Capturing to Radeon X300

[daazlin]

Howdy all.

Okay, there's a lot of history to this, but I will try to keep as brief as possible.

GOAL: Capture from analog (both DVD & VHS), considerable editing, and output of 300-500 DVDx per month.

I currently have:
Sony Vaio VGC RB38G
Pentium 4, 3.4 Ghz, HT
1 GB Ram
250 GB Hard Drive
WinXP
Radeon X300
Pioneer DL DVD-RW
Primera Bravo II DVD Duplicator

This computer is dedicated solely to this DVD project. I originally attempted to accomplish the task with a bare bones HP that failed misery. Finally I gave up and bought the VAIO, complete with oodles of useless software. And it's a Win Media Center. Let's just say I'm in the process of dumping A LOT of stuff.

From earlier attempts to make this work I have also acquired the following software & hardware:
ATI All In Wonder 9600
Dazzle Capture Thingy
Studio 8 & 9 Editing Software
Adobe Premiere Software

The new Vaio also has Click to DVD, DVGate, & Windows Movie Maker, none of which I want to use. It also supposedly has GigaPocket but I sure can't find it.

I've been struggling for a month trying to get everything to work together- but inevitably one small part of the process fails and I'm stuck searching for new options (no- I have not tried to use two Video Cards & a Dazzle Thingy all at the same time, they've all been accumulated over the past month in attempt to fix problems- which they did, but then another would pop up. Yes, I know I've spent too much money

Anyway- new Vaio, purchased 2 days ago, makes ATI AIW & Dazzle thingy obsolete because it came with the Radeon X300 which conveniently has input ports such as S Video, right? Problem- when I hook said VCR/DVD player to Svideo & audio, nothings coming up in the capture screen. Frustrating, cause this part worked with both AIW & Dazzle. I'm using Studio to capture (because Adobe won't take analog)- and it's not recogninzing anything. It's trying to capture from SMRT Card (???), and I don't even have the option to choose between composite SVideo anywhere. What's the dealio??

I can fill in with more history of my past attempts with a variety of other computers and the additional hardware/software mentioned above- each of which failed in some other way, but I'm trying to keep this as short as possible.

I appreciate any help you can give me. I'd like to be able to make this Radeon X300 work as is in the Vaio and be done with it. In which case, anyone wanna buy an AIW or a Dazzle Thingy???

[redwudz]

I don't want to depress you further, but I have a Radeon X300 and it is not a capture card, only display. It's a Sapphire PCI-E card with the X300 ATI chipset. AFAIK, only the AIW or the TV Wonder ATI chipset cards can capture. On mine, the S-Video is an output.

[Nelson37]

SFAIK, Redwudz is correct. Input only.

What sort of capture problems did you experience previously? Macrovision related?

There is a wealth of information on this site covering VHS capture problems, dealing with almost every issue. Were any of these helpful?

[daazlin]

You're kidding me. I hate salespeople.

It does have two S Video jacks, only one set for composite/audio, none of which are labeled in or out (urgh). The two S Videos appear to be on differant cards when looking from the back (have not opened the unit up yet).

Previous problems:

Dazzle Thingy actually captured very nicely, but I was trying to run everything off my primary PC, which obviously could not handle the workload during editing and kept crashing. Then, under direction of another salesman, I purchased the AIW and installed, dedicating 128 MB to video stuff. Finished editing and stuff worked great, but tied up my primary PC for 8 hours while rendering and burning. No good. Also, the menus on the finished project (created with Studio 9) would not work.

So I got a PC dedicated for the video stuff (Bare Bones HP Piece of Crap). Installed AIW. Had to recapture the finished DVD to fix menus. It appeared to work great, only later did I notice that the capture quality was much fuzzier than the quality I got capturing from Dazzle. And later, when I attempted to send to Bravo II for duplication I discovered the new PC had some glitch. Sent in for repair but was unfixable so they replaced it.

They also attempted to install the AIW in the replacement PC without the driver & software. They also neglected to uninstall the previous display drivers (idiots), so the pc was full of problems when I got it. Returned it & decided to stop trying to save money by building it all myself. Thus purchased the Vaio, complete with loads of useless software (and a Radeon card they assured me did video capture.)

So, something that's been puzzling me, if the Radeon can't capture, what the heck is the SMRT Capture Card that Studio is finding?

And, what is the Legacy Capture Device listed in all my device managers (even on the PC that has no upgraded video card??)

I am so appreciative of your help. I've been surfing the forum for weeks trying to piece together answers, and now I'm in over my head because obviously everyone's works differantly, or has differant components.

Appreciate any answers you can provide. And also, let's say this was your project- exactly what would you purchase to make it work? I've heard of cards dedicated to capture- what are they? What type of expansion slots do they require? This needs to be done right (and soon would be GREAT) as it's the basis for a new business, so cost isn't a hugely determining factor.

Note though- I'm too heavily invested in PC to switch to Mac, sorry, please provide PC tailored suggestions.

Sooooo appreciative. Thank you.

[daazlin]

Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention this but I need software/hardware to capture to avi, not mpeg . . .

[greymalkin]

you might want to sit down and make a list of distinct questions and do a forum search for them. For instance, "How can I copy a dvd back to my hard drive" would have yielded the answer "dvd-shrink" or one of it's alternatives. (free software). Re-capturing it will A) take a whole lot of extra time and B) look worse.

[daazlin]

you might want to sit down and make a list of distinct questions and do a forum search for them. For instance, "How can I copy a dvd back to my hard drive" would have yielded the answer "dvd-shrink" or one of it's alternatives. (free software). Re-capturing it will A) take a whole lot of extra time and B) look worse.

