No video in AIW capture?

[dianedebuda]

Source plays fine in MMC; audio is ok, but see mostly blue screen with a few light horizontal lines in recording. WMP chokes on recorded output file. Saw many posts about recordings with "Video + No Audio", but not "Audio + No Video". Any thoughts where to start troubleshooting?

AIW Radeon 32
Catalyst 6.11
MMC 8.8 & 9.02; at this point, settings (including codec) are default except quality = "DVD";
Athlon 64
XP Pro SP2
SB Live 5.1 (retail)

[lordsmurf]

This sounds like a codec issue. Have you ever installed a "codec pack" by chance?

[dianedebuda]

Woke up & had the same thought. Didn't have to do it "in the old days", but had a full MMC with DVD player then.

After rereading many posts here, don't see that I should have had to add any codec for MMC mpg capture. I have mpc-hc and WMP on the capture XP to test output. mpc-hc is new to me - maybe it added a codec or is trying with a incompatible one? I have not manually added any codecs yet - plan to add huffyuv for avi. Have some orig ATI disks (100+DVD: 180-v01106-100 & 180-v01118-100), so maybe should try adding ATI DVD player?

Also have ATI disk 200: 180-v01105-200, but think that was for HD Wonder capture cards. Sure wish ATI had made it easier to know intended hardware & Catalyst version on those cds.

[lordsmurf]

The ATI DVD player should not mater. I never install it. Compared to VLC or MPC-HC, it's crap.

You don't want to add codec packs, or even codecs that are not needed. What green/blue/colored video often signifies is an ill-advised codec pack having been installed in the past. Those can be hell to remove. I've had to wipe systems and start over because of it. Huffyuv is fine to install.

What is "AIW Radeon 32" specifically? As that's not a card model. (If it's the 32MB DDR, no model, it's the 7200.)

I'm really at a loss here, because the hardware and software drivers is EXACTLY what I would do.

[dianedebuda]

It's the 32MB DDR model - before they numbered them. AFAIK, it's the same as yours. I have 3 of them from my heavy capture days of yore, so going to try another just to make sure it's not the card.

Doubt it's mpc-hc, but I'll restore the XP back to before I put it on & try to install the AIW & MMC again. Feel like I'm back to 2004 again.

[lordsmurf]

I've never seen MPC cause this either.

When you use old hardware, it might as well be 10 years ago. ... the good old days of video!

[dianedebuda]

Tried another AIW - no diff. Put 1st AIW in old W2K 1.33 t-bird box with MMC 8.8 & it works.

I don't have mpc-hc on this XP box - it needs SP3; I have VLC. With VLC, see wide horizonal blocks of decreasing heights. WMP still chokes on capture file: "encountered an unknown error". Really weird. Looked at MediaInfo, but not familiar enough to interprete what it says.

At this point, guessing that either MMC is not happy with my Athlon 64 or there's a missing update to SP2 that I don't have. AFAIK, have all latest hardware drivers. Guess I can try Win Update & add all up to SP3.

2004 wasn't an idle mention. I have tons of LordSmurf printouts from then when I was originally setting up the W2K machines. I learned then to take intermediary backups so I could try and try again.

-- merged --

Solved. Added PowerDVD6 & that took care of what apparently was a missing codec. Replaced VLC 2.1.0 by VLC 1.1.5 - apparently newer version needs XP SP3.

Tomorrow I'll tackle adding a 550, which I don't think I ever had much success with in "the old days".

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, I've been online for a while now! (And a lot has happened to me over the years. Like this and this.)

What really sucks about this is I can forget things. Sometimes I (re)learn from my own old posts!

ATI MMC should not need an external MPEG codec, as it internally uses one based on Ligos. That's where the hardware/software hybrid aspect comes into play. However, I vaguely recall some systems needing to have secondary MPEG codecs installed for system-wide MPEG use. I know Adobe Premiere 6.x required it. It was just too long ago to remember more specifics ... assuming there's any specific to remember.

These days, though I still have the 32MB card, the main system in built on a 9000-series AIW card. I always forget which 9000 it is. (Fairly certain it's not a 9600, as the model can have issues with interference noise patterns). I'm using that system right now to capture a Christmas cartoon for myself, from an old 80s VHS home recording.

Trivia: In February, this forum turns 10. Established in Feb 2004. (The site is 11, established in December 2002.)
And we have a surprise in Feb 2014! (It may be a month early. Not sure yet.)

[dianedebuda]

Quote:

ATI MMC should not need an external MPEG codec

FWIW: As soon as I added PowerDVD6, recording was ok. Wondered if pre-PowerDVD 6 captures were ok and it was just the players that were sick, so I tried one of those captures on other box, but it wouldn't play. Only reason I even tried it was 'cause my W2K box had PowerDVD6 on it; went nuts trying to find the cd for it though.