DScaler - Revision history

Enhasa: at home now so couple minor clarifications

2009-10-05T03:31:42Z

at home now so couple minor clarifications

Enhasa: small changes

2009-10-02T20:20:18Z

small changes

Enhasa: lots of random stuff

2009-01-18T20:20:16Z

lots of random stuff

Enhasa: changing channels

2009-01-16T21:01:44Z

changing channels

Enhasa: created the page

2009-01-13T04:18:55Z

created the page

Enhasa: stub

2008-08-05T02:54:22Z

stub

New page

Going to expand this later by a lot, but for now, here's the download link.

[http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420]

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 At this point, you can play around in the menus for a bit to set some of the countless options how you like. The included help is very useful, or you can ask for help in fine-tuning settings. Pixel width should be set the same as or a multiple of the source: 640 for NTSC console output, 768 for PAL, 720 for TV or DVD material. Audio input should be either Tuner for TV or Stereo for console output; you should check pin 1 if it's there. Similarly, go to Settings/Audio Mixer setup and disable the hardware mute. Then go into Settings/Advanced Settings and click on the first row, for your card chipset. If the options are there, I find the best picture is achieved by turning on AGC (including crush), comb, full luma range, and leaving everything else unchecked.
-If you really want to reduce lag, besides common-sense stuff like not opening 50 other programs or turning on every filter, there are a couple Advanced Settings to get the latency all the way down. Turn Aspect Ratio/Defer Setting Overlay off, Wait for Vertical Blank off, Field Timing/Maximum Shift to 0, Decoding/Hurry When Late on, Wait for Flip off, Threads to high, Overlay/Back Buffers to 1. Also turn off all the VBI stuff in Datacasting.
+If you really want to reduce lag, besides common-sense stuff like not opening 50 other programs or turning on every filter, there are a couple Advanced Settings to get the latency all the way down. Turn Aspect Ratio/Defer Setting Overlay off, Wait for Vertical Blank off, Field Timing/Maximum Shift to 0, Decoding/Hurry When Late on, Wait for Flip off, Threads to high, Overlay/Back Buffers to 1. Also turn off Capture VBI in Datacasting.
 <br>
@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 The two most important menus for picture quality and performance are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion, but you can also try TomsMoComp or MoComp2. Click on Show UI and check Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection), In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator), and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.
-If your source is an old console (PS1, N64, Saturn, or older), you can try the Old Game deinterlacer; if you are playing via RF or composite, check the composite box in the Old Game settings. Otherwise (TV, DVD, newer console), stick to Greedy High Motion. If you are using RF or composite, you will also want to turn on the Temporal Comb filter to combat dot crawl and rainbowing.
+If your source is an old console (PS1, N64, Saturn, or older), you can try the Old Game deinterlacer; if you are playing via RF or composite, check the composite box in the Old Game settings. Otherwise (TV, DVD, newer console), stick to Greedy High Motion. If you are using RF or composite, you will also want to turn on the Temporal Comb filter to stop dot crawl and rainbowing.
 <br>
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 To record a quick clip for YouTube or personal use, here is the easiest and fastest way. Set pixel width to 320 for NTSC or 384 for PAL. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a lossy codec like [http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.43.0.html Xvid] or [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=213809&package_id=257567 x264] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, averaged 1/2-height, and YUY2. Now, whenever you want to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. If your video is jerky, you should try recording with a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] and converting to a lossy format after editing with something like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 AviSynth], [http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ VirtualDub], [[MeGUI]], or [[Batch Encoding]].
-If you're recording for SDA, you will obviously want a high quality end video. This means that you will want to capture the picture as purely as possible, so that any touches can be made later. So turn off all filters and select Simple Weave (essentially a dummy deinterlacer). Make sure pixel width is 640 for NTSC or 768 for PAL. DScaler produces video at your monitor refresh rate to maintain smoothness, so to record at 29.97 fps for NTSC, set your refresh rate to 59.94. You can use your video card drivers, but they often round, so in that case use [http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm PowerStrip] to set it exactly. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, Full Height, and YUY2. Whenever you are ready to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can take the resulting video and encode it yourself to SDA guidelines, using one of the methods above, or you can make your job simpler by using [[Anri-chan]].
+If you're recording for SDA, you will obviously want a high quality end video. This means that you will want to capture the picture as purely as possible, so that any touches can be made later. So turn off all filters and select Simple Weave (essentially a dummy deinterlacer). Make sure pixel width is 640 for NTSC or 768 for PAL. DScaler produces video at your monitor refresh rate to maintain smoothness, so to record at 29.97 fps for NTSC, set your refresh rate to 59.94. You can use your video card drivers, but they often round, so in that case use [http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm PowerStrip] to set it exactly, then select View/Switch Resolution in Full Screen/Use PowerStrip. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, Full Height, and YUY2. Whenever you are ready to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can take the resulting video and encode it yourself to SDA guidelines, using one of the methods above, or you can make your job simpler by using [[Anri-chan]].

