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-   -   Capturing with VirtualDub [Settings Guide] (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/7427-capturing-virtualdub-settings.html)

lordsmurf 07-03-2016 10:01 AM

Capturing with VirtualDub [Settings Guide]
 
My guide is a work in (eternal?) progress. :o

Until then, sanlyn's guide is below. :congrats:

HOWEVER, important update to sanlyn's guide below:

DO NOT
disable frame drops/inserts. All that accomplishes is essentially disabling drop reporting, and prevent inserts to fight off audio skew. Analog tape video is chaotic, and dropped frames can happen regardless of this drop settings. Worse yet, with reporting now disabled, you're blind to what's happening, you have no idea whether input-based drops are occurring.

- When a quality frame TBC is in use, drops should be 0, always.
- Not an ES10/15, not even the 99% TBC(ish) of ES10/15+DVK, as neither are actual frame TBCs. While it will severely reduce the # of drops, and often give 0 on many tapes, it will not be zero 100% of the time. You will have tapes that an uncaptureable with these "fake TBC" setups, what I often refer to as a TBC(ish) having a "fail rate".
- When drops do happen, when actual frame TBC is in use, it'll usually be system-based issues (background tasks, bad HDD sector, etc).

There is some truth to the insert issue. Even with high-end TBCs in use, sometimes inserts happen. HOWEVER, it's the source tape causing it. While the TBC is correcting the signal, it isn't necessarily generating new frames where data was (essentially) missing. Those sort of problems generally appear as blips on screen, and the TBC realtime tries to correct the partial frame data. Disabling inserts will cause audio Hz to increase/decrease more when enabled (to avoid sync issue), and you'll have brief moments of "chipmunk" or "Barry White" audio. Depending on the tape content, and where it happens, you may or may not notice.

Complicating matters, when inserts happen, and you're sure that the signal was perfect at the exact moment in time, only then can you consider disabling the insert. HOWEVER, it's usually due to underlying system errors (capture card drivers), or possibly audio settings being wrong for that device -- or both.

FYI, this is why it's best to stick to known-good capture cards, not just any random capture card. BS like this is why I started to provide capture cards in the marketplace, to help make capturing easier.

And now, sanlyn's (mostly) excellent guide... (scroll down) :)

sanlyn 08-10-2016 12:15 PM

1 Attachment(s)
I'll take a leap and make a first submission. These are my settings and notes on why I use or don't use VirtualDub capture settings. The settings are for capture from VHS and other analog tape to lossless AVI. I'll spread this over several smaller posts. I'm also posting notes on what I know (or don't know) about these settings. Comments and corrections welcome.

1: File (top menu)

Set Capture File....
Set a location and name for the intended capture file.

Set striping system....
No setting here. It's one of a group of parameters for creating spill drives for multi-segment capture files, no longer advised
because spill drives cause too many problems during post process and edits. Spill drives involve splitting large
captures into multiple segments during capture. Advice: don't do it unless you're stuck with
non-NTFS drives or drives that won't accept files 4GB or larger.

Allocate disk space....
I don't use this. Some users claim that setting disk space limits simply stops the capture when the allocated space is
full. Others claim VirtualDub will find another drive to complete the capture, resulting in multi-segment capture. I've never needed an allocation limit, so I can't say either way.

Previous File ID [
Next File ID ]

I've never used the above shortcut keys. Too confusing.

Exit capture mode
Self explanatory. Returns to VDub's default window.

2: Device (top menu)

Attachment 6448

Device settings....
[ ] Save current display mode as default
[ ] Switch audio source when changing video source
[ ] Disable overlay display when displaying menus
[ ] Disable preview display when displaying menus
I never enable these. I find none of them to be convenient.

tuner channel >
tuner input mode >

For capture via TV tuner if the capture device has this feature.

(Available capture device selections):
- Disconnect
disables VDub's link to a selected external capture device

- 0 Microsoft WDM Image Capture (Win32) (VFW)
Ancient tech, but some people use it. Formats very limited. Most modern devices are Direct Show.

- 1 ATI Rage Theater Video Capture (Direct Show)
Most AIW AGP's have a name similar to this (ATI 7500, 9600, etc). My Diamond VC500 USB and a few other products show up as a "Conexant" device. Whatever you use, the device must be connected to appear.

- 2 Screen Capture
Never used it.

