

[IM_Riktar]

I am curious as to what registry key you got from Matrox as well.

[AndrewDV]

Hello,

I have only read some basic info on the Kyro II. Does it have a feature like DVDMax? The reason I lean toward the Matrox cards is for the DualHead ability.

[Indiana]

The KyroII (as all other non-matrox cards out there) doesn't have a DVDMax equal feature, but it at least has an overscan switch to get rid of annoying black borders on the TV-Out.

Still, if you're used to DVDMax and want this functionality it seems you're stuck with Matrox. For this reason I wasn't putting the KyroII against the G550, but against the GeforceMX (that is IMHO worse than the KyroII in every account).

[AndrewDV]

Hello,

Black borders? Do you mean Matrox or NVIDIA (GeForce's have an odd black border problem that can be corrected with a 3rd party tool)?

I get a full screen TV-Out with the G400 when using DVDMax.

[Christrati]

For all those Marvel G450 eTV users, here's the registry key which enables Interlaced Recording on the Fly. Keep in mind this is only for Windows 9x and doesn't work for Win 2k

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ligos\GoMotion Interlaced]
"FieldOrder"=dword:00000000
"Interlaced"=dword:00000001

[AndrewDV]

Hi Christrati,

I am trying to understand why you need those registry settings. Does the G450-eTV deinterlace on the fly with the Ligos codec?

Thank you

[Christrati]

Well, from what I've read in posts before, the Marvel G450 should record frame based and use a deinterlace filter. But, in my actual encounters with this card now, this is not true. The captures are frame based, but the fields are recorded in the wrong order (from what I see) so you get some nice "jaggies" as everyone refers to them. Once you apply this patch in Win 9x, it enables the codec to capture the image as interlaced video (one of the important features the Ligos codec) and this clears up the aliasing issue. However, this makes the stream field based or interlaced. This doesn't bother me at all since the image is equal to the actual broadcast. If you haved applied the patch and you're capturing at 352x480 or 704x480 (NTSC), you'll see a big improvement in image quality.

Also, in order to help playback quality, you'll need to apply the DivX g400 patch. This does not totally clear up the cropped image scenerio but it does clear up the image clarity. As I've stated before, once I got some of the major bugs out of the way, the captures are equal to my Marvel G200 MJPEG captures.

Chris

[Indiana]

Originally posted by AndrewDV
Hello,

Black borders? Do you mean Matrox or NVIDIA (GeForce's have an odd black border problem that can be corrected with a 3rd party tool)?

I get a full screen TV-Out with the G400 when using DVDMax.

Of course, with DVDMax you won't get black borders. This is one of the reasons I'd stay away from NVidia cards - they (at least most of them) don't have overscan (removes the black borders) functionality build in the drivers - and the hassle with this "3rd party program" (TVTool)can drive you mad - I know, I had an Asus3400TNT "Deluxe" card and it's really a major pain in the a** to use the TVout and TVTool, esp. if you don't have a monitor near your TV, e.g. in TV-only systems.

The Videlogic KyroII (like the ATI cards) does have an Overscan-switch in it's drivers, this doesn't give full DVDMax functionality but SHOULD make the picture fit the screen borderless. If it really does I don't know, nor do I know the actual quality of the TVOut, as unfortunately I've not yet seen a Kyro with TVOut. You just have to look at such a card in operation before you buy it and see if it fits your personal needs...