Dazzle DVC 100 Problems

Marcus

Edit history:

Marcus: 2013-12-08 12:35:09 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-08 12:34:08 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-08 12:32:59 pm

2013-12-08 12:23:01 pm

There might already be a topic about this or similar somewhere else here, if there already is a topic, sorry. But this is literary starting to piss me off now, so I need some help.

The problems that I have with my Dazzle DVC 100 all the time are that the video is flickering a bit and it's dropping frames. There are some other issues as well.

In this video I'm using both composite and s-video input to the tv and splitting the composite with the dazzle. It looks okay.

If I'm using both composite and s-video input to my tv while splitting the s-video with the dazzle, I get this checkerboard issue seen in this video. Splitting both composite and s-video with the dazzle gives the same result.

If I remove the composite input from the tv and split the s-video I get this result. Pretty good for s-video besides the flickering. But this creates a problem with my tv where screen starts scrolling downwards in dark areas.

If I use composite + s-video input to the tv and only split one of them with the dazzle it works fine, removing either while splitting the other (or only using composite input to tv) will cause scrolling. Only s-video input to the tv is okay, but splitting it causes scrolling.

Does anyone know how to solve these issues without buying another tv and dazzle? If I was unclear somewhere I'll try to explain better. Seriously, why does technology have to fuck me over all the time?

Thread title:

There might already be a topic about this or similar somewhere else here, if there already is a topic, sorry. But this is literary starting to piss me off now, so I need some help.

The problems that I have with my Dazzle DVC 100 all the time are that the video is flickering a bit and it's dropping frames. There are some other issues as well.

In this video I'm using both composite and s-video input to the tv and splitting the composite with the dazzle. It looks okay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFvEl46W0QM

If I'm using both composite and s-video input to my tv while splitting the s-video with the dazzle, I get this checkerboard issue seen in this video. Splitting both composite and s-video with the dazzle gives the same result.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GX6nUf4tCI

If I remove the composite input from the tv and split the s-video I get this result. Pretty good for s-video besides the flickering. But this creates a problem with my tv where screen starts scrolling downwards in dark areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZJd1FGriI

If I use composite + s-video input to the tv and only split one of them with the dazzle it works fine, removing either while splitting the other (or only using composite input to tv) will cause scrolling. Only s-video input to the tv is okay, but splitting it causes scrolling.

Does anyone know how to solve these issues without buying another tv and dazzle? If I was unclear somewhere I'll try to explain better. Seriously, why does technology have to fuck me over all the time?

honorableJay

2013-12-08 01:33:46 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

I'm not sure what the bobbing/flickering issue is, but the checkerboard is definitely signal interference. How exactly are you splitting the signal and what program are you using to capture the footage?

Marcus

Edit history:

Marcus: 2013-12-08 02:39:12 pm

2013-12-08 02:01:29 pm

I use male to male composite + s-video cables from the dazzle and composite + s-video from the N64 and then use splitters to the tv to connect both devices. The checkerboard occurs when I use composite + s-video to the tv. But only s-video to the tv shared with the dazzle causes scrolling on tv. I use Pinnacle Studio 15 to capture.

honorableJay

2013-12-08 11:50:08 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

Have you tried using a powered splitter? Sometimes when using unpowered splitting options (like y-adapters, etc) the signal strength gets drained too much and causes extra interference. To see if this is the case, hook your N64 directly up to the Dazzle and see how the picture comes out. If there's no flickering/checkerboard/etc issues, then you'll need to get a powered splitter. Also, try using the latest release of AmarecTv to preview/record the footage. If Amarec doesn't work, try using vDub. Pinnacle Studio is almost complete garbage when recording SDA footage.

Marcus

Edit history:

Marcus: 2013-12-09 11:33:39 am

Marcus: 2013-12-09 10:43:24 am

Marcus: 2013-12-09 08:35:01 am

Marcus: 2013-12-09 08:02:31 am

2013-12-09 06:20:31 am

I tried hooking up the N64 directly to the Dazzle, there was still flickering in Pinnacle Studio 15. I assume that the checkerboard would still be there too, I couldn't test it out because the s-video cables are too fat to be hooked up directly to the Dazzle, unless I cut off some rubber. However, then I tried it in AmaRecTV and got rid of the flickering. When it comes to the checkerboard, it seems like it will always be there as long as I use both composite and s-video input to the TV from the N64, splitting both or only s-video, the flickering will still be there. The composite input must go away or s-video recordning won't work. I don't see that happening unless I get another TV.