- 3 Video file (emulation)
The Video emulation capture driver is not an installed capture gizmo such as capture card or USB device. It's an
internal scaled down capture driver in VirtualDub, for testing. It accepts a video file, selected using the "Video source"
menu It plays that video and simulates a live input. Developers use it. Bur if you want to experiment you can use it
possibly to check if problems exist in VirtualDub itself or in a capture driver or device. I've never used it.

[Continued, next post]

sanlyn 08-12-2016 04:50 AM

5 Attachment(s)
Continuing: My personal settings for VDub/VHS capture:

3: Video (top menu)

Attachment 6449

No display
disables overlay and preview displays.

Overlay
With most capture devices, "overlay" directs the device to feed the video stream directly into the video card's display memory rather than let VirtualDub control the image display. This works with some cards, but with others only "Preview" works. Also depends on whether you've set a capture frame size that isn't like the incoming frame proportions. For example, if the capture device outputs 4:3 but you want capture at 720x480, the overlay panel will freeze or crash. I use Preview mode and let VirtualDub control display.

Preview
Displays video using the frame size you've set for capture. With some cards fast motion can stutter a bit depending on the device, the display driver itself, or other system factors. Ordinarily this doesn't mean that the capture itself stutters. Display stutter tends to mitigate if Audio Preview is turned off or when capture starts. It's annoying at times, but according to comments from others the captured signal has already passed through several stages, so preview doesn't always reflect the actual state of the capture itself. I see occasional stutter on one PC but not on two others. One user stated that increasing disc I/O cache improves preview speed (See part 5 later: Capture top menu/Disk I/O), but I've never tried it.

You'll get strange results and distortion if "Capture pin" or "Capture filters" in the "Video" menu are set for inappropriate formats.

Preview acceleration >
I set this to "off".

Stretch to window
Slows down everything. With many cards or display drivers, VDub can freeze.

Histogram...
The luma levels histogram works only in preview mode and not during capture. The histogram displays a graphic view of input luma levels for checking if the input signal lies within the preferred video range of y=16-235. The histogram displays 16-235 data as blue data across the graphic horizontally: invalid values beyond 16-235 display as red in the side margins (left=darks, right=brights). Red indicates crushed darks and/or clipped whites during capture. If you see a flood of red at either side of the graph, the signal contains luma values that clip during capture. Some slight spillover is allowed now and then. Remember that black borders or bottom-border head-switching noise affects the histogram. These can be temporarily masked with the "Cropping..." dialog (see next post) during capture setup .

Histogram display (video extending beyond 16-235):

Attachment 6450

Histogram with levels adjust (slight spillover at left is usually OK):

Attachment 6451

Video Source:
[ ] No Source
[ ] Video Composite
[ ] Video Tuner
[x] Video SVideo
Sources differ with different devices. These are for my AIW 7500 and 9600XT.

Format...F
shortcut key "F" displays the same dialog window as "Set Custom Format...". On some cards this is greyed out, but "F" seems to work anyway.

Source...
Display...

The two items above are grayed out with some drivers. Usually for non-DirectShow devices.

Capture pin...
incoming video stream properties

Attachment 6452

- - The "Video standard" is set in "Capture filters..." (see below) and can't be changed here.

- - Frame rate corresponds to default of the standard signal format set in "Capture Filters", below. You can change it if you want (at your own risk), or in "Capture" -> "Capture settings...".

- - Color space/compression. YUY2 is usually for VHS or other analog tape, but some cards only allow YUVY 4:2:2 color matrix capture (it's the same as YUY2 but has a different order for the chroma pixels).

- - "Output size" can be changed here but I do it in "Custom format" and keep it all in one place. The setting in "Custom format..." will be reflected here.

Capture filters...
sets and displays incoming video stream properties

Attachment 6453

- - "Video standard" of the input source.
The input panel displays a list of available incoming a/v formats (*NTSCV, PAL, etc.). The usual default is NTSC_M. Your capture card might be able to support many more formats. If you choose a format from this list that your drivers won't accept, you can get multiple errors, not to mention really strange looking video. Some common input stream formats:

- NTSC_M USA, Canada, U.S. territories, Jamaica, Phillippines, Panama, most of
South America (not Brazil), South Korea.
- NTSC_M_J or "NTSC_J" (Japan)
- PAL B/G (most of Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand)
- PAL_I (the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa, Macau)
- PAL D/K (most of Central and Eastern Europe)
- PAL D (mainland China)
- PAL-M (Brazil)
- PAL-N (Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay)
- PAL-L (same as B/G)
- "PAL 60" hybrid, usually for NTSC_M in PAL systems.
- Most flavors of SECAM (France)

Note: many countries throughout the world have changed to more common standards with the development of digital video and the demise of VHS.