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ==Overview==
-DScaler is an amazing piece of software. There are still many people who will refuse to buy a capture card that does not support it, as most cards come with terrible drivers and software. DScaler talks directly to the hardware without using drivers and displays the video using hardware overlay. Not only do you not have to put up with poorly written drivers and programs, this method is MUCH, MUCH faster. You can enjoy virtually lagless play while capturing and record good video that would otherwise be an unwatchable mess in other software like VirtualDub. If you want, you can also tweak all sorts of previously unavailable internal card settings to achieve the best picture possible. DScaler will commonly be the difference between thinking your capture card is great, or a piece of crap.
+DScaler is an amazing piece of software. There are still many people who will refuse to buy a capture card that does not support it, as most cards come with terrible drivers and software. DScaler talks directly to the hardware without using drivers and displays the video using hardware overlay. Not only do you not have to put up with poorly written drivers and programs, this method is MUCH, MUCH faster. You can enjoy virtually lagless play while capturing and record good video that would otherwise be an unwatchable mess in other software like VirtualDub. If you want, you can also tweak all sorts of previously unavailable internal card settings to achieve the best picture or performance possible. DScaler will commonly be the difference between thinking your capture card is great, or a piece of crap.
-A brief note about capture cards. You can get great quality from a very cheap card, even in the $10-$15 range. Even low-end cards can support s-video input and line-in for stereo audio, so make sure to check before you buy some card that only supports composite or mono. Audio input is nice and often included, but not necessary; without it, you can just send the audio from your console directly to your sound card and use it to record the audio. If your capture card or sound card doesn't take in RCA inputs, you can get a very cheap [http://www.amazon.com/RiteAV-3-5mm-Stereo-Female-Cable/dp/B000V06UEO/ RCA to headphone jack cable], or your capture card may already come with one for the line-in.
+A brief note about capture cards. You can get very good quality from a cheap card, even in the $10-$15 range. Even low-end cards can support s-video input and line-in for stereo audio, so make sure to check before you buy some card that only supports composite or mono. Audio input is nice and often included, but not necessary; without it, you can just send the audio from your console directly to your sound card and use it to record the audio. If your capture card or sound card doesn't take in RCA inputs, you can get a very cheap [http://www.amazon.com/RiteAV-3-5mm-Stereo-Female-Cable/dp/B000V06UEO/ RCA to headphone jack cable], or your capture card may already come with one for the line-in.
 <br>
 ==Caveats==
-The biggest caveat is support. Since DScaler talks directly to the capture card, support for each chipset needs to be individually added. Fortunately, most cards use the same chips. Generally, if you have a low or mid-end PCI card, which will almost always use either the bt8x8, cx2388x, or saa713x chipsets, it will be supported. (The ATI All-in-Wonder is an exception since it has its own ATI chip, although the TV Wonder is supported.) USB cards and PVR cards with built-in hardware encoding are generally not supported, and they also tend to have a great deal of lag. If you are unsure if your card is supported, you can find the chipset on Google or just ask. You could also try running DScaler and see if it works.
+The biggest caveat is support. Since DScaler talks directly to the capture card, support for each chipset needs to be individually added. Otherwise, you will have to resort to the slow, generic driver-based DShow mode that other programs use. Fortunately, most cards use the same chips. Generally, if you have a low or mid-end PCI card, which will almost always use either the bt8x8, cx2388x, or saa713x chipsets, it will be supported. USB cards and PVR cards with built-in hardware encoding are generally not supported, and they also tend to have a great deal of lag. If you are unsure if your card is supported, you can find the chipset on Google or just ask. You could also try running DScaler and see if it works without selecting DShow.
 DScaler requires hardware overlay to minimize latency, and only one process may use this at a time. This means if you are already using hardware overlay in another program (maybe it's turned on in your media player as well), it will give an error upon loading. Close the other program and try again.
-Since DScaler uses ring 0 for highest-level control to interact directly with the hardware, this means that if it crashes, it will take down your entire system and you will have to reboot. I've never had it crash, but I guess this is still a consideration.
+Since DScaler uses ring 0 for highest-level control to interact directly with the hardware, this means that if it crashes, it could take down your entire system and force you to reboot. I've never had it crash, but I guess this is still a consideration.
 <br>
 ==Setup==
