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gabooboo

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Delay When playing Video Games on a TV Tuner

I just bought a new ATI TV Wonder VE and after some troubleshooting, I got it up and running right with my cable.  But when I tried to connect my gamecube to the composite in, there is a delay between the time I press a button on the controller to when the action happens on screen.  It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it becomes very irritating especially when the action is hectic.  I'm not really sure why this is happening especially when a google search yields no other similar problems.  Does it have something to do with my computer?  It is an AMD 1.4 Ghz with 512 MB RAM, an Audigy sound card, and a Rage Fury Pro/Xpert 200 Pro with 32 MB RAM.  I have a feeling its the inadequate video card but I don't understand why it should really make a difference.  Wouldn't it just act like a television?
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radomirthegreat

It is not the inadequate video card.  Video cards have nothing to do with TV but for hardware support of video playback.  I watched DVDs and watched TV on an onboard video card with 16MBs of memory.  Your video card is perfectly fine for a TV tuner.

Basically, your TV tuner card processes the signal and then sends it to the CPU, which processes the processed signal, which is sent to the video card, with all due respect (paid by telepathy) to the north and south bridges and other motherboard goodies.  This, in your case, takes too long.  It is fine for TV, but it is horrible for games.  I have an ATI TV Wonder VE and I played some Playstation games through it.  The controls seemed to have a minor, sub-split second delay, but it didn't bother me much.

Simply put, the TV tuner you have is not good for video games.  I am not sure which one is, since I only have the one you do, but please understand that there is not just one type of a TV tuner, and if you return the one you have and pay a bit more for another type, you will have better results with the controls.
Avatar of gabooboo

ASKER

But how come I see no other complaints of such a problem on the internet.  Surely others would have the same problem and try to fix it.
Avatar of Callandor
I think most people play their gamecubes connected to a TV, with no need to input, grab a frame, and rescale to the display device.
I think few complain because few notice.  I barely even thought about a delay in controls until I read your question.
My delay is very noticeable, up to almost half a second.  People would complain about that kind of delay wouldn't they?  That makes me feel even more that this an isolated problem.
I played racing games and though I didn't wreck too much, the handling did feel a bit loose.  Do you still have a warranty for the card?  You could try to exchange it or return it all together and buy a different card.
Does your TV Tuner have a refresh rate option? Who knows, a stab in the dark, but maybe if this option is available, then maybe you can up your refresh rate...
My TV tuner card software has 2 modes to display video in, Overlay and primary mode, do you have such options? if you are using the software that came with your tv tuner card are there any updates? try playing around with settings to see if you can solves this.
So I shouldn't be hanving this problem?
When I run this system check option in the ATI menu, it checks some stuff like the directx version, windows version, CPU, and memory.  But it also checks the videocard and it says failed test because I don't have a radeon or better.  Could this be it?


amd 1.4 Ghz would benefit from a newish 128 Mb Graphics card -especially for real time capture ( check if you need to get a agp 4x card though cos your motherboard might not support a 8 x )





 
All 8× AGP cards will work in 4× AGP slots.
True - but he might have a AGP2X slot too. Just advising to check B4 U buy.  Ultimately - the Captured stream  needs to be processed by the VGA card. and even cheap GF5200's have hardware mpeg4 decoding.
No motherboard that supports a 1.4GHz AMD (read: Socket A motherboard) has just a 1x or 2x AGP socket; they all at least have an AGP 4x slot.  However, it is a good idea to check the AGP socket's setting in the BIOS and change it to 4x in case it's set to "AGP 4x - disabled".
I almost forgot - Thanks, Phatdave.  It' is, indeed, a good idea to check the AGP slot.
SO basically I need a new video card.  And my mobo is 4x.  Is this also the reason that my large divx movies lag behind also?
That may be the reason.  I'm not sure about where to find them, but you can try a PCI card called a "hardware digital video decoder" or something.  Those cards were about $50 a few years ago.  However, pretty much any new card these days would do this video business just as well as the best ones.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-135-146&depa=1
That card has a 275MHz GPU and 64MBs of 128-bit 400MHz DDR ram.  That's pretty fast for $36.50.
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Phatdave

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make that "CURRENT GEN CARD"   -   not CURRNET..  :(