Nope. That's the issue, unfortunately -- lack of TBC. It's a quality of signal issue. You need the TBC.

ouch guess I'll be doing some homework then to grab the right one

Is there any advantage in using virtualdub over the ati catalyst software?

ATI CMC = for MPEG only, NTSC only (USA, Canada, Japan, few others)
VirtualDub = for lossless/uncompressed AVI only, NTSC or PAL

That's the difference.

I just got 600 USB stick. I was wondering if I can just install the drivers exclusively without any Catalyst software and use VirtualDub for capture? If so, how do I install the drivers without Catalyst?

I used these in this post

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post26238

hope it helps

Just refer to the first post here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...i-600-usb.html

Note the following text:
In other words, you don't have to install Catalyst Media Center (ATI CMC) unless you want to, for capturing NTSC MPEG.
You can certainly capture with VirtualDub, once the drivers are installed, to either NTSC or PAL AVI files.

Use Huffyuv.

I don't have ATI CMC installed on some computers here, either. We shuffle the cards to different systems as needed, and only two of them have ATI CMC installed. All of them have VirtaulDub, however. And all of them have the ATI 600 USB drivers installed.

Now go capture! :P

It's not working. I have both Lenovo laptop and MacBookPro with MacOs installed. In MacBookPro inside Mac OS I have Oracle VirtualBox which runs Windows XP. I installed the drivers for XP for both Lenovo and guest addition Widnows XP. When I start VirtualDub, Windows XP crashes on both Lenovo laptop and guest addition of VirtualBox. So something is wrong. I then downloaded VirtualVCR. VirtualVCR works on Lenovo laptop. It doesn't work on guest addition of VirtualBox' Windows XP. Any tips?

i wouldnt bother with a virtual box and macs are horrid for video capture anyway.
pick up a cheap XP computer at a yard sale, the Craplist or at a thrift store and use it sole for capture.
find one with a AGP slot, a decent P4 or AMD and 2gb or so of ram.
do a fresh install of XP pro and you will be golden
this is older stuff and dirt cheap
i built a really nice capture PC for cheap money

i dont like using my main internet/gaming PC for captuing

I actually do have old school XP PC which I built in 2000. 512MB RAM, AMD Athlon. It has SAA713x Philips based capture card. But I wanted to move away from PCs to laptops to save space and such.

The question I have is that is there anyone out there did actually use ATI USB 600 with VirtualDub?

Yeah. One of our computers has a DataVideo TBC inside, a pair of JVC decks, and the ATI 600 card for capture.

It uses a set of studio speakers for audio preview, routed through a DataVideo VP-299 distribution amp. We can here the speakers and it can record audio without preview.

JVC VCR > via RCA > VP299 >
... > via RCA > ATI 600, no audio preview in VirtualDub
... > via RCA > RCA/mini crossover cable > speakers

Not having audio preview depends entirely on the audio card. Some have it, some don't. Soundblaster has "What U Hear". This computer is not to be used for capturing long term, hence not replacing the audio card, and only using the ATI 600 USB and not an internal ATI AIW (our card of choice).

It does an excellent job capturing Huffyuv.

Use VirtualDub v1.9, not 1.10. :2cents:

ATI USB 600 stick worked with VirtualDub 1.9 on my Lenovo laptop. I captured over an hour video from VHS to the external hard drive. Not a single frame drop. Moreover the image quality was a bit better than that from my FlyVideo LifeView 3000 card which equipped with Philips SAA713x chip. The image was slightly sharper.

There's no AGC. The gain is fixed. There was no blown up white smear at all. And in that sense it even outperformed my FlyVideo LifeView card (that has manual gain control) in some white areas.

I wish I could've gotten my hands on this stick earlier before I converted all my 20+ Hi8 tapes to Huffyuv using SAA713x equipped card. Because my Hi8 cassettes weren't XR, I will not be redoing it with ATI stick. Otherwise I would've reconsidered. Thank you guys.

By the way, please advise optimal settings on ATI USB stick proc amp. I set everything to default. Sharpness was +2. Is it correct setting?

As with most capture devices I've looked at, sharpness should be set to 0. This doesn't negatively impact the actual resolution captured by the ATI 600, and any higher values cause ringing.

The ATI 600 has no AGC that I'm aware of. It capture whatever is input. As far as I know, most cards lack an AGC. And that's a good thing. It cards like the ATI 650 that have issues with luma flusing during recording, because if the AGC.

Yes, don't artificially sharpen the image. Leave it turned off (or 0 value). That true of all cards, and most VCRs. That was detailers are for, as they're way more accurate at creating false sharpness.

0 is the minimum value by the way. There's no negative value. So +2 is in the middle. So minimum value is going to be sharpness off, right?

By the way, I also want to try ATI PCI 550 for motion adaptive 3d comb filter. Is there AGC or is gain fixed?
And I also want to try ATI Theater HD 750 USB. Same question. Is there AGC or is gain fixed?

The 550 is a hardware MPEG-2 encoder, so I don't believe it works in VirtualDub.

The 750 USB has no 3D comb filter and has been reported to have AGC issues. The 750 PCIe is different hardware: 3D comb filter, and I still haven't seen anyone present evidence of an AGC issue. Of course that doesn't help you with a laptop.

Yes, 0 value for sharpness is verified to be optimal. It's the best. What about values for brightness, contrast, hue and tint? Should I set them in the middle? By default they are in the middle, except for Brightness which is at 111 out of 255. Should I set it to to 128 instead?

Yep! :thumb:

Put them at the zero/parity value unless you notice a color shift when calibrating it on pro equipment. It sorts of reminds me of DSLRS, as many need slight tweaks green or magenta to fix either the preview screen or the CCD/CMOS sensor (or both). The key here is to ONLY do it with pro gear, however. You never want to adjust something like this using consumer equipment -- a non-IPS monitor or bradocast preview monitor, in this case -- as all you'd be doing is compensating for the output device. You'd actually be making the video worse otherwise!

I will say this: I don't know if the brightness value *is* the parity setting. Lots of things are measured weird. Let you eyes be the best judge. Change it, and then see if either luma value are crushed (too black) or blown out (too white/bright).

Well, I don't have a pro equipment so I won't be able to test. And also I wouldn't even know what values should be true.

Ok, what values do you set it too. You do have 600 USB, right? So tell me your values and I will copy.

Thank you, thank you and thank you again. Finally got picture, only had sound. Nice work man.