WinTV PCI & VirtualDub FULL res capture?

[az]

Hi everyone

I want to capture video at full PAL res (what would that be, btw?), using my WinTV PCI. I'm using VirtualDub for capturing now, but it won't let me capture over threehundredsomething.

Is capturing at full resolution impossible, or just not possible with this combination of hard & software?

Any advice greatly appreciated

AZ

[Indiana]

It is possible (I'm doing that all the time here with my WinTV Radio), just not with Hauppauges WDM drivers.
The last time I've checked you had to use the VFW drivers to be able to capture full-res (768x576).

EDIT: I'm using VirtualDub here as well.

[az]

Ah, thank you very much, Indiana

I'll try that in two weeks or so, when I get the camera back

AZ

[Indiana]

But be aware that it'll take about 22MB per second if you don't use some form of compression. Many single HDs choke on this.

[az]

I'll be using HuffYUV, lest anyone points me to something better a Duron 750 and a 60GXP can manage

AZ

[Indiana]

HuffYUV is fine.
If you want to fit more on the HD you could also try the PicVideo MJPEG codec (worked fine on my Duron800 back then).
Unfotunately it's not free anymore nowadays, but still it's quite cheap.

[az]

Then it's not for me

I need a lossless (or near-lossless), fast at encoding, codec, that can be obtained for free.

I'll encode with this CODEC on the fly, to save disk space and bandwidth (uncompressed is a no-go without RAID), and after that convert into DivX or something like that

AZ

[Indiana]

Just be aware that even a 60GB HD is just enough for ~2 hours of HuffYUV movie. Counting the advertisements in some movies do last over 2 hours, so you're a bit on the low side regarding HD-space. My 80GB RAID is just big enough for HuffYUV capturing.
And if it's the only HD you have, I'm sure that there's quite some space already taken by the OS, your apps/games,...
Then there is sometimes the case that there are two movies transmitted shortly after each other so you might not have time to compress the first in between.
That's where the MJPEG can be really handy. PicVideo MJPEG can be configured to give VERY good quality (the lossy compression is nearly not noticeable), and is very fast (faster in fact than HuffYUV). Another very important advantage of the MJPEG against software/realtime MPEG compression is that the file stays editable on a frame-exact basis.

[az]

Thanks for the advice

If anyone's got more capturing newbie advice, put it here

AZ

[Michel Carleer]

The problem of full res capture is true for other TV cards (and drivers) as well. If you want full res, then you can try to disable preview (and overlay) in Virtualdub. Of course then it is quite difficult to see the start and stop points. But it works, at least for me.

[LuSiD]

There is a free 3rd party WDM driver that will let you capture at full resolution in virtualdub.

btwincap

It's the only WDM driver that gives VFW apps access to both fields of the video through the wrapper. It also may give you access to features of the card that the hauppauge driver doesn't, like sharpness, white balance, etc.

[Indiana]

Thanks for that link. I'll have to try this.

(I've tried Hauppauges WDM drivers several times now but always reverted to the WDM ones)