-Go to the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 download page] and get whatever the newest release is. It should be stable even if it's not listed as a "stable" version. Run the installer. Upon running the program, it should bring up a dialog box asking you for your card. You can try the auto-detect if you don't know or if it's not listed. Many cards are similar so it can still work even if the name isn't the same. Then there should be a dialog box for performance settings, filled in with detected defaults. Unless your computer is from the 20th century, you should select all the highest quality settings: Above 1 GHz, Best picture quality, DScaler alone. If your card has a TV tuner and you care at all about watching TV, the next thing to do is scan for channels just like you would with a stand-alone TV: Channels/Setup. If your card came with a remote control, you can use software like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=145751 EventGhost] to control DScaler.
+Go to the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 download page] and get whatever the newest release is. It should be stable even if it's not listed as a "stable" version. Run the installer. Upon running the program, it should bring up a dialog box asking you for your card. You can try the auto-detect if you don't know or if it's not listed. Many cards are similar so it can still work even if the name isn't the same. Then there should be a dialog box for performance settings. You should select all the highest quality settings: Above 1 GHz, Best picture quality, DScaler alone. If your card has a TV tuner and you care at all about watching TV, the next thing to do is scan for channels just like you would with a stand-alone TV: Channels/Setup. If your card came with a remote control, you can use software like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=145751 EventGhost] to control DScaler.
 At this point, you can play around in the menus for a bit to set some of the countless options how you like. The included help is very useful, or you can ask for help in fine-tuning settings. Pixel width should be set the same as or a multiple of the source: 640 for NTSC console output, 768 for PAL, 720 for TV or DVD material. Audio input should be either Tuner for TV or Stereo for console output; you should check pin 1 if it's there. Similarly, go to Settings/Audio Mixer setup and disable the hardware mute. Then go into Settings/Advanced Settings and click on the first row, for your card chipset. If the options are there, I find the best picture is achieved by turning on AGC (including crush), comb, full luma range, and leaving everything else unchecked.
-If you really want to reduce lag, besides common-sense stuff like not opening 50 other programs or turning on every filter, there are a couple Advanced Settings to get the latency all the way down to 16 ms levels. Turn Aspect Ratio/Defer Setting Overlay off, Wait for Vertical Blank off, Field Timing/Maximum Shift to 0, Decoding/Hurry When Late on, Wait for Flip off, Threads to high, Overlay/Back Buffers to 1.
+If you really want to reduce lag, besides common-sense stuff like not opening 50 other programs or turning on every filter, there are a couple Advanced Settings to get the latency all the way down. Turn Aspect Ratio/Defer Setting Overlay off, Wait for Vertical Blank off, Field Timing/Maximum Shift to 0, Decoding/Hurry When Late on, Wait for Flip off, Threads to high, Overlay/Back Buffers to 1. Also turn off all the VBI stuff in Datacasting.
 <br>
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 Use Video Input to switch between TV tuner, composite, s-video, etc. To change channels, hit page up/down to go up or down by one channel, or just type the number of the channel.
-The two most important menus for picture quality are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion, but you can also try TomsMoComp or MoComp2. Click on Show UI, check In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator) and Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection) and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a tiny bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.
+The two most important menus for picture quality and performance are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion, but you can also try TomsMoComp or MoComp2. Click on Show UI and check Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection), In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator), and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.
-If your source is an old console (PS1, N64, Saturn, or older), you can try the Old Game deinterlacer; if you are playing via RF or composite, check the composite box in the Old Game settings. Otherwise (TV, DVD, newer console), use Greedy High Motion. If you are using RF or composite, it might be a good idea to turn on the Temporal Comb filter, especially if you see dot crawl, shimmering, or rainbowing.
+If your source is an old console (PS1, N64, Saturn, or older), you can try the Old Game deinterlacer; if you are playing via RF or composite, check the composite box in the Old Game settings. Otherwise (TV, DVD, newer console), stick to Greedy High Motion. If you are using RF or composite, you will also want to turn on the Temporal Comb filter to combat dot crawl and rainbowing.
 <br>

