E-TV can't handle poor quality video?

[Michelle Cox]

I'm trying to capture a 15 year old video tape that was taped off of TV. The video quality is really bad, but watchable. Unfortunately, the card keeps choking on it.

In AVI_IO, it totally crashes my computer. In VDub, it comes up telling me it's copy protected (it's not), and then tells me it's detected a crash and I have to shut it down.

The first time I tried, it choked when I pressed "play" on the VCR. So I tried just pausing the VCR and starting from there. (The video starts immediately, so I can't let it play and then start capture). That time, I managed to get all the way to the end and then it crashed when the video ended and the blue screen came up. The third time, it crashed immediately. Since the tape is in such poor quality, I'm afraid to try anymore until I know it will work.

Since this happens in both AVI_IO and VDub, I'm thinking it's a driver problem. Any suggestions on what I can do to fix it or who I could report it to?

Thanks,

Michelle

Shoot... Keep forgetting you all don't know my system specs.

Win 98 SE
P3-600
Matrox G450 E-TV
IBM Deskstar 75GXP 75GB


[This message has been edited by Michelle Cox (edited 22 April 2001).]

[Dr Mordrid]

The most likely cause is what you yourself stated in the first portion of the message: the tape is old with poor quality. Most likely the synch and colorburst signals are so weak and distorted the capture hw/sw is choking on it.

When I try to capture off such sources I use a PROCAMP to clean up the signal first, but most of these are expensive (my Elite Video BVP-4+ cost over $700). Devices like the Sima Color Corrector Pro. can also do it for <$100 (VideoGuys.com), but without the flair, flourish and arm lengh list of extra features.

These kinds of devices are also useful for getting the best possible quality signal to a deck when recording back to analog tape.

http://www.simacorp.com/scc.html

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 23 April 2001).]

[Michelle Cox]

Shows how much I know about video editing. It never occured to me that a low end capture card simply couldn't do something like this. I thought it was a bug in the drivers or something.

What's on the tape isn't worth spending a lot of money on. It's just an old Dr Who special that I taped when I was a kid.

I guess all I can do is keep trying and see if I can get through it without crashing or wrecking the tape further.

Thanks,

Michelle

[Michelle Cox]

It occured to me that my task might be easier if I only had the crashing to deal with and not the false macrovision detection. Is there a macrovision hack for the E-TV like there was for the G400-TV?

Thanks,

Michelle

[cjyo~]

I had to wait for the macrovision hack to finally capture some of my own original film footage into my old G200 Marvel. Because motion picture film cameras create a flash in between each shot (when the camera is getting up to speed and stopping), the "Macrovision" detector stopped capturing. I even sent Matrox a tape to check out the problem, but Sun's hack was what solved it.

Anyway, another option I used on the RT2000 was sending the old vhs tape through a DV camera and capturing DV. This stabilized the signal (I think the camera DV encoder acts like a low end TBC, to correct the signal). Even if you don't have a DV-in on the G450e, if you can borrow a DV camera and first dub the VHS to DV, you may be able to capture the DV version through the DV camera's analog outputs. Worth a try.

[Dr Mordrid]

Actually there is another way: send it through the composite in/out of a good deck. A JVC or some other high quality SVHS would do it best, but you could try a VHS too.

Dr. Mordrid

[J.O.N]

Dr Who special eh? Which one?

1) Did you know that there is a USENET group, alt.binaries.drwho which posts mpg-1 or mpg-4 files of Doctor Who

2) You'd be able to buy a commercially released VHS of the programme. Much cheaper than buying some video processing hardware. Nearly all of the 159 Doctor Who stories have been released.

J.O.N.


[This message has been edited by J.O.N (edited 24 April 2001).]

[Michelle Cox]

Well, with some patience and capturing it in pieces, I managed get all but the first 10 seconds or so. Good enough.

I would still be interested if they do anything about the macrovision problem, though. If they had a hack that fixed it for the G400-TV, I don't understand why they didn't fix it in the E-TV before they released it.

J.O.N.: The special is Dr Who's Who's Who. I taped it off of PBS about 15 years ago and never saw it again.

Yes, I know about a.b.dw. That's who I'm encoding it for. LOL! If you come to the related IRC channel, say hi. I'm KiraEzri.

Considering no one else has even heard of this special, I doubt it's been released on video. It's not a BBC production.

I don't have any intention of buying any video processing hardware. If I can't do something with what I got, I won't do it. It's a hobby, not a business, so I can't justify any more expense.

Thanks all for your help. If anyone hears about a macrovision fix for this card, please email me. mcox@charter.net

Thanks,

Michelle

[J.O.N]

Oh I see! *laugh*

Yeah that hasn't been released on video. I taped it when it was shown here in the UK back in 1990 (on BSB for UK&Euro people!). Maybe I should capture the first 10 seconds for you.

It's funny about a.b.dw - all the captures are from NTSC copies. I would have thought that a capture that hasn't been converted from PAL would be much more preferable.

J.O.N.

[Elie]

If the video quality is really that bad, i suggest you borrow or buy or rent a VCR with a "Time Base Corrector" it tries to compinsate to provide a good clean signal at best.

Cheers,
Elie