Help using Avermedia DVD EZmaker PCI card w/ VirtualVCR

[bubernak]

I recently installed an Avermedia DVD EZmaker PCI capture card and tried using VirtualVCR to capture video from it since it seemed to be one of the more highly recommended (and was free) capture programs out there. This is my first attempt at video capturing and I thought I had it all setup properly, but just can’t seem to get any video to appear on the preview screen. Is there anybody out there that has had some experience using this program and could help me with the settings. I’m fairly confident the video is getting thru the card because I can capture it with the software (neoDVD) that came with the card, as well as a couple other programs, but I really want to use VirtualVCR. Thanks!

[rcb]

Might be your virtualvcr settings... App as downloaded is NOT set to U.S. defaults...

open app and click on settings > devices and make sure your card and correct audio device are selected. Also make sure "video tuner" is selected as video source. click on apply. then OK

Then select "tuner" tab > TV tuner device. Set country code to 1 (USA setting - substitute correct code number if residing in other countries) and tuner space to 0, tuning mode to TV and video standard to "NTSC_M" ( again, USA standard) and input to your source.
Then, click on Autotune and let scan finish. Click on Apply. then OK
Close window and click on "scan" in tuner window. Let scan finish. Again, click on apply and then OK.
If all is working right, click on Save in main window... You gotta do that or repeat above routine all over again if not done before exiting.

[bubernak]

Thanks rcb, I'll try those settings, because for the most part I did just use what was set by default. The only reason (and maybe I didn't make this clear in my original post) I didn't even mess with the TV Tuner settings was because I was pulling my video from a camcorder I'd plugged into the PC and not from a TV signal. The other thought I recently had was whether VirtualVCR was compatible with DirectX9.0b (which I installed prior to VirtualVCR), any ideas? I'll try your suggestions tonite if I get a chance. Mike

[bubernak]

rcb - turns out my capture card is just that, not a TV Tuner/Capture card, which I kind of realized while I was trying to set up the TV Tuner setting you suggested. Then I realized, that since its not a "tuner" I decided to try and switch the "tuner" device from tuner to composite video and viola, I was able to start getting video captured from my camcorder! Of course, now that just opens up a whole new set of questions, such as what do I do with the .avi files I can now create to get them onto a DVD. I have a few programs that it sounds like I could use (Sonic MyDVD, and neoDVD), but my preference would be to use Nero 6. I have created DVDs using DVDShrink and Nero (backups of some of my personel DVDs), but don't DVDShrink gives me VIDEO TS and AUDIO TS folders to use during the burning process. Could you either point me to a good AVI to DVD reference (thats easy to understand and doesn't involve purchasing any other programs) or give me some basic steps to do this. Thanks

[BrainStorm69]

You will need a program to take the AVI file and encode to mpeg-2 before you burn to DVD. Many use TMPGEnc. You can find it in the "tools" section here at DVDRHelp. There are also guides on how to use it under the "How to" articles here.

An alternative (and excellent) site that is very helpful for settings for TMPGEnc is www.lordsmurf.com.

[bubernak]

BrainStorm69,
Does TMPGEnc convert the avi files into an output similar to DVDShrink, i.e. two folders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS, with a bunch of stuff in the VIDEO_TS folder, or do you just get a single mpeg-2 file? For some reason I can't get to the www.lordsmurf.com site, don't know if its just temporarily down or what, but I'll try it again later. Thanks!

[BrainStorm69]

TMPGEnc will just convert to an MPEG file. Then you need a DVD authoring program to prepare it for burning to DVD. The same folks that make TMPGEnc also make a piece of software called DVD Author that will do this. You can also download a trialware version of this software.

BTW, www.lordsmurf.com is working for me right now.