ATI AIW 9800 Pro installation, VIA GART?
Hi there, I'm gonna install said graphic card in my PC in order to start capturing videos.
I have never done such task so any help is appreciated, I fear it can be quite a messy process. The PC I will use for this, has: 3 GHZ Intel Pentium 4 Processor, 1 GB RAM (DDR 400), 1 AGP Slot, Windows XP, DirectX9, etc, etc. I bought it on purpose so it would fit with the card requests. The first "problem" I notice is: According to the "Installation User's Guide" provided with the card, since my motherboard chipset is made by VIA (and not Intel), I would need to install the latest "Virtual GART Driver" for the AGP slot to properly work and read the card. And here I am.... could someone tell me how to proceed? Thanks in advance. |
Ignore the VIA warning for now. That motherboard is probably years newer than the card warning.
I never read ATI documentation, as it's dated. And honestly, it was almost dated when it was new! Did you know ATI phone techs often referred their users to this site? :P |
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In any case, do you think I'm safe from something like this with my motherbaord? http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...herboards.html |
Maybe, hard to tell. Try it. :)
And I updated that old post, since I never want old info to mislead anybody. I update things when questioned or noticed. Update post: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...herboards.html |
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Ok, so I'm now throwing some of the results I got after I decided to go ahead and install the video card.
The first problem arised was during the Catalyst CD installation. Afterwards I got an error saying the MMC 8.0 (if I remember correctly it was the 8.0 version) was not correctly installed. I go to "start", "all programs" and there I find the MMC folder, but whenever I click on one of the features, they won't run. Except for the "configuration" tab. When I try with things like "LaunchPad", "CD Audio", "TV", "Player", etc. they just won't open. Is this common? What should I do? I thought about going to "Control Panel", "Add or remove programs", remove the MMC 8.0. Then download the MMC from here and try to install it without the Catalyst CD. Is a good idea? In another order of things, I ran the "ATI MMC Configuration" compability test. The only error seems to be this one: "DMA for HDD might not be installed". Is that any relevant? However the first time I tried this test, besides the above error, I had the: "Sound card with clock stability better than +/- 0.2 sec" marked as not working. But on a second run, it seems that was not a problem anymore. Any ideas? -- merged -- I decided to proceed as I have stated above. I removed the MMC version I had (it was the 8.5), downloaded the 8.7 from here, and I installed it. Now all the MMC tools seem to be working, but I as I checked the compability test, once more I ended up obtaining some not good looking results. Here's attached a screenshot: Attachment 8997 I'm gonna try to capture some MPEG just for the sake of testing the card, the software, onboard audio, etc. Hopefully in the next few days I can upload a small clip, so I get an overall veredict about my workflow quality. -- merged -- Here I leave two captures I recently made. They are in MPEG2 format. I know, VirtualDub with HuffYUV would be better when it comes about getting the raw material out of the VHS, but my intention was to make an attempt of a capture, just to see if everything's working. Workflow: Panasonic NV-FS200 --> ATI AIW 9800 Pro --> ATI MMC (Recording preset: DVD High) Before I try with VirtualDub I guess I will have to read this: Capturing with VirtualDub [Settings Guide] No TBC was used, however I didn't notice dropped frames (maybe 1 or 2 at the very beginning). I'll try to get one in the future, but so far, this is what I have. My question is: Could I get a higher quality (raw) clip with this workflow? That is, using maybe a different recording preset in MMC or activating the TBC function in my VCR, etc? I made captures from two different sources, so you can compare them. A home movie (semi pro, I guess) and a studio cartoon. |
The HDD "error" was not relevant. Again, older software did not understand newer hardware.
The MMC 8.7 "errors" were more of the same, disregard. You need to NOT use the terrible ATI presets in MMC, but follow my guides on this site. See http://www.digitalFAQ.com/guides/vid...e-ati-mpeg.htm Though I'd mention the Pluto/chipmunks IVTC doesn't look that bad. Not great, some artifacting, but not that bad either. I can't tell if the "tours" clip is deinterlaced or not, too many errors to judge. Even with the non-interlace, I see no major MPEG-related issues, and the capture only look and sound terrible for reason unrelated to the ATI card. (1) You need either ES15 for timing/tearing/color, or JVC S-VHS VCR with TBC (2) You need to turn down the audio recording, in Windows sound, to under 50% value. You have it at like 75-100%, and it's loud and distorted. See http://www.digitalFAQ.com/guides/vid...d-settings.htm The ATI is doing its job, but the rest of the workflow needs work. As is, those captures look pretty crappy. We can make it better. A good capture can easily look better than the original VHS tape ever did. |
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@Orientation: If there is any intention of restoration/repair in post processing, MPEG and other lossy codecs are a bad choice for capture, IMO. MMC isn't needed for lossless capture. I haven't used MMC for an ATI card since 2004. Captured hundreds of hours of VHS since then with VirtualDub, completely ignoring MMC. |
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I'm going to do a new VHS capture soon. I'll see if I can improve the results with the suggestions you brought. Thanks.
But I'm facing another problem as well with the ATI videocard. I wanted to see if I could capture some Cable TV with it. I used a split connection (because the cable was not long enough to reach the PC), and I know the split connection can cause a weak signel, but I tested it in CRT TV and I got OK video and audio, I didn't notice any difference compared with a straight connetion. However, when I try it with the video card instead, I get this nasty result (I attached a video clip). Besides, the software seems to recognize only some channels, in random order while skipping others. Here I leave some pics. |
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