New ATI Tuner Card.

[satnav4]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Somebody is selling one on Ebay. Or, is this old news already?

-Erik.

Why is a guy in California selling a PAL card? Buyer beware.

S.

[spacded]

And he wont ship it internationally!!! seems like a no brainer






oh no ive agreed with (cant bring myself to say it...........................................

[satnav4]

And he wont ship it internationally!!! seems like a no brainer
oh no ive agreed with (cant bring myself to say it...........................................

The healing begins.

S.

[islasian]

And he wont ship it internationally!!! seems like a no brainer

oh no ive agreed with (cant bring myself to say it...........................................

The healing begins.

S.

Seriously... you two make this thread interesting.....

[hrlslcbr]

OK. The 3D comb filter is (somewhat) fixed. Now please fix the MPEG-2 encoding...
Here is a 'B' frame of a video captured through composite:
http://img175.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img1...=bframe7qt.png

And here is the 'I' frame that was just before the B frame:
http://img103.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img1...=iframe9aa.png

As you see, the 'I' frame has a very bad quality; even the worst software encoder can produce a better looking 'I' frame (reference frame). All the 'I' frames in the video have that same quality.

[MBush]

I recently purchased the Sapphire Theater 550 Pro and have been struggling to get it to work. I downloaded today, the new ATI driver for the Theater 550 and it cured my problem of no sound. The video quality is still not as good as what I hope to get and the video is still sluggish and slightly out of sync with the sound. Does anyone have a fix for this problem, sluggish video?
Is there anyone that has purchased this card and it worked as it should? I find this disturbing that a product is put on the market that appears to not have been throughly checked out and causes the consumer so much grief. Doesn't say much for the company. I got a few more days to decided if the card goes back or not.

[spacded]

The healing begins.

S.

Lets Not get carried away!!

[jonaslasky]

I find this disturbing that a product is put on the market that appears to not have been throughly checked out and causes the consumer so much grief. Doesn't say much for the company. I got a few more days to decided if the card goes back or not.

Run don't walk... return the card immediately. It's not worth wasting countless hours on it to make it work halfway.


Jonas

[jonaslasky]

Does any of the ATI guys out there have a changelog, or some sort of idea what is new in this release of the drivers? A changelog on the ati.com site would be nice. Thanks!

Good point... I was looking for a changelog before I downloaded it... but there was nothing... absolutely nothing. I can't believe ATI would post a new driver without even a description.


Jonas

[satnav4]

Thanks to Kurt's post, I decided to load the Cyberlink software for basic capturing from my DV camera through s-video as a test. If it works, I will create the suggested folders for slave drive capturing. (I have tried my Pinnacle and Ulead programs through firewire, and both are substandard). I adjusted the quality settings in the NTSC Default file to a more realistic 5500 ave, 3000 min and 7000 max. My test is underway, but the preliminary observation is that the recording is too dark. Inside video easily deciphered on the video playback is substantially darker in the encoded recording. Also, there was substantial pixelization with movement of the camera on sweeping shots, and there was bleed in sharp contrast horizontal images. Thus we must add to the list of Cyberlink deficiencies:

1) No brightness, contrast controls;
2) Only average motion capture;
3) Questionable use of filters in s-video.

I am using the latest ATI drivers.

S

[ciregnol]

I recently purchased the Sapphire Theater 550 Pro and have been struggling to get it to work. I downloaded today, the new ATI driver for the Theater 550 and it cured my problem of no sound. The video quality is still not as good as what I hope to get and the video is still sluggish and slightly out of sync with the sound. Does anyone have a fix for this problem, sluggish video?
Is there anyone that has purchased this card and it worked as it should? I find this disturbing that a product is put on the market that appears to not have been throughly checked out and causes the consumer so much grief. Doesn't say much for the company. I got a few more days to decided if the card goes back or not.

The updated drivers have done wonders for the sound volume problems that have plagued this card. Using Windows MCE, I used to have the sound volume all the way up to 25, which is the highest. Now, it produces the same sound at 15. It still might be a bit low, but certainly acceptable.

For the most part, image quality is great, although, as I have posted before, I see some pixelization/mosaicing between scene changes. I haven't had enough experience watching with the new drivers to see if this has improved.

There have been a couple of recorded TV shows where I have noticed the audio and video getting out of synch. They get back in synch within a few minutes. I THINK that this usually happens only when my computer is busy doing something else, but have not tested extensively. I'll post again after playing with the new drivers a bit. All in all, it works pretty well in MCE.

[hrlslcbr]

satnav4:
Most DV camcorders output a black level of 0 IRE, and the card expects a black level of 7.5 IRE (confirmed this with my DVD player, that can be set to output a black level of 0 IRE or 7.5 IRE), so that's why you find the recording is too 'dark'. If your camcorder has an option described as 'black level' or 'setup', activate it.

Another thing to the 'wish list'; to be able to specify the input black level (I hardly doubt it will ever be possible in drivers...).

btw, I've found a very good way to 'use' the card; Media Player Classic. It has a realtime deinterlacing shader (it blends the two fields, but even that is better than having interlacing artifacts). It has no video delay (although the audio is out of synch)

[blakev]

btw, I've found a very good way to 'use' the card; Media Player Classic. It has a realtime deinterlacing shader (it blends the two fields, but even that is better than having interlacing artifacts). It has no video delay (although the audio is out of synch)

Did you close all extraneous processes and just run MPC? Important cos your encoding in that set up is happening in soft, so an audio desynch is par for the course unless you give the card all the processor.
Has anyone tried a virtual dub and/or frameserver test? Just to explore what the new drivers actually do, in the absense of a changelog.
I posted back around #150 about having called a norwegian company about a PAL version (sorry, can't remember the details, and I can't possibly wade my way back!) According to info at the time, 40+ PAL Saphire 550s went to Norway and an equal quantity went to Sweden (selling at 80 euros a shot), available for beginning March. Plus there must have been a few shipped in Germany. So I wouldn't be too suspicious of the ebay california guy: it's highly likely there are some PALs out there. Plus, I'm sure he'll ship overseas, if you paypal it.