Trust me, I have searched and searched and searched this forum for the appropriate answers. I am unable to piece together all the information I have gathered in a comprehensive manner that will help me.

And I do not need to copy a dvd to my hard drive- I need to capture analog video- DVD & VHS. I have found only pieces of information that reflect the exact hardware & software I possess, so I am posting with my specs in an attempt to find a straight and complete answer.

Maybe there isn't one?

[redwudz]

From what I can see from Sony's site, that computer does have a S-Video input, it just isn't on the X300 card. Try the other S-video input.

You want AVI capture, and may need to do extensive editing? I would look into a DV analog to AVI converter. I use a ADVC-100. It (And other versions) has locked audio/video sync, outputs DV/AVI video, (which is easy to edit) accepts S-Video inputs and is very easy to use. Really no setup, just plug it in.


If you are capturing extensively from a VCR, you will need a Time Base Corrector also.

But, read your computer manual, all the info on video in for your computer should be there.

[daazlin]

From what I can see from Sony's site, that computer does have a S-Video input, it just isn't on the X300 card. Try the other S-video input.

You want AVI capture, and may need to do extensive editing? I would look into a DV analog to AVI converter. I use a ADVC-100. It (And other versions) has locked audio/video sync, outputs DV/AVI video, (which is easy to edit) accepts S-Video inputs and is very easy to use. Really no setup, just plug it in.


If you are capturing extensively from a VCR, you will need a Time Base Corrector also.

But, read your computer manual, all the info on video in for your computer should be there.

That would be great, if computers actually came with manuals anymore

I have the "quick start up" poster that has a nifty little image of the back of my computer and some identifying names- I checked the svideo port I'm using- and it does say "video input", and it's right next to the only l/r audio jacks on the unit. THe other svideo is on the card the monitor feeds out of, and is labeled tv out. THis must be the radeon card.

So what is the other card then? The SMRT Card? Which is what Studio's been picking up, but not capturing from. Anyone ever heard of this capturing device???

UPDATE:
In frustration, I hooked Dazzle Thingy up to computer cause I had previously gotten it to work and caught good quality video off of old ass vhs tapes. It happily captured into Studio the dvd I had compiled (the one with the broken menus)- but still had crappy quality. I wanted to try VHS capture, because this was what I was capturing the first time when I got decent quality, so I removed DVD and inserted VHS- and the capture screen went blank (oy vey ).

I decided to deal with this problem later, as I wanted to reinsert the DVD and verify that the capture settings were up to par. So I took out the VHS and reinserted the DVD- but the capture screen remained totally black! Argh! I didn't touch anything but exchange dvd for vhs and then vice versa.

Oddly- if I raise brightness settings to their highest point I can just barely make out what MIGHT be the video I'm trying to capture- but it is topped by GIANT wavy lines.

I can't tell you how freaking over this whole process I am- it's been over 30 days of constant crap. If I haven't mentioned it before, I am extremely appreciative to anyone who takes the time to help me.

(PS- does my vaio even have an agp expansion slot if I want to try the AIW? I'm sure I can look this up but if anyone has it on the top of their head please just jot it down)

thanks

[daazlin]

UPDATE 2:
Tried capture via composite instead of svideo and got capture (still way crappy quality).

Off to store for new svideo cord- could this be the source of my woes?? (fingers crossed please)

[redwudz]

I looked around the net a little and found one maybe helpful reference.

"I have pretty much the same sony with giga pocket. I have captured several VHS tapes without any problem. You do have to open Giga pocket and make sure the input is selected for where your cables are connected. Open EMC and capture and you should see the video when you press play. Works pretty good.

Victor"

This makes me think there is a software switch to activate the input for the card. No idea where, but has something to do with Gigapocket. This was from a Roxio forum. But it seems they were talking about composite, not S-Video.

My guess SMRT is Sony's card. Hard to find any info. What most of them seem to say is you have to use the Sony programs to use the SMRT card or nothing will work.

Further on: If you have a X300, it's a PCI-E card. It's very unlikely to have any AGP slots in the computer as PCI-E replaces that. There should be a few PCI slots. My X64 board has 4 slots, some have 3. Not a lot of room for addition PCI cards.

[Nelson37]

I am reasonably certain that you MUST use the GigaPocket software to capture with the Sony, and that NOTHING else will work with it. It also seems to create non-standard files. Yes, the SMRT is Sony's card.

Spent some time working with a customer's VAIO, though I did not have it in my shop. I forget what all I tried, but nothing worked with their hardware, and several progs choked on the captured file.

Also - DVD are Digital, NOT analog. Do not capture them, rip them directly to hard drive. Also, virtually all DVD players will prevent capture with Macrovision or some other technique. Most VHS tapes also have Macrovision. Test with Cable TV input to seperate these problems from other issues.

Note on the Fuzzy DVD capture - you are not comparing the Dazzle and the ATI. Dazzle captured original source. Ati re-captured and re-converted (for the second time) the already-captured and converted video from the DVD.

You aren't gonna like this, but because of the incompatibility with many progs, I would not use that machine for capture in a for-profit business.

You are going to need a TBC if biz is video conversion. I would chuck current machine, then buy or build a fast, plain machine with large, fast hard drives (plural). Install XP pro and nothing else. No internet connection. Get one with AGP and plug in your ATI, or Dazzle, both, or something new. IMO, there is nothing significantly better than the ATI you already have.