Video Capture Corruption

[Paul_R]

Anybody able to help me with a video capture corruption problem on a high end processor?

 

Screenshot shows the live preview window on a PC application.

 

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s23/preeves_album/BR/th_corrupt-video.jpg

[Thumbnail clickable]

 

The camera is moving and the horizontal lines are corruption [caused I believe] from showing previous frames contents due to bandwidth problems in the capture.

 

The capture card is using the Conexant Fusion 878a chipset on a PCI-E card. (Its actually a four channel/ four chipsets on one card design.)

The processor is an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (Quad Core Extreme 2.6Ghz).

 

I can use a lower resolution, YUY2 320x240, without corruption, but trying to capture at higher [full?] PAL resolution YUY2 720x576, I get the corruption.

 

I have found if I replace the processor with a Core 2 Duo E6700 (Dual Core 2.6Ghz) I can capture at the full resolution, but that is hardly my long term solution for the overall performance of the machine!

 

After discovering this, thinking I was being smart, I tried setting the processor affinity on both the application and the driver Interrupt-Affinity Policy Tool but without any difference.

 

Motherboard is Asus with Intel P965 Express Chipset, Nvidia 8800GTX Graphics and 3GB Corsair DDR2 800Mhz RAM.

I am running Vista 32bit, but yes it does it on Windows XP too..

 

The card manufacturer is convinced that they do not have a problem with quad core, or that its a generic problem with the Fusion 878 and quad core otherwise it would have been heard about.

 

I have tried a newer replacement motherboard with Intel P45 Chipset and 1066Ghz DDR2 Ram, but replacing Quad Core Extreme processors is a tad on the expensive side, 'just to try'.

 

Also had a look for a generic driver, but the sourceforge offering does not want to play ball.

 

I do not have any problems with a cheap K-World USB video capture device, or indeed a VisionRGB-PRO2 running VGA capture at 1024x768 resolutions (on PCI bus).

 

There must be people on here who use high end processors and multiple channel capture cards,

so what are you using?

anybody had any experience of any related problems?

anybody got any other bright ideas?

 

Thanks,

Paul

[Johnparrack]

Can't really help you with you're issues, and I think to be honest u seemed to have resolved the problem..Bandwidth v Capture card v processor etc..

 

I usually capture in a variety of methods or all at once (3 diff machines)

 

My main is either HDV/DV/Component-YUV/Composite or YC via my Matrox RTX2 Card and using Either Premiere CS3 or Adobe On Location. My second Method is using a TvOne dv-analog or vice versa box which does a great job capturing the same formats as the Rtx or simply o/p analog signals. Or Method 3, the easy way...using whatever the Tx(or Iso's) record happens to be(but ensure it turns up with firewire out) to Capture 'Live' during the event. All captures are full resolution Avi's, which I take into edit and either later to dvd or whatever format is required. Ntsc conversion is done with DVfilm, which I have found to be better than the Adobe offerings within Premcs3 and goes in both directions.

My Edit machine, now 3 years old is nothing special...Asus P5B Deluxe M/b c/w 3gb Dual Core Intel, 2Gb Ram, Xp, Radeon X1950Pro (500Mb) and the Little gem..Matrox RTX2 (HD/Sd)

[Paul_R]

I think to be honest u seemed to have resolved the problem..Bandwidth v Capture card v processor etc..

 

Thats the kicker that is probably lost in all that information!

 

The DUAL core processor will capture a higher resolution than the QUAD core [extreme] processor...

 

This makes me wonder if it is a bandwidth problem, or a timing problem with Quad core, or the fact that its an extreme edition...

[paulears]

Last bit has me confused - this bit

The DUAL core processor will capture a higher resolution than the QUAD core [extreme] processor...

 

The image resolution has nothing to do with the processor - the better ones do things quicker, not with better quality.

 

PAL resolution YUY2 720x576 - we're not even talking HD, are we

 

I may have misunderstood what you are doing, but why would you wish to use a 4 channel card like this - they're usually confined to security systems - and having a flash processor won't make the capture card perform any better - apart from shifting four streams around.

 

 

Which capture card have you got exactly?

What camera are you feeding into it?

What are you actually doing with the system?

 

All a bit confusing so far. Most multi-input cards I have seen are not exactly designed as a quality method of getting video into a PC.

[Paul_R]

Last bit has me confused - this bit

The DUAL core processor will capture a higher resolution than the QUAD core [extreme] processor...

 

Yes, that should have said:

The DUAL core processor will capture a higher resolution without image corruption than the QUAD core [extreme] processor...

 

On either processor the actual video capture is hardly stressing the processor!

 

PAL resolution YUY2 720x576 - we're not even talking HD, are we

Nope, just the 'standard' PAL resolution.

RGB does have bandwidth problems with multiple streams, so YUY2 is acceptable.

 

I may have misunderstood what you are doing, but why would you wish to use a 4 channel card like this - they're usually confined to security systems - and having a flash processor won't make the capture card perform any better - apart from shifting four streams around.

 

Which capture card have you got exactly?

What camera are you feeding into it?

What are you actually doing with the system?

 

All a bit confusing so far. Most multi-input cards I have seen are not exactly designed as a quality method of getting video into a PC.

 

Yes, sorry probably could have managed some more detail, but the post was lengthy already!

 

Its for a media server.

Currently using Arkaos DMX.

 

The 4 channel card seemed like a good idea based on the number of slots available on the motherboard, and space with the other components installed. That, and the fact that finding a manufacturer that supports multiple individual cards with a driver in a PC seemed difficult.

 

This what I would consider to be a resonably high end card of this type(at least price wise).

Its effectively 4 individual capture cards on one board, its not multiplexing 4 inputs to one card.

 

I have tried a couple of different cameras and feeds (vhs, dvd) so its not a source problem.

The actual plan is to use anything upto a couple of Sony EVI-D70p cameras, and a feed from a live cameraman into Arkaos. As far as I am concerned this is three composite video feeds.

As Arkaos may be outputting at 2048 x 768 using soft edge blending across two projectors, I was thinking that I should capture the video at the best resolution (720x576).

I think I would settle for 640x480 as this would scale 'nicely', but I cannot even get this without the corruption on the Quad Core!

 

In fact, I did try a cheaper card (about a 1/3 of the cost), but again 4 cards on one board, first and did have the corruption, but like you assumed that the board was not up to the task, and it went back.

Sadly this board was only tested with a quad core, but of course the pictures of the corruption went to the supplier, who could not replicate the problem, but then I doubt they use a quad core extreme processor on the test bed!

 

I will PM you the exact card...

 

The whole point that I am struggling with:

Dual Core - Low Res (320x240) - No Corruption

Dual Core - High Res (720x576) - No Corruption

Quad Core - Low Res (320x240) - No Corruption

Quad Core - High Red (720x576) - Corrupts Image

 

[Edit]

Oh, and I should point out that its not Arkaos that is corrupting the image.

Tested using both Arkaos and AMCAP which is Microsoft sample application.

Both the tested boards provide WDM drivers, so just show up as a camera on the PC....

[Russ83]

For your info I use the same processor in my main editing machine. The rest of your spec. is similar although not identical (corsair RAM, nVidia Graphics and ASUS motherboard).

 

I have never had any problems with the processor and although now over a year old it can still beat the newer models when rendering. Even when you overclock it to 3.5GHz+ it remains very stable and can save you hours with big projects.

 

I cannot really comment on compatibility issues with Conexant hardware or Arkaos software but the processor handles video fine (for me) using DV, Osprey and Matrox capture cards.