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 At this point, you can play around in the menus for a bit to set some of the countless options how you like. The included help is very useful, or you can ask for help in fine-tuning settings. Pixel width should be set the same as or a multiple of the source: 640 for NTSC console output, 768 for PAL, 720 for TV or DVD material. Audio input should be either Tuner for TV or Stereo for console output; you should check pin 1 if it's there. Similarly, go to Settings/Audio Mixer setup and disable the hardware mute. Then go into Settings/Advanced Settings and click on the first row, for your card chipset. If the options are there, I find the best picture is achieved by turning on AGC (including crush), comb, full luma range, and leaving everything else unchecked.
 <br>
@@ Line 26: / Line 28: @@
 Use Video Input to switch between TV tuner, composite, s-video, etc. To change channels, hit page up/down to go up or down by one channel, or just type the number of the channel.
-The two most important menus for picture quality are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion. Click on Show UI, check In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator) and Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection) and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a tiny bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.
+The two most important menus for picture quality are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion, but you can also try TomsMoComp or MoComp2. Click on Show UI, check In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator) and Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection) and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a tiny bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.
 If your source is an old console (PS1, N64, Saturn, or older), you can try the Old Game deinterlacer; if you are playing via RF or composite, check the composite box in the Old Game settings. Otherwise (TV, DVD, newer console), use Greedy High Motion. If you are using RF or composite, it might be a good idea to turn on the Temporal Comb filter, especially if you see dot crawl, shimmering, or rainbowing.
@@ Line 35: / Line 37: @@
 To take a screenshot, just hit L. You can change the options in the settings, like format (lossy jpeg or lossless tiff that you will want to compress with [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=151404&package_id=167423 OptiPNG]), compression, location to save, periodic screenshots, preview mode, etc.
-To record a quick clip for YouTube or personal use, here is the easiest and fastest way. Set pixel width to 320 for NTSC or 384 for PAL. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a lossy codec like [http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.43.0.html Xvid] or [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=213809&package_id=257567 x264] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, averaged 1/2-height, and YUY2. Now, whenever you want to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can use the resulting video if you like, or edit with something like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 AviSynth] or [http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ VirtualDub]. If your video is jerky, you should try recording with a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] and converting to a lossy format after editing.
+To record a quick clip for YouTube or personal use, here is the easiest and fastest way. Set pixel width to 320 for NTSC or 384 for PAL. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a lossy codec like [http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.43.0.html Xvid] or [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=213809&package_id=257567 x264] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, averaged 1/2-height, and YUY2. Now, whenever you want to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. If your video is jerky, you should try recording with a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] and converting to a lossy format after editing with something like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 AviSynth], [http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ VirtualDub], [[MeGUI]], or [[Batch Encoding]].
-If you're recording for SDA, you will obviously want a high quality end video. This means that you will want to capture the picture as purely as possible, so that any touches can be made later. So turn off all filters and select Simple Weave (essentially a dummy deinterlacer). Make sure pixel width is 640 for NTSC or 768 for PAL. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, Full Height, and YUY2 -- you have nothing to gain by selecting RGB here. Whenever you are ready to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can take the resulting video and encode it yourself to SDA guidelines, possibly using [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 AviSynth], [http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ VirtualDub], [[MeGUI]], or [[Batch Encoding]]. Or you can make your job simpler by using [[Anri-chan]] or even torrenting the raw files to Nate.
+If you're recording for SDA, you will obviously want a high quality end video. This means that you will want to capture the picture as purely as possible, so that any touches can be made later. So turn off all filters and select Simple Weave (essentially a dummy deinterlacer). Make sure pixel width is 640 for NTSC or 768 for PAL. DScaler produces video at your monitor refresh rate to maintain smoothness, so to record at 29.97 fps for NTSC, set your refresh rate to 59.94. You can use your video card drivers, but they often round, so in that case use [http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm PowerStrip] to set it exactly. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison|lossless codec]] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, Full Height, and YUY2. Whenever you are ready to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can take the resulting video and encode it yourself to SDA guidelines, using one of the methods above, or you can make your job simpler by using [[Anri-chan]].

