Capturing PAL video in the US

[dphirschler]

OK, I have a PCTV Pro capture card. I routinely capture NTSC video since I live in the US. Now I have some PAL VHS tapes and a PAL VCR. How can I capture the PAL video? Do I need to buy a PAL version capture card or can I set up my driver to do it? BTW, I am using the Btwincap drivers in Windows XP.


Darryl

[hech54]

The PAL VCR will be THE important key to your success. Drivers should not be a problem - I believe your main concern should be the card.

[johns0]

Just open your capture program you use and see if it can be set to pal standard-25 fps and 720x576 or 352x576 or 352x288.

[dphirschler]

So I need a PAL capture card?


Darryl

[johns0]

Only if you can't change your settings to pal as i described above with your present capture software for your card you already have.

[dphirschler]

Just open your capture program you use and see if it can be set to pal standard-25 fps and 720x576 or 352x576 or 352x288.

I use Virtual Dub for capturing. When I select 576 lines it tells me the resolution is not available. I cannot remember the exact error message. I can capture 480 lines (NTSC) no problem.

I also have an ATI TV Wonder Pro. But it does not ignore macrovision so I haven't tried it yet.


Darryl

[johns0]

Proly not then,best to look for a card that supports both pal and ntsc capture.Try virtualvcr to see if that will do the trick.

[Iamnotsam]

Personally, I will be very surprise to hear that there is a capture card which cannot support both ntsc and pal capture, since most of the capture card today support both. However, usually you will need to config your card before changing from ntsc capture to pal capture (Set the video standard from ntsc to pal). You might not be able to change that setting directly through your own 3rd party capturing software, but rather through the config tools(software) that come with your capture card. You better check with your capture card company for support before you make any purchase.

Good luck!

[ChrisX]

OK, I have a PCTV Pro capture card. I routinely capture NTSC video since I live in the US. Now I have some PAL VHS tapes and a PAL VCR. How can I capture the PAL video? Do I need to buy a PAL version capture card or can I set up my driver to do it? BTW, I am using the Btwincap drivers in Windows XP. Darryl

This would depend on your capture card and there is a good chance be NTSC only. If it got no settings to switch over to PAL then can't do it.

Have you tried to get multi-system, NTSC/PAL capture driver with application from your capture card Co? Did you visit a website to download them?

VirtualDub wouldn't be any good as you must have the primary capture driver/application for the card first to make it work on PAL.

Was it successful? If not, if you really badly want to capture a PAL video I suggest buying another card and make sure as PAL/NTSC.

I got caught on this once, so to beware to make sure as multi-system when you buy another card.

[spiderman2k1]

I have ATI AIW and Dazzle both card capture NTSC and PAL. On the ATI AIW you have to tell it what to capture on the the Dazzle 2 there testing you have to do then Dazzle 2 will know what it is NTSC or PAL. THE VCR is the big key.

[dphirschler]

Yeah, my VCR is PAL only. It outputs a native PAL signal. Thankfully the power supply is auto switching, but I did have to use a connector for US power (which was included in the box).

@Iamnotsam - I am surprised too, which is why I am suspecting that I did something wrong.

Could it possibly be the btwincap driver? I really like the driver and do not want to change. Hopefully there is a setting within the driver that I can set.

@ChrisX - Would it be a setting of "tuner type"? I am not capturing from the tuner, but from VHS. Still maybe that is what needs to change.

@spiderman2k1 - I do have an ATI card. It's a TV Wonder Pro. Perhaps it can change to PAL. Problem is macrovision. Does MV exist in PAL land?

Thanks everybody.


Darryl

[Iamnotsam]

Well, if you can use btwincap driver on your capture card, then it means your card has a btxxx chips on it.

I don't own a capture card with btxxx chips, but AFAIK, they all support ntsc and pal signal starting from bt848 and up (bt848-bt879). I don't know if there is any btxxx chips before bt848, but there is a very good chances that your capture card can support both formats.

According to the btwincap driver website, the btwincap driver should support both formats, and even pal60 if you got a bt878 or better chips.

You might want to go to their web site again and look for more informations.
http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/features.html

May be someone who own a capture card with btxxx chips can help you here.

[ChrisX]

@ChrisX - Would it be a setting of "tuner type"? I am not capturing from the tuner, but from VHS. Still maybe that is what needs to change.
Darryl

I know you are using VHS VCR into the video channel of the capture card and I think a possibility of tuner settings for color may need to set?

I have three types of capture cards in three computers.

They are PAL/NTSC Win2000 TV tuner card, a PAL only USB TV card and PAL/NTSC WinFast PVR on a LeadTek VIVO display capture card.

The Win2000 settings is based on the TV system used even though the AV in is in use from the external source such as a VCR.

What I’ve done is that I created two TV channels just for the AV in, Video Channel 0 for NTSC and Video Channel 1 for PAL.

They are from the same composite input and I done that way so that I won’t have to worry over the color TV system of whatever I am recording from.

I just select the channel, the NTSC video channel or PAL video channel and way to go.

The WinFast got a color TV select for PAL/NTSC in the settings whenever I want to change to PAL or NTSC.

I don’t have to worry over the fps bit in either of these two applications as it is automatic. I do find as so annoying on VirtualDub I have to set the specific 24.96 fps for PAL on some video codec such as Huffyuv or some other video codec.

I generally use mpeg 2 to capture from TV, VHS or DVD into the computer and I like to play musicvideo clips on the PC or any short clip of interest from TV.

[lordsmurf]

PAL VCR into ATI AIW card, fine in USA.

[dj4monie]

Really Lord?

I have some PAL videos here of Thunderbirds 2086 I got from Ebay. I had one converted over, but I think there was a problem with the conversion and I got some alot of dropped screens in the 2nd esp from the video.

So I'm considering a dual format VCR or another option instead of paying somebody to "edit" my VHS tape by watching it before it records. Since the video is almost 3 hours long, you can just see how much it would cost to do so.

I remember my old AIW card from the Rage Pro days used to be able to capture both, but I didn't know the current cards supported that.

PAL VCR's are pretty cheap overall, so I would be able to capture this and convert it to DVD afterall without buying a dual format VCR...

[lordsmurf]

Really Lord?

Yes. Even has PAL60!



This is ATI MMC 9.0 with an ATI AIW 7200 card (circa 2001)

[dj4monie]

So how do you know which format to capture from?

The tapes don't say anything but Colour: PAL and Time: 54 for one, 46 mins for another and approx 120min on the last one.

Thanks