Can't play video captured with VirtualDub

[jk318]

I have a Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II (26xxx) tuner and capture card. It came with my HP computer with Windows XP Media Center Edition and I am using the RCA input jacks.

I have tried Windows Media Encoder to record video, but the video was low quality (it didn't matter what the compression settings were, the video flashed either way) and there was no audio.

I tried VirtualDub to record the video, and the minute and a half AVI video file was 1.3 GB. MediaInfo shows this for the video:
Video #0
Codec : HCW2
PlayTime : 1mn 27s
Bit rate : 124 Mbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Aspect ratio : 1.500
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Resolution : 12 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 11.990

The HCW2 codec is the only option I have for video compression. When I go to Video (menu) > Capture filter... > Hauppauge ECP System (tab) there is this list:
Program
Program_DVD
Program_DVD_MediaCenter (this is the default)
Program_SVCD
MPEG1
MPEG1_VCD

When I choose MPEG1 or MPEG1_VCD the video dissappears, and the HCW2 compression is still my only choice.

When I try to play the video with Windows Media Player is says it is searching for the codec then it says it found it and starts playing only the audio (which is PCM so it shouldn't have to look for a codec for that). VLC also only plays audio. When I try to open the AVI file in VirtualDub (which is what I used to create the video) it says that it doesn't have the codec.

I do understand that I could capture the video with Windows Media Encoder and the audio with VirtualDub, and then mux them, but the video would be very bad and I probably wouldn't be able to line up the audio and the video.

The person at HP's support website told me to buy some software for it, but I don't trust that it would actually work correctly.

So is my tuner just not suitable for using as a capture card with freeware, do I need to download some other capture card, or is there another setting I need to change in VirtualDub or on my computer?

[jk318]

I just tried the trial version of ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD 2, and the video flashed in the preview, and when I tried to record it, it said it was copy protected.