Capturing software and the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500MCE

[Dragonfly2337]

I bought into the whole PVR-PC thing and now all I want to do is copy my VHS tapes to DVD with the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500MCE card but I have found that there is not many programs out there that work with this card. For the video yes but not with the audio. The only program that I have been able to use is Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 that will capture both but I have been running into video quality issues. Tried tweeking the settings but still come up with not so great skin color not like my departed Pinnacle Studio Deluxe 8 with break out box.

[Caple]

What about the software that came with the card (WinTV 2000)?

[ranchhand]

I use the 250PVR card to capture my analog camcorder videos and it works super with WinTV 2000. You can download the latest version with patches at Hauppauges website (you probably have the latest with your card, but you can check it out).

[Dragonfly2337]

I cannot get this card to work with WinTV 2000 no mater what I try it does not like it at all.

[slgorin]

try sage recorder from FreyTechnologies. Its a great program for $20. try it free for 30 days. That is the only program I use and it specifically works on the pvr-250/350/500

[theewizard]

I think ChrisTV works with your card, the free version doesn't record

but you can dowload 28 day trial version of the PRO version and it will record, i had good luck with in the past

[Dragonfly2337]

I think that I may have found the problem when I use the composite in I have problems I finally gave up on the composite and connected the VCR to the Hauppauge card with a Cat-6 cable and captured again. Much, Much better captures with Roxio Easy CD Creator 9 and no more "Signal Loss" I should say I hope that I have found the solution only time will tell and I have found this true time and time again.

[SHS]

I cannot get this card to work with WinTV 2000 no mater what I try it does not like it at all.

What kind of problem are you having with it?.
Roxio Easy CD Creator 9 will only be soft encoding.

[Dragonfly2337]

The problem that I was having with it was that it was stopping the capture because the video feed would get jerky when using the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500MCE composite inputs either on the card or on header 1 or header 2 the tape was fine. I now have Roxio dialed in so it looks just like the video feed through cable. Putting the VHS tape on a 37" TV next to another and playing the DVD of the capture is about 98% accurate. The best that I could ask for VHS.
Garbage in Garbage out. The LP, SP, HQ offer little increases in accuracy when compared on a 37" TV will need to try those on my projection 54" TV to see how much is lost/increased to determine what one I will stick with. Otherwise I am going to stick with this method because my other method with my Pinnacle Card Studio Deluxe and CCE takes more time for the same results or I should say used to because my Pinnacle Card Studio Deluxe has started to go bad. I can do the same tape in the same machine over and over and its frame drop is from 5 to 477 for a 1 hr capture. Tried formating, another machine, different OS, different newer versions of Pinnacle Studio, different HD. and the same results happen. So it must be the card great while it lasted. I think that the firwire ports still work so it's probably now just a Firewire card.

[SHS]

it was stopping the capture because the video feed would get jerky

1: Is the Video it self just stopping in WinTV2000.
A: Maybe you need change your overlay mode to VMR by going to Start | Programs | Hauppauge WinTV | Primary Tool.
If run some other OS other then XP try the video overlay mode.

2: Is the Video it self just stopping in WinTV2000 and then give you and error message.
What error are you getting.

3: Is the Video it self just stopping in WinTV2000 and in Hang up I have manuel end task it.
What make and model of your motherboard.

Just wonder have try any PVR software you know like SageTV, MCE, BeyondTV, GB-PVR and etc?.

[Dragonfly2337]

I could never get WinTV2000 to install. Always came up with an error eventually gave up trying. I don't remember what the error was now. It would appear that I have things cleared up using Roxio and using the cable input rather than the composite input don't know why but it's really working well for me now. The captures that I got from using BeyondTV were good on the channels that came in well so I knew that it could do good captures but with BeyondTV I did not use the composite input only the direct inline cable. Thanks for your help but I think for right now using Roxio is working so well that I am going to just leave it now as is, especially since I finally have it dialed in to look so much like the original VHS.