Does anyone know how to optimise capture settings for directx capture, I'm trying to caputre full dvd Pal res, but keep dropping 1-5% frames ,

I Think my system should be able to cope, 1GZ Athlon, ATI 9000 AIWPro, UW SCSI disk (transfer 21M/sec) + WINXP

Any Ideas would be appreciated !

Maybe your CPU is barely enough to make it. I could capture full resolution real time mpeg2 without any problems with my AIW Radeon when overclocking my Athlon 1000 to 1133 MHz (with 133 MHz bus speed and DDR memory on the motherboard).

My older (VIA KT-133 based) motherboard with 100 MHz bus speed and SDR 133 MHz memory and Athlon 1000 CPU could not capture realtime mpeg2 higher than SVCD resolution without frame drops.

If I wanted full DVD res I had to capture to avi with low compression using the huffyuv codec or with picvideo mjpeg codec that required less CPU power. I used the program AVI_IO to capture to avi files. Since you have a fast harddrive I think you could try capture uncompressed also. Then reencode with a software mpeg2 encoder like TMPGEnc to DVD compliand mpeg2.

Your CPU does not have enough power to capture full res with MMC. I used to have a AMD Duron 1GHz on a A7A266 Mainboard and could not capture at full res.
I now have a AMD XP 1.67 GHz and I can capture full res with at 15 mbps, but I have to turn the "video soap" off.

I agree with Ronny: get VDUB and capture to AVI using huffy codec and then encode with somthing like TMPGEnc to what you want. This will take longer then doing a direct capture, but it will look better.

I agree, Your CPU is not Fast enough to Capture Full resolution full Quality Mpeg2 files useing MMC, My old 1.7ghz P-4 Celeron, could barely do it with Video soap off and with the Quality slider at about 90% and at 15MBS..I would sugest upgradeing your Chip which you can do for next to nothing, I have seen Brand new OEM Chips for really cheap Like Athalon XP 1800+ to 2400+ Chips For between $40-$100, I got a 2000+ and a New ECS Board a Few Months ago on e-Bay for $97 US and Since then I have seen them even cheaper...

I bought the ATI AIW Radeon 8500DV. Assume it is a similar card.

My system is quite powerful P4 2Ghz 512DDRAM etc.

Still dropped frames. Couldn't use Huffy or any compressor. Virtual Dub was no go.

As a graphics card / capture card hybrid it puts too much pain on the processor.

Then bought (of all things) a £29.95 Pinnacle PCTV Rave card. I noticed everybody having a go at Pinnacle for being cr*p and I agree the DC10 + with hardware capture is useless.

However PCTV Rave uses CN878 chip which means it can be tweaked to 768 x 576 capture and because it is a PCI card it puts about a third of the stress on my processor.

I now capture with no dropped frames with any codec I like.

TV tuner quality is also better, and cost £150 less than ATI.

Well I also have a AIW 8500DV and I had No Problem captureing with HuffyUv on my old Celeron 1.7ghz without Dropping Frames and Could (Barley) capture Full resolution Mpeg2 without Dropping Frames, so I think the problem with your Set up is it was Just not Optimized for Video Capture, It is good to Have a Very Fast Hard drive, Like I use an ATA/133 120gb 7200RPM drive Just for Video capture and I never had a problem with Dropping Frames especially with AVI capture, I now have a 2.53ghz P-4 and I haven"t dropped a Single Frame since I had this system, I can even Capture directly to DV AVI useing Pretty much any Type 1 or Type 2 DV codec and the Quality is Very good and with small file sizes...Well good Luck....Cheers

Are we talking analogue capture or Firewire?

Analogue Capture Useing a DV Codec, you need a Pretty fast CPU to capture to DV with an analogue Capture device....

Ok I'm going to replace my old 1.8 celron PC and here is what I'm thinking of getting.

P4 3.0ghz northwood
Asus P4C800 deluxe mother board
PC3200 512mb x (2)
Antec 480watt PS
WD 200gb HD 8mb cache 7200rpm

WD 80gb HD 8 mb cache 7200rpm
MSI dvd player
sony multi format dvd writer
TDK cdrw 52/24/48(out of previous system)
1.44 floppy
Audigy2 platinum ex

ATI all in wonder 9800pro 256mb ddr (going to have to wait for it to release though)

creative labs dolby digital 6.1 sound system
WinXp pro

any ideas on if I should change anything?? I'll probly start ordering the parts in the next week or so .... well except for the video card! And will this be a bad @ss video encoding machine (I think it will) but thats why I came here before I buy. I've already got a full tower and I dont care if it has cool flashing neon lights so its all good in that department.
Thanks!!

Well that sounds Like a Preety Good System, i also Just upgraded from a 1.7ghz Celeron to a P-4 2.53ghz and an Asrock PE-Pro HT(HyperThreading) with a SIS645DX NorthBridge Chipset, and I added a Sony DRU-500A Dual format DVD Burner and This system Rocks Pretty Good and I can easily Overclock it to 3.1GHZ I just need a Slightly Better heatsink Fan for the Overclocking, But it saounds after you Upgrade you should have all the Power you need to capture Full Res Mpeg2 Files and encode at Fast speed..I"ve been useing WinDVR 3.0 and I find it to be a Better Mpeg2 Capture program Pluss it has a Max Bitrate Limit of 20,000kbs on Mpeg2 captures so it captures Pretty awesome Quality Files, and I usually Just Re-encode the Files adding a Noise Filter to a Lower Bitrate and Burn them as DVD"s But I use the 704+480 Resolution with My DVD"s...Well anyways I would sugest maybe looking on E-Bay for your Parts for you New Computer as you can Get Pretty awesome Deals if you look, as I got my Asrock (Made By Asus) MotherBoard for $40 US Brand new, and the 2.53GHZ P-4 Chip for $240 Brand new and that is still Allmost 40% cheaper that the cost Here to get them Retail, and I got the DVD Burner for $265 US and they cost Retail $600 here in Canada, I got My AIW 8500DV on E-Bat for $120 US and they are about $275 Here in Canada and the Ram Prices are Rediculously Cheap Like I got a stick of 256mb DDR 333MHZ DDR-Ram for $22 US and Have seen a Gig stick of Ram for under $100, Might be worth a Look and I have bought a Lot of stuff off of E-Bay and Haven"t had a Problem yet with the Products accept sometimes the shipping costs too much and takes too long but it is still worth it to save that Much money...Cheers

right on luisifer!! THanks for the input!! I might have to check out ebay for those parts. I was going to order most of them through newegg.com.

I believe that 9800 series is a whole new thing when it comes to encoding real time mpeg. It is one of the first ATI cards to have on card hardware encoding. Your CPU use should be nominal even when doing full frame size high bit rate mpeg-2.

Go for it and report back here how it works .. We'd like to know.

Just for an Update, I'm looking at the trial for Intervideo's WinDVR, it seems to capture in 24bit using approx 90-95 % CPU , whilst MMC hit the 100% hence the dropped frames,

Although ii can caputre to AVI, it would be nice to go directly to mpeg2, since i wish to transfer my old videos to DVD

Did you try making a custom preset in MMC, and lowering the motion estimation slider ?
Also, newer MMC versions (8.x) tend to use less CPU usage for MPEG capturing.

I am looking into upgrading to an
ALL-IN-WONDER 7500 or ALL-IN-WONDER 9000 Pro.

I don’t need the 8500 DV.
I capture from the TV tuner and VHS use my old ALL-IN-WONDER 128.
For those of you, I plan to stay with an ATI card.

Is it worth a $50 difference and Why?

Thanks,
Ron