ATI AIW cannot capture with VirtualDub anymore?

[lordsmurf]

ATI All In Wonder PCI (7200/7500/VE)
Windows XP SP2
VirtualDub 1.9.8
Huffyuv

This was working:
- VirtualDub, OVERLAY preview
- captured AVI

But it was inserting lots of frames for "unknown" reasons. (In hindsight, I think the reason was that VirtualDub forgot to capture as Huffyuv, for unknown reasons. It was instead capturing as uncompressed. All I needed to probably do was set it back to Huffyuv. Oops.)

The new/wrong ATI MMC 9.1x was also still installed (earlier PCIe testing), instead of the better 8.7/8/9. So I decided to uninstall everything ATI (using the ATI uninstall utility), and just start with a fresh install of all drivers and MMC.

Then the problems began.

I can install any number of drivers, but VirtualDub no longer allows OVERLAY preview method. Only the PREVIEW preview method works, and it's jerky. And it drops/inserts frames as well (and that's understandable, as preview uses CPU/RAM unlike overlay).

Anything x240 shows in overlay: 320x240, 720x240, etc.
Anything over shows black/nothing in overlay: 720x360, 720x480, etc
In PREVIEW preview, 704x480 and 640x480 are not jerky. But drops/inserts still happen.

The image also appears much darker now, but one issue at a time.

I know I've come across the overlay issue in years past, but just cannot recollect the resolution. My only solution for now is to keep uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, hoping that one will suddenly work.

Any ideas?

[metaleonid]

So it's been working and then all of a sudden stopped working?

[sanlyn]

Most people use Preview, not Overlay.

Dropped/inserted frames:
You don't say you're using a tbc.
Set your capture timing options. Suggestions for AIW are shown here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post45242

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by metaleonid

So it's been working and then all of a sudden stopped working?

Yes.

And "suddenly" as in I stupidly decided to uninstall working drivers, because of a VirtualDub frame-drop/crash problem.

In hindsight, it was probably an uncompressed issues, as it wasn't using Huffyuv. Reinstalling drivers had completely disabled overlay. I'm almost to the point of just reinstalling Windows on a test HDD, to see if it will be fine on a fresh install. I've never run into this issue with ATI AIW cards, that I can recall, in 15 years. The only time that I remember seeing this was when I was trying to force Vista and 7 to see the AIW card.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanlyn

Most people use Preview, not Overlay.

One of the top 5 reasons to use an ATI AIW is because it gives perfect previews in overlay. Many times, the PREVIEW preview has lags and other issues, because it's using CPU/RAM.

Quote:

You don't say you're using a tbc.

C'mon now. Who are you talking to? A green AVT-8710 in this workflow.

I could (sort of) easily swap it for a TBC-3000 or TBC-100, if needed. And that's always an avenue of testing that I'm considering.

Quote:

Set your capture timing options. Suggestions for AIW are shown here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...html#post45242

Your settings aren't my settings, but I have nothing against trying them out. I'll know later today if it's actually helping.

In fact, generally speaking, yours are probably more ideal for most users.

I've always been leery if not inserting when too far apart. Even with audio resync, there can be momentary lag. Thankfully, I've never needed to mess with the timing settings. The ATI AIW simply worked, with almost no drops/inserts needed.

I'm still not sure that the timing setting itself will actually resolve the underlying issue.

[sanlyn]

Mm, yeah, you just didn't say you were using the AVT. I assumed you were in a rush (?) and didn't have it hooked in yet.

I never had much luck with Overlay view and my 9600XT on newer computers. Seems to work fine with my old 7500, but that's on a rebuilt 2002 PC (yes, 2002) with ancient Promise hard drive controllers. That oldie with the Promise PCI controllers just seems to run faster during capture. That 2002 artifact is otherwise pretty pokey so it's capture-only.

[lordsmurf]

After making the timing settings changes, the capture is all screwed up in terms of aspect and capture size. It makes no sense.

Sigh... I thought I'd setup this system last December, to have it ready for a project this year.

It gets way too hot in the summer (or late spring, meaning right now) to run a capture system for more than few hours in any room that you want to inhabit. So this was built to go in a room that is unfinished (bare studs, cement floor) and mostly used for storage. It can heat it up to 80-85 and not really matter much. It was going to run 24/7 at times, to finish a large project.

[metaleonid]

So reinstalling the previous drivers didn't work?

I'd do this: Try to install older drivers.If this doesn't work, install the last driver it used to work with and then uninstall and reinstall VirtualDub 1.9. Make sure to clean the registry and config settings. If this doesn't work, try to see if you have some other video applications that steal overlay. If this doesn't work, reinstall Windows. If this doesn't work, you might be screwed with a hardware problem.

[lordsmurf]

VirtualDub 1.5 works with overlay without issues. The plot thickens...

I'm currently testing an S-VHS-ET tape (because ET tend to drop more than others), to see what happens.
So far, 3 minutes of capturing has only dropped 1 frame.

VirtualDub 1.5 has no frame inserts that I can see, or remember.

Update: 16 minutes had 11 frames dropped, using the D: capture drive. Now testing C: OS drive for at least 15 minute next.

For comparison, the new system had 60 inserts out of 300,000 frames. But the insert limit was also 10 default, and it was clearly hitting that. So actual inserts (same as drops, really) was probably much higher. As many as 300 per 300,000, if not more. When it's consecutive drops, that's too much. Were talking 10 seconds in 2 hours. Compare that to my main system, which had 3 inserts out of 300,000.