... except Windows Media Center.
But for Media Center to work, the computer has to be restarted and no other video capturing devices loaded. If I start the computer, then load, for example, VirtualDub, it'll cause Windows Media Center to cease recording programmed shows. I'll get an error message saying "Program failed to record".
The other programs I've tried are:
VirtualDub
Ugh. I want this program to work so bad, but it just refuses to. If I restart the computer and immediately load VirtualDub, the preview option works for about two seconds, and then the image freezes. The program will not do that again until I restart the computer. If I try loading it up again without restarting, the preview area is either a black screen or non-existent (gray background). It did work, once, while I tinkered with the settings for about an hour. After I was done messing with it for the day I closed it, and it's never worked properly again.
iuVCR
If VirtualDub simply won't work, this would be a wonderful substitute. I downloaded this after posting this topic and thought all of my problems were solved since it actually worked. I was able to record at extremely high quality with no frame loss or anything of that nature. Then the errors started popping up. Here are all the times I've received the "Render capture graph failed" message:
1. After attempting to crop the video. It was working fine until the program crashed. When I restarted it, boom, error message.
2. After selecting preview a couple of times the colors suddenly looked like someone turned the hue and saturation all the way up. Why? I don't know. The problem magically fixed itself after previewing a couple more times, but eventually the error message popped up.
3. Normally restarting the system and going right into iuVCR worked, but sometimes it doesn't. Dear God why does it work sometimes after a restart and sometimes it doesn't? That makes no sense to me at all. Either don't work because there is a hardware problem, or a codec conflict or the wrong driver or WORK. PICK ONE.
4. No reason. I select preview, see something I want to tweak, close preview, tweak it and DOOF NOW IT WON'T PREVIEW. Cropping the video two more increments to the left causes the capture graph to fail? Huh?
VirtualVCR
I select the "preview" button and the program freezes for about a minute. It will then come back from the grave with an error message saying preview failed and to turn on the "Smart Tree" option. When I do that, it turns into a mini-version of VirtualDub with the black screen.
Windows Movie Maker
This one is funny. It came with the computer (like WMC) yet it doesn't work. I try to capture video in this program and it says "Camcorder not detected". Who said I had a camcorder? Am I allowed to have a VCR/game system hooked up? Will you detect that? Apparently not. The program doesn't even have settings to adjust to help correct this.
WinTV2000
This is a program designed for my Happupage WinTV card. I had it working once... displaying television and sources, but recording failed. After that, it just displays a blank image on all of the channels (it's a screen saver, but it's basically a black screen, like VirtualDub).
Roxio MyDVD Basic
Hey, this one works (sometimes)! Only problem is there's terrible lag between what I press on the controller and what happens on screen. It's impossible to play video games like this. When I had VirtualDub working for a brief period there was no lag between the controller and what happened on screen. Another reason I want VirtualDub to work.
muvee AutoProducer 5.0
Came with the computer. The program itself won't even load.
Pinnacle Studio 11
Black screen of doom. Might be because I'm using a trail version... *looks up*... but I highly doubt it.
I guess I just have random questions at this point...
- Is this a Vista problem? VirtualDub works fine on my XP machine. Recording is a little iffy (see here) but it's nothing tweaking won't fix. VirtualDub now offers support for Vista, I think.
- Is it something I installed? I don't really have anything on here except the Vista Codec package from free-codecs.com. Anything to look for?
- Any settings I need to look at and possibly change? I remember a while back that my old computer was having problems displaying the image from my capture card because the graphics in Windows XP were too much. I gave my system the Windows 98 look and that problem went away. Even though I tried this in Vista, it didn't help, but maybe there's something else to look at?
- Why is Media Center detecting my card just fine, but other programs won't?
I appreciate ANY help, links, statements or opinions posted.
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It is a software problem and that problem is called Windows ME II. I mean Vista.
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I wish Mr. Vista would stop dangling a working capture setup in front of me then jerking it away.
A little program I didn't even I know I had called WinTV32 works. Only problem is there isn't an option to record, only take freeze frames. Wouldn't matter anyway because the lag between what happens on screen and when I press something on a controller is phenomenal. At best it's three full seconds. VirtualDub/iuVCR didn't have that problem at all.
If it matters, here's what iuVCR says:
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Back to basics. Media Center should record fine assuming you have a capture device designed for it with a MCE remote and that said hardware has Vista drivers.
WinTV2000 should also work if you have the latest and greatest Vista ready version. Since it doesn't work properly to me this points the finger right at your Happupage WinTV card installation.
Others may disagree.....
Since you are running Vista, you do need to be sure that the software you try says Vista, not just something like " Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and later"
Vista is a whole different beast than XP. And you will get odd results if you run non Vista drivers.
Running MCE 2005 here and the only thing to not like about the MCE tv application is the lack of control over capture settings. They are kind of Stupified with not much details. OTOH the setting up recordings works fine for me and the little IR blaster controls my Satellite box channel changing channels just fine once I taught MCE the IR codes for changing the channels.
YMMV but I actually like the the channel guide interface and ease of setting a recording. The quality is OK.
Bottom line, first you need to get WinTv2000 working and then the rest may even likely will fall into place 1,2,3.
One other thought you may need to go into services if you never plan to use Media Center and turn of Media Center services to free up the capture device. -
I had a lot of WMC services disabled, but I went through them again and found one more, so I unchecked that one as well. After a restart, iuVCR still wouldn't work, but WinTV2000 seemed to be working perfectly. With WinTV2000 working, displaying and recording images from the capture card, all of the other programs won't work. That rules out a hardware problem, doesn't it?
Now, after loading other programs like VirtualDub to see if they too would work, I come back to WinTV2000 and now it's not working, at all. -
Most likely its the codecs that you installed is causing your problems,i'm running vista 64 and have no problems at all running vdub,virtualvcr etc,best thing to do is uninstall any codec packs(they are crap)and install the only codecs needed.(xvid,ogg etc).
I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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