- - Lines detected is not changeable.

- - Output enable is disabled by default.

Preview pin...
This is greyed out on most cards I've used or seen that don't use DirectShow drivers.

Crossbar...
Values here are taken from the installed capture driver's input connections, but can be changed if other options are available. I never get involved with it. Crossbar drivers handle routing of inputs/out-decoders in Windows. VDub has no help on this, so be sure you know what's up when making changes.

Crossbar 2...
Same as above, often greyed out.

Tuner...
For TV tuner only.

[VIDEO MENU CONTINUED, NEXT POST]

sanlyn 08-12-2016 05:26 AM

7 Attachment(s)
Continuing: My personal settings for VDub/VHS capture:

3: Video (top menu - CONTNUED)
Levels...
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470995687

These are proc amp settings usually linked to the capture device's proc amp controls. Different capture cards have different dialogs and defaults. Some cards don't provide a link that VDUb can use here. Above, typical proc amp for AIW cards.

You can fiddle with color/hue if you want, but with analog tape its a losing battle -- tapes change color balance minute to minute and scene to scene. Unless the video has an obvious and severe color cast consistent from start to finish, make hue adjustments after capture.

"Brightness" adjusts black levels, "Contrast" adjusts brights. Use these two controls in conjunction with the capture Histogram and Cropping features to set valid input levels for 16-235 video. The controls interact somewhat, but with some fiddling you can adjust the tonal range for acceptable input levels. Levels fluctuate during play, so at best you should set levels for worst-case scenarios and tweak later.

There are usually sharpness and saturation controls. If your input is badly over- or under-saturated, you can adjust here. Caution: saturation affects the saturation of all colors, not just one. Oversaturation results in color bleed and overload (blooming or glowing colors). "Sharpness: might be able to mitigate sharpening halos, but these are usually pesky nasties that exist in the player output itself. Don't sharpen VHS: all you'll do is sharpen noise.

Cropping...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470995781

Cropping can be used to mask off areas that affect the levels histogram, such as black or white borders and head-switching noise. You can crop left, right, top, and bottom. TURN THIS OFF BEFORE STARTING CAPTURE or you'll have an unwanted/unacceptable frame size or an error message. Cropping can be turned off ONLY be resettiing the crop parameters to all-Zero's. Simply clicking the "Cropping..." menu item won't turn it off.

Swap fields
Swap incoming field polarity. This can result in aliasing and other raster effects. Do it later.

Noise reduction >
Don't use this.

Vertical reduction >
Better done in post processing, if you must. See VirtualDub Help for this item.

Extend luma black point
Extend luma white point

I don't use these. I use the histogram as described earlier. The two affect each other if chosen together. Each resuilts in dark or bright clamping.

Filter chain >
Don't use these. Involves colorspace conversions you don't want

Compression...
Sets compression for the capture file. Installed Compression codecs that Virtualdub can use are
shown here.

Below, my setup for Huffyuv lossless compression. The colorspace of the capture file (YUY2) has been set elsewhere. Huffyuv detects the output colorspace and compresses accordingly.
Huffyuv accepts only YUY2(UYVY) or RGB.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470996129

Click the huffyuv "Configure" button n the lower right area to check you huffyuv setup.
Below, a typical setup for VHS:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470996297

Some versions of huffyuv don't have the threshold input panel. The figure of 288 tells these versions of huffyuv that either NTSC or PAL interlaced is being captured at either 480 or 576 pixel height. This figure works for interlaced and progressive input. Huffyuv versions without the threshold parameter don't require it,
obviously.

Below, the setup I use for Lagarith lossless compression:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470996716

To check Lagarith compression settings (I strongly urge you to do so, since other processing apps using Lagarith can change its configuration), click the Configure button at lower right.

Below, my setup for Lagarith/YUY2:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470996889

UT Video Codec suite is also used for lossless capture. But I'm not yet a convert to UT Video. Many beginners find its config menus to be more confusing than huffyuv or Lagarith, but that's a topic for elsewhere. See UT Video's home page docs.

