can't capture anything

[arnie22112000]

Hello, I just bought a new Leadtek TV2000 XP capture card. It installed successfully but I can't capture anything with the software given or any other software. I reinstalled it a couple times and even got new drivers but nothing has worked. In device manager everything appears all right. Please Help!!!

[Tommyknocker]

What happens when you try to capture?

[arnie22112000]

Sorry, I forgot to include that. When I select the capture option on any program the program says it has the error "(Whatever program I'm using) has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

[Tommyknocker]

Have you checked the device manager for any hardware conflicts? Have you tried a system restore?

[arnie22112000]

There are no hardware conflicts in device manager that I can see. Where in system would I go. I have had devices I've installed before that were new that actually came with bad drivers or non-compatable drivers. I have gone to driverguide.com before and got good drivers. But I already went there and the drivers did nothing so I found newer drivers but they did nothing also.

[Rawhead]

The part of MMC you use to capture (in general) is the TV icon. If running WinXP the software is not easy to install for some. Many times that function is not installed. First, make sure that icon on the list.

If you do see it, click on it. A window will come up that shows your video source. It will either contain your source (correct video connection) lines and fuzz ( tuner/cable problems from the source) or a black screen (card /cable problem).

Maybe if you can state what you are trying to capture and from where, it might be more helpfull for those trying to help.

[arnie22112000]

What list do you mean and what is MMC? For capturing, I am tring to convert my old VHS tape to AVI or MPG. I also want to put my cable TV line in and watch and record the TV.

[arnie22112000]

I just figured out how to open MMC (start > run > MMC) but I don't know what to do with it (or where to look).

[FOO]

Rawhead, has it ocurred to you that there are capture
cards other that yours on the planet ?
MMC is only for ATI . This guy doesn't have an ATI

What came with the card, and what capture programs do you have
What OS ?

[arnie22112000]

I have Win XP Professional. For capture programs, I have Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premier 7 and Video Studio 6. I also have Vegas Video but I don't know if that captures video. The capture card came with Cool 3D, Video Studio 6, and WinFast Multimedia Software Pack (drivers and utilities).

I just checked Device Manager in detail and I found that under Sound, Video and Game Controllers there are 4 capture entries. They are all working fine, so it says, but in Properties on the first entry (WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Audio Capture) it says "No drivers are installed for this device. "

[Rawhead]

Sorry about the MMC thing. For some reason I thought you said you had an ATI card. First you have to install the drivers for the card. IF they didn't plug and play install, try uninstalling the card in the device manager and restart the machine (assuming you already installed the drivers). If they still don't work, you might try uninstalling the card in the device manager, physically taking the card out of the machine, restarting, shut down, then reinstall the card. You didn't mention if it was a PCI or AGP card. Conflicts (if you have them) would be different depending.

I had a PCI version of a WinFast card a couple years ago and I remember the software that came with it did the capture work.

In Windows movie maker, go to the file menu and go down and choose record.

[arnie22112000]

I just uninstalled all 4 drivers from Device Manager and then I tried Movie Maker just to see what it would do. When I hit record, the recording window actually came up. To answer the card question, it is a 32-bit PCI 2.1 bus mastering. It also says I need DirectX 8.1 or later, which I have.

[arnie22112000]

OK, I turned the computer off, took out and put the card back in and restarted. I reinstalled the drivers. When I use Movie Maker the recording screen came up this time. It was set on audio only and when I went to choose "Audio and Video" it shut down on me again. I looked in Device Manager and its the same thing. All the drivers are there and working except the capture card audio driver. It says it's not installed but it doesn't say anything about not working properly.

[Rawhead]

I'm guessing you did the standard install driver/update driver routine. I'm not sure what you did, but my suggestion was:

Uninstall the device and all it's components in the device manager.
Shut down the computer.
Manually take the card out. Don't put it back in.
Restart the machine.
Shut off the machine again
Put the card back in (in another slot if possible)
Turn the machine back on.

That was only to see if you could fix an IRQ conflict if you can't do it in the bios but since the card is working as a video card (just guesing) that's probably not the problem unless you might have it next to a sound card in the PCI line up. You could also disable all the devices you don't use in the bios that use IRQ resources (good idea anyway even if this isn't part of the problem)

So do you see your video feed in the window now?

When you say "it shuts down on me" what are you talking about? the application, or the computer?

Also, are you running two video cards? If so, make sure your PCI card is your primary graphics adapter.

