On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:11:17 +0000, Adam White wrote:

I just bought an ATI All in Wonder Radeon 7500 video adaptor. I'm using
the TV Viewer / Personal Video Recorder software to capture input from a
VHS tape deck. The quality of the video is bad and I'm trying to figure
out why ... I bought the AIW card thinking I would be upgrading my video
capture capabilities ... not taking a step backwards!

The scene I'm using to test my new ATI card is handled just fine using the
same PC but different "preview hardware/software" (see end of message for
details).

I think this problem is related to the ATI's "TV software" DISPLAY
capabilities more than the CAPTURE capabilities. The "bad quality video"
I'm referencing shows up when I preview/watch the video in the ATI TV
viewer, even before I capture it. And I see the same bad quality if I go
ahead and capture the video, burn the digital video onto a DVD, and then
play it on my set-top DVD player (on the TV). The problem is there at
every step along the way (i.e., the CAPTURE process is working fine ...
it's just that what's being captured is not good!).

The "bad video" I'm referencing involves "jagged edges" on what should be
smooth vertical lines. For example, person standing in front of
wroght-iron fence ... the bars in the fence should be straight and smooth
... the person's silouette should be smooth (but not straight). In both
cases, on my display, what should be straight edges are jagged instead.

I can post an image showing this phenomenom, if that would be helpful. In
fact, I can post two images ... one showing the problem (as it is with the
ATI card) and one showing the same image but with NO problem (video
captured on same PC, using different setup ... no ATI hardware or
software).

Any ideas on why this is happening or how I can correct it? I've tried
playing with the ATI TV / Personal Video Recorder "video soap" settings,
and other ones too, but none seem to make any difference. And I cannot
find any settings in the TV viewer to change ...

My PC's has Soyo Dragon Lite P4X400 mobo, with Intel Pentium 2.4 Ghz CPU,
1.5 GB DDR SDRAM, the ATI video adaptor, etc. I have loaded VIA's
Hyperion drivers version 4.48, ATI MMC 8.9 (even though the TV application
says "8.1" on the splash screen), and 7.991 ATI video drivers
(6.14.10.6430 Radeon driver).

The setup used to capture my "test" video was: 1. Configuration that works
(no "jaggeds"): VHS deck connected to Sony digital camcorder (where MPEG2
encoding takes place) which is then connected to PC via IEEE 1394 cable.
Ulead VideoStudio7 used to capture (really just transfer) video. 2.
Configuration that does not work (introduces "jaggeds"): VHS deck
connected to "input head" that came with ATI AIW card, which in turn is
connected to the AIW card. ATI TV 8.1 / Personal Video Recorder used to
catpure the video.

Thanks!

I have an AIW 7500. It is not too tolerant of imperfections in the
video signal.

My VCRs are a bit long in the tooth, so I ended up getting a new one
to get good recordings on some of my tapes. I got a low end JVC SVHS
for about $129.

I also have a DVICO Fusion II which isn't so bothered by out of spec
video. Unfortunately it seems to add sampling artifacts to the analog
audio during recording.


--
Chuck Forsberg www.omen.com 503-614-0430
Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications
Omen Technology Inc "The High Reliability Software"
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