Set custom format...
This dialog sets frame size and compression method.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1470996948

BT8X8 Tweaker...
[See D Scaler docs. For BT8X8 drivers only.]

("Audio" and "Capture" menus to follow...)


sanlyn 08-12-2016 09:35 AM

4 Attachment(s)
Continuing: My personal settings for VDub/VHS capture:

4: Audio (top menu)

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471012131

At the bottom of the Audio menu I’ve selected the audio source, which in one of my PC's appears as shown. With most AIW cards the source audio enters the capture card’s input dongle but is re-routed via a black loop wire into the PC’s integrated or installed audio card. THE AIW itself doesn’t process audio. Using that audip loop, if I had selected Rage Theater audio I'd get no audio to capture. With other cards that accept and process audio internally, such as many
USB devices, the capture device would appear in this list. Some USB cards with their integrated audio processing require you to choose "0 Capture device" in this list.

[x] Enable audio capture
[ ] Enable audio playback

If you want to capture audio, then obviously you have to turn on "Enable audio capture".

Enable audio playback during capture at your own risk. It can result in dropped frames and/or loss of audio sync. I can use this without problems with my AIW AGP cards but some cards can't handle it and some USB cards won't let you do it anyway, or not without troublesome audio effects or bad sync. You can check for audio input when setting up capture, but for most cards you should disable Audio Playback during capture. VirtualDub has a silent audio graph viewer that you can display during capture to make sure you're getting continuous audio. See "Volume Meter", below.

Volume Meter
Enables view of audio volume level at the bottom of the capture window. An image of the audiovolume menu during capture is below:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471012273

Raw capture format...
Use uncompressed PCM: 48000Hz, stereo, 16-bit. If you need a different bitrate or whatever you can change audio properties later, but capturing compressed audio codecs for lossless video ain't a good idea. Compressed audio formats use more CPU during capture.

Compression...
Set to "<no compression (PCM)>" during capture.

Windows mixer...
A Link to the audio card's control panel dialog. You can set input volume here if you're getting pure screech and boom for audio input. The bottom of the audio menu lists available audio input sources. Choose the correct device before fiddling with the Input and Source entries.

Audo input...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471012270

Audio input differs for different capture cards and different sound cards. My settings for my old SoundBlaster card are shown here. Most USB devices have their own integrated audio input and audio timing setup, so you might not see an entry here.

Audio source...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471012452

The image shows my setting of "Audio line" for the SoundBlaster Audio card, which is selected at the bottom of the Video menu's available devices.

[CONTINUED, FOLLOWING POSTS...]

sanlyn 08-12-2016 10:14 AM

7 Attachment(s)
My capture settings, Continued from previous posts:

5: Capture (top menu)

Capture Video F5,F6
I use F6 to to start capture. Some say you can use F5, but many advise against it (known as audio "compatibility mode" and said to result in gradual loss of audio sync. I don\'t click this menu item to start capture, I just press F6. Vdub Help has more info about using compatibility mode..

Test Video capture
I used this a time or two and saw the info panel light up with all kinds of capture statistics, but I never knew if it actually makes a capture file. Anyone who knows more is welcome to chime in. VirtualDub Help has more details.

Stop Capture Esc
I press the "Esc" key to stop capture.

Real time profiler
Some people have used this, but I never have. Comments welcome.

Settings...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471013324
Set the frame rate for capture here if it isn't already set. The default is 15.0000. I never use "Wait for OK".

Preferences:
- - Side panel information items
Set the items you want displayed in the capture window's right-hand information panel by clicking on the item. I use the defaults, which includes more than you often need.
- - Hot Keys
You can change the app's hot keys if you want. Good luck remembering what you did.

5B Stop conditions...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471013425

I've set no limits here. When a limit is reached, capture stops. It's OK if you want to go shopping or to your 9-to-5 job while running a capture, but you'll never know what actually happened unless you watch the video. If your tape stopped running, the capture continues for the set limit.

In this menu, Accept uses the settings for the current session. Save keeps the settings until you change them yourself.

Timing...

The timing options seem to cause the most hassle and confusion for people, especially since the effects can vary with many devices. Manufracturers don't make cards specifically for VirtualDub's options. VirtualDub Help has more details on many of these items.

These options set up the way VirtualDub matches video to audio during a capture. Video frames can stream in from the video capture with irregular timestamps due to timing inaccuracies and interference with system background tasks. Bad timing can also come from the source video or the player. During capture these issues have to be resolved for something more consistent and correct.

