Capturing with Sapphire x1800gto ViVo

[tariq86]

I'm new to capturing, so any help would be very appreciated. My problem is that I have this analog video camera, and trying to capture movies made by it with my Sapphire x1800gto ViVo graphic card, but I'm now getting very desperate about it, becouse I still haven't made it work. Camera has A/V out (audio/video two chinches, yelow and white) and S-video out. It all works fine when I connect it with my TV (either one or other cabel). The picture is there. But when I plug those cables to my graphic card using any software the device is not recognised. I've also tried plugging both cables but nothing happened. So I don't know what to do now. I hope there is solution to this becouse I really need this to work. So if you have any suggestions, I'd be very gratefull.

[Richard_G]

I assume you are plugging the yellow and white cables into the 'tulip' adapter that came with the card? What do you mean by the device is not recognised? It won't appear in Device Manager or anything like that. You need to run the software that came with the card, select the composite input and put the camcorder on play.

[tariq86]

I don't know what is 'Tulip' adapter. By not recognised I ment that using Power Director, Windows Movie Maker, Nero 7 would just notify me that there is no device attached to my computer, so I figure that the cables are not connected propertly. And all the software that I've got with the card is the CD with device driver and Catalyst Control Center. I've been using the cable that has tvo S-video and two Yellow (composite) cables (one is for out of each and one for in, I assume, becouse there are arrows on each, on one pointing out and on the other pointing in). Don't know if that is the 'tulip' adapter.

[Richard_G]

Yes, that is the bit they refer to as the tulip adapter. Nothing will recognise your camcorder as a device attached to the computer, as there isn't. you have merely connected an external analogue video source to it. It is no different to plugging a microphone into the mic socket on your soundcard. Nothing will appear in device manager and any sound recording software will not know if it is there or not, it will simply record sound if it is and won't if it isn't. Power Director, WMM, et al will be looking for the card, not anything attached to it. Assuming they can see the card as a video capture device, you should be OK.

Your card is made by Sapphire but is an ATI Radeon card. I'm not too familiar with these latest cards, but earlier ones would have been supplied with the ATI Multi Media Centre (MMC) and I would have expected yours to be the same.

However, I've just checked the AMD/ATI website for the MMC version that you need and noticed you are running Vista which is the cause of your problem. See here: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html
This is referring to the All-in-Wonder range which are the same cards but include a TV tuner as well as the VIVO function. In order to use the VIVO function, you need the same software as is used for the TV tuner (it gives the options of using the tuner, the composite (yellow) in or S-Video in).

Looks like another reason why I'll be sticking with XP for a while longer.

[tariq86]

So you're saying that if I go back to XP that I won't have any more problems with this. And about MMC, I read somewhere on Ati's site that if it didn't come with your software package that came with the graphic card then you're not able to install it anyway (maybe I've got it all wrong).

[Richard_G]

See http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html
It appears that both MMC and Avivo software is available for the X1800 series Radeon based cards running under XP. I'm not familiar with the Avivo software but assume it is the same as MMC but with support for VIVO only and not TV as well.

[tariq86]

AVIVO is only converter, as they say much faster then any other, but cannot be used for capturing. The problem of the MMC is that I haven't got it on CD that I get with my card, and also I'm not able to order it, becouse they are only shipping within US and Canada (well it can but then I would have to wait for a long time for shipping, which I also don't have). All they offer is upgrade for which you need to have any 8.x version of MMC on CD, which I don't have. Don't know why Sapphire has left out MMC from it's cd with drivers, very annoying.

[Richard_G]

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/aiwradeonx-xp.html

This is the MMC for the X1800 based AIW. Obviously the TV section won't work, but the capture side of it should.

[tariq86]

Sorry for not answering this long, I was very busy. Anyway, I installed XP again now, and menaged to do some capturing with Windows movie maker. Now I need some info about sound. Which conector should I use. I have microphone in, line in, and what is with this S/PDIF, not really familiar with it. And what are your recommendations about which software should I use for editing and capturing. Movies are going to be for DVD's and I attend uploading them to the net, croping, cutting and things likie that, so any suggestions would be usefull.