Hauppauge 1300 Camcorder to PC trouble

[darwin]

I am getting appalling quality when recording to the PC from my Sony Video 8 Camcorder.

The scenes when played back have 'horizontal break ups' on faster scenes, in fact-anything that is faster then walk speed.
It is the same with Pinnacle Studio and Ulead software. I have installed the latest Hauppauge drivers and it is still the same

a Clip is (hopefully) here for examination. It is MPEG2, best DVD quality and lasts 12 seconds

http://members.aol.com/tonyhallmw03/clip1.mpg

Maybe best to right click on the link and save to PC to view, Internet Explorer doesn't appear to want to play everytime

Anyone any ideas

[zaphod7501]

Was it 8MM or Hi-8 or D8.
Did you capture through firewire or a Graphics card VIVO or a Hauppauge PVR card.
What did you use for the initial capture? Pinnacle and Ulead generally can't use the Hauppauge hardware for capture. Did the problems show up on the initial capture or after it was converted from an AVI to mpeg?

It looks like an interlacing problem.

[darwin]

Hi,
The camcorder was a plain old analog 8mm Sony, which incidentally outputs just perfect to my TV or DVD Recorder.

The capture was done via a Hauppauge PVR1300 card through the Composite input, in the the small preview pane-everything looked clear and sharp but its only when playing full screen that you find out the poor quality.

I achieve better results in selecting the SVCD quality rather than the DVD, but this tends not to look so sharp but the horizontal banding problem isn't there. It tends to look more like a standard (well used) VHS tape quality.

I get the same problem when capturing in AVI or MPEG2 and I am pretty sure that the problem is evident as it is capturing but because of the small preview pane, everything looks OK.

Is there any other decent software I could try that maybe works better with the combination I have?

PC Spec is fine:
AMD Sempron 2800
S-ATA 250GB (clear partition too)
1GB Ram
Nvidia Geforce 5600 XT Gfx Card
Hauppauge HVR1300 TV Card

[zaphod7501]

I suspect the preview looks OK because that is pre-encoding (just a guess) and the problem is with the encoding process.

Have you tried using the analog side of the card for TV recording to see if it has the same problem? At various times, Hauppauge drivers have had some odd problems: you might try upgrading (or downgrading) them. I assume that you are capturing the same format as the card's tuner supports (PAL vs NTSC)?

My only other suggestions would be to try the native application (WinTV2k) and create a custom profile. In the advanced section, you would pick "Program Stream" with a variable bitrate of 4Mbps avg. and 8Mbps Peak. with audio sample 48Khz and bitrate of 224K. Give it a name and "save new config" then select your new profile and try recording using that profile.

I realize that setting up WinTV2K can be a pain the first time around if you haven't done it already. The above profile will give you a profile that matches most commercial DVDs. With standard 8mm you can go a little lower without affecting the result.

You might also want to try some of the Hauppauge forums (US and UK) to get people involved with more experience with the 1300 since we don't use it here in the USA and can only offer advice based on similar products or pass on what we have read.

[darwin]

I tried what you suggested with the Hauppauge Win2000 software and it does look better but still nowhere near as good as plugging the camcorder in to the DVD Recorder and recording onto there.

I am unable to post in the Hauppage forums because ' I do not have sufficient priviliges' to post here , strange because I posted only 1 week earlier without any problems.

Thanks for your help

[zaphod7501]

I tried what you suggested with the Hauppauge Win2000 software and it does look better but still nowhere near as good as plugging the camcorder in to the DVD Recorder and recording onto there.

I almost wonder if you are using one of the poorer drivers. Some of them had some anomalies. There is also a possible perception problem. Analog video on a progressive display sometimes looks poor. In other words, a PC monitor won't look as good as a TV (although your sample was pretty bad).

There would be different troubleshooting techniques between fixing the artifacts on your sample and correcting a picture looking "nowhere near as good" as the DVD recorder. It can take quite a bit of tweaking to get captures "just right" at times.

I am unable to post in the Hauppage forums because ' I do not have sufficient priviliges' to post here , strange because I posted only 1 week earlier without any problems.

Thanks for your help

Sounds like a forum problem, or "cookies" aren't enabled and you need to log in each time. I know SHS had a hiccup about a week ago.