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**Luco** · 30 January 2002, 04:24

check at www.vcdhelp.com

"OO"

**zeb7** · 30 January 2002, 20:10

"I think that the problem is that the output signal is not really Ntsc, but somewhere between the frequencies of Pal and Ntsc "

Yes you're VCR is most likey outputing "PAL-60" (some DVD player do to)
you're TV is automaticy swithing 50/60 fields ,but the matrox is not
PAL = 704x576 at 50 fields ( 25fps )
PAL-60 = 704x480 at 60 fields ( 30fps )
NTSC = 704x480 at 60 fields ( 30fps )

Some VCR's can output pure NTSC (try different vcr)

"But, my question is, if I can perfectly see it on screen,
why can't I record it? Is it there a possibility I don't know of"

Did the MV patch fix the problem then ? please let us know

**Tsuby** · 31 January 2002, 02:42

tsuby

Yes you're VCR is most likey outputing "PAL-60" (some DVD player do to)
you're TV is automaticy swithing 50/60 fields ,but the matrox is not
PAL = 704x576 at 50 fields ( 25fps )
PAL-60 = 704x480 at 60 fields ( 30fps )
NTSC = 704x480 at 60 fields ( 30fps )

Some VCR's can output pure NTSC (try different vcr)

Ok, so I guessed this right.

I'd like to use a different vcr, that'de be much easier, but being PAL the standard system in Italy, so called multi-standard vcr are not so easy (or cheap

) to find. I'd have to bring one home from abroad.

I could not try anything with the macrovision patch yet because I am struggling with unexpected hardware problems (mobo is due to replacement on Monday).
Since the system is going to be formatted on Monday I don't feel like spending another night adjusting settings which are being erased in three days.

And anyway I could not do much with the computer resetting about every 35 minutes... I would not even know which peripheral to blame for the failures.
I hate buggy motherboards. Especially if they cost 250$ and breakdown unexpectedly while I'm on holiday and ready for capturing!!!!

Anyway I'll be on holiday next week too, so I'll be producing a lot of videos and I'll try any setting I can think of.

I'll keep a log of all tries and then I'll let you know if I solved the problem or not.

By the way, I already know that matrox software won't record pal at 30fpfs. Is it there a software with this capability?

Thanks for everything!

Erika

**cyberhof** · 1 February 2002, 23:44

Hi!
I have had this problem to (live in Sweden where there is Pal system to).

I installed the macrovision patch and got rid of half the problem (!?) and then captured via Adobe Premiere 5.1 (that was the newest version when I did this, probebly works with 6.0 to).

The only problem with this was that it only produced one file (usally it splits up the files when you capture it with other applecations so they won't get unreadable but not here) so you have to do some counting and stop capturing after xxx aumount of time and then stop the tape and capture xxx aumont again, this is not so hard to do if you capture a bit to much eatch time and do it when they change camera angle...

I hope this helps!

If anyone nows of an easyer way please post, othervise try it...

Regards

Cyberhof

**zeb7** · 2 February 2002, 15:41

I found a NTSC video tape , and had no problems capturing

I'm using matrox VT 1.55
VurtualDub for capturing (set to NTSC)
The video player is Sharp vc-s2000
Capturing was done via the S-vhs connection

**Tsuby** · 19 May 2002, 11:25

It was about time, isn't it?

Hi everybody once again.

I am sorry I could not post the results of my various attempts sooner, but I did not actually attempt anything until a few days ago.

The fact is that the ntsc-capable VCR is about as far from the computer as it could be (third floor vs. basement!), so I just had to wait and get rid of parents, brother, various relatives visiting and so on, before taking official possess of the basement and starting doing things seriously

The results are GOOD!

Well, not as good as I hoped, but I can survive with what I have.

I am now recording using Avi_IO and after I found the right settings I can record without too many difficulties.

The thing that turned the trick was the source setting (after I patched the drivers for macrovision), as Zeb7 said.

Actually, when I turn on Avi_IO and the vcr, the software says that I am watching a PAL movie, but, if I want to import it, I have to manually change the setting and tell the software/capturing driver, that I am recording NTSC. After that the screen changes its size and I totally miss the upper part of the screen itself.

After this I start recording. I get a few drops (1%-2% max.), which is fare more than usual for me, but I can understand, since the tapes are 18 to 20 years old

However, when I play the movie back, it is complete and the proportions are correct.
I have some interleaving problems by watching it on the monitor, but on my tv-set it looks great.
It really seems to me that the worse the movie looks on monitor... the better it does on tv

But the best part is the mpg2 encoding!
I use tmpgenc and its "wizard" "correctly" assumes that I have a NTSC avi file.
BUT, the project is for PAL mpg2. If I try to change that... the results are creepy. If I say PAL is ok, then the file comes out perfectly

However, since the things work ok, I don't even want to know why

I just assume that the computer "thinks" it is NTSC because it "looks" like Ntsc, even though it is nor PAL nor NTSC. It is confusing for me already.

