dscaler4.1.3 support ati cards?  

You mean the AIW capture hardware? Where did you hear this news?

I have the Saphire Radeon 9000 ViVo and Dscaler inputs the picture just fine. I have audio sync problems though... I'm not sure if it's the noise filters or if it happens all the time.

Can anyone else with a All in Wonder confirm this??

Davezatz, what does the ViVo stand for? I was about to buy separate cards for the HTPC for dscaler and ATI output so I'm really interested.

VIVO - Video In Video Out

Where did you find version 4.1.3? It's not on the dscaler-website.


Tor Arne

I will be so pleased if Dscaler suports the AIW line. Can anyone else confirm this?

Also, if this is indeed true, any ideas how this has been implemented (ie via Directshow) and if their are any sacrifices in this implementation. The reason I ask is because of the following statement regarding support for ATI AIW cards from the Dscaler forums...

"This card does not expose the field buffers in the correct way for us to access the data in the same way as we do with the PCI cards. This means that support for these cards will almost certainly not be done. There may be limited support for these cards in the future via the DirectShow input."


Tor Arne,

I believe version 4.1.3 is a new build that has only been released to Beta testers.

Tor,

check out this thread for alpha download:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...=dscaler+4.1.3

Darryl

I can confirm DScaler DSHOW picture quality on my Radeon is comparable (granted I am not an expert or stickler) to using my WinTV card. I can also confirm with my setup audio loses sync (with or without filters). I send the video signal into the VIVO card and audio straight to my receiver. My tuner is a JVC VCR.With my BT card I have never lost sync. I don't regularly follow the DScaler discussions so I don't know if other folks ahev this problem and/or if it's being worked on.

As was mentioned VIVO stands for Video In, Video Out. I got the "VGA ATI OEM|RADEON 9000 64MB VIVO (Qty=1,Price=73.00)" with free shipping from newegg.com. It has SVideo in/out or composite video in/out. I'm very pleased with it. AND if Dscaler becomes fully functional with DShow, it's a pretty cheap way to run an HTPC and I'll be selling my WinTV card.
:)

Thanks davezatz, that answered some questions. Do you have any idea how much of a sync loss you have? Is it off by quite a bit?
I'm curious, after seeing your website, do you pvr what you are watching? Could this be the source of your sync problem?
Thanks

The TiVo is disconnected and for sale on ebay.

This is my set up:
Comcast analog cable -> JVC VCR -> SVideo into Radeon
..................................................-> RCA LR cables into receiver

I don't know how to quantify the sync problem. In my mind it's binary: yes the audio video are in sync (good) or no they are not (bad). So in my case the answer is 'bad.' I'm not a super stickler for details but this is painfully obvious and anyone would notice it.

I did a quick scan of the DScaler mail acrhives of the last week or so and didn't see anythign regarding this problem. I do have the latest drivers for my card and whatnot.

The sync problem is significant, I don't think the DSHOW support is really useable yet because of this. Apparently the problem has to do with the DSHOW capture filter not dropping frames when it gets behind.

So dscaler is working but not working right yet....well it is a start. Guess I will go ahead and get 2 separate cards until it is fixed. Thanks guys.

Based on the info in this thread, I downloaded the 4.1.3 version of Dscaler this afternoon to try on my ATI 7500 AIW. I'd never tried Dscaler before, but here's what I found (using Athlon 2200 PC)...

I found that I could eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) the audio synch problems by selecting one of the deinterlace options that drops a frame, such as Drop 5th frame, or something like that. Then, I
1) Went into the settings for TomsMoComp and set features as follows:
a) SE=0
b) Turned on the Strange Bob option
as I found recommended elsewhere in the forum
2) Selected TomsMoComp as the way to handle interlacing


I then found that as long as I didn't try to use the PC for something else, the A/V seemed to stay in sync. If I did lose sync, I could switch to Drop 5th again for a moment to get synced up, an then switch back to TomsMoComp.

Blair

Anyone else try this yet? How about those of you with the new 9700 AIW (I believe it uses a newer tuner chip). Cmon guys, I thought this was one of the biggest requests by the owners of these cards.


