capture from 8mm tapes ??

[emann]

I am trying to capture old home movies from 8mm tape.

I am using a Marvel G400, XP, vt2.04 (patched for MJPEG).

The tapes contain various recordings of kids of short duration (ie a few minutes here, a few minutes there).

The problem is that capturing works great using MJPEG except for on scene changes. The capture just stops at some scene changes. The program I use to capture doesn't seem to matter (vdub, ulead, ...). The program seems to think the capture is still occuring, but the frame counters and timers and file sizes all stop.

I have tried using a blackbox to remove any sync errors between frames & tried rerecording the 8mm tapes onto vhs all at once to try to get acontinuous sync thruout the tape.

(My PC is not fast enough (500 Mhz Athlon) to capture RGB or YUV without major frame drops)

Nothing seems to work.

Is this scene issue "normal" or is there something wrong with my system. Should I try older videotools so I can use a Macrovision patch?

I hate to have to sit there & manually capture each scene.


Thanks for any help

[Debbie]

Since you're using video tool that have been originated for Win2k with no hardware compression (Matrox MJPG) I think you shuld expect to have similar results.

I would make an image of the hard drive, install Win98SE, install proper drivers and do your capturing from there. Then you can go back to XP by installing the image. You will need two deives or a partition to do this.

Regards,

Debbie

[wkulecz]

Borrow a Digital 8 camcorder and capture over 1394 -- most D8 camcorders play Hi8 and Video8 and do "on-the-fly" conversion to DV.

Beats the hell out of struggling with the Marvel.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

Or you can do D8 one better and get an RT.X100 or RT.X10. Either can capture composite, S-Video and IEEE-1394 sources.

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

Or you can use a low-cost analogue-DV bridge if you cannot find a D8 camera.

Doc, an RT on a 500 MHz Athlon????????

[emann]

Or you can use a low-cost analogue-DV bridge if you cannot find a D8 camera.

Any suggestion on where to find this?

And would it have the same issue with scene changes?

[wkulecz]

Canopus ADVC-50 if you are not going back to analog out, otherwise ADVC-100.

Don't get the Dazzle Hollywood Bridge.

Sony DVMC-DA2 is OK if you can find one.

--wally.

[THE_Editor]

or the URL Electronic-design

[emann]

So what is the difference between these cards and the Marvel G400 doing MJPEG h/w capture?

(other than the fact that Matrox won't support the damn thing)

why won't these cards have problems (either with scene changes or with something else) when the Matrox does?

[THE_Editor]

Dunno !!

If its any consolation to ya .. Sometimes .. When i'm capturing analogue footage, I drop 1 frame on a scene change. Doesn't affect it at all. (Your'll probably chop those scenes "Ends" anyway and put nice wipes in).

btw

That card above costs £250. Is ANalogue & DIgital.

[Brian Ellis]

I use the Canopus ADVC-100. It converts analogue to DV before the signal even reaches the computer, so it will work with ANY O/S that can accept IEEE-1394, even for MAC and Linux platforms (maybe I should say even XP ). It makes analogue capture as hassle-free as DV, because it is just that and the quality is excellent (certainly, it will accept all that Hi8 will give it). I get zero drops or glitches over 1 hour of VHS-C tape in good condition. The ADVC-50 is quite low-cost and the ADVC-100 is about $200+ high street price, if I remember correctly.

You will have none of the problems that your G-400 are heir to - and they are many. I cannot guarantee that you will get perfect transitions: that depends on how your camcorder has coped with starting and stopping. What I can say is that tapes which used to cause half-a-dozen drops at scene transitions with the Marvel now transit perfectly with the bridge. I've now scrapped the Marvel. Whether this will be the case for you, I cannot say. You could perhaps find a friendly dealer who will allow you to try one for a couple of days (you will also need an IEEE-1394 card, if you don't already have such an input). Or find someone close to where you live who can show you how it works with your camcorder.

I strongly recommend this solution.

[Peter B]

It sounds to me from your orginal post that the macrovision protection is kicking in and stopping your capture.

This is included in the orginal drivers to stop pirating of videotapes. Unfortunately macrovision is sort of a static signal that often the Marvel thinks is the static between clips on your tape.

Depending on which drivers you are using you should be able to find a macrovison patch which removes this "feature" on this site in the driver section.

[emann]

I am using 2.04 video tools

I can't seem to find a Macrovision patch.

Does anyone know where one may be?

[anteck]

Chief, I have the exact same problem.

As far as I can see, and i've looked and looked, there is no macrovision patch for VT2.04.

This sucks.

I have a dualboot OS - use 2000 for audio, but 98 for games and Video. Win 98, If you use VT 1.54 with Displace driver 1.55, and use the macrovision patch for VT1.54, with virtual dub, you'll be fine... You can pause, fast-foward, rewind, stop, play, whatever, using a vid8, and it keeps on going . . .solid as a rock. All these files are available of the matrox users homepage.

I hope this helps ya - it's probably the most cost effective solution - yo don't need to buy anything, just reboot and use 98 to capture, then 2000 to edit, or whatever. I stay in 98 and compress using VDub

Anttos -

The video maker.

https://www.anteck.com

[emann]

antek,

I am going to reformat (argh!!!) and setup a dual boot for 98 this Weekend. (I have to reformat because I am NTFS right now). I think I have come to the conclusion that this is the only option without cost.

If this doesn't work, I think I'm moving to an AIW if I can find out it won't give me the same issue (or others). At least they support their cards past 1 year. (F-you Matrox)

The disadvantage I thought I would solve by going to XP would be the 2 Gig file limit. How well does vdub segment? Does it lose many frames?

Thanks