Possible To Convert Pinnacle DC50 Captured Video?

[leebo]

I have several gigs of AVI files I captured years ago sitting on a hard drive. I haden't tried to play the files in years, so I was surprised to find out that the codec to play these files is no longer installed on my PC.

I captured these files using a Pinnacle DC50 capture card that is no longer installed in my system. In fact, I think I must have wiped the main drive at some point and re-installed XP since removing the card (likely I didn't even have XP when I last used the card). I now have a Matrox X100 card installed.

I'm trying to find out if there is a codec out there that I can install so I can view the files and maybe even finally edit them in Premiere (1.5).

I would hate to have to go back and re-capture everything again, assuming the original tapes are still good!

[edDV]

I'm unfamilliar with the DC50. Do you have a link to the specs?

I am familiar with the DC30plus, DV500 and DC1000/2000.

The DC30plus produced MJPEG.

[julitomg]

The DC50 was something like the "pro" version of the miro DC30 series as it came with a breakout box with component video in/out and balanced audio if I remember correctly and indeed it´s M-JPEG, the codec should be simmilar to that of the DC30 but as far as I know miro/pinnacle never offered win XP drivers (and at least for the DC30 plus, not even win 2000 drivers)

[disturbed1]

You should be able to use any old MJPEG codec. Much like when you capture with a Canopus ADVC, it uses the Canopus DV codec, however, any DV codec can be used to play/edit/encode the file.

Virtual Dub has a built in MJPEG codec. Click on file, open video file, make sure "Popup extended open Options" is checked. Then check "Use VirtualDub MJPEG routines" See attached screen shot.





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Two popular MJPEG codecs are
Morgan MJPEG
PICVideo MJPEG
One of those should allow premiere to open/edit/encode the files.

[edDV]

The DC50 was something like the "pro" version of the miro DC30 series as it came with a breakout box with component video in/out and balanced audio if I remember correctly and indeed it´s M-JPEG, the codec should be simmilar to that of the DC30 but as far as I know miro/pinnacle never offered win XP drivers (and at least for the DC30 plus, not even win 2000 drivers)

Yep, typical Pinnacle but there is a guy in Germany that wrote an XP driver if you google.

To play the file most MJPeg decoders work for my saved files. If you have a MJPeg codec, Premiere can be used to convert the file to DVD or other formats.

The DC30Plus recorded at very high bitrates ~2-3x DV so your files should be 7+ GB per hour.

[disturbed1]

Yep, typical Pinnacle but there is a guy in Germany that wrote an XP driver if you google.

It's nothing more than a hacked DC10 driver, only allows 640x480 captures instead of Full D1 captures, many many issues, isn't free, tech support sucks. Waste of time

Pinnacle has official drivers for the DC30/50. Do they work? Sort of. Many limitations as well.

Here's the Win 2000 drivers for the DC50 http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Advanced+Video/DC3...mode=documents

[leebo]

Thanks Disturbed1, I'll try that when I get home from work. It'll be great if it works.

[leebo]

You should be able to use any old MJPEG codec. Much like when you capture with a Canopus ADVC, it uses the Canopus DV codec, however, any DV codec can be used to play/edit/encode the file.

Virtual Dub has a built in MJPEG codec.
-----------------

Two popular MJPEG codecs are
Morgan MJPEG
PICVideo MJPEG
One of those should allow premiere to open/edit/encode the files.

Vitural Dub didn't work. In fact, it gave me an error message that there was no proper codec installed. I didn't see the two links to codecs at the bottom of your post, but I decided to try the Canopus codec out of frustration... and it worked.

I was able to play and import the files in Premiere. However, when I used the Matrox file converter embedded in my copy of Premiere (so I can then import the new file into Premiere and use real time effects), the new file was almost twise as large - even though the frame size and bitrate show they are the same! Can't figure that one out.

[disturbed1]

Are you sure these were captured with the DC50? The DC50 is an MJPEG capture card. If you had to install the Canopus Codec to get the files to play, then something isn't right. The Canopus Codec is a DV Codec, which has nothing to do with MJPEG. Virtual Dub would have opened the file if it was MJPEG as well

Grab GSPOT, or another like software, to identify the actual type of file you have.