NGage,

You might want to change the title of the thread to...

Dscaler now supports AIW's.

I'll be testing this tonight on my AIW 8500DV. Man oman oman, this is so big :)

Obsidience

While I can't confrim this myself, ptranluu has indicated in this thread that you should be using the catalyst 3's with the capture drivers.

I'm still waiting for word on how they have implemented this functionality.

I'd better clarify:

I did not get *capture* from the AIW to work. I just got Dscaler to *display* through the AIW, for content I already had on the PC. I had not even tried Dscaler before, based on having read that it did not work with ATI cards. I was only trying for scaling of previously captured and recorded content. Now that I gather that some folks have been able to get the capture to work, I will try for that again.

My apologies for any confusion I may have caused...

Blair

That the latest DScaler alpha work with the "capture" on ATI AIW cards? This really is huge if it is true.

OK, here's an update.

I *was* able to get simple capture from ATI AIW from *composite* in (no S-Video cables run to office yet) to work with Dscaler, using the Dscaler Alpha version 4.1.3, and the version 3 ATI Catalyst drivers for the AIW.

I spent a lot of time trying to get the capture from *tuner* to work, and while Dscaler can see the tuner, it does not seem to be able to adjust it. Dscaler could not scan and find any channels. It would, for some reason, show cable channel 4, but not any other channel.

And by the way, I wasn't getting any audio from composite or tuner, just video. But this may have something to do with the way the AIW is wired externally to the SB Audigy sound card.

This makes me hopeful that when 4.1.3 comes out, it may have full support for the ATI AIW cards. But I wouldn't make any purchases yet.

Blair
My new disclaimer: I'm a novice, just trying most of this for the first time. Please don't make any decisions based on my info until confirmed by more experienced sources.

"The TiVo is disconnected and for sale on ebay. "

davezatz,
Don't do it! Don't do it!! The Tivo is great, I have been using mine with DScaler for the past year and it is MUCH more stable than my HTPC. Because of that, I watch much more recorded digital shows than HD shows.

I downloaded the DScaler 4.1.3 alpha, but was unable to get it working with my AIW 7500 in Windows 2000. It recognized the card, but when I tried to enable it for capture, I would get various "Unspecified" errors and crashes. I was finally able to get an image to appear after disabling all of the filters and resetting the card, however, the colors were all out of wack.

In short, this is a good first step, but there are a lot of bugs to be worked out before we will see this in an "official" release.

jmhays:
This is my second TiVo. It's a great product, very stable with very cool functionality. However I just don't watch a whole lot of TV to make it worthwhile, which is why I'm selling. I am now watching TV through a JVC VCR fed into my HTPC and am very happy with the PQ, control, etc. I am not recording to the hard drive (or anywhere else) because again I don't watch much tv (live or memorex).

sigma957:
Are you sure there are a lot of bugs or could it be configuration issues? You may want to check the format. When DScaler gets confused on my system it often flips out NTSC into something foreign which causes whacky colors and lines and such.

I am viewing video from my VCR with excellent PQ. The only probs are the previously mentioned losing sync and also there is occasionally a horizontal band of noise at the bottom or top (which is easy to ignore).

Anyhow it's good to remember, as you stated, this is not an official release.

This is exciting news-- I've never been able to use dScaler on my system because my only capture card is an AIW Radeon (from before they started numbering them; I think it's equivalent to a 7200). So, if I understand correctly, I can now use dScaler but I'll need to upgrade to the Catalyst 3.0 drivers? I'm currently on Catalyst 2.3, and I seem to remember that 3.0 causes problems for TheaterTek (the overlay is too dark or something).

I also don't know if my machine will have enough power... I'm running Win98SE on a 450MHz P3.

--Matthew

I also have an original Radeon AIW, and a Celeron 500. Widows XP with Cat 3.0 drivers. Dscaler works, but the picture looked fuzzy compared to the ATI MMC. There was an occasional freeze frame, but that may be due to all the other software running at the same time.

Has anyone gotten the tv tuner (coax) working with dscaler? I have an aiw9000pro and I've been trying to get it working with dscaler, although unsuccessfully.
JJ