WDM Recorder using Software Compression

[Jase]

Normanr

I have managed to get the compro video mate t300 working ok using pci audio. I have been using the compro encoder that came on the disk when i bought the card. The elecard encoder did work as well but i could not play back the recordings on the mvp.

Many Thanks Jase

[normanr]

when I have live tv running and I check my WDM Software Encoder Recorder settings, there is nothing selected in the "recording source" box and there are no selections in the drop down menu (it usually says "tv tuner" if I check it without live tv running). Could this be my problem?

The TV capture card can only be used by one application at a time. So if you're watching TV and you open the config app, then it won't like it. Likewise if you have the app that comes with the card open, config will fail. Always make sure there's only one app trying to use the TV card at once, otherwise you'll end up with wierd bugs.

[normanr]

Questions:
1)With the Software Recorder plugin and this TV Wonder PRO, is it going to be possible to record and watch, or just one or the other?
2) Is it possible to have different configurations setup, for instance, one for recording and one for watching selecting between them if the answer to #1 is no?

1. Yes, you should be able to record and watch (obviously not at the same time) using the plugin.
2. sub says in post #820:

GB-PVR will favor recording to capture source at the top of the list in config app. It will favor the bottom of this list for live tv.

Worse case you should be able to set up two recording sources, both pointing to the same card. First one for recording, second one for LiveTV - just don't try watching tv while you're recording, because then it'll fail. Worse if you're watching tv when it wants to start a recording, that will fail too.

[normanr]

collindv & dfdario (and DeepSpace1): I've actually had time to sit down and look at your graphedit screenshots. I've added development ideas and links to the screenshots on the wiki page. Hopefully some time in the next few week I might be able to have a look at adding support for building your types of graphs.

collindv & DeepSpace1: Could you guys please give me an idea of what devices are listed under 'WDM Streaming Crossbar Devices' in graphedit. Are both the 'Audio' and 'Video' crossbars listed? If not what sections is each crossbar listed in? I suspect I may be able to get away with trying to search for another crossbar device, once I've found the first one. Could make configuration drop downs tricky to display on screen.

dfdario: What category (if any) does Audio Capture device fall into? Is it important to join the I2S pin to the Audio Input to get audio?

[collindv]

collindv & DeepSpace1: Could you guys please give me an idea of what devices are listed under 'WDM Streaming Crossbar Devices' in graphedit. Are both the 'Audio' and 'Video' crossbars listed? If not what sections is each crossbar listed in? I suspect I may be able to get away with trying to search for another crossbar device, once I've found the first one. Could make configuration drop downs tricky to display on screen.

Nomanr,
Listed under my WDM Streaming Crossbar Devices in graphedit are the following:

ATI TV Wonder AV Crossbar
and
ATI TV Wonder BT Video Crossbar

Those are the only crossbars I see. Thank you so much for your hard work and support. I really appreciate it.

[normanr]

Mmm, that's "good" news, i.e. less code to change

[pBS]

hiyas,i have the ati tv wonder usb 2.0and it has the rage theater 2 chip in it so excellent quality captures,but it's usb and only has usb audio option like most other usb capture devices..i got a graph working to record a file so i thought i'd share...tried using gbpvr setting up as best as i could,given available inputs and then went to work on the graph...it also uses a double crossbar but i think it's an audio crossbar..the graph will explain...

also,i've been using the Avivo encoders on a pinnacle pctv pro and it rocks! very low cpu usage...lower by far than any i've seen by double...i only see about 50% cpu on a p4-1800 while recording and about 70% with overlay timeshifting full 720x480! everything else pegs the cpu and practically locks the comp. when i try to encode,much less watch too...

i would suggest all users having problems with encoders,give them a try..you might be surprised...use yuy2 for the fastest captures...i also think there's a way to alter the encoding bitrate defaults with the ati software...i had mine encoding at 4000k and after playing with MMC it changed...
[i'm po'd cuz it went higher! lol] will report back on that..

[pBS]

here's another graph with the regular ati encoders [not the media center ones]
they seem to give a smaller file,[6000k vid and 224 audio]
the mediacenter versions output [for me at least] 8000k vid. and 256 audio..
so don't use the media center ones..waste of space and cpu..
[i never could seem to get them to work because of colorspaces with my PCTV.]

well,hope this helps...

edit: here's a JPG of the graph cuz you prolly don't have my hardware...duh!

[pBS]

i found the encoder output quality settings! woohoo!
apparently the mediacenter encoders don't have this dialog, but when i changed over to the regular ati encoders and clicked on properties of the video encoder i saw EVERYTHING! bitrates,deinterlacing,3:2 pulldown...here's a list:
all the video codecs available in the Avivo encoder [mpeg1/2,mpeg4,PSP!,WMV,etc..]
gop length
b-frames
deinterlacing [input] progressive,auto,interlaced,adaptive,blend,weave
aspect ratio!
average bitrate
peak bitrate [and vbr checkbox]
gop
handheld framerate
3 presets
etc.

and audio filter has
codec
bitrate
samplrate

and when i ran the graph,it came out as i set it
they may be permanent defaults so i'm going to reboot to see...lol
it comes up as a standard dialog so hopefully you can integrate that into the config dialog somehow...
this must be only in the new drivers cuz i never saw those in old ones but i could be wrong...
so where's my cookie? lol

p.s. hoping you'll get to that usb audio fix soon...

[normanr]

build 23 is out (it's been a while since 22, eh?):

- Added option to always render audio in preview mode.
- Added option to render audio capture from video capture.
- Added partial/experimental support for multiple crossbars.

dfdario: please try this build - I'm pretty sure you will need to tick both new checkboxs to get it to work.

collindv, DeepSpace1, pBS: this build supports multiple crossbars, but there's no frontend for it yet! Please can you try the following:
- install new version
- go into the 'software recorder configuration' window (just open window, and close it again)
- look in config.exe.log at how many crossbars were detected, and what mappings were found.
- edit the config_recorders.xml's crossbarRoutings manually.

The enhanced crossbarRoutings format is take each crossbar routings you want and seperate them with a semi-colon. e.g. it might look something similar to: 0-0,1-1;1-0,3-1 (your cards will be different). The items should be listed in the same order as the config log file detected them.