CAN'T CAPTURE RIGHT WITH PINNACLE PCTV PRO!!! ANY IDEAS??

[geli]

Hi everyone. Bought this card two bloody months ago and I still haven't got to get it to work ok. From the beginning I got lots of snow and noise on the picture while trying to capture from a VCR. At the beginning I thought it was because of the VCR's heads poor quality, but I've tried four different VCR machines so far with same results. I've also tried super video cable instead of RCA, but same crap. I've also downloaded a few capturing programs such as IUVCR, but...the same. The videos and movies look clear and perfect while played on any regular TV, but not thru this card. My computer is nearly brand new, I have 1 GB ram and win xp pro. Does anyone know anything about this? Can anyone help, please? Damn, I'm really tired of trying everything so far...thanx for listening friends, my e-mail in case anyone has a minute is gelirunner@yahoo.com

[stiltman]

Your CAPTURE lock is stuck?

Sorry, couldn't resist

[j1d10t]

When you say "lots of snow and noise", how much is lots? I've got the Pinnacle PCTV Pro PCI card, and while I do get quiet a bit of noise, I haven't gotten "snow", like if I turn my TV to a channel I don't get.. Can you post a screen shot of a capture, showing the amount of noise and snow? What programs have you tried using to capture? I tried all the programs I could find that would work with the card (and there aren't many). I've found I get the best results using Studio 8 (for .avi captures), and PowerVCRII for MPEG captures. I was also told that the newer processors give out a lot of interference, and create a bunch of noise in captures.

[geli]

Hi again, well, first of all thanx for your reply. When I say "lots of noise and snow" I mean the picture I get through the card is not clear at all as you can see in the example. The master tape played on a regular TV is nearly perfect with no noise at all. A couple of years ago I had an Avermedia card (cheaper than this one) and the captures were absolutely perfect, same as the master. This is what makes me think that I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure, it might be the quality of the card as well...what do you think? In answer to your query I've tried Virtualdub, iuvcr, realproducer plus, helix, studio 8 and of course the pctv vision, but all of them with the same poor results....

[j1d10t]

I found that the PCTV Vision is a very poor capture program. It doesn't even work well for TV viewing, as anything over VCD size starts to jump - at least for me. Can you post the pic again? It didn't come out the first time. I've heard of some people having luck with tweaked drivers, but I have had nothing but problems with those. I'll wait for the pic before I try to advise you further

[geli]

Well, I hope it goes through this time...

[geli]

I found that the PCTV Vision is a very poor capture program. It doesn't even work well for TV viewing, as anything over VCD size starts to jump - at least for me. Can you post the pic again? It didn't come out the first time. I've heard of some people having luck with tweaked drivers, but I have had nothing but problems with those. I'll wait for the pic before I try to advise you further

[gmatov]

Don't discount that the card itself is bad.

I have a Maxxron, something like that, which has never put a decent picture on the screen, and I don't mean VCR quality, I mean 3/4 of the screen, display or capture, has vertical multicolored lines on it.

It works properly with NO software or in my other computers. It is a screwed up card, period, and I am not saying all of this brand is, just that you CAN buy a bad card.

I would suggest you RMA it to Pinnacle. If they test and return, not the card, but I would bet it is.

[NYPlayer]

The drivers from Pinnacle for this card are crap. I installed the btwincap drivers from http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/ ...and used 3rd party software to capture. These drivers will not work with PCTV Capture...but using other tools you will get a clear picture.

If i use THE PCTV drivers from Pinnnacle I get noise and snow.

[gmatov]

My PCTV, not Pro, worked quite well, after I got in touch with Pinnacle Sys and they agreed to send me the disk for drivers, apps, etc, Version 4.2.

The drivers on the site were to upgrade from 4.1, not on the site, the one with the card, 4.0. Very good picture after that and good caps, but the included MPEG encoder, whatever it was took forever to render.

I think it has been posted here many times that Pinnacle doesn't intend to support XP with these older cards. (I know it's 2 months old, but it has been out a number of years, so it is an old card.)

Do you have a good picture on your monitor, or is it as screwed up as the captures?

[LSchafroth]

I have a fairly new PCTV PCI card. (5 months old I think).

I used the drivers that came with it. Version 5.xxx soemthing. I'm at work so I cannot check right now.

Every capture I try works great. The pciture quality is perfect. I've used the RF, Composite and S-Video. I use IuVCR for capturing.

I do most of my captures from a Analog 8mm camera via teh Composite inputs. I've never seen the snow you talk about.

Could it be a PCI buss issue? I have XP Pro with 256Mb RAM and a Athlong 1700+ running at 2012Mhz.

LS

[Heavensent]

the default setting in pctv pro is DEINTERLACE,
you need to cancel that because it looks like crap!!!

try to get rid of it using the settings tab, i cant remember exactly
where it is so you will have to find it yourself.

i did it and now the picture looks grate.

hope this helps.