Unless, perhaps your DC50 is different than my DC30. Which technically it isn't, other than a breakout box. Maybe you used different capture program than I did. Check the FOURCC of the file. There are also utilities that can change that. It's been a while since I've used my DC30 in Windows, but I believe at one time or another I had to use that utility for something If memory serves me correctly, it was something to do with 30gig continous capture files not being correct with the official Win2000 drivers.

Sorry I couldn't offer more exact information.

[leebo]

Now that you mention it, that does seems odd.

However, when I removed my DC50 to install the X100, I wiped the HDD and re-installed XP fresh. The video in question is on VHS (shot 19years ago). If I had captured by passing it through a miniDV camera, the files would be miniDV and since I've never had any other card in that system, they shouls have played fine with the X100 still installed.

And yet Virtualdub complained that the right codec was missing and they played fine after installing the Canopus codec.

I'll try Gspot later and report back.

[leebo]

Check the FOURCC of the file. There are also utilities that can change that.

I don't know what this refers to (sorry).

As you can see from the screen grab, I apparently DID capture using a firewire card (getting old is going to be so much fun!). But I swear I never had any other cards installed in this system except for the DC50 years ago, and the Matrox now.

So assuming I used the firewire in from the Matrox by passing the video through a miniDV cam (and using AVI_IO), why woulden't my Matrox codec display the video? And why are the files about doubled in size after converting them with the Matrox codec?

Should I install another DV codec to use rather than the Canopus?

Thanks.

[leebo]

I'm more confused than ever.
I read up on what FourCC is. Gspot reports it's using the Canopus codec. I then un-installed the canopus codec and installed the cedocida codec to see if I would have the same file size problem after re-rendering to the Matrox codec, but now the files wont play!

So I used avic to change the fourCC code of one of the files to MJPG hoping it would then use the cedocida codec to play - it didn't work.

I re-installed the canopus codec but now the file I changed the fourCC code still wont play. I even changed the code back to CDVC (the code for Canopus) but still no go.

On a side note, even when I seemingly change the fourCC code, Gspot always reports the code as CDVC. And it reports that the codec is NOT installed, even though the other files listed the same way do play!

[leebo]

Even more weird:

Some of the files are shown as MJPG, codec installed, and play fine in media player - yet Premiere still can't import them! I have changed nothing with these specific files.

Of these old mystery captured files, only the ones that say CDVC, Canopus codec installed, will import into Premiere 1.5.

[disturbed1]

FOURCC is embeded in the file that tells players which codec to use to play it back. XVID, DIVX, MJPEG, etc... are examples. Only one codec per file type is needed, if cedocida is not working correctly, don't use it. You can also try Panasonic's DV codec. Instead of CDVC, look at this site http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/directx9_c/directx/ht...eosubtypes.asp, and/or this one http://www.fourcc.org/codecs.php

Hard to say exactly what Premiere is doing to the file. It could be converting it to an uncompressed format. Not really sure. It would really depend on which Matrox Card, and version/type of Premiere you have. Some Matrox cards are MJPEG, DV, MPEG, and MPEG I frame only, and Premiere can come as a crippled version, or specialized version that only works with certain file types. It sounds like you have several files from different capture sources.

What I would do, use GSPOT to identify each video file you have. Some will be DV or MJPEG. Find a codec that works for importing the DV files. I could have sworn both Premiere and Windows itself had a built in DV codec Once you have these sorted, that's 50% done. Then find a codec that will work for your MJPEG files. PIC Video, and Morgan both work. I know I've used the Morgan codec to import DC30 captures into Premiere 6. Another CODEC to give a shot at is ffdshow. An all in one codec pack that has great user reviews. Try not to install too many codecs at once. There is the possiblity they may cause conflicts. Thankfully XP has system restore.

Talk about Windows codec hell It can get confusing considering there are so many codecs, add to that, that some applications require VFW codecs, while others need WDM drivers. Can't say I envy your situation at all.