AVI Test Capture has "wavy" Lines

[rocko]

Here is a snapshot of My First .avi Capture Using D-VHS player,AV Toolbox To AIW 9600XT, Using MMC ver 8.5 (or so),....Overall Results are Great! but not sure about these Wavy Lines that slowly crawl across the screen. As time goes by,they will gradually shift from a Northwest/Southeast orientation, to Straight Vertical, to Northeast/Southwest over about 30mins of time. Maybe Interference? or UPS Power? (All Equipment is plugged into UPS with plenty of wattage to spare)

[kpmedia]

That some kind of electrical noise interference in your setup. If you're wondering why we've not been active on the site 24/7 lately, it's because gear here is going through very similar issues, and it's very frustrating. Many times, the source of the disturbance is on-site, at your own location. Other times, however, it's off-site, and there's little you can do about it.

There's several things you'll need to do:
- Is the power clean? Use a UPS with AVR
- Are the wires any good? Swap out wires one by one, to see if there's any difference.
- Are all the inputs/outputs on the device good? Devices can age badly on the insides, too.

Test, test, test, test -- that's really all you can do, until you find which device, wire or power source is the cause.

[rocko]

Thanks,and the UPS Does have AutoVoltage Regulation (APC XS-1000) And I did turn off any un-used equipment during test, But I haven't yet tried turning off other stuff DURING Capture to see,And I just realized I might try turning off Main Power switch in back of un-used computer (during capture) Instead of just shutting it down...I found out listening to AM Radio,that my computer was making noise on it,even after shutting down,I had to turn off main switch,then noise went away!!...Plus there's a real Jumble of wires and cables and stuff behind the two computers, and APC unit, and other equipment, all within a 4'x4' area, and directly below a 42'' HDTV....and maybe even a coil or two of excess Ethernet wire and Satellite cable!!..And I just "sandwiched" the VHS Deck in between the Sat. reciever and a DVD player(with air gaps)...Might have to move VHS and AVtoolbox away from everything again!!!

[kpmedia]

Found it.
Mine was an RCA audio cable that appears to have gone bad, and was picking up latent FM from the UPS.

I threw it into the hallway. I'll make a comparison post on it, which will form the basis of a new troubleshooting guide.
Need to grab some comparison captures with this customer's tape (must ask permission first).
It was VERY obvious on this specific tape, for whatever reason. Absolutely unacceptably horrible.

Took several days to isolate. If anybody ever wonders why video projects take so long -- THIS IS WHY!
(Ask any quality service, and you'll get sob stories of aggravation and lost time -- often mixed with nagging impatient customers.)

Good luck hunting yours down.

Quote:

there's a real Jumble of wires and cables and stuff behind the two computers

You absolutely must organize this, and carefully velcro-tie all computer/power/misc cables into bundles.
Not the video/audio wires -- just everything else.
Keep the a/v wiring as far away from everything as possible.

Remember that some tube TV sets emit junk, too!

Having fun yet?

I'm so happy to have found this bad RCA cable that I did a little dance in the studio.

Again -- good luck.

[rocko]

Yes,of course all of my jumbled cables are only "temporary",until I reach that "final" configuration,then I was going to bundle them up nice n neat, Like the music audio rack I built, with power cables bundled on one side,Audio cables on the other. But the rack could be accessed from the back to work on, My new Video/Computer set-up is on an open shelf, TV stand,down low against the wall,with all the cables in back,So I've been putting off the grim task of cable bundling,Looks like now is the time to fix that, as part of the process of elimination Will Post when I find Source of Interference!

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockovids

TV stand,down low against the wall,with all the cables in back

You'll hate this at some point.
Do this long-term, and you'll move it more into the middle of the room.
It's almost impossible to avoid maintenance and wire-switching when doing serious video work.

[rocko]

BTW kpmedia,In regards to the offending audio cable you found,what was it going in/out to?

[kpmedia]

JVC SR-V10U > mixer > ATI AIW x1800 card.

The cable was just bad.