Rob.Screene
Prominent Member
Can't quite justify £650 on a holo3dgraph? Me neither!
I tried the above MSI card in my Windows Me P3 1GHz/128MB HTPC. I wanted it do do clean Laserdisc captures until DScaler support appears, when I can make it my main analog input card for Playstation2 and Laserdisc real-time viewing.
I got the updated capture drivers from the drivers link under
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/per/per/pro_per_detail.php?UID=342&MODEL=
I used my AV amp to switch S-Video from a Laserdisc and Playstation2 into both the old IDS Falcon bt878 card and this new chip based card at once.
What's good:
+I think colours have a little less noise than the Falcon, i.e. large areas of saturated red have less noise on them.
+The Intervideo MSIPTV (WinDVR?) bundled app can be to to 720x576 and set to full screen. It seems to do reasonable, probably Bob only deinterlacing to allow full-screen scaled viewing until DScaler support arrives. (DScaler auto-calibration would be particularly useful for set-up). Brightness and Contrast sliders don't show numeric values so it's hard to set exactly. It looked quite nice watching the PAL Empire Strikes Back SE Laserdisc. Probably because Weave deinterlacing is like 2:2 pulldown. I bet it'd never do 3:2 pulldown removal for NTSC film sources!
+Has some real potential, but I need some help. See below...
What's bad:
-I think the black-and-white lumina may be cleaner on the Falcon, not very surprising as the TV@nywhere includes a TV tuner and the Falcon appears a minimalist, well designed board (just using an old bt878 chip).
-Capture driver seems much less efficient than the opensource btwdm driver I use with the IDS Falcon.
-The Intervideo MSIPTV (WinDVR?) app can only capture to MPEG1 or MPEG2 codecs. MPEG2 codes drop frames with 576 full-height resolutions like 352x576.
-No DScaler support yet.
Capture note:
I tried VirtualDub 1.4.10, which only seemed to allow use of the "VFW wrapper for WDM capture" capture driver.
-This only seems to support a max of 352x576 resolution. I cannot capture anything without dropped frames as it only manages about 12fps. I tried Huffyuv2.1, DivX 5 and MJPEG compression codecs. I tried RGB 555 and YUY2 capture formats.
!On the same hardware using the IDS Falcon, I can capture 768x576 YUY2 with no dropped frames.
I tried the AMCAP DirectShow capture app that I think came with the opensource btwdm drivers. This allows selection of a "Conexant 88x capture driver" and also shows the other card. I think this is using WDM capture drivers, as opposed to VFW which VirtualDub seems to only work with?
This capture driver allows all resolutions to be set, up to 768x576. Capture drops frames. The only way I could get full-height capture without dropped frames was to set 352x576 and use MJPEG at 90% quality. Not comparable with the 720x576 easily available using the IDS Falcon.
Next:
Test the card on a more powerful or Win2000/WinXP machine.
Get VirtualDub working without the VFW capture wrapper.
Test using Composite input so see benefit of "true adaptive 2d comb filter": http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/per/per_htm/8876-2.htm
Promote DScaler support!
Summary:
Until the card can be used to capture at least 704x576 with no dropped frames, ideally with losless HUfYUV codec, it's not much benefit over an IDSFalcon with DScaler. I'd say the DScaler calibration helps get as good an overal picture from the IDS Falcon as the MSIPVR can get out of the superior CX23881 10-bit chip.
Your comment, assistance and support appreciated.
John, did you ever get your hands on a CX23881 card?
regards,
Rob.
I tried the above MSI card in my Windows Me P3 1GHz/128MB HTPC. I wanted it do do clean Laserdisc captures until DScaler support appears, when I can make it my main analog input card for Playstation2 and Laserdisc real-time viewing.
I got the updated capture drivers from the drivers link under
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/per/per/pro_per_detail.php?UID=342&MODEL=
I used my AV amp to switch S-Video from a Laserdisc and Playstation2 into both the old IDS Falcon bt878 card and this new chip based card at once.
What's good:
+I think colours have a little less noise than the Falcon, i.e. large areas of saturated red have less noise on them.
+The Intervideo MSIPTV (WinDVR?) bundled app can be to to 720x576 and set to full screen. It seems to do reasonable, probably Bob only deinterlacing to allow full-screen scaled viewing until DScaler support arrives. (DScaler auto-calibration would be particularly useful for set-up). Brightness and Contrast sliders don't show numeric values so it's hard to set exactly. It looked quite nice watching the PAL Empire Strikes Back SE Laserdisc. Probably because Weave deinterlacing is like 2:2 pulldown. I bet it'd never do 3:2 pulldown removal for NTSC film sources!
+Has some real potential, but I need some help. See below...
What's bad:
-I think the black-and-white lumina may be cleaner on the Falcon, not very surprising as the TV@nywhere includes a TV tuner and the Falcon appears a minimalist, well designed board (just using an old bt878 chip).
-Capture driver seems much less efficient than the opensource btwdm driver I use with the IDS Falcon.
-The Intervideo MSIPTV (WinDVR?) app can only capture to MPEG1 or MPEG2 codecs. MPEG2 codes drop frames with 576 full-height resolutions like 352x576.
-No DScaler support yet.
Capture note:
I tried VirtualDub 1.4.10, which only seemed to allow use of the "VFW wrapper for WDM capture" capture driver.
-This only seems to support a max of 352x576 resolution. I cannot capture anything without dropped frames as it only manages about 12fps. I tried Huffyuv2.1, DivX 5 and MJPEG compression codecs. I tried RGB 555 and YUY2 capture formats.
!On the same hardware using the IDS Falcon, I can capture 768x576 YUY2 with no dropped frames.
I tried the AMCAP DirectShow capture app that I think came with the opensource btwdm drivers. This allows selection of a "Conexant 88x capture driver" and also shows the other card. I think this is using WDM capture drivers, as opposed to VFW which VirtualDub seems to only work with?
This capture driver allows all resolutions to be set, up to 768x576. Capture drops frames. The only way I could get full-height capture without dropped frames was to set 352x576 and use MJPEG at 90% quality. Not comparable with the 720x576 easily available using the IDS Falcon.
Next:
Test the card on a more powerful or Win2000/WinXP machine.
Get VirtualDub working without the VFW capture wrapper.
Test using Composite input so see benefit of "true adaptive 2d comb filter": http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/per/per_htm/8876-2.htm
Promote DScaler support!
Summary:
Until the card can be used to capture at least 704x576 with no dropped frames, ideally with losless HUfYUV codec, it's not much benefit over an IDSFalcon with DScaler. I'd say the DScaler calibration helps get as good an overal picture from the IDS Falcon as the MSIPVR can get out of the superior CX23881 10-bit chip.
Your comment, assistance and support appreciated.
John, did you ever get your hands on a CX23881 card?
regards,
Rob.