Trouble capturing from VCR, completely stumped

[mikeveli20]

Hello. I've recently been capturing old home movies and converting them to DVD. I've finished all the mini-DV tapes and that was a breeze and now I'm on to 8MM and VHS. My DV camcorder doesn't support Analog-Digital passthrough and I don't really want to record every single 8MM and VHS to a miniDV tape and then capture it to the computer.

I have a Vista View DA-1N1-E Tuner card with my VCR currently plugged into it through S-Video and Composite Audio. I am running Windows Media Center Edition. I first attempted to capture through Windows Media Center but couldn't get anywhere with that. It didn't even seem to recognize my capture card at all. I then downloaded a trial version of a program called SuperVideoCap. This program was able to detect my card fine and when I had the VCR tape playing, I could see (no sound however) a preview of what was on the tape. I then attempted to actually capture to a file and got an error message saying that there was potentially a problem with the audio or video compressor.

So this is where I am now. I know the card is capable of capturing from analog sources such as VCR and 8mm camcorder since I was able to see the preview, I just can't get any further than that. I haven't installed any codecs or anything that may be causing conflicts with what I already have installed from Windows Media Center. I'm usually very tech savvy and can figure things out, but this is my first attempt at this and I am quite lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Mike

[minidv2dvd]

you might try virtualdub or stoik. both are in the tools capture section here.

[mikeveli20]

I tried VirtualDub already as that's what I was using to capture the miniDV with and all I got was a bunch of noise. I'll give stoik a try and see if there is any success.

Edit: Just gave Stoik a try. I was able to see the preview of the video like I can in SuperVideoCap. I could not set the audio capture to be captured using my Vista View card. I tried to capture anyways and when I clicked record, the preview froze but it said below it was capturing and displayed the following: "number of seconds" which would go up each second, and "-1 frames" which stayed the same throughout the capture.

After about 15 seconds I stopped the capture and went to the directory where I saved it. Each time I clicked on the file I would get an error saying Windows Explorer needed to be closed. I was able to double click on it once before this came up and Windows Media Player opened but then it told me the file could not be played and might be corrupt.

[minidv2dvd]

that probably isn't a normal analog capture card. it looks to me as if it is an mpeg-2 hardware encoding only output card. try capturing in 720x480 mpeg-2. i don' know about the audio, normally it's routed to the system audio card and captured from there.

something like windows media center maybe required.

cyberlink powerdirector is about the best at finding odd capture cards and using them that i have found.

[mikeveli20]

I have Windows Media Center but couldn't seem to get the card working under it. On the manufactuer's website for the card they even say you need Windows Media Center so that's specifically what it's made for. It is an MPEG2 capture card, and that was one of the options available in SuperVideoCap but as I said when I tried to capture I got an error message.

Under Windows Media Center I couldn't even figure out how to get it to even attempt to display anything. I don't normally work on a Windows Media Center machine so I am unsure if I'm supposed to do something to get it to see the card or what steps I would take in order to get it up an running under media center.

[minidv2dvd]

did you install the drivers for it?

[mikeveli20]

Yes. The other programs I've tried (SuperVideoCap, VirtualDub, and Stoik) all show the card as ViXs PureTV Analog Video Capture.

I should note too that "My TV" doesn't even show up in the Media Center menu. When I go under settings and click TV I get an error message saying "The tuner hardware is either malfunctioning or not installed. "

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the card a couple of times and it keeps saying the same thing.

[minidv2dvd]

you should at least be able to watch cable or antenna tv with it. it claims to have a qam tuner so digital tv should work.

if it isn't even working for mce it most likely is defective.

http://www.vistaview.tv/content/view/51/116/

[mikeveli20]

I'm going to try and reinstall the drivers again. Do you know of a way in which I can make sure that I remove all drivers and any related files that have been installed relating to the card? What I've been doing so far is finding the device in device manager and then right clicking and choosing Uninstall, but I'm thinking there is some left over files or something that might be causing the same thing to happen when I reinstall the driver again.

[yoda313]

One thing you might try on the audio is to see if the card has a separate hook up on it specifically for audio. I remember one card I had required a cable to go from the capture card to an input jack on your soundcard inside the case. Try that and you might get the sound to work.

Edit - scratch that - I looked up your manual and it doesn't mention a separate internal sound cable.

Are you using the supplied adapter for rca audio jacks?

[minidv2dvd]

you could remove the card, boot, shutdown. reinstall the card and do it that way. then when finds new device manually point it to the drivers you want to use. basically the same way as uninstalling from device manager.

i didn't think that card came with any software?

[mikeveli20]

One thing you might try on the audio is to see if the card has a separate hook up on it specifically for audio. I remember one card I had required a cable to go from the capture card to an input jack on your soundcard inside the case. Try that and you might get the sound to work.

Edit - scratch that - I looked up your manual and it doesn't mention a separate internal sound cable.

Are you using the supplied adapter for rca audio jacks?

There was no supplied adapter for rca audio jacks, only an s-video to composite video adapter. I don't think there would be a need for an rca audio adapter since the female jacks on the card are already rca jacks themselves and can take a connection without any adapter.

[mikeveli20]

you could remove the card, boot, shutdown. reinstall the card and do it that way. then when finds new device manually point it to the drivers you want to use. basically the same way as uninstalling from device manager.

i didn't think that card came with any software?

It didn't come with any software, just a cd that contains the drivers. I made a discovery that the drivers on the website are a slightly newer revision than the ones on the cd, but after trying those as well, it still won't work.