Any good video frame-grabbing recommendations for win2k?

[Nasty Piece Of Work]

After 3½ years of using NT4.0, I would dearly love to move to win2k, but I need a frame-grabbing solution that?s at least as good as my Hauppauge WinTV. Under NT4.0, I run a 1024×768×32 desktop on a Matrox G400. The TV image does not stretch to fill the screen, pausing a frame takes nearly half a second, only gives a clear still when the image is not moving very much, and I have to name each JPG manually. But I?ve come to live with this.

Under win2k with the same hardware, it?s worse. Here is my wish list for a capture card under win2k:

1. automatic naming of saved images
2. fast freezing of live pictures
3. clear still images
4. full screen TV

Note that I don?t need the TV tuner, as I?m only using the video input. I would therefore consider the much more expensive professional capture cards, if they do a better job. Any comments or pointers to other sites would be appreciated.

 

[GL]

Just use your Hauppauge WinTV and the following software (edit: first post I thought you were looking for software...just realized you want hardware!)

I haven't really used my capture card (uses a brooktree chip like your Hauppauge WinTV) in Win2K for capturing single frames. But for capturing video, I have used the following:

-Virtualdub -> kickass program, can edit videos too. I do not capture with it but wish I could because it never drops a frame - the reason I don't capture is because it doesn't have WDM capture abilities and so my capture card is limited to 352x240 and I want full 640x480 capture abilities. This is a must download and it is absolutely free, distributed under the GNU GPL.
Virtualdub homepage

-ATV2000 -> kickass program as well although it is still quite buggy. It is supposed to be a TV viewer but you can switch video sources and capture from composite, SVHS, etc. I used it because it is a WDM capture program and lets my capture card capture at 640x480. It is also free.
ATV2000

-MJPEG Compressor -> this isn't a program but allows you to capture video at 640x480 in realtime, and have it compressed in the Motion JPEG format. Just register and they'll send you a key to unlock the compressor (otherwise, the company's name appears in your captures).
MJPEG compressor

Hope this helps...I'm pretty sure one of these programs allows still capture.

-GL

 

[MasterMind]

You need a Radeon ViVo. It does # 1-4 plus a few more. The frame capture software is called the Stills Gallery and it lets you capture a set of frames and then save the ones you want. Very nice feature!

 

[MasterMind]

If you dont want to give up the G400 you could check out Pinnacle's line of capture cards. The cheaper Studio series doesnt have Win2K support so you would need something like the DV500 - $800 USD.

 

[Floyd]

GL, thanks a ton for those links! I use VirtualDub on a daily basis, and agree wholeheartedly with your comment of kickass. I've been using it with my ATI AIW Pro to capture video with Ben Rudiak-Gould's fast HuffYUV lossless codec, to be subsequently compressed into MPEG4/DivX. It still takes a good deal of upfront storage...good thing I got in on the Western Digital 45G deal at CompUSA this past weekend. Anyway, since we agree on VirtualDub, I'm expecting good things from ATV2000 and Pegasus' MJPEG .

I'm gonna load 'em up in a few minutes and grab some video. I'm getting the following error when submitting my info to register the MJPEG codec:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01ad'
ActiveX component can't create object
/stores/pic/unlock.asp, line 35

It's happening under both IE 5.01 and Netscape 4.08, so I guess the problem is on their end. Of course I can still test it in the meantime, but I'm gonna be disappointed if this thing is all it's cracked up to be and I can't get rid of the watermark.

Best regards,
Floyd

 

[Floyd]

Thought I'd share some initial findings with respect to the Pegasus MJPEG codec versus HuffYUV. I just grabbed several 1min clips using each, and performance (speed/CPU utilization/dropped frames) are very comparable. However, I notice that the lossy artifacts of MJPEG compression are very evident at all but the highest quality setting. HuffYUV, being a lossless codec, doesn't display these artifacts. Further still, the MJPEG codec produces larger files at its highest quality setting than HuffYUV.

Therefore, I think those interested in post-processing should use HuffYUV. For those interested in one-step compression, MJPEG (at a mid/low quality setting) will produce decent video quality with minimal effort, and without an obscene amount of hard drive space. But of course it isn't a portable format (i.e. not everyone has the proper decompression codec). Then again [currently] neither is the MPEG4/DivX format my video will eventually become. The DivX codec is easy to obtain & install, and presumably will become commonplace judging by its popularity.

For my purposes, I think I'll stick with HuffYUV since I want to preserve maximal image quality for post-processing & compression.

My two cents.

Best regards,
Floyd

 

[GL]

Where can I find the HuffYUV codec? I'm having problems with my MJPEG codec losing sync with audio after about 20 minutes and I know it's not my processor (Celeron 541) because CPU utilization never goes above 66%. I'm not using the Pegasus codec though...but the PicVideo MJPEG codec.

If you need generic drivers for your Hauppauge (I remember reading somewhere that the drivers would only allow you to use the Hauppauge TV applications and not any other...but I'm not certain of this), then visit this website:
BT848/BT878 Windows 2000 website

I've tried both the Anubis and Conexant generic drivers on that site and they work fine, although they do bluescreen the computer upon shutdown although this hasn't produced any lasting effects as of yet.

-GL

 

[Floyd]

> "Where can I find the HuffYUV codec?"

Umm...try the link above?

> "I'm not using the Pegasus codec though...but the PicVideo MJPEG codec."

Oh, that may have been my misunderstanding. I was using "Pegasus MJPEG codec" and "PicVideo2 MJPEG codec" interchangably. But I see that Pegasus also has a low bitrate codec intended for streaming media which they refer to as Wavelet 2000, as well as a lossless JPEG codec. Nonetheless, the sample clips I tested were indeed obtained with the PicVideo2 MJPEG codec.

Best regards,
Floyd