Pinnacle VCD Studo Capture card (BT878)

[pchan]

Hi,
I have been using this capture card with AV_IO for more that 2 years. I notice that my recent capture, the top right corner is a bit dark. The video color fade. Does the capture card degrade over times ?

[SatStorm]

No.
When any card brokes down, it brokes down! (that means, you can't open your PC, you can't use the device, or when you try to use it your PC crashes, etc)

I believe that your monitor starts having problems, or you installed drivers of some kind and after this, you experience that kind of problems.
Another reason is that you might changed your capture program to a later version recently and this new version has issues with your hardware. If this happened, try re-install an older version of your capture software / drivers, etc...

[pchan]

Thank for the tips SatStorm.

I have done all that. I think I will have to grandfather that board.

I have another tv-card (Hauppauge WinTV with FM). I have intalled it with the latest driver. I hook my video camera (Sony Video8 bought in 1995 ) to the tv-card composite-in but the video turn out be back & white. I am from PAL B region. I am using the Hauppauge WinTV2K bundle software.

Do I need to remove the Pinnacle capture card + the driver ?

[SatStorm]

The less cards / drivers, the less issues...

WinTV is OK for what you wish to do. With the btwincapdriver you can succeed excellent results. But, you have to set it up correct. Use virtualvcr for your tests, then move to virtualdub

The only camera I have, is now 12 years old. It is a VHS-C one, very old indeed. Yours looks like high end compared to mine, trust me

[pchan]

SatStorm, Thanks.

I will give a try. May I know where to get the btwincapdriver ? I have tried the AV-IO & Picvideo MJPEC codec with the Hauppauge TV-Card... it just wouldn't work. So I will give the btwincapdriver and virtualdub a try.

I did try using this Hauppauge tv card to video capture with AV-IO and Picvideo codec. Here was nightmare that I had gone thru. Now, I have no choice as my Pinnacle capture is giving me prob.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=179526&highlight=

[SatStorm]

You have mess up things in you mind....

First: The drivers of the card has nothing to do with the codecs you use to capture...

Anyway, here are the steps:
Download btwincapdrivers here: http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/. Install them for your Hauppauge card (those are third party drivers, so forget the tuner stuff, you gonna use the line in of your card for video and the line in of your soundcard for audio)
Then install huffyuv (freeware) and / or picvideo MJPEG (demo avalaible)

Now, for capturing you gonna use virtualvcr. Read about it and set it up correct. Set up the framesize of your capture (bt8xxx cards: Capture the higher you can for better results - best results (unoticable for sources like VHS tapes) are a bit more complicated subject) and also choose the correct codec for your captures (set YUV2 colourspace and Huffyuv for example...)
Now you are able to capture to your PC.

In case you have a PC more than 1700Ghz, try the other alternative: Realtime mpeg 2 capture with mainconcept 1.4.2
Unfortunatelly, there is no guide for this yet (I don't have time to sit down and write one, so lord smurf at his site), so you have to figure it out yourself of how to do it. Excellent results that way, considering what your capture card is...

Also, a very next step, is to use virtualdub to capture to avi (alternative to virtualvcr). But you need to find and install the vfm2wdm drivers that way, also you need to learn well how to set up this program.


Isn't a wonderfull hobby? When you are new it drives you crazy but after the first success you turn to hardcore fan (and fanatic videohelp.com forum user)

[pchan]

Hi SatStorm,

Thank you very much for the detail instruction. I just realize that my Hauppauge WinTV-PCI-FM model 145 tv card is based on Conexant 881 chip and not BT878. The btwincap wensite neve say it supports 881. Any issue ?

[pchan]

Hi SatStorm,

I manage to capture some video clips using the Hauppauge WinTV2000 in Avi format and Picvideo codec and the Hauppauge TV Card. The result is the same... a dark patch at the top right corner. I have a similar clip that I capture earlier and there is no dark patch. This lead me to conclude that my Pinnacle capture card is OK but my Sony Video8 is giving way now. Time to shop for new DV camera and convert all my Vidoe8 tapes to DV tapes.

Thanks for all the help.