MMC capture problems

[Laurence Wilmer]

With some captures working, and others not, it's taken me a while to find
out what the problems are I'm having, but I finally got there. I guess it's
a sort of quiz for all you ATI experts!

1) If I capture to mpg I get no sound.

2) Capture OK to AVI with sound, but then I can't edit the files in tmPGenc,
without first converting them from AVI using the Library function.
That is a nuisance taking time and HDD space.

3) Pinnacle Studio (the special ATI version that came bundled with the card)
can't capture from it - "Capture error" whatever I do, and also can't edit
AVI files.

3) Play or capture TV using the TV tuner input gives very low sound volume.
Composite input (from VCR) sound is just fine. (Yes, Windows volume line-in
is maxed on both play and record).

This is a Radeon 9000 Pro AIW, W98SE, running Cat 3.1 DX9a, very clean
install from the CD and 3.5 display drivers. Trying to install Cat3.5 or 3.6
(clean, after a reformat of C resulted in the MMC 8.5 install locking up,
so I gave up and just used updated display.

Are all these issues linked in some way? Eg SB Live + VIA chipset + Radeon =
problems?
Or perhaps I need to load in some package of codecs that has been missed
somehow, perhaps due to installing and then dumping Pinnacle Studio??

Any suggestions most welcome. (Phew! it's taken me a long time to work out
what the question is!)

Many thanks,
Laurence

 

[Cristian]

I had similar problems with the same HW combination: SB Live+VIA+AIW 9000.
Still no official response from ATI when problem report is posted.
My difference is I never get it working properly and most of my problems are
on PAL-N. Not tried in another formats.
You can see my other post a few weeks ago.
If I get it working will advise how in this group. Hopefully ATI will
dedicate some time to this design problem.
Not satisfied at all with their customer service as of yet.
Regards,
Cristian.

 

[Laurence Wilmer]

Thanks for reply.
I had noticed your earlier post, but I got the impression that your problems
relate to TV display quality using PAL-N in Argentina.
My problems are low sound volume on ATIVCR files, and no sound at all in
MPEG captures.

(And just noticed another irritant - I greatly prefer PowerDVD to ATI's File
Player, but can't use for ATI VCR files, and Theatre mode doesn't work with
it!)

Laurence

 

[Dune Runner]

Thanks for reply.
I had noticed your earlier post, but I got the impression that your problems
relate to TV display quality using PAL-N in Argentina.
My problems are low sound volume on ATIVCR files, and no sound at all in
MPEG captures.

(And just noticed another irritant - I greatly prefer PowerDVD to ATI's File
Player, but can't use for ATI VCR files, and Theatre mode doesn't work with
it!)

Laurence

The ATI VCR files are proprietary to ATI. I record in mpg2 format. I did
have a problem with low volume on TV records, but, after I clicked the
record button, I just kept making sure that *all* volumes were up. I chose
"line in" as my source, so I make sure that both record and play "Line In"
volumes, the master volume and the volume on the TV player are all the way
up. That seems to work. I'm not too satisfied with the captured video,
though. It's kind of jerky. I'm going to try defragging my drives and see if
that helps. For now, I record off another capture card I have, the Navis
Pro. It capthures *the* best video I've ever seen (although the software is
pretty sad). What a card!
Although I much prefer PDVD, since they don't have a remote, I play my
captured files on WinDVD. Have you tried ATI's remote on PDVD? Also, what is
missing without "Theatre Mode"?

 

[Laurence Wilmer]

The ATI VCR files are proprietary to ATI. I record in mpg2 format. I did
have a problem with low volume on TV records, but, after I clicked the
record button, I just kept making sure that *all* volumes were up. I chose
"line in" as my source, so I make sure that both record and play "Line In"
volumes, the master volume and the volume on the TV player are all the way
up. That seems to work. I'm not too satisfied with the captured video,
though. It's kind of jerky. I'm going to try defragging my drives and see if
that helps. For now, I record off another capture card I have, the Navis
Pro. It capthures *the* best video I've ever seen (although the software is
pretty sad). What a card!
Although I much prefer PDVD, since they don't have a remote, I play my
captured files on WinDVD. Have you tried ATI's remote on PDVD? Also, what is
missing without "Theatre Mode"?

Theatre - Theatre mode automatically sets the TV output to full screen when
any video is played. Handy to have small screen and controls on the monitor.
Don't have or need a remote - cordless mouse works very well.

Sound - I've checked and rechecked Windows sound levels - its not that! The
low volume problem is on watching as well as recording TV with the ATI, but
doesn't happen if I switch to composite input. So its the ATI tuner that
causes it. Registry tweaks don't help.

VCR format - Yes, I know ATI VCR is proprietary to ATI, but one of the
selling points of the card is the ability to EDIT, and the editing software
with the card can't handle ATI VCR, (or capture direct from the ATI card),
it can only handle MPEGs which have no sound so are useless.

Laurence