can't capture analog video from VCR

[jerrie]

Hi,

After spending a couple of weeks searching this site (and others) for an answer to my question/s, I’m hoping someone can help me out.

I’m trying to capture my home VHS tapes for burning onto DVDs. I’ve got an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.60GHz processor, and using NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 video card. My DVD authoring program is Sonic MyDVD.

I’ve burned VCDs using my old computer, so I know what’s supposed to happen. When I hook up the VCR and open the capture window in Sonic, press “play” and “capture”, a message tells me that no valid video device was detected and to check my PAL/NTSC settings. The same thing happens with Windows Movie Maker – the capture window shows “Video input device - <none>”.

I’ve checked all the settings for hardware devices, everything’s working. I’m using the old black/red input cables. I wondered if my video card doesn’t accept analog input. I’ve emailed NVidia, but no reply. I’ve searched their website for my particular card, and found the features listed at
http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20030304458941.html
If someone could tell me if this info means I can capture analog video?

There are also ports at the back that my old computer didn’t have – One’s S-video (which I’ve tried as an input with no luck) and a long 3 x 8-hole port with a 4-hole cross on the left. I have a connector for it, but no idea what it does. So many help sites say “To capture your video, connect your VCR to the back of the computer”, but I think this may be where I’m going wrong.

Any help with capturing my video would be greatly appreciated.

[phhoth]

it looks to me that you have a video card and that is it. This card does not capture. You need to get a capture card that will do analog video. This site has all the info which are the best capture cards to use. I would also check under tools which software to use. I use VirtualVCR, Huffey codec and then the MainConcept encoder for very
good results.

[rb26dett]

My friend has that card. The S-Video port is for TV-Out (not capture).


phhoth is right, you will need a capture card.