Marvel G400+YUY2 adds green beam to capture

[jtsavola]

Hi,

I downloaded and installed YUY2 and huffYUV 2.1.1 with Matrox video tools v.1.52 (I have Marvel G400TV). When I'm capturing at full res (704x576 PAL) I'll get an extra (mostly green, about 8 pixels high) beam in the bottom of the picture. When capturing 352x576 PAL there is green beam also in the right side of picture. It is visible in TMPEGEnc and when I'm playing the final MPEG2 clip with WinDVD. If I capture using Matrox MJPEG the result is OK.

Sure I can crop those beams away with TMPEGEnc but I think something is wrong in my system. Could anyone tell me any tips to get out of those beams?

Jape

[Dr Mordrid]

What mainboard/CPU are you using? Audio card? IF a VIA chipset what 4-in-1 drivers are you using?

Dr. Mordrid

[jtsavola]

I'm using Epox-7kxa + Athlon650@750, 256Mb, SBLive Value with latest drivers (VIA 4in1 4.25a). I am using PowerDesk 5.55 (should it be the previous).

I had the same problem before with MJPEG clips too. It were fixed after running Matrox Quick Connect and saving changes. It doesn't help now.

The next thing I noticed now I can't capture audio (with PC-VCR or AVI_IO). I hear it when I'm capturing but it don't come with into clip.

[Dr Mordrid]

1. get rid of the 4-in-1 4.25a drivers. These cause a lot of problems when used in editing systems. The problems run from busmastering, drive support (IDE, SCSI & CDR) and AGP issues. 4.28 is the latest release. Get 'em here;

http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm#4in1

2. SBLive + VIA chipset = bigtime PCI bus loading. PCI loading is usually the problem when you see green lines in a capture as it directly affects HD and bus throughput. If the bus is so loaded that there is an interruption in the video data then you get the green lines.

3. At the very least disable your SBLives ISA emulation mode in the Device Manager. Also turn off all the special features (voices, reverb, spatial, 3D etc.) when editing. Also install the very latest drivers.

If that doesn't help then try another card. The better Yamaha based cards generally work well in editing systems as do the older plain-Jane ISA cards like the SB AWE64 Gold. Stay far away from PCI cards with the AudioPCI & Maestro chipsets. SB-128 is also on the nix list.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 26 February 2001).]

[Raido]

I made comparative capturing between Matrox MJPEG and YUY2. I saw an old post of a guy who claimed a lower quality in YUY2 and I verified it's true: more pixelization as it does a kind of deinterlacing and more general artifacts. If you use it for mpeg encoding (I use WM8) the difference is still enhanced. Actually I didn't try yet HuffYUV but I wonder if trying to optimize YUY2 capture is worth.
Bye
Raido

[The Scientist]

Hi jtsavola,

This is an issue which has previously been discussed on this forum. I think the concensus of opinion is that it is a YUY2 driver issue.

I get the same sort of bars either at the side or bottom of PAL 704x576 YUY2 based captures. That said, they are not present in all of my YUY2 captures which suggests to me that this may well be a driver rather than a system issue.

my system:

Asus P3BF slot 1 BX m/board
PIII 700@933 (green bars also present at 700)
256Mb RAM
Matrox Marvel G400tv
Soundblaster AWE64 gold ISA
capture OS > W98 2nd Ed. / W95 OSR2.1

Try a search on the forum for more info or to see if anyone came up with a fix.

Simon.

ps. If you do a search, don't confuse this problem with the flashing green lines issue that also afflicted some G400tv marvel boards.

[jtsavola]

Hi all,

I reinstalled Matrox drivers (PD 5.41 at this time) and video tools. I installed also Via4in1-4.28v(a) and DirectX8.0a. I disabled Creative SB16 emulation.

I tried to capture with and without sound but no change. The beam stays as a rock (and no voice come with in both cases with PC-VCR and MJPEG too). Video tools 1.54 takes voice better with.

My opinion is that the picture quality in final MPEG2 (704x576 PAL, CBR or VBR 6000kbps) seems to be a little better with YUY2 than MJPEG. Anyway the difference is quite small but I think is existing.

Jape