However I still have a problem, and I don't know how to solve it.
Better said, I do know, but I cannot afford it

I have a 20GB Hard disk. There are 4 partitions (used to be 5), c has 7GB, d & e 3 each and f has 7 GB (f is new and contains no data yet).
I used to save all avi files on c, but I don't like it, because c is where I keep the OS and I want it to be "clean".
That's why I created f, deleting some stuff I was no longer using.

The problem is, the disk seems not quick enough for the datarate I wish to use. I know I just need to buy a new hard disk... but I need the bucks for other things for now and I don't see why should I waste 7GB of free space.

Moreover, the datarate problems only comes up if I record ntsc on partition f. And not immediately!

The first 2GB are recorded ok. After that the I_O buffer starts running up and down and, finally I run out of buffers.

WHY???

Is that because ntsc is 30fps and pal 25?
And anyway... why is the first file ok and the other ones not?

I need to record 5-10 minutes each time, I cannot stop and process every single avi file...

Have you got any ideas???

Thanks

Erika

**zeb7** · 19 May 2002, 13:56

Permanent swap file ( my settings are / min 60mb max 500mb ) in win98se
Defragment all partitions, shut down firewalls ( if possible) and virus scanner, and other background progs
use Ctrl + Alt + Delete to end all tasks (but leave systray & explorer running)
Update motherboard drives ,

These thing will improve you're capture performance.

Then restart the computer after capturing to get the virus scanner and
background programs running again.

Their is a link to this info on Matrox & other websights with tips , has anyone got these Links for Tsuby ?

**miya** · 19 May 2002, 14:14

Recording to a separate physical harddrive, not just another partition on your main system drive, is prefered.

**Tsuby** · 20 May 2002, 12:20

Hi everyone

Permanent swap file ( my settings are / min 60mb max 500mb ) in win98se
Defragment all partitions, shut down firewalls ( if possible) and virus scanner, and other background progs
use Ctrl + Alt + Delete to end all tasks (but leave systray & explorer running)
Update motherboard drives ,

That's what I do every time, but unfortunately it does not help that much

Recording to a separate physical harddrive, not just another partition on your main system drive, is prefered.

I said that too at the beginning of my post. That's what I plan to do, but I cannot buy a new hard disk now.
My hardware can support ATA133, so that's alright. BUT I'll be buying the new disk in two months and I am looking for something that can help me now.

Thanks anyway

Erika

**Phil Pugh** · 21 May 2002, 04:19

As stated before the only reliable way to do no-drop captures is to have a separate disk.

Your problems about drops when capturing to the F: partition is probably to do with seek times. It is logical to assume that the F:/ partition is far way from the C:/ partition physically on the disk. So when your O/S causes the system drive to be accessed the heads have to move a relatively long way from F to C and back again. Plus any directory lookup that may be needed. By which time you run out of buffer space for the capture and ooppssss.... there goes another frame. If your system is needing to swap or page then the problem is magnified greatly.

If you really can't afford another disk yet, you have a couple of options...

1/ Live with it and keep saving your pennies up.

2/ Try to do the capture on the partition closest to the system partition (logically this would be the D: partition). It won't fix the problem but it could well reduce the number of dropped frames.

3/ (OK I lied about a couple!)
You used to capture to the C: drive but you didn't say you had any dropped frames? If this is the case then go back to capturing on C: - the o/s doesn't care about how 'messy' this looks and no one is going to say "Nice video - shame about the messy disk structure though"

**zeb7** · 21 May 2002, 16:01

A separate Drive is not that important my C: and D; drives go sleep after 3mins of capturing anyway

here's a little but true story ;
i was capturing a 40mins clip at 704x576 pal HQ 44.1 Stereo audio
using VirtualDub with 40mb buffer (total)
Drives C;D: when't sleep the capturing was going well and i forgot
drive D; was sleeping and clicked on it in windows explorer Dho!!
the system stalls and it take about 5sec for that drive to spinup.
when i checked the VirtualDub capture window i had no dropped frames

the end

it took a long time to get my Win98se to capture Hardware MJPEG
at about 10% to 30% CPU in the VirtualDub program
VIA drivers and sound card troubles

**Phil Pugh** · 27 May 2002, 01:36

A separate Drive is not that important my C: and D; drives go sleep after 3mins of capturing anyway

Which means you are capturing to a separate drive!

And you highlight the problems of letting your drives spin down during captures - it's only takes the O/S to decide to do something (eg swap) on the O/S disk (which has spun down) and it can cause problems. Starting up a non-video, non-O/S drive shouldn't affect the capturing performance - the o/s will multi-task this sort of work.

Unless you are running a battery powered system there is no point in letting your drives spin down. Most of the stress caused to disk drive motors occurs during spinning up - best to keep them spinning.

**miya** · 27 May 2002, 06:24

Phil is 100% right.

**Flying dutchman** · 27 May 2002, 07:02

I have a JVC vcr (pal) that can playback NTSC tapes in "pseudo-PAL" mode which is PAL at 60 Hz, 525 lines.

I was unable to capture the output using the hardware codec, but it worked fine using YUY2+Picvideo under Win98 (VT 1.52). Maybe that's an option for you?

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