G400 Max + Rainbow Runner-G dropping frames

[jwvid]

I just got a Rainbow Runner G-series card for
my Matrox G400 Max DH running on a Celeron 533/Win98 machine with 512Mb memory and 30Gb scsi disks. I loaded the recommend drivers (display 5.55.022 and vidtool 1.54.0.40).
When I try to capture TV with MJPEG, I get about 50% dropped frames. When I switch to
RGB/16.7million colors, I get NO dropped frames. My CPU load when capturing with MJPEG is only at about 30-40% on average. Why am I dropping frames with MJPEG? I ran the HD benchmark and I get at least 12Mb/sec throughput.

thanks,
John

[Pytkin]

I have same problems .. MJPEG is unusable .. If capturing in YUY2 (5M/s) or RGB then no drops .. If Im capturing in MJPEG (800k/s-3M/s), then I everytime getting drops ..

[Technoid]

I't seems to be some timing problem betveen the G400 and the RRG as i have the same problem but it only started after i had replaced my g200 with my g400!

------------------
AMD K7-900MHz MSI K7Pro
G400Mill 32MB SGRAM + RRG
SBlive
256 MB RAM CAS2
43GB HDD Space!(Actual 40GB) (13+30 Quantum drives)
Pioneer 104S DVD 10x CD 40x SLOT IN
SONY CRX140E 8/4/32 CDRW

[This message has been edited by Technoid (edited 13 August 2000).]

[jwvid]

It's "nice" to see that maybe my problem isn't related to an underpowered CPU. I'm running a celeron 466@560 with 512Mb ram and seagate cheeta UW-scsi3 drives. I tried dropping the overclocking to normal but still no effects. It's funny to see that whatever resolution or bandwidth I pick for MJPEG, I still get the same approximately 50% dropped frames. So maybe the theory of a timing problem could be right! So now how do you correct the "timing" problem? Everything I have has its own IRQ, I put my machine in non-overclocked mode. I've turned every non-matrox process off.

thanks,
John

[Android]

If you overclock you G400 (max or not) you will get dropped frames.

I know this is stupid, but you WILL get stable performance if you underclock. I have played with MGA clock utility and ran some experiments. My max at stock speed was ok if I booted up, but if I overclocked, then went to stock speed - dropped 90% frames... needed to underclock to fix the problem.

Andrew

[mynx]

What size are you captureing in? I used 320 X 480 with only a couple dropped. When I changed to 320 X 240 I dropped 1 a minute. This was with MJPEG.

[jwvid]

Thanks for everyone's help. Per suggestion, I tried to DOWN-clock the G400 Max to something like 275 (MHz?...used TWEAK), and now I can capture with maybe 1 drop every few minutes; much better than the 50% dropped frame rate! So, is this the best I can hope for or can this HW combo really achieve ZERO drop frames? I've used PC-VCR, VirtualDub, and AVI_IO...they all drop about the same. Changing resolution of the display, of the capture rate, and not doing overlays did not help with reducing dropped frames.

Also what's the best codec and resolution to capture with for mini-dv or svhs video to SVCD. I read how different codecs work better going to mpeg2 than others. How does MJPEG hold up as a capture medium before editing and going to mpeg2 (VBR).

thanks,
John