Of course, I'm not gonna budge until I get ATI to give a timeline on a SECAM compatible tuner. That question is small, certainly, but there's still no indication at all. And that's why I didn't put my name on the Oslo waiting list.

I'm pretty sure, given the spec of the tuner chip, that you can select PAL on a composite channel. Mind you, didn't someone say it appears they haven't got all the PAL flavours working? Maybe you only get PAL M with these NTSC cards sold as PAL. PAL M is 60 Hz instead of 50 Hz, so if you're trying to catch a PAL B,G,H broadcast, maybe that's why there's no audio. On 60 Hz you should also notice fewer lines if you can run the signal from a VO graphics card to a real PAL TV.

[satnav4]

satnav4:
Most DV camcorders output a black level of 0 IRE, and the card expects a black level of 7.5 IRE (confirmed this with my DVD player, that can be set to output a black level of 0 IRE or 7.5 IRE), so that's why you find the recording is too 'dark'. If your camcorder has an option described as 'black level' or 'setup', activate it.

Regrettably, my Panasonic Palmcorder PVDV51 must be one of the stupid ones. I cannot find that option. If it is there, then I am the stupid one. I have been able to compensate with my Dvico Fusion Mpeg 2, which has brightness, sharpness and contrast settings. The 550 will not permit such fine tuning with the Cyberlink software.

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm pretty sure, given the spec of the tuner chip, that you can select PAL on a composite channel. Mind you, didn't someone say it appears they haven't got all the PAL flavours working? Maybe you only get PAL M with these NTSC cards sold as PAL. PAL M is 60 Hz instead of 50 Hz, so if you're trying to catch a PAL B,G,H broadcast, maybe that's why there's no audio. On 60 Hz you should also notice fewer lines if you can run the signal from a VO graphics card to a real PAL TV.

I believe this is the problem encountered by sub at GBPVR. If he can get his hands on a PAL B/G card, perhaps his software could be made to work.

S.

[hrlslcbr]

blakev: I wasn't encoding anything; just playing GameCube and audio is always out of synch when not using the MPEG-2 encoder (with every program I've tried).

satnav4: You can change brightness, contrast, hue and saturation with GraphEdit, but I don't think that it would be the same as having a proper black level. Most camcorders output black as 0 IRE (Japanese NTSC), so neither of you is stupid

[digitalravi]

Thanks to Kurt's post, I decided to load the Cyberlink software for basic capturing from my DV camera through s-video as a test. If it works, I will create the suggested folders for slave drive capturing. (I have tried my Pinnacle and Ulead programs through firewire, and both are substandard).

Thus we must add to the list of Cyberlink deficiencies:

1) No brightness, contrast controls;
2) Only average motion capture;
3) Questionable use of filters in s-video.

I am using the latest ATI drivers.

S

______________________________________________________________

As per what I believe, the best way to capture video from a Mini DV camcorder is only
through firewire. Video can also be captured through S-video or composite video, but
then you are not taking the real advantage of the Mini DV capability of your
camcoder. Furthermore, if video is to be captured using the analog S-video
port, then the additional cost that you have invested to get a camcoder with
Mini DV capability is not justified. Ofcourse I understand that you are using S-video
for capturing only because you did not get satisfied doing it using firewire.

I use my Sony DCRHC30E PAL-camcoder. I capture video in the following way.
Using firewire port, I capture video in pure PAL AVI format (25 Mbps). For this
I use the Windows Movie Maker. In the process of capturing, I dont encode the
window into WMV format. Just plain capturing, with Movie Maker in raw AVI
format, but of a very high bit rate (25 Mbps). 60 minutes of a Mini DV cassette
when captured in this format, spans close to 15 GB on the disk. Since I am
not encoding while capturing, there is less chance of dropped frames at the
time of capture. Then I use Pinnacle Studio that I got with my AIW 9800 pro,
to edit/encode into MPEG. The encoded MPEG is of avery high
quality, 60 minutes of the video after encoding just fits into one DVD.

Now I have one more wishlist for the Theatre 550. From the beginning, ATI
has been shouting with big mouth that 550 has hardware MPEG capability
and that it never drops frames. Why cant the ATI supply a
software for using the 550 chip as a standalone MPEG encoder. I am not
talking of the MPEG encoding of the TV signals or the encoding of captured
video using S-video/composite video port. I want the 550 to share the task of
MPEG encoding the raw AVI file on my disk, along with my main CPU.

Recollect that the AIW 8500 DV was having a fire wire port on it. It was
removed in later versions of AIW 9X00, for reasons of space constraints.
So now ATI can reintroduce the firewire on the 550, because anyway they are
marketing the 550 on a low profile PCB. I dont mind, if then ATI asks me to
pay a few dollars more for firewire port. It would only make the 550 card,
a complete multimedia product. And also a software to use the 550 as a
standalone MPEG encoder.

The best way to sell a chip like 550 for companies like ATI is to include
a feature rich set of software, that would give maximum flexibility to end users
for exploting the capabilities of the hardware in as many dimensions
as possible.

Again, the best way for a company like ATI to get a huge pile of dung on
its reputation is, no prizes for guessing, exactly the way ATI is doing now

Digital Ravi.
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