plug compatibility problems

[RammsteinNicCage]

Hi, I have two capture cards, one is a WinFast TV 2000/XP and the other is ATI TV Wonder VE. I also have a tv/vcr combo and a separate vcr. My problem is, the audio/video plugs fit into the capture cards, but they do not fit into the tv/vcr or the vcr. The jacks on the tv/vcr and vcr are just a *very* little too small for the plugs. I tried going to Radio Shack, Best Buy, and CompUSA for help, but they weren't very helpful. I'm really surprised that I have two cards and two separate jacks and none of them are compatible....

Does anyone know where I could out what size I might need (I'm hoping this is a common problem and I just used the wrong search terms...), what size I need, and where I could buy them in a store or online? Thanks for any help!

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

If your the plugs on your VCR's are threaded your using the wrong cables. Thats a normal cable connection and carries both the video and audio. You'll have threaded connectors on both capture cards that will look exactly the same as the ones on your VCR that you can connect with. Just ask the person at the store for normal cable TV cable with two male ends.

OR

Do the jacks on the back of your VCR look like this? A yellow, red and white jack? Or just a red and white if the VCR is older. And the plugs on the ends of the wires your using should look similar to the ones in this picture too. If so these are called RCA jacks. Yellow for video, red and white for stereo sound. If there older VCR's they may only have red and white. The red plug on your VCR will be your video one in that case.



If this is how they both look it may just be that it is tight fit and you have push a little harder.

If your still confused take picture of your connectors on your VCR and post it here.

[RammsteinNicCage]

That first plug you described sounds like the coaxial cable - that's not it.

The tv/vcr has a white and yellow jack, the vcr has two white and two yellow. The plugs themselves look similar to the ones in the picture - they don't have the things on the side though... they look like headphone plugs. I did try pushing a lot harder and it's not going in. The first part of it goes in until it hits the first black "ring" on it.

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

Now you have me confused j/k

What you are using is called a mini jack, my xp2000 doesn't use mini jacks. You can purchase mini-jack to RCA adapters at Radio Shack. I suggest them because they usually have stuff like that in stock.

[RammsteinNicCage]

This is what I have:



Excuse the crappy quality - I need a digicam instead of a webcam.

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

Which card are you tryin to get working?

Those are mini jack plugs, but........... which card? I have a manual here that mentions mini jacks for other models of the 2000xp but it should also have a cable that looks like this except with no red or white plugs.


Can you take a snapshot of the connections on your card?

[RammsteinNicCage]

Right now, which ever card wants to work. Both of them have jacks that fit the plug in my picture. I don't recall having the plug that you posted and if I did, I'm not sure how that would help. It looks like those plugs only have female parts, but both cards and the tv/vcr and vcr have female parts, so the problem is with the male parts. Or am I misunderstanding something?



From the top: FM, TV, S-V/CVBS In, Audio In, Audio Out, Remote.



From the top: Comp in, CATV, A/Out

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

Here's the thing the mini jack is to connect your capture card to your sound card. So the mini female audio out jack on either card gets connected to your audio in on your soundcard. Unless it's connected internally but you can worry about that later. Let's take care of the video first and forget about the mini plugs, put them on the side for now.

Keep this in mind, composite and RCA are the same thing. Yellow designates video.


You should have an adapter like the one in the picture, yours will not have the red and white inputs. It is the only way to input video into your xp2000 card. It plugs into the s-v/cvbs input on the capture card.
sv= s-video(another way to transfer video only)
cvbs = composite or RCA jacks (if you had that cable there would be a yellow RCA input on it)

Moving on to the card on the bottom. The first jack is your composite in, the one that has the yellow inner, If you look you'll find that the composite input on your card is identical to the ones on your VCR. You need a RCA cable with two male ends (preferably yellow but they don't have to be), connect one end of the cable to the yellow connection on your card and the other to the yellow connection on your vcr (you mentioned you had one VCR with two yellow jacks, make sure if you use that vcr that your using the output jack it should be clearly marked).

open up ATI mutimedia center and select TV. Go to the configuration and select composite as your imput source. Pop a tape in the VCR and it should now be visible on your screen.

So what you need that you don't have is RCA cable with two male ends on each side and a RCA/mini plug adapter. The adpater will have to have a female RCA input and male mini plug, the adapter is for the audio which I'll give you some help with after you get the video working

You may already have the RCA cable, they package them with a a lot of audio video equipment such as VCR's, camcorders etc.

[RammsteinNicCage]

Ok, we're halfway there. I got the video to work for the bottom card (ATI). Now, the audio.....

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

Not positive I don't ahave a ATI card but I don't see any audio in inputs on it so I assume you connect the audio directly to your sound card. So you need to run a RCA cable from the white input on your VCR connect the RCA cable to the RCA to mini-plug aqdapter I wrote about before. Plug the mini plug into your soundcards Aux, line-in or microphone mini-jack.

Try it and see if it works, it probably won't. If it doesn't make sure you have the line you plugged the mini-plug into enabled in your soundcard configuration and that you have the correct line selected in the ATI software.

[RammsteinNicCage]

I love you.

It worked!!! Thank you very much.

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

YW, that'll be $125.00

[RammsteinNicCage]

Aww, an 'I love you' isn't enough?

Jennifer

[thecoalman]

Nothing says I love you like card hard cash.

I'm sure you'll be back. Ever see that ad where the girl puts the tape in and a couple of clicks then show her throwing the tape away. That commercial should be on comedy central. Good Luck!