VirtualDub has preview, but I can't capture.

[miochza]

I use WinDVR 3, but I have read here that VirtualDub is much better at capturing. WinDVR captures in MPEG II, but I have to reencode it anyways, so I might as well use Virtual Dub. Now my problem. I have read the guide to capturing video on VirtualDub, and had to have done exact same things it said to do in the guide. Whenver I try to capture video, I see the video, and hear the sound in the preview, but it always gives me an error message saying "No frames captured. Change blah blah blah and try it again." I have a Dell 8300 system, Win XP, and a PC Chips Tuner and Capture card. I think it has WDM drivers. How come WinDVR works fine, but VD is being a junker?

[migf1]

VDub uses VFW for capturing the video, a technology supported in Win9x but NOT in XP. XP supports WDM only and I hear there's a VFW mapper to make VDub capture in XP, but not everyone seem happy with it.

Try iuVCR or VirtualVCR for your WDM captures.

[miochza]

Ok I tried both, iuVCR seems much better, although I drop frames right when I hit record... but it goes well after that. And btw... the light areas in my captures from my camera are way too light... it seems like bleeding, since even darkening it or changing the contrast doesnt help much. should I try recording to a tape then transfering, or what?
Look at this example:

[migf1]

Hmm... I cannot know for sure what the problem is.

If I was you I would first try to d/l the latest WDM drivers for the capture card, and then upgrade DirectX to version 9.0b (a huge download I'm affraid... 35Mb if I'm not mistaken).

DirectX is in close relation to the WDM model (which was actually introduced in Dx6 I think but it was not perfected until version 8.1). Try D/L the WDM drivers of your cap-card and look in their docs which version of Dx they recommend. I think XP installs Dx9.0 by default. If the WDM drivers of your capture-card are made for an older version of Dx then this could be the problem and you should wait until they update their drivers.

Oh btw, my epxperience stops to analog video. If your camcorder feeds you card with Digital Video (DV) then I can be of no help, since I know nothing about DV

If I judge from the name "WinDVR3" I coud almost bet it deals with Digital Video.

PS. Both iuVCR and VirtualVCD are specifically designed to work with WDM, so I don't think the problem lies in any of those two progs.

Best regards.

[miochza]

Thanks for your responses... My newest capture card s drivers (PC Chips Tv/Fm) seem to be from 11/08/2002... so they may be old for D9, I have 9.0 b btw (I play alot of PC games). The thing is though, its something up with my analog camera and the card. Its really weird... when I connect the camera to a regular TV, the picture is fine. So the problem would seem to be solely with the card. Yet, TV feed works fine, great picture and ff I connect something else via Composite in, like I do with the camera, they look fine. This is why I thought maybe recording to VHS would help? Although, my VCR is downstairs and Pc upstairs...