These settings tell VirtualDub to make corrections. What you really should be doing is avoiding off-sync timing in the first place with a frame TBC. VirtualDub will do the best it can, but it won't be as predictable as a proper TBC.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471013492

General options
- - - - - - - - - - -

- - Drop frames when captured frames are too close together.
If enabled, VirtualDub rejects frames timed too close together in the frame timing scenario for the chosen frame rate. As one writer noted, 3 frames with timestamps that are 10ms apart (a 100 fps timing rate) cannot fit into a 29.97 fps stream. Some or all of these frames will be dropped.

This option is enabled by default.

If this option is turned off, all captured frames are retained as-is. If audio resampling is also turned off at the same time (see below), disabling this option can result in lost audio/video sync.

- - Insert null frames when captured frames are too far apart.
In the capture information panel, null frames (usually dupes of previous or following frames) display as the number of "inserted frames". When captured frames are timed too far apart for the intended frame rate, VirtualDub inserts dummy frames -- e.g., two captured frames timed too far apart would have a dummy (dupe) frame inserted between them. I've seen sample videos with 2 or up to 6 inserted frames.

Avoid this in the first place with a proper TBC. Again, if the audio resampling is also turned off at the same time, the result would be loss of a/v sync.

This option is enabled by default.

*** Note in the attached image for my AIW 9600XT and AIW 7500 settings that I've disabled both options. I've auditioned high quality TBC's, and even with these in circuit I would get one or two dropped or inserted frames, sometimes up to 3 or 4 over an hour. The problem seems to be that no one knows what VirtualDub considers to be the limit for "good" timing. Even a quality TBC can output minor errors that don't fit VDub's timing formula, whatever it is. Now and then I turn them back on, then off. I work with VHS restoration in very small segments and in great detail. For
years I've looked for dropped/inserted frame and haven't found any with these options disabled and a good player and TBC in use.

Without a TBC, turning on these options can result in a flood of dropped and inserted frames plus bad audio sync. Without a TBC, turning them off might result in fewer dropped frames (maybe) or maybe none reported, but you'll lose audio sycn even with the audio sync options turned on.

Moral: Options or no options, use an external frame TBC or external pass-thru DVD with decent frame timing sync. I often use a Panasonic ES10 or ES15 for pass-thru (but they don't remove Macrovision the way my AVT-8710 does and are less than perfect with really crummy tapes).

- - Null frame burst limit
The default is 10. Sets the max number of consecutive dummy frames that VirtualDub will insert. Leave this as-is. If you get 10 consecutive dummy frames, you have problems beyond serious.

Resync mode
- - - - - - - - -

- - Do not resync between audio and video streams.
This mode disables auto-resync. VirtualDub won't monitor the a/v input for a/v timing errors, therefore sync quality depends on the timing accuracy of your input. Moral: connect your TBC.

Exceptions I've noted are USB and other capture devices with their own internal audio input and timing correction, which can often play havoc with VirtualDub's idea of what proper sync values are. A Hauppauge USB user reports having to deselect this option even with a frame TBC in circuit.

- - Sync video to audio by adjusting video timing
Tells VirtualDub to speed up or slow down the video clock to match the audio clock. This can often result in dropped/inserted frames, which is why I don't use it. The effect depends on whether your video or audio clock is the worst offender. If the audio clock is cleaner than the video clock, you could get dropped/inserted frames. If the opposite is true, you could get fewer drops and inserts. Since neither clock is always precisely accurate anyway, the choice is up to you.

With cards having integrated audio clock correction, see below. If there are any ongoing audio clock adjustment, it's reported in the info panel.

- - Sync audio to video by resampling the audio to a faster or slower rate.
This is the resync option I've elected to activate. With a good player and TBC, both a/v clocks are in decent shape but minor variations in the video clock that do occur aren't discernible in my setup, even with music. If your a/v stream is totally wacky you could get some odd sounding, sour or warbly audio with this option turned on.

If turned on, audio timing is stretched or compressed to match video, with no effect on video timing. NOTE: This mode is recommended only for audio capture to uncompressed PCM. You can still use this mode for compressed audio codecs, but why use compressed audio for lossless capture?

This mode is selected by default.

