HuffYUV sound & pic problems

[Meeper]

Nope, everything else records fine. The problem only occurs when I use AVI_IO or Virtual Dub to capture using HuffYuv/YUY2.

I should have posted this before, but my set up is:
AMD k6-2 500mhz
TMC TI5VGA motherboard, using the VIA 4.24 driver patch
G400 Marvel, using 5.55 display drivers and 1.54 video tools (although I tried degrading to the 1.52 with no better results)
SB Live!, using the 5/5/2000 revision drivers
256 meg ram

[Dr Mordrid]

Ewww.....

My favorite setup: a VIA chipped board. That plus the questionable throughput of the cache controller, known low PCI bus performance and the K6-2's rather slow FPU it's no suprise you're having problems.

For a while on one of our systems we were using a Marvel G400, Celeron 466, 64 megs, Asus P2B mainboard and an AWE-64 ISA audio card and getting excellent results with YUY2/HuffYUV up to 352x480. Since that system moved up to a P3B-F and Celeron-II 600 it's capable of full frame captures using either AVI_IO or VirtualDUB.

The big system (Asus P3B-F, PIII/850, 256 megs) can even capture YUY2/HuffYUV using VirtualDUB and scale the capture to 640x480 or 480x480 in realtime.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 03 September 2000).]

[Meeper]

Hmmm, that not good. Especially as I only bought the MB about a month ago. Assuming that I'm rich/stupid (delete as applicable) enough to buy another MB/CPU soonish, what sort of CPU speed should I be looking at to do reliable HuffYuv captures (also assuming that the rest of the set up is up to scratch)?

[Todd1]

Meeper

I was using an AMD Processor with VIA Chipset and had problems so I went back to Intel for the processor.

My configuration now is:

P3 733
Soltek SL-65VF+ MB
Via Apollo Pro133 VT82C693A chipset
Promise Fasttrak 66 with 4 Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 40 Ultra DMA 66 Hard Drive 15.3 Gb each

I have zero dropped frames capturing with AVI_IO using HuffYuv/YUY2 at 704 x 480 and great quality when saved to MPEG-1.

That is with a VIA chipset. The problem I had with the VIA chipset was with my Fasttrak controller. I had to set the Stripe Block down all the way to 1Kb to eliminate noise on the audio track.

If I were rich (I've got stupid down to an art) I would dump the VIA chipset, but it can work. I'm just not sure that it can work when paired with an AMD processor.

[Dr Mordrid]

Just to get it on the record;

Toms Hardware now gives his approval to the new i815 chipset over the VIA and the previous Intel offerings, including the 440BX.

Up until recently he advised using the 440BX O/C'ed with PC-133 over both the VIA and i8x0 offerings, even if the Intels were equipped with RAMBUS dual-channel.

http://www.tomshardware.com

Dr. Mordrid

[Meeper]

Looks as though I might be dipping into my back account again then. Thanks for the help all. )

[Riddek]

Hi Meeper.
Man, I'm glad I found your post! I recently found out about HuffYUV thanks to Eric VanHeest on this forum, but he wasn't sure if it would work with the Marvel G400. Despite the problems you were having with your mobo/CPU, it sounds like the Marvel & HuffYUV are compatable. (cool!)

Could you do me a HUGE favor and tell me exactly what I have to do to get HuffYUV and (I believe it's called) VirtualDub working on my system? (where to go to download, WHAT to download, how to install...)

I would be eternally grateful if you could help me out. Thanks!

ps-did you get your system straightened out? I'm in the market for a new mobo, myself. I think I'll go with a MS-BXMaster. (I have no idea what works well with video editing outside the BX world.)

[Meeper]

Hi Riddek.

HuffYuv codec: http://www.math.berkeley.edu/~benrg/huffyuv.html

Hack to enable the YUY2 feature: http://idiots-guide.matroxusers.com/DTVW_downloads.htm

Anti-macrovision hack: http://www.murc.ws/Driver/VidTools.html

Virtualdub: http://www186.pair.com/vdub/index.html

AVI_IO http://www.nct.ch/multimedia/avi_io/

I'd advise installing the ani-macro hack first, as I found that it didn't work on my system if I installed after the YUY2 hack. Then install the YUY2 hack & the HuffYuv codec. The details on how to install the different packages are either explained, or are obvious (such as unzipping the file, and then running the .EXE).

I haven't really got very far with Virtualdub, so can't offer any help. The AVI_IO program is excellent though - highly recommended.

Nope, my system is still the same at the moment. I'm looking at a few motherboards (such as one of the Abit ones that has raid on the board), and considering just how much I can spend on the board and CPU - so I'll be getting a PII 233 more than likely. ;o)

I hope some of this has been of use.

[Riddek]

Excellent, Thanks M!
BTW, I think I've changed my mind about the BXMaster. A couple of people have recommended the i815 chipset instead. Decisions, decisions!

[BESommer]

I'm having similar issues with audio when capturing PAL video with AVI_IO using HuffyUV. The audio is very scratchy. No dropped frames are reported. I have it set to PCM, 44100 Hz, 172Kb/sec since that is the closest I can find to VCD standard audio. Beats me why they don't have a 224 Kb/sec option. When I capture using the MJPEG codec at high quality I don't have this problem. I'm using HuffYUV 2.1.1 and Matrox Video Tools 1.52. My signature consists of my system configuration. Any assistance or feedback is appreciated.

------------------
Intel PIII 733MHz 133 MHz FSB
ASUS CUV4X VIA Apollo Pro133A FCPGA/sound
256MB RAM
IBM DDYS-T36950 36.7GB 4.9 ms U160SCSI 10000rpm (Qty: 2, Striped)
Adaptec 2100S RAID Controller
Matrox Marvel G400 16MB AGP TV
Sound Blaster Live Platinum
Win98SE

[This message has been edited by BESommer (edited 01 December 2000).]

[Phire]

Are you supposed to change just the video tools or the graphics driver or both to get HuffYUV to work? and which version(s) do they have to be?

[BESommer]

If you look at the "Previous Video Tools Drivers" page on the Matrox web site you'll see that the Video Tools Version 1.52.033 requires the display driver 5.41.008.

[This message has been edited by BESommer (edited 30 November 2000).]