Cannot capture Hi8 tapes at 720x480 / 29.97fps?

[karlswagan]

Hi all, I posted a long time ago on this forum when first starting out but was delayed for a while. I've recently been able to return to my capture work so I come to you with a new question. My setup is as follows:

Playback: Sony ccd-trv65 via S-video and red/white stereo cables for audio

Capture card: ATI TV Wonder 600 USB

TBC: AVT-8710

Operating System: Windows 7

Capture Software: Virtualdub

I'm attempting to capture standard hi-8 tapes that were originally recorded on the device I'm playing the video back with. The sony camcorder is wired into the TBC via s-video, and the the TBC is wired into the capture card with s-video as well (and the stereo audio is being fed directly from the camcorder to the capture card).

In Virtualdub I configure the following settings:

Capture Pin: Output size is set to 720x480. YUY2 color space/compression, encoding is NTSC
Capture Timing: Resync is turned off as I'm told with TBC this shouldn't be necessary, and drop frames is enabled because I'm told this really only just hides when frames are dropped.

I ensure that the captured video device is correct and the audio is the capture source.

When I press F6 to begin capturing the playback, I notice that the average FPS I get hovers around 17-18fps. And when playing back the captured file, the video is jittery, and the audio quickly desyncs.

However when I change the output size in capture pin settings to 352x480 and run everything the same, the capture is a rock solid 29.97fps with no frame loss, and the video looks great. The problem is, my understanding is I should be able to capture the output at a higher resolution? At least from what I've read online. Additionally, although the 352x480 actually runs in sync, the aspect ratio is totally messed up, with the capture appearing more vertical than anything (obviously).

I guess I'm trying to figure out what the problem is with my capture setup. Is this something I can resolve in virtual dub with some different settings? Is my laptop limited that it can't record the higher resolution output at the standard 29.97 fps? Is it my capture card?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[traal]

Plug the capture card directly into the computer, not into a USB hub.

[dpalomaki]

System speed and thru-put, including drive speed, is often a factor. Check the USB note above. Ensure no other non-essential processes are running while trying to capture. Capturing to a USB drive can be problematic, especially if sharing a port with the capture device.

Tell us more about the specifics of your system including makes and models and how they are connected.

[karlswagan]

Really appreciate the help yall. Good suggestion, but the ati capture card is plugged directly into the computer, so no usb hub or anything.

After doing some more research, I actually decided to try out amarectv. It was fairly simple to setup, and I was able to capture at 720x480 at the correct framerate. I'm not an expert so it might be doing some trickery, or maybe it's not a perfect capture, but it looks fantastic to my eyes and I'm totally happy with it. So I think I'm just gonna make sure I rip all the tapes using amarec and then if I really need to, I'll return to virtualdub to see if I can figure out what's wrong.

Again appreciate the help.

[lordsmurf]

Note:
- The case is a hub, not direct.
- The motherboard outputs can also be (essentially) a hub on cheap or "feature rich" boards, verify actual direct motherboard port.

I took a deep look at AmaRecTV this week. It's not capturing software. It was analog "live recording" software, desgned for cameras, webcams, and video games. It's essentially creating transport streams, not program streams. That matters. TS has an allowance for drops, and self-corrected sync, and it gets masked via tricks (such as audio attenuation). Unlike OBS, it did actually connect the card output, it's not re-recording from the display layers like OBS. That's not suggested.