Marvel G400 and Win2K

[TIbrO]

I bought a Marvel G400-TV last month along with some other new components. I installed them all, and then clean installed Windows 2000 Professional. I then proceeded to reinstall all of my hardware and the standard procedure. Once my Matrox card was installed, I went to test the capture, because I bought my card for that purpose. The onboard Hardware MJPEG capture would kick ass... or so I thought. It turns out that my card only captures a few seconds of video, between 200 and 2000 frames, but continues to capture audio once the video stops capturing. I just press record and do nothing, not even move the mouse, and the capturing stops capturing frames of video... The audio captures just fine. If I let it go on I can capture an entire 2GB avi with 127 frames of video at the beginning and the rest is black with just the sound. I've gone with this to the Matrox Forums with no luck. The Tech Support guy that talked with me hates me now, and I couldn't get anywhere with any of this. I've tried everything I could think of to remedy my situation, even formatting and reinstalling the OS again. Nothing works. My system specs are as follows:

EPoX 8KTA3 motherboard.
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 900mhz.
256MB of PC100 SDRAM.
Marvel G400-TV.
Windows 2000 Pro SP1.
Western Digital ATA66 18GB hardrive. 8.60Mbps transfer rate with Matrox Benchmark.

My old capture card worked fine with the exception of not being able to capture higher than 320x240. Please help!

[Kruzin]

Welcom to the forums

We have a forum dedicated to just video capture/editing with Matrox cards. It's called Desktop Video (DTV). Those guys can help you best. Just "hop" over there. You can now find this thread in that forum...

Relocated to Desktop Video...

[Ansigod]

Which Marvel drivers are you using?
At what rez are you attempting to capture?
NTSC or PAL?
Are you capturing with the Matrox Video Tools PC-VCR Remote or with another capture prog?

---

I've got a Marvel G400 on a Win2k Adv. Server machine. I'm using the driver package 5.20.016 with the 5.12.01 display driver. I prefer to capture with AVI_IO rather than PC-VCR. Maybe these suggestions can help some... Good luck.

[TIbrO]

Hello, thanks for replying. I am using Power Desk 6.21.041 and Display Drivers 5.33. And the only video tools there are for Windows 2000. No matter what resolution I try to capture at, being default settings or custom settings, my card only captures a few hundred frames and then stops capturing video. I use the matrox PC VCR application, and the other applications usually tell me that they cannot connect to capture drivers.

[TIbrO]

I am posting here as well as at the Matrox forums. Saad at Matrox told me to use the pdunin util to take off all matrox stuff completely, and then do a clean install of display drivers 5.06 and Video Tools. I did this, and my problem still stands. I am thinking now that this is a card problem and not a driver problem. Anyone have any suggestions as to what is going on with my card? And what is stranger is that my PC does not crash or anything. Everything is fine, no video problems or gaming problems. It is just that when it comes time to capture, the card doesn't do it. I also get Macrovision warnings out of nowhere with home videos of tapes that couldn't possibly have protection. I really think my card is fried.

[TIbrO]

I think I need a break from all of this. I am going to go play some counter-strike now.

[sergiovalentino]

I had the same problem, now it seems to be gone away (i'm using 5.20 drivers and the only beta vtools).
However this is one of the numerous problems of these f..d beta drivers and not an hardware problem. At this time the best way for Marvel G400 is Win 98 SE (try).
Many of us are waiting for the final VTools announced for May 2001.

Good luck

[Ansigod]

Before reverting to totally changing your OS (to Win98 SE) I'd give the drivers I mentioned that work for my machine a try. Use full release drivers first, then try newer Beta drivers out to see how they fit. If something works in a full release but don't with a Beta release, you know it is a driver problem and you should report it in the Matrox Bug forum.

Give the 5.20 drivers that work for my mahine a try and see if they work out. (I'm not too familiar with the way Matrox packages their drivers so if the 5.06 Saad recommended to you are the same as the 5.20s I recommend then ignore me. I accepted a job offer today and have been celebrating a bit )

[TIbrO]

Well thank you all for your replies and concern, but at the official matrox forums they told me that I needed to RMA my card. I've already initiated the RMA process by sending the email with RMA in teh subject and all of my information. Now I am just waiting until Monday for the guys at the RMA department to email me my RMA # and whatever that stuff is. I tried all of the drivers, the techies took me through step by step. None of the driver versions worked, so that is why we concluded that it is my card that is busted, not the software. There was another case just like mine in the same thread at the Matrox forum and he has to RMA his card as well. This is the first time I ahve ever bought faulty hardware. I guess there is a first time for everything! Thank you all for your replies. Hopefully I will have my working card by the end of the month and can get back to capturing many movies.

[TIbrO]

OH SHIT!
I wonder how I can stop the RMA from continuing... Someone at the vcdhelp.com forums gave me a step-by-step method on how they got rid of their problem. IT WORKED!! I successfully capture more than 10,000 frames. So basically I think I fixed the problem, but I am not sure. I will try capturing a real long something later on today to really test it out.

The solution was to move my Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Platinum out of the PCI slot right below the AGP port to another one... and it worked! Unbelievable! I'll post back later with more results. If this ends up working, I will have to post it at the Matrox Forums to let them know I possibly don't need to RMA my card anymore. I'll just wait for more testing before I jump to conclusions, though.

[TIbrO]

I was wrong... unfortunately. The card still stops at a few hundred frames again. I wonder why it worked so well the first few captures that I did when I had just installed the drivers and Video Tools fresh and moved my Sound Card. Now it is back to its old tricks again. Oh well, keep the RMA in progress!

[Haig]

Let us know if you want it or not via email by using the same subject header - rma.

Please keep in mind that you are getting the rma becuase you indicated that your board is fried. Given your history on our forums, we weren't going to argue with you nor refuse you of an rma.

The fact that there was 1 post of troubleshooting on this issue and the fact that you are using a 1 year old beta driver, I personally don't think that it's defective but it is your choice.

Haig

[This message has been edited by Haig (edited 18 March 2001).]

[J.O.N]

>...the fact that you are using a 1 year old beta driver


Er, but what alternative is there?

[TIbrO]

Yeah, it still dies after a few frames again. I wonder why it decided to work out of nowhere for a brief time.

Yesterday I was thinking, and I wondered if it could be my breakout box that is broken, and not the card. What if the external TV Tuner is the dead device, and I get a new card, and still can't capture later on? When you guys RMA the stuff, do you RMA the entire package, or do you RMA the card alone?

[Haig]

We allways RMA the entire kit with the cables in case the cable or the break out box is defective.

Er, but what alternative is there?

Er, win98
The beta's I was referring to is our win2k capture beta drivers.

Haig