PINNACLE PCTV PRO. POOR QUALITY CAPTURES, IDEAS?

[DeLpHoNiC]

Hi,

I recently bought a PINNACLE pctv capture card and when i try to capture a show in vcd or svcd format the quality looks awful on my tv after I burn it and play it. Im eventually gonna get a canopus advc 100, but first i wanted to try this one. I have 30 days ' till i can return it (Fry's) : ). Anyways, my question is, why is the quality so poor? Is it the source? I have cable, not digital analog. ive tried different capture programs and they seem to be the same. Tried messin with the settings and such. The reason i ask is becuase if it is the source, theres no point in me getting a Canopus untill i get digital cable or somethin'. Basically the only reason i want a capture card is to capture and burn tv show and such. As far as the pinnacle goes, it just doesnt cut it. Anyways if anyone has any tips on why the quality of my svcd/vcd captures look so awful, im open to suggestions.

Thanks in advance,
Peace

[VCD GURU]

I have a pinnacle pctv pro aswell.
I have tried most capture solutions out there.
PCi / USB / Firewire..

And i reccomend you to get rid of the shit that pinnacle makes

Go for something like Canopus ADVC 50 / 100 / 1394 8)

I never wasted a minut of my time with those products.

They just WORK! so great!

Good luck!

[skateni]

Hi,

Is it the source? I have cable, not digital analog. ive tried different capture programs and they seem to be the same. Tried messin with the settings and such. The reason i ask is becuase if it is the source, theres no point in me getting a Canopus untill i get digital cable or somethin'.

How does the picture look on your TV ??If it's good then the source should be OK. I have an "analog" cable and ran a co-axial cable to a VCR which I then connect ( via the RCA outputs ) to my ADVC-100 and the result came out close to what I get on my TV. Sorry can't help you with the Pinnacle ( I am a major convert of the ADVC-100 after trying lots of TV capture cards :P )

[spiderman2k1]

you might want to try dazzle 2 pci card to to www.dazzlegeek.com to learn more about it and see if it works with your mother board also PVR 250 and PVR 350 are good ATI is oh ok if you find it cheep. Also the Dazzle as a timer get a card that has a timer so when yuor not home you can record

[andie41]

The subject title indicates a PCTV Pro. The "pro" has "S" video in. I have the "pro" and am delighted with it, particularly for the price. I capture from cable, SVHS camera or SVHS VCR to avi (with an "S" cable) and then convert. This works really well for me.

I have used the Pinnacle drivers and found them fine, but now use the driver at http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/ and it works great.

I have also successfully used several capture programs but now use "Virtual Vcr" and capture any size and resolution I want. I am now using 352x480 compressed with the Huffyuv codec, but I am able to use 704x480 uncompressed or 480x480- zero dropped frames. I then edit and convert to mpeg2, usually at CBR 5000 kbs - it plays and looks great on my TV, with my Electrohome DVD player.

andie

[CaptainC]

Are you using the latest software V5.5 from pinnacle this might make a difference, also install the PCTV pci tool, you should have this with your original software CD if not that is available at pinnacles web site. When you say that the quality is Bad what do you mean if the preview looks good then it should be conparible to that using a high bit rate capture lets say around 2500kbs or 3000kbps.
Try capturing in AVI format 2 secs or something then capture at MPEG 2
high bit rate and compare.
Do you have a fast processor if not i.e anything below about 800/900mhz
then your wasting your time trying to capture Mpegs.
Its also worth knowing that a lot of software packed with these cards captures at variable bit rate (VBR) so for high action scenes more bits are used and for slow movement low bit rates are used. This works fine if you are using TMPGEnc on a ripped DVD which can take time to anylise the recording but not in real time captures if it gets it wrong it can't correct it,
but even still the picture on the PCTV capturing SVCD @ 2500kbs should look good. I have a PCTV Rave card much inferior to your card but i have the Pro software instaled and have captured SVCD DVD etc on it very successfully I now use WinDVD Recorder because it allows greater control over the files I capture thats the only part of the PCTV that doesnt do it for me but the picture is as good as any other card that ive used.

A Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools!!

[splissken]

I bought a PCTV Pro a couple of months back and had HORRIBLE video quality until I tried the composite input. What input are you using? If you're using the coax in, you'll porbably have some problems, it seems like a very noisy input. Try the composite or S-Video if you can.

Once I changed inputs I am extremely pleased with the quality I get, and I even use the PCTV Vision program to capture with.

[gf]

Return the card and buy a CANOPUS ADVC-100 . Don't waste your time or money on anything else!!!!