#$@%&!* .avi playback using AVIIO

[KRSESQ]

Our story so far:

Our hero has finally installed a Santa Cruz and is running it through the mill with (so far) good results.

Captured 2+ hours of Hi8 analog video @704x480, 30 fps (audio CD quality) using VT 1.52 and edited in Prem 6.0. Created several 352x240, 29.97 fps, 44,100 x 16 bit mono *.avis with the intention of outputting seamlessly via AVIIO.

File playback in VT and Media Player 7.1 is excellent, audio in sync throughout with no visible drops.

Playback in AVIIO has audio starting out of sync by about 1/4 sec, drifting to nearly a full second out of sync by the end of the first segment (29 minutes, 1.8 gig filesize). Second segment begins with audio more or less in sync, but drifts out by about 1/2 second over duration (19 minutes).

AVIIO reports 8 dropped frames out of 83,000 played back (tolerable if the audio stayed in sync).

The rest of it:
1200 tbird
Abit KT7A (no on-board RAID)
Maxtor 17 gig system drive
Promise Fasttrak 66
Dual Maxtor 30 gig capture drives
The aforementioned Santa Cruz
3Com PCI Network card
Win98FE
PD 5.41
VT 1.52
DX 8.1

Would running AVIIO off the capture array rather than the system drive cause this problem?

Defragging the capture array now to see if that helps. See you next week.

Kevin

[Flying dutchman]

Hmmm. I live in Pal country myself, but why didn't you capture at 29.97 fps in the first place? And does this audio drift also occur if you playback the original (non-edited) AVI files?


My own experience is, that the Marvel doesn't like Avi files with a 1-frame audio interleave.

[Dr Mordrid]

Yes, the capture should have been done at 29.97fps and the interleave should have been longer.

Dr. Mordrid

[KRSESQ]

Thanks. Unfortunately Vid Tools doesn't give me those options and its the only capture utility that gives me any consistant reliability. Capping with AVIIO, Prem Capture, and even MSP gives me dropped frames all over the place or insane file sizes (using either Matrox MJPG or PicVideo MJPG) and no amount of tweaking the settings seems to help.

Hell with it. Maybe I WILL get that 8500DV I've been drooling over.

Kevin

[Sciascia]

Originally posted by KRSESQ
Thanks. Unfortunately Vid Tools doesn't give me those options and its the only capture utility that gives me any consistant reliability. Capping with AVIIO, Prem Capture, and even MSP gives me dropped frames all over the place or insane file sizes (using either Matrox MJPG or PicVideo MJPG) and no amount of tweaking the settings seems to help.

Hell with it. Maybe I WILL get that 8500DV I've been drooling over.

Kevin

You think that you got problems now, be very careful about buying that 8500DV. There is a page on the ATI site that lists compatible MB's. Make sure that yours is listed or you will have more problems than a little audio sync. Truth is that I would go after the AIW Radeon 128, it is more stable, faster 3D and has a better tuner from what I hear. No compatability issues either from what I have heard. The built in firewire is no great bonus, just spend $20 and buy a PCI version and it does the same thing.

I love mine, but figure the $300+ that it cost and the $600+ that it took to upgrade to get it to work, it was rather pricey. Oh yeah, plan on upgrading the OS as well, Win98 isn't the best with these cards, WinXP seems to work fantastic though and the Santa Cruz drivers work well too.

[KRSESQ]

Do you have the URL for that compatibility page? I can't find it.

Unfortunately it would appear (unless I'm reading things wrong) that the 8500DV is the only model that supports video capture in any format other than MPEG2.

Kevin

[Sciascia]

I think that is wrong. They are all basically the same for capture. It is the other features that are different and that cause problems.

Here is the link.

Here is alink of some of the horror stories.

[KRSESQ]

Thanks. If the compatibility list is any indication, I should be okay: Award BIOS and Via KT133 chipset. As for the Firewire problem, I'm not too concerned as all of my captures would be from analog source via S-video or from broadcast. If and when I get a digital camcorder, an extra $20 - $30 for a separate firewire card is not that bad.

Admittedly, if they're going to put firewire ports on the thing it would behoove them to make sure it works. As long as I have a rough idea of what I'm in for going in.

Kevin