Creative Labs Video Blaster Question/rant

[buecker]

Disclaimer: I am new to this video capturing stuff so I could be missing something very simple.

Okay, I have had the VB for less than a week. I installed it Sat. Only problem with the installation is the batteries they sent me with the remote wear DOA. First impressions were that I really hated the tuner. My cable signal isn't great but the sound was aweful and the picture quality looked worse than it should. Did some test recording. Good. Everything seems so clunky in the interface!

One problem I had was I can't get any of the mpeg files to open in tmpgenc or virtualdub. That sucks!

Next problem. Yesterday, the tuner stopped working! Everytime I hit live tv it just says can't record. I verified the cable signal by plugging it back into the tv. works. I can't figure out what the problem is.

All I know is that what is the point of this card?

What I wanted to do with this card:
A)tape tv shows and vcr tapes and convert them to save on both my harddrive or as a vcd.
B)Don't want to spend a lot of time leaving the computer sit to do the conversion to a different format so I wanted a hardware encoder.
c)watch tv on my computer so I can eliminate my tv and vcr to save space in my room.

I am 99.9% sure I am going to return it. Is there something I am missing or is this thing really that crappy? I wanted to know before I wrote a review on it.

Thanks

[fravel]

Hi, buecker!
If you are planning to change your capture card try the PV233. You can get it at Akira Computers for $115.00. Go to this site for all the info on it and the registry fixes:

http://steve.kittelsen.com/pv231/

Good Luck!

[sommersby]

It is pretty crappy.