[arnie22112000]

I did what you told me about taking it out and putting it back in to another slot but it didn't do anything. I don't know which devices I don't use in the bios. When I say it shuts down on me, I mean the program shuts down ("end now"). I only have one video card which is an ATI PCI. Maybe the two cards just aren't compatible or maybe it doesn't like my directX 9 (I think thats what I have, I don't know how to find that out). I also noticed in device manager that I have a Legacy Capture Device listed with the TV2000 drivers. There is no option to disable it though.

[Rawhead]

" I only have one video card which is an ATI PCI. Maybe the two cards just aren't compatible "

Which one do you have? a leadtek pci or ATI pci? Or do you in fact have Two?

Also unless you have a particular motherboard or a system that is over 4 or so years old, You probably have a built in AGP video chip. Check in your display adapters. If that legacy adapter is your AGP on board chip, you have to go into the bios and choose "PCI" as your primary card and only use one PCI card (at least at this point).

What kind of machine do you have anyway? If you can't disable the legacy card in the Device Manager, you might have to change the pin settings on the mother board. Many MOBO's don't let you do that.

the bottom line is, to take out all your video sources (at first) except your capture card. You might have to search the net on how to do it.

[arnie22112000]

The video card I have is an ATI Radeon 8500 and I only have 1 video card. I was thinking my ATI video card wasn't compatable with my Leadtek capture card. My machine is as what is said in my computer details. In the display adapters the only heading is Radeon 8500 Series and it gives me no info (says nothing about AGP). The Legacy Video Capture Devices heading is under the Sound, Video and Game Controllers heading. It also gives me hardly any info. It won't let me uninstall or disable it.

[arnie22112000]

"the bottom line is, to take out all your video sources (at first) except your capture card. You might have to search the net on how to do it."

I don't know where to search on the internet and I don't really know what I'm looking for.

[Rawhead]

What you're looking for is to make sure your drivers are installed and updated. You would do this the same way you'd do with any device.

I don't know much about that card or what you have going on but I looked around and it seems that a few people are having different problems using it on XP.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t149271.html

other than it just being a faulty card, there are many other problems you can run into getting things to work on these fantastic (cough) Plug and (repeat 12 times) Play (if you're lucky) windows based PC's. Not to mention the cheap motherboards that don't help either.

BTW, I did have a leadtek card a couple years ago and it sucked. I returned it twice.

Not sure what you are trying to do but IMO if you want video tapes put on DVD, go have it done professionally. Quality is much better than anything I've seen from low end capture cards. If you are trying to capture TV, get a DVR - they are cheap now. If you're like me and you just need some medium quality analog to digital files, keep pluging away at it. You haven't even gotten to the dropped frames and audio synch problems yet

[arnie22112000]

Hello everyone, I just tried the card on my downstairs computer and it worked perfectly (I used the newest of drivers that Leadtek told me to use). The computer has Win XP Profesional with Service Pack 1, just the same as mine (hardware is 500 MB Ram, CD-RW, CD-ROM, AMD 500 MHZ processer). The Winfast PVR wouldn't even install on the other computer but the card worked anyways (tested it on Windows Movie Maker). The other computer even had a "Legacy Video Capture Devices"
entry in device manager. I feel some satisfaction now that I know that it actually works and on a computer with similiar software as mine.

The problem with my computer must be a conflict or imcompatibility of some kind. Possibly a CD-Rom device or something. The link that Rawhead sent me to the other forums could help even though they had slightly different problems with the card than me.

[arnie22112000]

I am now having a strange new problem. I'm am trying to test all my slots but when I uninstall the drivers from Device Manager, I go back into Device Manager and they are still there (even with a restart after uninstalling)!! I can't get rid of them (the drivers) anymore to actually reinstall the card fresh (with no drivers). This never happened before. What should I do?

[npaulie2000]

Take it back and get a full refund. Hope you saved your receipt. Not trying to be glib, but that is sometimes the case.

[arnie22112000]

I have emailed Leadtek and they are working on the problem. Thank you everyone very much for the help. If the problem is ever solved I will write the solution.

(Here is one more piece of information that may be helpful. I had to reinstall windows XP awhile ago and when I formated my hard drive I used the FAT 32 system instead of the NTFS system. The other computer I have that the capture card worked on was formatted with NTFS. I don't know if this matters or not.)


Thanks again, Arnie

[arnie22112000]

Hello everyone, the problem is fixed. I formatted my hard drive with the Window XP NTFS format instead of FAT 32 and it seems to work. I'm slowly installing all my software and hardware again and testing the card for every piece I install. The problem was probably the format of the hard drive. Thanks again!

Arnie