Edit: There never was a problem using this thing until started using it for my ASUS G750JX laptop with Windows 8 64-bit OS. However, me and some guys at ZSR concluded that it's not what causes the problem. Right now, the flickering starts if I try to record with 720x480 format, which there is no way to change in Pinnacle Studio. I use 640x480 in AmaRecTV now and it works fine. As for the checkerboard when using s-video (it actually didn't disappear when taking the composite cable, it just got a little better) and the current TV issue, I'll just record with composite which doesn't look that bad actually. Now I just got to get the video files supported for various media players and YouTube and such. Thanks for the help! This seems to be the best solution.

Edit: I get audio desyncs, ghosting, and lines in the picture when moving as well as frame drops. What compressor etc should I use?

I tried hooking up the N64 directly to the Dazzle, there was still flickering in Pinnacle Studio 15. I assume that the checkerboard would still be there too, I couldn't test it out because the s-video cables are too fat to be hooked up directly to the Dazzle, unless I cut off some rubber. However, then I tried it in AmaRecTV and got rid of the flickering. When it comes to the checkerboard, it seems like it will always be there as long as I use both composite and s-video input to the TV from the N64, splitting both or only s-video, the flickering will still be there. The composite input must go away or s-video recordning won't work. I don't see that happening unless I get another TV.

Edit: There never was a problem using this thing until started using it for my ASUS G750JX laptop with Windows 8 64-bit OS. However, me and some guys at ZSR concluded that it's not what causes the problem. Right now, the flickering starts if I try to record with 720x480 format, which there is no way to change in Pinnacle Studio. I use 640x480 in AmaRecTV now and it works fine. As for the checkerboard when using s-video (it actually didn't disappear when taking the composite cable, it just got a little better) and the current TV issue, I'll just record with composite which doesn't look that bad actually. Now I just got to get the video files supported for various media players and YouTube and such. Thanks for the help! This seems to be the best solution.

Edit: I get audio desyncs, ghosting, and lines in the picture when moving as well as frame drops. What compressor etc should I use?

honorableJay

2013-12-09 12:16:47 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

I'd recommend using Lagarith. The file sizes will be huge, but it's a lossless format with very little cpu overhead. The biggest problem laptop users face is a bottleneck with the hard drive's write speeds, but for 640x480 video it should be fine. After installing Lags, goto the Recording tab in Amarec, and click on "Update List" under the codecs. LAGS is what you're looking for. Also, make sure the audio is set to Uncompressed.

You should be able to get around the composite + s-video problem with a powered splitter. Ask UraniumAnchor what we were using at last year's AGDQ, since that can accept a s-video signal and kick out both s-video and composite (no need for a composite source).

Marcus

2013-12-09 02:22:34 pm

Lagarith removes the frame drop issue, but the audio is still ahead of the video and I get lines and ghosting in the video. Also, Lagarith is unsupported in some media players and editing programs. Wouldn't MPEG-2 work as well? Does it go under a strange name, or is it unsupported in AmaRecTV?

honorableJay

Edit history:

honorableJay: 2013-12-09 04:09:12 pm

2013-12-09 04:08:40 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

MPEG-2 encoding I believe requires a license. Post a sample of your video. If the lines are what I think they are then that's perfectly normal since you're recording interlaced video.

Lagarith should be fully supported in any media player once you install the codec. If not, you might want to try using VLC Medic Player or grabbing a popular codec pack (like FFDShow).

As for the audio sync problem, that should be fixable once you encode the final video. Just how far ahead is the audio?

Marcus

Edit history:

Marcus: 2013-12-09 04:49:33 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-09 04:49:00 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-09 04:48:04 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-09 04:46:46 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-09 04:45:17 pm

2013-12-09 04:42:45 pm

It's not a long video, but it shows the interlacing/ghosting issues. The audio slowly gets ahead more and more all the time. After about 2 minutes, the audio is about 5 seconds ahead of the video. My videos mysteriously get longer when I stop recording. One solution I had to get rid of the ghosting and interlacing issues when I used Pinnacle Studio 15 to capture was to record in MPEG-2, export in DivX Plus HD, upload to YouTube and download MP4.

