Capture software which will work will my WDM TV capture card

[SpeedySteedyUK]

I'm trying to convert old family home VHS video tapes to DVD. I have a LifeView FlyTV Prime 30 TV Card (WDM TV Tuner) and have it linked via the TV-in port to a VHS player. I am using the latest drivers for the card (downloaded from the manufacturers website) and I can play the video okay on my screen using the TVR software supplied with the card.

I now need to record this onto my hard drive in order to edit and create a DVD. However, I can't find software which will capture the picture.

I have tried Roxio Video wave movie creator (no picture or sound), VirtualDub and some capture software from http://btwincap.sourceforge.net (both gave no picture but sound ok).

Ideally I would like to use VirtualDub but I read somewhere it won't work because my TV card uses WDM drivers and it only likes VFW drivers. VirtualDub recognises the card (with a DirectShow suffix) but I only get sound - no image. I tried selecting the Microsoft WDM Image Capture (Win32) wrapper (as suggested by the VirtualDub FAQ) but as predicted it just crashed VirtualDub.

The supplied TVR software will record the video output, but the MPEG recording is dreadful quality and recording to AVI uses ~5MB of HDD space per second!

I would appreciate some advice on some capture software which will work with my TV card or how I can get VirtualDub to work.

Thanks in advance
SpeedySteedyUK

[SpeedySteedyUK]

In addition to the above - I have since tried VirtualVCR and got the same result. Audio but no picture. Is it something to do with my drivers or codecs? Any advice would be appreciated.

[thecoalman]

The supplied TVR software will record the video output, but the MPEG recording is dreadful quality and recording to AVI uses ~5MB of HDD space per second!

To expect good quality MPEG recording you need a hardware encoder, MPEG encoding on the fly requires a a lot of CPU and even then the quality can suffer. Capture To AVI using Huffy codec, this is only a intermediate file which you will use as source material in your editing/authoring application. As a bonus, you don't have to deal with all the negatives of using MPEG for editing.

[jagabo]

http://www.lifeview.com.tw/html/products/internal_tv/flytv_prime30.htm

"Philips SAA7130 chipset"

You're probably stuck with whatever software came with it.

[winifreid]

XP is supposed to have the wdm wrapper, but yo might try installing it. Look here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=219430&highlight=wrapper+download

But VirtualVCR is supposed to work with WDM. Use Huffy or picvideo if you want a more compressed avi capture - but they will still be big. WinDVR has a good mpeg capture engine, but it is not free. Capturing with Vdub or virtualvcr is not going to make the files smaller.

[Bjs]

You wont get the max out of the card with an amd 2000 xp cpu ... when capturing into mpeg2 at 720x576 pal or 720x480 nstc ... as this requires a minimum amd 2400 xp cpu .

Video / audio supplied from vcr unit (superior tuner) .
Video in via rca to capture card ... forget the inbuilt tuner on the card , there utter rubbish on that model .
Audio in via line-in on pc sound card .

If you bring the video / audio in via the tuner using coaxial cable , the mixed signal give's considerable noise to the picture quality ... this is why it must be seperated .

Set up the supplied capture product to use vtr mode only , and other settings , then close it ... then use another product , capture , choose device , check the settings are for vtr , and go from there .

Ulead video studio , nero record , virtualdub (partial - wdm wrapper) ... and the program that is supplied with unit all work ...

On those pc spec's , the best captures will come from the default capture software .

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Video in using supplied product , but not other's ...

This might be caused , because the device was installed incorrectly or the mixed input signal is confusing them (I have seen this before).

The correct installation is to install the software , drivers , shutdown pc (off at power point) , install card (where it dose not conflict with other addon cards) , restart pc ... xp may ask for driver's , give the same one's and ignore it's non-signed drivers complaint ... retart pc for settings to take affect .

Dont forget when using other capture program's that you need to sellect the device , and check it's in vtr mode , before these other programs can record anything from the device .

I still have the fly3000 in another system , and it work's without problems ... now over 4 years old ... it's been retired to be used as a "video newbie" teaching system .