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 ==Setup==
-Go to the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 download page] and get whatever the newest release is. It should be stable even if it's not listed as a "stable" version. Run the installer. Upon running the program, it should bring up a dialog box asking you for your card. You can try the auto-detect if you don't know or if it's not listed. Many cards are similar so it can still work even if the name isn't the same. Then there should be a dialog box for performance settings, filled in with detected defaults. Unless your computer is from the 20th century, you should select all the highest quality settings: Above 1 GHz, Best picture quality, DScaler alone. If your card has a TV tuner and you care at all about watching TV, the next thing to do is scan for channels just like you would with a stand-alone TV: Channels/Setup. Use Video Input to switch between TV tuner, composite, s-video, etc.
+Go to the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 download page] and get whatever the newest release is. It should be stable even if it's not listed as a "stable" version. Run the installer. Upon running the program, it should bring up a dialog box asking you for your card. You can try the auto-detect if you don't know or if it's not listed. Many cards are similar so it can still work even if the name isn't the same. Then there should be a dialog box for performance settings, filled in with detected defaults. Unless your computer is from the 20th century, you should select all the highest quality settings: Above 1 GHz, Best picture quality, DScaler alone. If your card has a TV tuner and you care at all about watching TV, the next thing to do is scan for channels just like you would with a stand-alone TV: Channels/Setup. If your card came with a remote control, you can use software like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=145751 EventGhost] to control DScaler.
-At this point, you can play around in the menus for a bit to set some of the countless options how you like. The included help is very useful, or you can ask for help in fine-tuning settings. Pixel width should be set the same as or a multiple of the source: 640 for NTSC console output, 768 for PAL, 720 for TV or DVD material. Audio input should be either Tuner for TV or Stereo for console output; you should check pin 1 if it's there. Similarly, go to Settings/Audio Mixer setup and disable the hardware mute. Then go into Settings/Advanced Settings and click on the first row, for your card chipset. If the options are there, I find the best picture is achieved by turning on AGC (including crush), comb, full luma range, horizontal filter, and leaving everything else unchecked.
+At this point, you can play around in the menus for a bit to set some of the countless options how you like. The included help is very useful, or you can ask for help in fine-tuning settings. Pixel width should be set the same as or a multiple of the source: 640 for NTSC console output, 768 for PAL, 720 for TV or DVD material. Audio input should be either Tuner for TV or Stereo for console output; you should check pin 1 if it's there. Similarly, go to Settings/Audio Mixer setup and disable the hardware mute. Then go into Settings/Advanced Settings and click on the first row, for your card chipset. If the options are there, I find the best picture is achieved by turning on AGC (including crush), comb, full luma range, and leaving everything else unchecked.
 <br>
 ==Watching==
 The two most important menus for picture quality are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion. Click on Show UI, check In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator) and Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection) and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a tiny bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:18, 13 January 2009
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	~~Going to expand this later by a lot, but for now, here's the download link.~~	+	==Overview==