- - Correct video timing rate got fewer frame drops/inserts
Tells VirtualDub to correct video timing to compensate for slight timing errors. Some users report that this option is used with the "sync audio to video" resync turned on or when you're not capturing audio.

To make things more complicated: if resync mode is set to "sync video to audio", the video timing correction in that video-to-audio resync mode will be disabled. This "Correct video timing" option is also supposed to be automatically disabled if integrated A/V capture timing within the capture device (such as many USB devices) is detected. That is, it's supposed to be disabled with integrated devices such as the ATI 600 USB, but users report that it isn't. So if you're using a capture device with integral audio/video timing inside, click on the "disable resync" menu item below, and turn this one off.

- - Automatically disable resync when integrated audio/video capture is detected
This item is disabled by default.

Capture devices with integrated audio and video usually use internal audio-video clocks to correct or avoid sync errors between the two streams. When using those devices but not enabling this option, loss of audio sync is common. When this option is turned on, Virtualdub is supposed to automatically disable the "auto-resync" option above when such a device is detected. But apparently VDub doesn't always detect those objects properly, so turn this item on when using
those devices. You could also experiment with turning on or off "Do not resync between audio and video streams".

- -Audio latency determination:
I have always had "Automatic" enabled and set for the default 30 blocks. See VirtualDub online Help.

- -Direct Show Options
I've not enabled any of these. It's often asked, how do you define whether or not the source timestamps and clock are accurate? If they aren't, do you want them in your video? I believe the default is the "force audio clock" entry.

Disk I/O...

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471014308

My settings for this item, shown above, are the defaults. Not sure how this item applies in the overall scheme of things. Some say it's allied to capture to lossy codecs which encode rather just losslessly fast-compress. More info is welcome here. One user reports setting a larger chunk size and more chunks to speed up display in Preview mode, but I won't meddle with these settings unless I know what they're doing.

Spill system setup
Spill files are not being used here.

Full screen
Optional. I get a slowdown and weird aspect ratio using it.

Hide display on capture
This one's up to you.

Display large timer
This option displays a humongous minutes/seconds incrementing numeric timer at the bottom of the window. Time spent capturing is already displayed in the info panel, so who needs this? The time characters are shown here actual size:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471014454

Show information panel
I leave this turned on. You can turn it off if you want. On by default.

Show status bar
Turned on by default. Much the same thing is in the info panel

Timing graph
- - - - 5F1 Timing graph TBC on R.png
- - - - 5F3 Timing jitter - no tbc 2 R.png
Displays a continuously updated graphics info bar along the bottom border. What the line colors mean is indicated in the small legend of colors at the left of the display. Normally you'd use this for test and analysis. Ideally the lines shown should be straight and consistent, though small variations are common. The timing graph below was made with the AIW 7500 AGP using a line and frame pass-thru ES10 for TBC during capture:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471014642

The timing graph below was made without a line or frame TBC during capture. If you get wild lines like those shown below you're in trouble, and VirtualDub capture is working hard to make what corrections it can:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1471014748

Anyone who has used this display graph extensively is welcome to offer more details.

Log
Text display of capture activity for the current session. Right-click the window to save as a file, or capture to clipboard, or exit.

Enable multisegment capture
Not used in these examples.

Start capture on left-click in pane
I leave this disabled. Click at the wrong time, and you've screwed up.

Auto increment filename after capture
I leave this disabled and set my own capture file names.

Enable timing log
I've never used this. I already have enough to worry with.

lordsmurf 08-14-2016 11:30 AM

That last post has an image missing. Add it to a reply, I'll merge it.

Very nice and thorough so far. I see a few things that I do different, and I'll explain those later. Like I said in PM, I'm hoping we can all learn from our minor differences. Some may be preference, and some may be an improvement on our own methods. I'm curious to see if I'll stick to some of mine, or ditch them for something better I see from you.

sanlyn 08-14-2016 03:26 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf (Post 45264)
That last post has an image missing. Add it to a reply, I'll merge it.

Thanks. Don't know what happened to that last image in post #6. Posted as .png but loaded as .jpg and colors disappear. Deleted the jpg, uploaded a new png, but it only loads as jpg with dim colors. Anyway, new one attached.

