Pinnacle PCTV Pro - best drivers?

[merkin]

Hi all,

I have a Pinnacle PCTV Pro card, and would like to know what drivers are the most recommended? At the moment, I'm not using the ones on the CD I got with it, I am using the popular WDM btxxx drivers that most people seem to use. However, I've heard that the Pinnacle 5.10 drivers work well, and have also heard of a 5.20 doing the rounds. Has anybody tried these, and if so are they any good and should I change to them? With these WDM drivers I can't seem to capture horizontal resolution of over 352 without any bad artifacts, so want to try other drivers.

Thanks,
Tim

[Jack_G]

Hi there,

I'd stick with the pinnacle 5.10 (would not go for 5.20 as they obviously are not officially released) drivers and try capturing with IuVCR, it works perfectly (capture at 480 x 576 and even 720 x 576) Maybe the artifacts you mention are interlace lines, at least they could be. What is your goal when capturing, are you going to do a (s)vcd or convert to Divx?

Jack

[merkin]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I will try out the 5.10 drivers - would you be able to tell me where I can download them? Also, before I install them should I uninstall the WDM ones I have first or can I install 'over the top'?

I am hoping to move into making DVDs soon so obviously being able to capture at those higher res is very important - hopefully these 5.10 will sort out the artifact problems.

Merkin

[andie41]

I recommend the Pinnacle 5.10; they work better than others I have tried. You can find them at
[http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docsupport1.asp?division_id=1&langue_id=2&product_id=6&prod...&page_id=62rl]

Uninstall previous drivers first; also you will need the 5.01 driver installed before the 5.10 patch.

andie

[Hong Kong Phooey]

@merkin. Although there is a 5.1 patch update driver, in order to get the "full" retail version 5.1 drivers,(with all encoding options available), you have to purchase them from Pinnacle.
Some of the feedback on Pinnacle's forum seem to suggest that this retail version 5.1 driver,(as opposed to the free patch update), addresses many of the complaints of the 5.x PCTV WDM drivers, but users are umimpressed at having to pay for pinnacles failures with the original buggy drivers.

Although others will have a better idea of this situation, I preferred d/l the older VFW 4.02a drivers, to use it easily with VirtualDub, AVI_IO etc., & NOT encounter some of the sync sound issues & other hassles I've read about there.

[andie41]

You do not need the retail 5.01 version. You can download the 5.01 webinstaller drivers from the Pinnacle address in a previous post. Evidently the retail version provides more options (vcd, svcd, etc.), but other software is available, such as iuvcr and amcap.