Attachment:

test.avi

TheThrillness

2013-12-09 05:05:51 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Something is definitely wrong with that test.avi video. It's 28 fps and 632x480.

Note for nate: Import that video into yua and choose interlaced. Yua will automatically error out.

Edit: Converted it to 29.97 and still crashed.
Edit 2: Changed video to 640x480 and it worked. Attached the encode.

Marcus, can we see your Amarec settings?

Attachment:

zelda1_HQ.mp4

Marcus

2013-12-09 05:19:12 pm

There you go. Oh god, I get the feeling that I'm literary the only one who can't get things like this working and that I'm missing something obvious. I have no idea why it's 632x480 and 28 fps, it says that it's 640x480 and 30 fps when I'm recording.

Attachment:

settings.jpg

nate

2013-12-09 05:35:28 pm

it's true that yua's d1 deinterlacer crashes on nonstandard resolution input.

sometimes, it also crashes on standard resolution input!

TheThrillness

Edit history:

TheThrillness: 2013-12-09 05:55:45 pm

2013-12-09 05:53:25 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Graph 1 (Device) - Looks fine to me.
Graph 2 (Preview) - Set Deinterlacing to Not use and Scan Line Doubler to Disable. They might be messing with something. Maybe cropping is active which is why the 632?
Recording - Looks fine.
Advanced - Deselect color horizontal adjust. It's only for the Micomsoft capture cards. Maybe also untick use null frame. That might be messing with the fps.

Apart from those points I have no idea why your video is wrong (hopefully those solve it). Possibly a Windows 8 issue?

honorableJay

2013-12-09 06:04:22 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

The video does crash for me too, but I've run across this same bug before. It seems like with some videos if you choose interlaced BEFORE changing the resolution to D4 Yua will crash. For this video, I chose D4 first, THEN interlaced and all was fine.

Attachment:

marcustest_HQ.mp4

Marcus

2013-12-09 06:12:30 pm

I made those changes, it fixed the 632 issue but it's still 28 fps and audio desync. What is Yua?

TheThrillness

2013-12-09 06:31:17 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

That 28 fps thing is weird for sure. As for the audio desync, have you tried selecting "Dazzle DVC100 Audio Device(2)" or ticking "Match the start time of the audio with a video"?

Yua is the encoding program for SDA: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/yua3.html

Marcus

2013-12-09 06:46:48 pm

Audio Device(2) gives no video or audio input whatsoever and gives an error. The other setting changed nothing. However, 28fps is probably why audio is ahead.

TheThrillness

Edit history:

TheThrillness: 2013-12-09 07:24:33 pm

2013-12-09 07:17:14 pm

thethrillness.blogspot.com

Try installing Huffyuv and see if that works: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-conversion/2193-cannot-install-huffyuv.html

Post 3.

Reason being is if that shows 28 fps we can blame software and not a codec issue.

Marcus

2013-12-09 07:31:10 pm

I'll look into that tomorrow, I'm really, really tired now. 28fps and the audio desync are the only issues left though, if the composite quality is fine. It's getting a little better and better all the time. Thanks alot guys!

adde

2013-12-10 12:23:37 am

If your audio is behind/ahead of video during amarec recordings, try changing format from 29.97fps to 30fps, helped for me.

Marcus

Edit history:

Marcus: 2013-12-10 01:19:30 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-10 01:08:23 pm

Marcus: 2013-12-10 09:52:22 am

Marcus: 2013-12-10 09:52:20 am

Marcus: 2013-12-10 09:52:19 am

2013-12-10 08:32:26 am

adde, THANK YOU!!! Apparently, having it set to 29.97fps sets the recording to 28fps. Changing it 30fps sets the recording to 29.97fps. The audio desync is now gone! Huge thanks to everyone, I can finally make pretty good videos! Thanks! As for the S-Video issue, I'll look into that some other time.

honorableJay

2013-12-10 10:35:59 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

Just to be clear: did you change the framerate on the Device tab to 30fps OR did you change the framerate on the Recording tab to 30fps? Just curious so I can make a mental note of this in the future.

Marcus

Edit history:

Marcus: 2013-12-10 11:59:08 pm

2013-12-10 11:57:08 pm

I changed it on the Device tab.