Curious to see what others come up with, especially with USB devices. My only USB is a VC500, but once borrowed ATI 600 and Live2 USB's. Otherwise I've had all AIW's since Win95. And never had audio sync problems with AIW, so other ideas should be enlightening.

history1 08-15-2016 06:17 PM

Quote:

Some versions of huffyuv don't have the threshold input panel. The figure of 288 tells these
versions of huffyuv that either NTSC or PAL interlaced is being captured at either 480 or 576 pixel
height. This figure works for interlaced and progressive input. Huffyuv versions without the
threshold parameter don't require it, obviously.
I read in a guide that people who use NTSC must use a 480 Field Threshold. It is the "How to Capture AVI Video with ATI All-In-Wonder Card" guide that I read it in. Is 480 only for ATI MMC and 288 for VirtualDub? I read in that guide that 288 is for PAL users.

msgohan 08-15-2016 08:04 PM

The reason 288 is correct for all standard material was discussed here and on the next page. Choosing any other number can trigger incompatibility when trying to use different Huffyuv decoders, which was also covered earlier in that thread.

metaleonid 01-06-2017 05:30 PM

Hi Sanlyn,

What if I set Audio latency determination to Fixed with Autostart parameter 0 in Capture Timing Options dialog? If this causes shifting Audio ahead or behind video a bit, I don't care because I always manually sync audio to video as a part of post processing. If, however, this causes stretching or squeezing Audio, then I will have a problem with that because my audio will be bit for bit accurate digital copy. Thanks.

sanlyn 01-06-2017 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metaleonid (Post 47074)
If this causes shifting Audio ahead or behind video a bit, I don't care because I always manually sync audio to video as a part of post processing.

If you don't care and you always readjust sync afterwards, what difference would it make to change the defaults?

Quote:

Originally Posted by metaleonid (Post 47074)
If, however, this causes stretching or squeezing Audio, then I will have a problem with that because my audio will be bit for bit accurate digital copy. Thanks.

I see, then the "if" means that you really do care. All I can say here is that the wheel has already been invented. But this is the sort of thing you'll have to try yourself, seeing as you manipulate audio sync in post processing anyway. For one, I've never had to readjust audio sync with the default settings, even if I had to change frame rate (such as going from 29.97 to 23.976 film speed) . If you're doing some kind of special re-sync after capture, it's something you should test beforehand.

metaleonid 01-06-2017 08:20 PM

Well, I don't care about syncing if it's caused by shifting, but I do care about accuracy of sound track if it caused by stretching/squeezing. I forgot to mention that I checked Do not resync audio to video in order to preserve S-PDIF audio stream accuracy.

sanlyn 01-06-2017 10:01 PM

I don't think the settings you're using will cause a shift. I believe it's use is to account for audio systems with latency characteristics outside the mainstream.

msgohan 05-31-2017 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanlyn (Post 45239)
Cropping can be used to mask off areas that affect the levels histogram, such as black or white borders and head-switching noise. You can crop left, right, top, and bottom. TURN THIS OFF BEFORE STARTING CAPTURE or you'll have an unwanted/unacceptable frame size or an error message. Cropping can be turned off ONLY be resettiing the crop parameters to all-Zero's. Simply clicking the "Cropping..." menu item won't turn it off.

Since yesterday, I did two 6-hour captures with cropping enabled. FML.

I don't get why the Preview only shows that your video is cropped while the Histogram is active!! Someone needs to compile a fork of VirtualDub that has a giant red indicator while capture cropping is enabled...

sanlyn 05-31-2017 08:20 PM

I plead guilty of doing the same thing. Royal PITA.
Yes, Preview ought to indicate copping in some way.

bilditup1 06-08-2017 11:40 PM

On my machine, toggling the histogram causes the video preview to disappear completely (the background UI's beige is there instead). Is this expected behavior, or did I mess something up?

msgohan 06-09-2017 08:36 AM

I can say that oddities are expected when Histogram is enabled, at least on Win7. For me, it sometimes disappears, sometimes flashes spastically, sometimes displays perfectly. No rhyme or reason that I have determined.

bilditup1 06-09-2017 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msgohan (Post 49695)
I can say that oddities are expected when Histogram is enabled, at least on Win7. For me, it sometimes disappears, sometimes flashes spastically, sometimes displays perfectly. No rhyme or reason that I have determined.

Hmm, interesting. This is on WinXP, and it consistently does not show video. It sounds like this feature could be spotty but if so I feel like it would have been mentioned somewhere else? And I havent really come across anything.

msgohan 06-09-2017 01:50 PM

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post46824


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