mystique220+rrstudio or marvel g400 on win98 for HMVC...

[Hpar_]

HMVC=hardware mjpeg video capture...hi. this is really wierd. of course, using either of these products under windows means you have to deal with a 2 or 4 gig limit, then your files become split, you loose frames between files and all this. I have read all the optimization faqs so that is not the problem. right now I have the mystique220(4meg version) rrstudio combo installed. the mainboard is an abit kt7a with 512megs of ram/athlon 1.4ghz. the harddrives and cdrom drives, all scsi, plextor etc, the hds are 7200rpm and 10,000rpm so they are not the problem. drivers are the latest for this card, 1677_431 powerdesk, rrstudio capture software is rr210eng.


so when I capture on a clean install, with the these drivers installed, AND I DO NOT RUN THE CONFIG HD BENCHMARK UTIL IN THE MATROX START MENU ON A CLEAN INSTALL OF WIN98SE, I can capture at all the mjpeg quality options/settings. when I run the benchmark util, the system is immediately crippled to 352x480 high quality mjpeg with no recourse. the problem is obviously in the registry. it appears, the hd benchmark utility is telling the registry the hds are not capable of handling the highest data rate (704x480 or 3.1meg/sec dtr with all quality settings cranked to the max) when the capture drives I am using are capable of sustained data transfer rates of 10+ MBs/sec. please, tell me, where is this exact setting in the registry so I can manual tweek it?

I have installed several times over the months and because matrox decided to not support the hardware mjpeg capture under windows 2000, I am stuck with this hardware under the very limited win98 platform if I want hardware mjpeg capture. however, at least there is linux. I have not tried it yet but am very interested in doing so. right now, the registry editing I need help with. please respond asap.

[cuddles]

With your kit you should benchmark @ around 18-20 mbs mimimum.
Have a look in the RRS properties and change the video format and size.
To get around size limit use AVI-IO and set file size to say 2GB & it will batch nicely without drops.
?? ATA drivers ?? UDMA

Cuddles

[smitty]

hi Im not so sure this is your problem, however
you can find the results here
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Matrox/Vidpres/HDBenchResults/....

smitty

[Hpar_]

smitty, that entry is not in my registry since I reinstalled the drivers and did not run the util. unfourtunately, the same problem still exists despite a reinstall of the matrox drivers. in order for me to get back to where I need to be, I would have to reinstall the entire os (win98se) and not run the HD benchmark. this whole thing is upsetting. if I could find the correct tweek on the registry, I think I wouldnt have to go through a complete reinstall. thanks for you input on this.

cuddles, about avi_io, I have tried it and I get a failure in the middle of capture. it resolves the frame drop problem and allows me to capture at high resolution but it does not capture correctly since I am getting this error. I think maybe I should try a new version of the thing maybe? get back to asap and thankyou for your reply as well.

btw, I sent matrox email on this directly. of course, the last time I sent them email for tech support, I never heard back from them which is really bad on their part since, I am not likely now to buy another matrox product. my programmer buddy recommended I use matrox and now he does not use matrox anymore and does not recommend matrox, for good reason too in light of all the technical problems I get, and everyone seem to get.

[cuddles]

Hpar_
I had a similar problem but not with the same M/b or processor.
That is I could only get 3-4 mbs on benchmark utility.
Reinstalled the Intel Ultra ATA Storage drivers that came with Mbd cd and got up to 20 mbs no sweat.And at the time only had 256 mb ram.
Not sure about Abit Mbds or Athlon process config.
Sugest check our Abit HDD drivers or something like that.

Cheers
cuddles

[smitty]

Hi the HDtest is not necessarily accurate .
Try running the test and that should put a result for each drive into the registry key in my earlier post.
then click on the default , go to edit , modify and change the value to 6087 or more. (this is the lowest Ive tried Not a limit)
This should allow you full screen access.
by the way how do know your drives are running at over 6mb/sec?

smitty

[zxgianni]

HD test

Hallo Hpar, for resolving the problem of the HD test result (which doesn't permitt you to capture at maximum bitrate) you can modify the registry key(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Matrox/Vidpres/HDBenchResults/). Tou can set it at about 30-35. This setting let VidCap see an HDisk capable of that performance. Obiouvsly if you choose a bit rate greater than the real speed of your drive you'll have drop frames. You can try until you are satisfied. Bye (sorry for my english)

[Hpar_]

hi everybody. thanks for all the information on this issue. I just set both drives to 10240 (10megs of course) in the registry and it seems to be working fine now. the question, what is a simple but true benchmark utility? I used ts.exe(trouble shooter), an old verion of it and it seems to report an honest data transfer rate out of dos from a boot disk but it sees both drives as 8423kb. I also used another one called microscope 9.06. its an older version but it doesnt really matter. here are the results:

ts.exe: hd1(ibm10k-9.1gig)=16597.3kbps and hd2(hitachi7200-18.2gig)=12376.3
ms.exe: hd1(ibm10k-9.1gig)=17025.1kbps and hd2(hitachi7200-18.2gig)=13254.1kbps

so, should I set it to one of these numbers or...?

I also tried norton utilities 2001 system information under windows instead of dos. it reports the drives have some ridiculous low data transfer rate. also, I pulled the mystique220+rrs addon and put the g400 marvel back into the machine. I really do not care for that breakout box too much since I just pipe the audio directly into the sound card. I like the mystique220+rrs combo better since, you dont have to deal with a bulky external breakout box, which I think the breakout box is a waste of space on the desktop.

also, what is the latest version of avi_io out there? could someone send me a newer copy of that please? does avi_io look at these registry settings when it decides what to do with your video stream or..?