−	[http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=~~7420~~]	+	DScaler is an amazing piece of software. There are still many people who will refuse to buy a capture card that does not support it, as most cards come with terrible drivers and software. DScaler talks directly to the hardware without using drivers and displays the video using hardware overlay. Not only do you not have to put up with poorly written drivers and programs, this method is MUCH, MUCH faster. You can enjoy virtually lagless play while capturing and record good video that would otherwise be an unwatchable mess in other software like VirtualDub. If you want, you can also tweak all sorts of previously unavailable internal card settings to achieve the best picture possible. DScaler will commonly be the difference between thinking your capture card is great, or a piece of crap.
		+
		+	A brief note about capture cards. You can get great quality from a very cheap card, even in the $10-$15 range. Even low-end cards can support s-video input and line-in for stereo audio, so make sure to check before you buy some card that only supports composite or mono. Audio input is nice and often included, but not necessary; without it, you can just send the audio from your console directly to your sound card and use it to record the audio. If your capture card or sound card doesn't take in RCA inputs, you can get a very cheap [http://www.amazon.com/RiteAV-3-5mm-Stereo-Female-Cable/dp/B000V06UEO/ RCA to headphone jack cable], or your capture card may already come with one for the line-in.
		+
		+	<br>
		+	==Caveats==
		+
		+	The biggest caveat is support. Since DScaler talks directly to the capture card, support for each chipset needs to be individually added. Fortunately, most cards use the same chips. Generally, if you have a low or mid-end PCI card, which will almost always use either the bt8x8, cx2388x, or saa713x chipsets, it will be supported. (The ATI All-in-Wonder is an exception since it has its own ATI chip, although the TV Wonder is supported.) USB cards and PVR cards with built-in hardware encoding are generally not supported, and they also tend to have a great deal of lag. If you are unsure if your card is supported, you can find the chipset on Google or just ask. You could also try running DScaler and see if it works.
		+
		+	DScaler requires hardware overlay to minimize latency, and only one process may use this at a time. This means if you are already using hardware overlay in another program (maybe it's turned on in your media player as well), it will give an error upon loading. Close the other program and try again.
		+
		+	Since DScaler uses ring 0 for highest-level control to interact directly with the hardware, this means that if it crashes, it will take down your entire system and you will have to reboot. I've never had it crash, but I guess this is still a consideration.
		+
		+	<br>
		+	==Setup==
		+
		+	Go to the [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7420 download page] and get whatever the newest release is. It should be stable even if it's not listed as a "stable" version. Run the installer. Upon running the program, it should bring up a dialog box asking you for your card. You can try the auto-detect if you don't know or if it's not listed. Many cards are similar so it can still work even if the name isn't the same. Then there should be a dialog box for performance settings, filled in with detected defaults. Unless your computer is from the 20th century, you should select all the highest quality settings: Above 1 GHz, Best picture quality, DScaler alone. If your card has a TV tuner and you care at all about watching TV, the next thing to do is scan for channels just like you would with a stand-alone TV: Channels/Setup. Use Video Input to switch between TV tuner, composite, s-video, etc.
		+
		+	At this point, you can play around in the menus for a bit to set some of the countless options how you like. The included help is very useful, or you can ask for help in fine-tuning settings. Pixel width should be set the same as or a multiple of the source: 640 for NTSC console output, 768 for PAL, 720 for TV or DVD material. Audio input should be either Tuner for TV or Stereo for console output; you should check pin 1 if it's there. Similarly, go to Settings/Audio Mixer setup and disable the hardware mute. Then go into Settings/Advanced Settings and click on the first row, for your card chipset. If the options are there, I find the best picture is achieved by turning on AGC (including crush), comb, full luma range, horizontal filter, and leaving everything else unchecked.
		+
		+	<br>
		+	==Watching==
		+
		+	The two most important menus for picture quality are Deinterlace and Filters. First, uncheck Automatic Detection and JudderTerminator. The next thing you will want to do is select the general deinterlacer you like the best. I recommend Greedy High Motion. Click on Show UI, check In-Between Frames (acts like JudderTerminator) and Horizontal and Vertical Sharpness. I keep Auto Pull-Down (acts like Automatic Detection) and Median Filter (acts like Noise Reduction, but adds a tiny bit of lag) unchecked. Next you can see what filters you want to use. I personally have them all turned off, but these can be useful if they improve your picture: Temporal Comb, Adaptive Noise Reduction, Chroma. If you can't really tell a difference or know why you would want any of these, just leave them all off.
		+
		+	If your source is an old console (PS1, N64, Saturn, or older), you can try the Old Game deinterlacer; if you are playing via RF or composite, check the composite box in the Old Game settings. Otherwise (TV, DVD, newer console), use Greedy High Motion. If you are using RF or composite, it might be a good idea to turn on the Temporal Comb filter, especially if you see dot crawl, shimmering, or rainbowing.
		+
		+	<br>
		+	==Recording==
		+
		+	To take a screenshot, just hit L. You can change the options in the settings, like format (lossy jpeg or lossless tiff that you will want to compress with [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=151404&package_id=167423 OptiPNG]), compression, location to save, periodic screenshots, preview mode, etc.
		+
		+	To record a quick clip for YouTube or personal use, here is the easiest and fastest way. Set pixel width to 320 for NTSC or 384 for PAL. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a lossy codec like [http://www.xvid.org/Downloads.43.0.html Xvid] or [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=213809&package_id=257567 x264] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, averaged 1/2-height, and YUY2. Now, whenever you want to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can use the resulting video if you like, or edit with something like [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 AviSynth] or [http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ VirtualDub]. If your video is jerky, you should try recording with a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison\|lossless codec]] and converting to a lossy format after editing.
		+
		+	If you're recording for SDA, you will obviously want a high quality end video. This means that you will want to capture the picture as purely as possible, so that any touches can be made later. So turn off all filters and select Simple Weave (essentially a dummy deinterlacer). Make sure pixel width is 640 for NTSC or 768 for PAL. Go to Actions/Recording/Options and select a [[Lossless Codecs Comparison\|lossless codec]] under Compression Options. Select No Limit, Full Height, and YUY2 -- you have nothing to gain by selecting RGB here. Whenever you are ready to record, hit Shift-R to record and Shift-S to stop. You can take the resulting video and encode it yourself to SDA guidelines, possibly using [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57023 AviSynth], [http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/ VirtualDub], [[MeGUI]], or [[Batch Encoding]]. Or you can make your job simpler by using [[Anri-chan]] or even torrenting the raw files to Nate.