Aver Media CaptureHD - small review

[JonnyCam]

How do I write a graph which encodes the data and writes the file?

[whurlston]

You would need to use software encoders to encode the audio and video from the Capture and Audio pins. The decoders's outputs would then be connected to a muxer like the ATI mux. The muxer's output would then be connected to a file dump filter.

[pBS]

that's the tricky part, encoding...
ati's encoder should let you encode the hd frame sizes, but not sure how well it'd keep up..
but i assume they supplied an encoder with aver stuff..i'd try both to compare...
usually just pipe output of capture filter to an encoder that will accept it, and that output to a mux,[ati a good choice here also] then i just use gbpvr writer filter to write that out to a file...
maybe you could use a second ati card to accelerate encoding? [need at least one to decode for playback too]

so looks like the filters are exposed...cool...lots of options..

are you feeding hdmi straight from stb or using a hdmi switchbox?

p.s. normally use the preview pin to view livetv straight to renderer...it still may want to put that avi decompressor in there,[probably just colorspace change]
so try rendering preview pin to see if any different for livetv viewing...

[Marco77]

Hello,
I'm a tad interested in this product (albeit it seems somewhat hard to be found around here, due to lack of distributors) as it's one of kind. Let's hope there are more of those products with hdmi in ports as current tv sets are integrating such ports.

I have a few questions regarding its capabilities.
First, you mentioned a 15 Mbps bitrate when capturing an MPEG-II video. Does it include audio as well? Is it customizable, in terms of capture res and quality?
Secondly, I'm wondering if the signal carried by the hdmi is pass-through in all situations (e.g., while recording) or only when hdcp protected content is involved. For instance, when plugging the output of a video game console into the card, is it possible to relay the signal to the tv set at the same time?

Also, what's the type of 4-core you own?


Edit :
Here's a (1-star) review from amazon.de, courtesy google:

Have a Vista 64 bit system with Raid0 and an Intel Xeon. So all the normal things that should come with such a capture card really normally handle.

The first attempts were received. First with the XBOX360 (HDMI) worked a few pictures shot .. worked out. Even now when trying to switch to 1080i resolution, there were massive problems. The software crashed completely, there was a blue screen in Vista, nothing was more (I had not for months, never) with Vista. Then the software told me that she was "destroyed" and that I should reinstall them. Well, the latest pulled from the Internet, with the Vista 64bit drivers and tried again .. equivalent effect to 10% it works, 90% of the card simply does not recognize the input and crashes and completely off .. my system is probably already pissed because of that.

The same story tries with the PS3. First of the card, the PS3 did not recognize, again only a black screen. The PS3 newly reset, only then it worked, but again only once. 576p went without major problems, 1080i, perhaps only 1 or 2 times of about 30 attempts, and dozens of reboots of the system.

The quality of the pictures, then it should be times when you come to, but are knotless. You are at 720p approximately 1MB in size and look like a 1:1 picture from the frame buffer of the console. Qualitatively, the images are also in 720p, 576p absolutely convinced in 1080i interlace gibts ugly effects, but what you could probably get over, since very few games run in 1080i.

The quality of the videos is a bad joke! Which are stored in MPEG2, and the resolution is 1280x720p indeed. Only when movement comes to look like the video when it was just a bloated video. Sowas I've never seen pixelated. As even make some SD cards for 20 euros more videos. Absolutely disappointing and not recommended.


Conclusion: Software is completely immature and not recommended! They rarely if ever get the chance to shoot HD pictures, until then it can crash, dozens of times. It is also seen no real pattern behind it, for me, [the software] absolutely useless.

POSTSCRIPT:

The above was written and tested with Vista 64-bit and 8GB Ram system. When I asked him something, I found the software from Avermedia have often problems with systems of 3 or 4 GB of memory. Since the cards, but should run on Vista 64 bit official, and an important component of these 64-bit operating systems nunmal is a potential of more than 3 GB of memory, I could not really imagine that it could be due to these 8 GB of RAM. Well, with this information via msconfig, I have to be low to 3 GB of memory. And lo, the software ran without problems, recognize any resolution, no crashes, nothing! It functioned as it should, and I am now quite satisfied with the card .. So there is now a star instead of the first full 3 stars .. why not more? Well quite simple. The card and the included software is available officially for Vista 64 bit, so the software should also work here, of course, correct, of course, with more than 3 or 4 GB of RAM. So for deducting a point. The second point deduction because of the suboptimal gibts MPEG2 HD video recording. But otherwise .. around sharp images from its console games to shoot, the card is well suited.

Basically, he/she is complaining about system instability under x64 with over 3GB RAM (i.o.w. most systems?) --maybe the new drivers fix this?-- and points out the poor quality of the encoding/artifacts during scenes with motion.

Let's cross fingers and wait for a hw-accelerated capture card for HD content...

[JonnyCam]

Hey, I have a Q8400 (2.6 Ghz) with XP, 4 GB rma (only 3 recognised)
I do agree with the quality of the mpeg encoder.

I've been playing with Graphstudio trying to get graphs to display the content, and have had some success - but it seems not as good when trying to use an external capture program - which could be macro vision ruining the signal.

Couldn't get HDMI to display through directshow, but I'll keep playing.

I really want to capture as uncompressed video for things I 'really' want to keep and then do a 2 pass x264 encode afterwards to keep the best quality - just have to figure out how best to do this.

It's max 15 Mbps video, audio is 192 to 384 kbps. poor mpeg2 encoder though (and the h264 encoder is also poor - due to the fact the max vid bitrate is 784 kbps)

Recording in mpeg everything has a 'fuzz' to it which is why I want to capture uncompressed (although, these files will be massive - maybe 500GB / hour)
or find a better encoder and way of hooking into graph.

I'm wondering if the signal carried by the hdmi is pass-through in all situations

No HDMI passthrough at all on the device, the 2nd 'hdmi' port in the pic is just a connector for the svideo, component. composite, breakout box.
I think the black magic intensity does passthrough.

[ooferomen]

i have the US version of the card(no DVB tuner). if you select s-video from the crossbar you will get the HDMI input but for me the picture is all messed up. avermedia is absolutely no help, all they can say is "we support the included program for capture".

[JonnyCam]

ou will get the HDMI input but for me the picture is all messed up

How is it messed up? does it look like 3 signals playing at the same time? Maybe the have some smarts in their software to overcome this?

[ooferomen]

here is the graph that the avermedia mediacenter uses and what hdmi looks like in outside their program.

[ooferomen]

well i had somewhat of a breakthrough. if you simply open the avermedia center while trying to use HDMI outside of it the picture clears up. perhaps the avermedia software is sending some proprietary commands to the card, sometime of copy protection maybe...:confused:

[soccerdad]

The HDMI sends a pure digital stream, while the component cables are analog. (but both can be very good quality) HDMI can have copy protection encoding which makes it difficult to use in some aspects (capture from HDMI would have to be nonprotected). Component does not have this issue AFAIK.