VFW capture using VirdualDub

[nwyllie]

I’m trying to set up my system for video capture from a TV Tuner. I wanted to use as much free software as I could and came across what appeared to be a detailed guide on how to do this using VirtualDub & VirtualDubVCR&Sync (http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/vidcap.ars). So I bought a Hauppauge WinTV card and followed the installation instructions in the guide. Well, guess what, it didn’t work. I contacted the author of the guide but have not as yet received a reply. So I thought I’d ask here to see if anyone has had any luck getting this to work capturing avi files in vfw format. Or at least might give me some suggestions on what to try. This is my first attempt at setting up a capture card so I should be considered a novice (although I have done some conversions with VirtualDub and authoring). Below is what I’ve done and what problems I’ve run into:

I have run hwclear.exe and installed the Hauppauge WinTV2000 application and then run it, but that is as far as I can get as I get an error message that the required component hcwTVWnd.dll is missing. If I install all the drivers for the Hauppauge card then I do not get this error and WinTV2000 seems to work. I then run into problems with VirtualDub VCR+Sync in either it cannot find the video device (no drivers installed) or the configuration windows as shown in the guide do not appear. (I also get a message upon entering video capture: Error, cannot find a driver to draw this non-RGB image format.)

So any input this forum can offer will be appreciaed.

Hardware: WINTV-PVR-150MCE MODEL 1042
Drivers & Software (from the Hauppauge site): cd_pvr150_27.zip
VirtaulDub VCR+Sync: 1.4.9.3 (build 15482)
OS: XP Pro. SP2

[nwyllie]

A call to Hauppauge has helped to resolve this. Apparently their PVR cards cannot support he vfw drivers. The cards they recommend are either their 1033 Win-TV-Go-Plus, their Impact VCB card, or an older 401 card with the 878 chip set (which they no longer sell). I'm returning the PVR card and ordered the 1033 card and will give that a try. I'll report back if that works.

[Capmaster]

Many video device vendors recommend against using VFW. They recommend using the device's own driver. Apparently VFW is VERY buggy.

[nwyllie]

The problem is, though, that VirtualDub will not work with the alternative, namely WDM. Fortunately the 1033 card has drivers available for both WDM and VFW so if the VFW gives problems then I can always go to WDM. Now, I've not heard of VFW being buggy (unless it's because most newer cards aren't designed to support it) but I HAVE heard that the WDMVFW wrapper is buggy.

But thinks for your input. I'll report here my results using this card.

[nwyllie]

Got the new board in and installed the vfw drivers (a little tricky, but they did seem to load). Unfortunatly, WINTV 2000 was not able to detect any channels, and when trying to use VirtualDub VCR & Sync during the set up procedure the system crashes. At this point I'm not only stumped but am of the opinion that perhaps the drivers will not work with XP. If anyone has had any luck with this setup please let me know what else I can try.

I'll try contacting the vendor but I suspect the answer is going to be that there are no drivers for vfw on XP that they will support.

So my next question is does anyone know of a capture board (with or without tuner) they know will work on XP and has vfw drivers?

[dinkob]

I think someone ran into this in the past. I am using Hauppage WinTV with VFW drivers on one computer that has XP installed on it (DELL in particular).

BTW IMPORTANT - HYPERTHREADING MUST BE SET TO OFF, if you have that option. In my case I had to go as far as reinstalling my OS with hyperthreading turned off. Then it worked (it would freeze after an hour of capture)

I am also using VFW drivers for Windows 2000 and VirtualDub VCR 1.4.9.2.

Marvelous card for me.

Anyways, can you check if you downloaded "actually" their Windows NT drivers (VFW 311) or something like that. Those are the drivers that you have to use with older versions of VirtualDub if that's the case.

Also, however, you will run into the Swap field problem. There is a plugin for VirtualDub called reverse. I think fcchandler or Donald Graft programmed this. It works great. What will happen with BT878 is your field order will "switch" to dominant upper field from bottom field during capture. Then you just have to figure out where it actually happens.

It doesn't HAVE To happen during single capture but it will happen nonetheless.

[Bjs]

Stick with wdm drivers , less problems under xp .

These cards are installed in this order only .

1: Install software (some install the driver's as well)
2: Shutdown pc , remove power cord .
3: Install card (not in pci1 for pete sake)

Beware all pci slot's from this point on are paired off and share resource's .

4: Reboot pc , os pick's up from there .

========

Pass video from vcr to split video / audio
Video into capture device .
Audio via line-in on pc sound only (throw those blasted audio loop cable's out the window) .

You will need an rca to line-in cable , and an rca joiner .

========
Go to pc audio control , and make sure for recording that line-in is included and not set to "mute"

Turn vcr on with channel displayed on tv set .

Fire up the program supplied with card .
Set to vtr mode only .
Select the country support ... au being pal-bhg or something like that (dont recall off hand) .
Set video scale , recording type , audio (from line-in) .

Now use it to record or close it , and use something else with better feature's .

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Have a look at this : http://www.winavi.com/en/download/download.htm
Includes text file which includes the user name and serial for registration ... it's for free , and might be another one for you to try out .

===============

I have only seen a few system's that were good enough to use the windows vfw wrapper under xp ... and most were not very stable ... or worked , but had issue's with dropping frame's .

You might consider a dualboot setup (win98se installed first / xp to second partition) ... this is just one way that work's well .

Or a "swap drive" setup ... one loaded with win98se , the other with xp ... we use these in the office , if pc stolen , we havent lost all our work , as the hard drive's come home (the drive's have the license's on them ... not on the idiot case) .

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Ps: The tuner's on these device's are crap ... it is very , very rare , that one will actually work and find anything at all .

Also , by doing it the vcr way , the picture quality in recordings and preview improves because the mixed signal cause's interference ... and the vcr is the better tuner , and is now the one in control of channel changing ... use the remote for it .

[nwyllie]

Thanks for the input. Before I checked the forum I did try putting the card in a different PCI slot and actually had some limited success. It could not detect any channels (I have it connected to a Sat. Dish and have a good strong signal). But then I did eventually get another computer crash so I've still got issues. Before the crash I was able to do a few things in VirtualDub (change some settings) without it crashing (WinTV crashed it).

I'll have to digest the suggestions given but just from a quick read I have the following:

1. Hyperthreading, what is it and where to I go to see if it's set and turn it off?
2. WDM vs VFW. I'm wanting to use VFW because I want to use VirtualDub for capture and edits. I've not researched what is available for WDM but my current editing/authoring process is heavily dependent upon the various flavors of VirtualDub.
3. I'm aware of the wrapper, and aware that it's buggy. If all else fails with VFW I'll look more into that and see if I can make that work.

I also have another computer I can try the board on. It's also an XP but if there is something on the first one that is causing a conflict perhaps the second will work. It's also a few years newer.

Once again thanks for the suggestions and information. I'll probably have more questions once I've had a chance to give a good study to what has been written.

[nwyllie]

SUCCESS! By using my VCR as the tuner and feeding into the RCA jack on the card I'm now able to receive a signal and perform a capture. Thanks, Bjs. It took me a while to abandon going without the VCR (I can get stubborn) but once I did I was able to get this up and going using the vfw drivers.