Dodgy framerate when capturing VCR with Pinnacle TV Card

[crowby]

I have been using PCTV Rave for a year now for tv capture and occasionally for importing video tapes on my pc. This can be a bit hit and miss especially when trying to capture a home video which has been copied to video cassette rather than a pre recorded tape or something recorded off tv. When I view the tape thru the PC TV rave software it plays fine, but as soon as I hit the record button on the screen, the frame rate goes nuts! It seems to be skipping frames much like a bad 1980s pop video might in a consistent fashion, but it is erratic and when coming to try to re-sync the audio virtual dub has no chance. The frame rate and the audio skew are so eratic that I am certain nothing can be done afterwards to repair it so I am wondering if I can get any advice about avoiding this problem. I have tried NTSC setting in PCTV as an experiment (even tho I am in the UK) and this causes another side effect of a frame being repeated and flickering over the film at regular intervals. I would really appreciate any advice I can get on this, I am trying to record my bands concert to burn to VCD and I have the VCR on loan for a limited period!

[spectroelectro]

The problem with capturing from a VHS tape is that if the sync track on the VHS tape is worn or flaky, you will start dropping frames.
2 solutions:
[1] Buy a digital time base converter. Cheapest & probably best: AVT 8710, about $180 in the USA.
[2] Try a different video capture card. I've had excellent luck with the LeadTek WinFast TV 2000. Costs about $50 here in the states. One advantage of this card is that you can set the sync: you can sync ot video, sync to audio, or sync to none. I've had excellent results syncing to video int he SETTINGS dialog box. No dropped frames even on old VHS tapes.
YWWMV.

[pkhs]

Have you tried capturing with some other software than the stuff that comes with it? I have the same card and I couldn't get a good capture to save my life with that software (on my admittedly slow machine). Then I tried some of the tools from here and now I'm happily transferring my VHS tapes to DVD. iuVCR is the one that did it for me.

[crowby]

Thanks for your help both of you. I had to give the VCR back and just made an audio disc of the video, the trouble with trying other software with the PC TV Rave card is that nothing else seems to work with it. I have tried loads of different capture progs but none of them seem to recognise the card. I guess its a cheap card so you get what you pay for. As for buying another card thats not an affordable option right now but I will look into it when it is.