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**gt40** · 28 May 2002, 15:08

Ok, if nobody has any specific suggestions regarding my problem, maybe you can suggest the optimum capture method/setup for a win98 system.
If you have a specific setup that works for you, can you please list it- I am really gettting annoyed at my current capture problems

Thanks

Pat

**Phil Pugh** · 30 May 2002, 09:40

Longtime since I used a RainbowRunner!!

If this is happening on different source videos then it point's to some sort corruption in the capture process. Most likely culprits would be devices sharing a single IRQ or background processes getting in the way.

So...

Stop all uneccessary processes and disconnect the network if possible.

Next open up device manager (Right click My Computer/Left click Properties - sorry if you know this.)

Highlight Computer and click the properties box.

Take a look at the IRQ's and see what's being shared.

Usual suspects would be your graphics/capture card sharing with Network / Soundcard.

If this is the case try moving the card physically.Soundblaster Audigy has a bit of a reputation for hogging the data buss which can cause corruption. I believe disabling the MS-DOS compatibility mode improves the situation. Also - make sure your video capture drive is Master on the Secondary IDE controller (i.e. it's NOT sharing a controller wit the system disk.

I used a Marvel with Rainbow Runner in a 266Mhz 486 with Win 98 / 98SE and never had dropped frames problems once I had sorted the IRQ issues I had.

**Phil Pugh** · 30 May 2002, 09:43

Just another quick thought...

Do you have a big enough power supply? It could be that you are on the ragged limit with all that kit - that would cause all sorts of random problems.

Also check your cables connecting your camcorder/whatever to the RR.

**gt40** · 30 May 2002, 15:38

Thanks for your input Phil,
I have checked my irq's and the g400 has it's own dedicated irq.
Power supply is 350 watt and voltages are all in normal range.
I am going to try some of your other suggestions, but my patience is wearing thin

Again I apreciate your time.

Thanks

Pat

**gt40** · 2 June 2002, 07:06

Ok, just to update- capturing on my win98 was just too frustrating- so I tried in win2k- with results that are atleast predictable. drivers 5.39, vt 2.04, capturing with mediastudio 5.0 using the picvideo codec.
I could capture with no frame drops in most resolutions except 640 x 480, which usually ended in 35-60% frame drops.
Ahh well, atleat the capture is stable

Does anyone know why the 704 x 480 capture option does not appear??

**mikiem** · 2 June 2002, 15:22

Hey Pat

For what it's worth, based largely on memory & a g400 marv, if you're stuck in RGB capture mode anything over 640 is unavailable. I seem to remember with one version of the VTools there was a patch to enable YUV -- at any rate that's where you'd want to be & could explain the drop rate.

RE: a win98 setup -- Personally I found most of the normal recommendations not a huge amount of help. What I did do to salvage the marv from target practice was put it on a machine running the orig. version of win98 rather then SE, using nothing fancy, more or less the typical system the marv was designed for. The difference was huge!

One thing I didn't do was put any recent video software or updates on the thing -- don't know how much that had to do with it but it works.

Trying to eliminate problems with frame drops, I was able to get the marv hardware capture working in both win2k & XP, though I have no idea what problems are common using the RR in either OS. I did a bit of work as well with the sound card end of things...

In my opinion, maybe only in my opinion, most of the blame the sound card stuff is bunk. You will have different timing issues, but that will happen regardless your hardware (including non-PC stuff) with sound and video being based on different time measurements.

Besides, I always had a bit of trouble trying to figure out how a sound card hogging the bus could compromise a data rate to disk of only around 1.5. At any rate, 4 sound cards made zero difference in my experience, and while going USB audio might prove the issue, that's still a bit pricey for my poor wallet.

It is (or was) popular though, especially since the lower end matrox hardware setup follows the sound, basing number of frames and actual framerate on the audio stream being captured. This is pretty much why you can capture 3 files with PCVCR & have 3 different frame rates -- avi-io just fudges the equation a bit, also dropping in an extra frame as required.

RE: Creative DOS stuff, to my knowledge (which again is far from complete) most of the problems there come from irq problems. I know my Live 5.1 wants #7 for DOS compatibility, and with my SIS chipset, this will not work if USB & the printer port are enabled -- regardless the device mgr setting. Otherwise I wouldn't think it "could" do much of anything in an OS later then win95 unless software was using it when you were trying to capture.

RE: pwr supplies... to my knowledge [which isn't much ; ) ] the biggest problem with power supplies is related to motherboard voltage regulation etc... I mean, if you've got a P4, you've got a P4 supply, so I'd think the quantity end was covered. Want to make sure, do some multitasking, writing to all your drives while encoding a file or similar and see if it crashes.

It is possible though that a particular power supply will not work or work well with a particular motherboard. Asus is usually pretty good, so I doubt it, but you could search for threads on pwr supply problems with the board & see what you get.

As far as the original data corruption goes: I RMA'd my orig marv after it ate 1 1/2 monitors. The replacement started doing something very similar to what you're describing, and they RMA'd that one as well. The 3rd marv again worked -- nothing on the system was changed for any of the 3. Could be the hardware compression failing, which if you're not using it anyway (with picvid), might not be a big problem.

Finally, I have no idea how well this works, again citing the empty wallet problem, but Tom's Hardware has an interesting article re: enabling software raid 0 in windows -- since you've got (2) 40's, it might help that drop rate at 640 without a dime spent.

luck
mikie

**gt40** · 2 June 2002, 19:18

That's what I love about these forums- someone with some knowledege will always give you their undivided attention.
Phil and mikie I really do appreciate your input, and hope that some day I am knowledgeable enough to answer some other folks questions.

I have taken all you suggestions/comments in mind an will let you know of my progress.

Thanks again, I owe you all a beer or three.

Pat

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