Capturing video again: review my process?

[koberulz]

For starters, my TBC1000, which apparently has a dud circuit board, so that's fun. Pulled out my AVT Whateveritis, and set that up.

I'm using a different computer, but I did have most of the software as portable versions stored in my Dropbox, so that shouldn't be as much of an obstacle as it could have been.

I'm capturing with a Hauppauge USB-Live2. I had a GraphEdit file with the capture device and crossbar—that had broken and I needed to set it up again, so I may have done it wrong but it at least looks right. I then have an AviSynth file:

Quote:

DirectShowSource("graph.GRF", audio=false, framecount=1000000)
ConvertToYV12()
Histogram(mode="color2").TurnRight().Histogram().T urnLeft()
#ColorYUV(analyze=true)

This allows me to adjust the proc amp prior to capture. In theory. In reality, it only displays the histogram, and a black screen. When I attempt to load AmarecTV, the preview is also black.

I can see a video preview, and even capture, in VirtualDub, but for some reason Lagarith isn't on the compression options, and that's what I'd been using previously. I tried UtVideo, just to test it out, and could capture but it dropped over 200 frames in the first couple of minutes which seems...not ideal.

Not sure what steps I need to take from here. Lagarith not being installed on this machine would be an obvious guess, but if I exit Capture mode in VDub and open an AVI file it offers me Lagarith compression there. Not sure if there's a plugin or something else missing that's breaking AviSynth and AmarecTV?

Anyone have any insight here?

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by koberulz

Pulled out my AVT Whateveritis, and set that up.

That's the new/unused unit you got from me, back in 2016, isn't it? It was literally never used, NOS at the time. So if you never used it either, it's still NOS in 2026. Amazing. If properly stored, it should still work perfectly for you. AVT-8710 doesn't really have caps issues, and it only really suffers failure from heat build-up after years of use.

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my TBC1000, which apparently has a dud circuit board, so that's fun.

timtape here (also down in Oz) may be willing and able to re-cap it. That's likely the issue with TBC-1000s now, assuming it didn't cascade. But if it "failed in storage", no real attempted use, caps-only is likely, cascade unlikely.

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I'm using a different computer, but I did have most of the software as portable versions stored in my Dropbox, so that shouldn't be as much of an obstacle as it could have been.

VirtualDub 1.9.x is at the linked named. <<<

Quote:

I'm capturing with a Hauppauge USB-Live2. I had a GraphEdit file with the capture device and crossbar—that had broken and I needed to set it up again, so I may have done it wrong but it at least looks right.
When I attempt to load AmarecTV, the preview is also black.

Meh.
- Live2 never great, so many issues.
- AmarecTV has many issues.
- GraphEdit isn't really needed when card/software works as intended

Quote:

I then have an AviSynth file:
This allows me to adjust the proc amp prior to capture. In theory. In reality, it only displays the histogram, and a black screen.

Okay, fine.
But use that AVT-8710 proc amp, not the capture card's "proc amp".

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I can see a video preview, and even capture, in VirtualDub,

Good.

Quote:

but for some reason Lagarith isn't on the compression options, and that's what I'd been using previously. I tried UtVideo, just to test it out, and could capture but it dropped over 200 frames in the first couple of minutes which seems...not ideal.
Not sure what steps I need to take from here. Lagarith not being installed on this machine would be an obvious guess, but if I exit Capture mode in VDub and open an AVI file it offers me Lagarith compression there. Not sure if there's a plugin or something else missing that's breaking AviSynth and AmarecTV?
Anyone have any insight here?

ffmpeg's Lagarith isn't Lagarith.
Are you using VirtualDub, or VirtualDub2? Because what you describe is a "2" problem. One of many.

You likely just need to install the actual Lagarith codec.
However, you probably should not. Lagarith has a known byte order problem with capturing video, which can lead to corruption or flipped frames/fields.

Ut issues are common. As are FFV1. Those were really developed for post-SD video.

Huffyuv really is the best codec for video capture. Stable, still installs on the latest Windows OS, and works flawlessly.

[koberulz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lordsmurf

That's the new/unused unit you got from me, back in 2016, isn't it? It was literally never used, NOS at the time. So if you never used it either, it's still NOS in 2026. Amazing. If properly stored, it should still work perfectly for you. AVT-8710 doesn't really have caps issues, and it only really suffers failure from heat build-up after years of use.

I used it a couple of times back then, but I've mostly used the TBC-1000.

Quote:

timtape here (also down in Oz) may be willing and able to re-cap it. That's likely the issue with TBC-1000s now, assuming it didn't cascade. But if it "failed in storage", no real attempted use, caps-only is likely, cascade unlikely.

He recapped most of it, but couldn't do some of the smaller fiddlier ones. I took it to an electronics repair place, and they recapped the rest. It still didn't work, so I took it to Allcam and his conclusion was circuit board failure.

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Meh.
- Live2 never great, so many issues.
- AmarecTV has many issues.
- GraphEdit isn't really needed when card/software works as intended

The Live2 was the recommended device when I first bought all this gear back in 2016 or so. I think I had issues with VDub, so I ended up moving to Amarec to resolve that. The reason for using GraphEdit is just to make the AVS file work so I can set up the proc amp prior to capturing.

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Okay, fine.
But use that AVT-8710 proc amp, not the capture card's "proc amp".

As I mentioned above, I've mostly captured using the TBC-1000, so there was no proc amp on the TBC. That being said, there doesn't seem to be a way to know what things are set to? I have a notebook with every tape I've captured, and all the proc amp settings I used, so I can easily redo a capture if there turn out to be issues with it. With the AVT you're just blindly button-mashing as far as I can tell.

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ffmpeg's Lagarith isn't Lagarith.

I don't know what that means.

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Are you using VirtualDub, or VirtualDub2? Because what you describe is a "2" problem. One of many.

VDub 1.9.11.

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You likely just need to install the actual Lagarith codec.
However, you probably should not. Lagarith has a known byte order problem with capturing video, which can lead to corruption or flipped frames/fields.

Well that's fun. Again, Lagarith was what was recommended to me back in the day.

Quote:

Huffyuv really is the best codec for video capture. Stable, still installs on the latest Windows OS, and works flawlessly.

Now that's definitely a name I've heard before. Not sure why I wasn't using it, though.