AIW MMC resolution 384x288? (ATI All In Wonder)
 

Hi,

In your AIW Capturing AVI guide, you were able to choose 352x480 from your ATI MMC (at least from the screenshots) - the only resolution close that I have is 384x288.

Is 384x288 'equivalent' to 352x480 ("VHS" res)?

I've tried different versions of the ATI MMC, but none have the option of choosing 720x480 or 352x480 - of course, 704x480 is the card's native resolution in comparison and I'll just stay with that, but I can't figure out what the card's equivalent is to 352x480.

Edit: I'm using MMC 8.7

Thank you for answering as I know this kind of question has been asked probably a million times. - lookouts

What exact card is this? It does not sound like it's an ATI AIW running on Theatre Rage/100 or Theatre 200 chipsets.

It's the ATI Radeon 7200. According to the ATI website, it doesn't say it has the Theatre Rage chipset. Heck, now that I look around it doesn't even look like it's an All-in-Wonder (it's just a "VIVO" unit). Great, it's so old, it doesn't even list the unit on the ATI card comparison chart. http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/smileys/smiley36.gif

http://www.ati.com/products/radeon7200/specs.html

I use an ATI All In Wonder Radeon DDR32 (7200 model), which does indeed have a Rage Theatre chipset. Can you take out your card, and look for a "Rage Theatre" chip that is black and about 1 inch long on the longest side? The name of the chip is printed on it in white text.

Yep, it has the Rage Theatre chip. I hope all is not lost.

EDIT: Tried versions below 8.7, they are all the same. 8.6 is the bestso far.

After reading reviews on ATI's AIW cards, and how people are so frustrated with the MMC you'd think they would scrap the software altogether and build something new, and from scratch. (I'm talking about code, and not just feature-wise.) I may be wrong though. Yet, something deep deep down in the software isn't right - and I'm not talking about how I'm not able to capture at 352x480, either. The bugs I've read about and people's frustration with the software just puzzles me as to why ATI hasn't done anything sooner. Maybe they just think other applications can handle the job just as well. - lookouts

When you read reviews and comments online, remember that you're mostly just seeing angry people with problems, many of whom are to blame for their own errors. You're only getting a very narrow viewpoint. People mostly go online to find fixes, not praise how well something works. It takes an expert eye to weed out false complaints and find true errors.

On that note, it does sound like you've got a genuine issue, one you did not cause, but I doubt it's hard to fix. I just need some time to consider all the variables, so I'll get back to you on this in a couple days. You have the same card I do, on one of my systems.

ATI MMC actually works quite well. It just has some quirks. Pretty much all software does. Everybody knows how touchy Windows can be. This is really no different. Actually, most other video software barely functions, or if it does function, it has serious compromises to video quality (deinterlacing, low bitrates, a/v sync loss, etc).

I don't think it will be hard to fix either, but if not, back to the drawing board.

My ATI Radeon 7200 only has an S-Video Output connection in the back of the card. Also noticed you said you had a DDR 32, while mine is a DDR 64. - lookouts

After further thought, it may simply be an error of corrupted Windows/ATI files. As horrible as it sounds, sometimes files can become corrupted, especially if you install/uninstall a lot of software, and can never be fixed. I wonder how the card would react on a fresh install of Windows XP, with ATI MMC 8.7 or 9.02.

Does this card have the ability to capture with s-video (an S-Video in port)? I only have a clearly labeled S-video out port on the card. (Unless there's a secret button I can press to make S-Video in appear magically, I'm doubting this...)

I might try another card because S-Video is important to me now...Thanks again for your help.

This card sounds strange to me, unlike anything else I've heard of to date. I really don't have an answer for you. A shame you don't have pictures of the card from all sides.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=40158 &item=5228704219

I bought the card here, plus the image of the card is exactly the way it looks. - lookouts

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with that exact model. It was not around for very long. In fact, it was not available for sale anywhere around here (not that I saw). It is an older card, referred to mostly as the VIVO and not so much as your standard AIW.

I do not believe that is s-video on that card, but rather an output bundle, but I could be wrong. I'd have to defer to the documentation on that card. Hopefully you have it. ATI.com has been re-designed a few times in the past year, so I was not able to find the specs just now. Then again, if it has "S-VIDEO" etched into the metal card, I guess it must be so.

The resolutions you're able to pick from are not adequate for interlaced MPEG-2 captures. I'm not sure why they are missing.

My best guess is to (painfully, I'm sure) format Windows and re-install ATI MMC 8.7 again. Although I am curious how MMC 7.7 or 8.1 may work for you.

UPDATE:

Bought a new ATI All-in-Wonder card. AIW Radeon 9200 series, 128 MB DDR. Rage Theater 200.. S-Video In (this is one of the cards with the purple video connector cable, the other card didn't have one).

Tried using MMC 8.7 - no new resolutions, same as other card. Tried MMC 9.3, updated WDM and Catlyst. Same thing. 704x480 max, and no 352x480 res for VHS.

Good to see the site back up again.

Yeah, all the site is back up again. There's more info on this in the Forum FAQ sub-forum.

704x480 would be preferable to 720x480 anyway, on an ATI card. And 704x480 is a valid Full D1 DVD resolution, it's a variant version of Full D1 720x480. The lack of 352x480 has been reported on some 9.x versions of ATI MCC, on some cards, but only when you want to capture AVI. MPEG-2 should have 352x480 available, go check.

It seems progress is being made in the right direction, at least you're now not stuck at 352x240 NTSC VCD (SIF) or 352x288 PAL VCD (SIF) resolutions!

Thanks. When I'm capturing, the frame rate is staying at 30.1 or some odd number and the audio is way out of sync after using converting to MPEG (Canopus Procoder).

I'm trusting Procoder on this, because my AVIs are very much in-sync, and when they are Procoder lists the frame rate as 29.97. However, whenever Procoder is showing a 30.1 frame-rate, the AVI is not in-sync in some areas.

I drop frames usually at the beginning of the capture - but that usually stops after a few seconds, yet I'm wondering if the dropped frames at the beginning is effecting the rest of the movie's frame rate.

I also can't convert these 704x480 AVI files to 704x480 MPEG2s in Procoder, it forces me to use 720x480. The 30 FPS doesn't make any sense, as sometimes G-Spot will read the file as 29.97, and yet bringing it into Procoder will read as 30.1...

Canopus Procoder is a great encoder, but it's not very intelligent when it comes to reading file attributes on import. It almost always thinks interlace source is bottom field, even when it's top. It also often gets the aspect ratio wrong, thinking it's 1:1.

Procoder 1.x was pretty dismal at this.
Procoder 2.x is better, though still not perfect.

Which version are you on?
Can you manually change the import settings?

I'm using 2.01.30

When I choose a target and add targets, a load preset window comes up, but when I try to customize, let's say an MPEG format from the System menu in the Load Preset Window.

Back in the normal target window -

I can edit the dimensions of the target, but only when the stream format is set to Generic ISO MPEG stream. When I change the stream format to DVD Compliant MPEG, I cannot edit the size of the file.

The trick here, for encoding, is to select a Generic MPEG and click OK. Then change it to DVD on the settings window, then change it back to generic MPEG. All of the DVD settings will stick, but they are now unlocked. This is how you can encoder 352x480

You do need to do "advanced" settings and make sure the sequence headers are enabled for every GOP. It's a check box, should be checked.

I think I did something wrong. The settings aren't sticking changing from Generic to DVD then back to Generic. When I import my MPEG into Encore DVD, it says the file is Untranscoded. (Usually when I import into Encore using the DVD setting, it says it's already transcoded.)