Cannot find a suitable software to capture

[bambam]

Hi

I Have a USB capture card which is called Dazzle Digital Video Creator 90 (DVC90) which seem to work fine. It seem to be a older model since I cannot find any driver for Windows 7 and later. So I install it on my single core P4 - 2.8 Ghz machine. I plug an good old VHS into the capture card using an composite cable and plug the DVC90 device on my Windows XP machine on a USB port. The device is installed properly because when I press play on the VHS the video is being display properly on the computer. I use Windows Movie Maker to test it.

Since the device is installed properly and the driver seem to work. I would like to get your recommendation on an actual capture software to put that video stream and put it in a video file. I would love to keep it in a mp4 format. I guess I could stay with Windows Movie Maker but I think I might get better result using another software.

I read a lot of guide and post from the forum before posting this. I have try about 10 software now
some of them are too heavy to run on a older machine, some of them I cannot make work at all, and other have sync issue or there is some weird line on the image. Is there such thing as a good, easy to use, light, working program. I can pay for it is they are not free but free is always nice.

Thank you very much for your help

[sanlyn]

[QUOTE=bambam;2308557]

Since the device is installed properly and the driver seem to work. I would like to get your recommendation on an actual capture software to put that video stream and put it in a video file. I would love to keep it in a mp4 format. I guess I could stay with Windows Movie Maker but I think I might get better result using another software.

I read a lot of guide and post from the forum before posting this. I have try about 10 software now
some of them are too heavy to run on a older machine, some of them I cannot make work at all, and other have sync issue or there is some weird line on the image. Is there such thing as a good, easy to use, light, working program. I can pay for it is they are not free but free is always nice.

If you've indeed been reading "a lot of guides" you apparently missed hundreds (if not thousands) of threads that advise against Movie Maker, and that also advise against capturing or recording VHS directly to lossy encoded formats. However, you can suit yourself in regard to those points. Advanced users would suggest that you capture VHS to lossless YUY2 AVI with lossless huffyuv or Lagarith compression via VirtualDub's capture utility. Then clean up the usual crappy ugly annoying VHS noise, dropouts, rainbows, and other defects, and get a good free encoder like HCenc or X264 (or any of several free apps that use them) to go from AVI to DVD or mkv. Note that that many external players will simply snub their nose if you throw mp4 into them. But that depends on what you want for a final delivery format and playback options.

Since VirtualDub and HCenc or X264 are the only freebies I use for most VHS->digital projects for better-than-average results (the rest of it is paid), I'll leave it to others to suggest free or paid one-step apps.

[bambam]

Yeah I know that Movie MAker is not a great software and this is the reason why I would prefer to find another software.
But it's working when I try to capture at least.

I try using Virtualdub but like you said I think it is for advanced user because I had a hard time to make it to work but when I did my test file have about 1 Gb for a 1 minute clip. I don't know which settings to change so the output file have a normal size.

[PuzZLeR]

The reason your file is so big is because you're using raw RGB format. You can still capture to this format and convert later, but it's not suggested for a number of reasons. (The VirtualDub site lists them if you're interested.)

And, if you read all those guides, you'd see that most would say use VirtualDub - it is THE essential capture solution software for the past decade. Most would recommend it, like Sanlyn did in posting before.

Try these settings with VirtualDub:

File->Capture AVI
File->Set Capture File (then name your file and save)->OK
Device->(click on your device - HOPEFULLY it's there)
Video->Video source->Video Composite
Video->Compression->Huffyuv->OK (you can install it free, or you can install another lossless codec like UT or Lagarith)
Video->Set custom format->720x480 YUY2->OK (or 720x576 if you're in a region that is PAL)

I leave the Audio part up to you. You can capture with your device or through your sound card.

I hope your capture device, the Dazzle, is supported among those features.

Your final captured file will be big, but much smaller than 1GB/1min. It doesn't matter because you can always convert it to a compressed *.mp4 with a tool like x264, and a GUI like HandBrake later after you edit it.

[Wolfen]

There are drivers for that capture device

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Support/Consumer+Support/?viewDownload=1