Trying to capture to mpeg2 using Pinnacle DC10+.

[dfisher]

First of all is it even possible? I'm still new at this. I've got a DC10+ card & Studio 7. All I want to do is transfer my old Beta movie tapes to DVD. When I got the DC10+ & Studio 7 I captured a Beta movie to my hardrive. After hearing all the horror stories about dropped frames I did experiance quite a few dropped frames but in watching the end results the film actually looked ok & the sound was in sync all the way through. Suprise!. It was then that I discovered that my AVI file was going to take about 24 hours to render. That's just out of the question. I have tried to capture in the mpeg2 format to Ulead Video Studio 7SE, which came with my DVD writer but it won't do it. Something about an MJPEG codec. Is there a proper codec for the VS7 that will allow me to capture with the DC10+? I could not find anything on the Ulead web site. And, is that even a good program to use? Since I've invested in the Pinnacle system I really would rather not have to start all over again if there is a reasonable way to make what I've got already to work. All I really want to do is transfer my old Beta movies to my hardrive as mpeg's so I can then make DVD's before my Beta deck gives up the ghost. (It actually works as well as my much newer VHS deck does, but I'm running out of room & somethings gotta go). Thanks for any help you can offer.

[bobinga]

I used to capture with a dc10 and Pinnacle7 with no lost frames on a p3 533 and 256 ram without lost frames.

Have you upgraded the driver for the dc10 card? All patches for the pinnacle 7, I am not familiar with se.

I find 7 is very stable in XP

[dfisher]

Yes, I have been on the Pinnacle site & have upgraded both the DC10 & Studio 7 to the latest versions. (BTW the Ulead Video Studio 7 is an SE version not the Pinnacle Studio 7. That is the full version) The dropped frames is not my real problem. I still would like to transfer my old movies direct to mpeg2 & not AVI & it can't be done using Studio 7. That's why I was trying the Ulead program because it's supposed too. But for some reason it won't let me. I've even tried Movie Factory 2 but that woudn't work either. I guess because they are both Ulead programs it has the same issues. I would think that there must be some program that is reasonable in price that would work with the DC10, but maybe not. I guess my next question is would any of these USB video capture devices work. I only have USB 1.1 but I don't need the best resolution in the world. After all, all I'm doing is making copies of old Beta movies & I really don't need a high powered video card as I don't do games at all & I don't watch movies on my computer. Does anyone have any experience with any of these options that I have described? I can't really afford to keep buying different software & cards for one simple task. After awhile it just isn't very cost effective. Anyone?

[disturbed1]

Yes, I have been on the Pinnacle site & have upgraded both the DC10 & Studio 7 to the latest versions.

Meaning you have the Windows 2000/XP udate drivers.

I used AVI_IO and Virtual Dub in Windows 98 when I had my DC10+. I got rid of it once I upgraded to Windows 2000, and no drivers were available. You could give these a try. But only capture to AVI.

The DC10 uses a hardware MJPEG codec, and captures directly to MJPEG. The Ulead software needs either YUV or RGB uncompressed input from the capture card to use their realtime software. Like a BT8x8 card, which is what most TV tuners and ATI cards are based on.

Ulead can capture to MPEG using a simple ATI TV Wonder, quality and resolution depend on your PC. I perfer Power VCR myself.

[mracer]

dfisher, I don't think direct mpeg2 capture is possible with the DC10+. I own one and I have never gotten that to work.

The way I have been able to use the DC10+ effectively is to capture the DC10+'s native Motion JPEG (MJPEG) .avi files using Pinnacle 8.10.4. Then edit in Pinnacle 8 and output to a new edited version MJPEG.avi. Finally I import this avi file into TMPGEnc 2.521 and render to MPEG2.

I actually don't use the DC10+ much anymore since I now have an ADVC-100 for DV capture, but it still works well if I want to. The best results I have ever obtained with the DC10+ are on my current setup Windows Xp Pro setup. I use a Hercules Fortissimo 2 sound card to capture digital sound with the DC10+ MJPEG video. DC10+ mjpeg video at 6mbps is dam good quality.

[dfisher]

Thanks all for your replys. I'm still in a quandry as to what to do, but i'm considering getting a AVer DVD EZ Maker. Any thoughts on that?