3rd Party Software with Pinnacle PCTV

[wh thompson]

I purchased pinnacle PCTV to capture my VHS tapes to SVCD. I can capture to AVI, convert to SVCD using TEMPGEnc, and burn wih Nero. However, based on comments in this forum, better quality can be achieved using 3rd party s/w. I have downloaded VirtualDub, but when I try to capture video i get the following messages: 1-"VIDEO DEVICE ALREADY IN USE",followed by "ERROR 418: CAPTURE DEVICE NOT DETECTED", followed by "VIRTUALDUB CANNOT CONNECT TO DESIRED CAPTURE DRIVER", and lastly "PANIC:VIRTUALDUB CANNOT CONNECT TO ANY CAPTURE DRIVERS".
I tried iuVCR and can capture with it, but when I use PREVIEW, my system locks up.
I have a dual boot WIN98 and XP system (and the problems occur with both systems), 1.2 ghz Athlon , 256mbDDR, 20gb drive and 40 gb drive(for capture). Any suggestions on either the VirtualDub or iuVCr problems ??

[hunts]

I've puchased my Pinnacle PCTV fairly recently too and have the same problem. After doing some searches online, I found out that VirtualDub does not work with PCTV. Why? Because Pinnacle PCTV is WDM driver based. VirtualDub requires software that uses VFW (spelling?). I'm still a novice on this stuff, but that was enough for me to answer my questions and seek something else out other than VirtualDub.

I've been testing around and found that iuVCR works as well as VirtualVCR, because those 2 work with the WDM drivers. I can't seem to get sound with VirtualVCR, so I dropped it. I'm currently playing around with iuVCR right now. If all works well, I'll have it registered and paid for. You can find these 2 softwares under the "tool" section of this vcdhelp.

In the meantime, I'm currently playing with PowerVCR II from Cyberlink. I also have MGI Videowave 5, which seems to work with Pinnacle PCTV. I have Ulead VideoStudio on the way and will be testing that out as well. Fun fun I tell ya!

[deadpac]

Are you using any of the pinnacle software while you are opening up and capturing with Virtual Dub.

Only one software at a time can access the card otherwise you'll get a collision on your PCI bus.......blah heading off in the wrong direction

Start up PCTVision or whatever TV app they bundled with your PCTV Rave card and change to the channel or input that you want to capture with, CLOSE the app and then start up Virtual Dub.

Then you should not be seeing the "Video device already in use".......etc..[/quote]

[hokie91]

Vdub is incompatabile with the Pinnacle drivers - period. However, you can use the 3rd party drivers which do seem to have better resolution.

They are at:


http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/

My goal is the same 8MM taps through the VCR to SVCD's for my Apex (plays it all DVD player). I am getting closer, but still not the quality I'd like. The best I've been able to get so far is using the Studio 7 software with an update fix from the web site - quality was crap w/o the update. I was capping at 480 x 480. File size was pretty large too, so not many minutes per disk.

I like Vdub, but I am having what looks like an interlacing problem, or I'd be there. See my post:

http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=105019

I am also running XP only and there seem to be more problems with XP than 98 and other OS's.

I tried to play around with iuvcr but had some crashing issues. If I can get rid of the jaggies in Vdub, I am there!

[deadpac]

Vdub is incompatabile with the Pinnacle drivers - period. However, you can use the 3rd party drivers which do seem to have better resolution.

-hokie91

Don't go generalizing your problems and assuming that it won't work for anybody else.

Funny how someone with a PCTV using dated 4x drivers in Windows XP can capture with Vdub at 704x476 and higher.

wh thompson,
You are using your PCTV before you are starting up Virtual Dub which is what is causing those line of errors after trying to Capture Video with Virtual Dub. Just tried it now, have dTV [you probably know it as DScaler now] running with CVD being played from my DVD player, opened up Virtual Dub without closing dTV tried to capture an AVI and sure enough the errors that come up in the same sequence as you are

Error 418: Capture Device was not detected.....

Virtual Dub cannot connect to the desired capture driver. Trying all available drivers.........

Panic: VirtualDub cannot connect to any capture drivers!

Close the application that you are using to view the signal from your PCTV before you open up Virtual Dub and start capturing. If you did close the app and virtual dub shows the same errors then maybe the program did not close completely and you might have to do a ctrl+alt+delete and shut down the program through the task manager.

If this is not the case and you weren't running any TV viewing application before you started up Virtual Dub, then I suggest you look for older 4x drivers for PCTV, THEY WORK PERFECTLY in WinXP hokie91, if all else fails go for the 3rd party GENERIC WDM Video Capture Drivers, don't listen to hokie91's rants about jaggies and the such, just a little kid raving because his PCTV Rave doesn't do what he wants it to.

[Hong Kong Phooey]

@Wh thompson.
As the comment's above attest, your best bet would be to look for alternative driver's. One word of caution,if you have Windows 98 1st Edition, then those generic 3rd party driver's won't apparently work.

However, Pinnacle recently put the old PCTV Version 4.02a drivers back up under the PCTV card(not the pro). I used them with my PCTV pro, & they work fine with Virtual Dub,AVI_IO etc. (I'm a Win 98 1st Ed user)

Make sure the PCTV card has it's own IRQ setting,if it's sharing your 3D card,then It'll most likely have problems.

I do have a Pinnacle FTP address which list's the old VFW driver too.

[hokie91]

That is indeed interesting about the 4.02. I do remember that if you want to use the Pinnacle software, you get a crippled capability because some of the apps / functionallity will not install on XP (did not on mine anyway). I believe I also read this on teh Pinnacle support boards.

As for Vdub, I could not get it to work with the Pinnacle drivers. It is great if it works for some. I had an email from the author of the btwincap drivers and he told me that Pinnacle drivers and vdub were not compatabile due to VFW vs WDM issues. I just assumed that that was the true since it seemed to be my experience as well.

My best results so far is with Studio 7 (with the latest update from their website - very important) capping at 480x480 or 480x576 with the Pinnacle drivers. I did a test on Planet of the Apes with a lot of motion and quality was pretty good some artifacts, but there was a lot of motion - apes flying around. I still like the btwincap drivers because they seem to be better imaging.

One other thing to consider about the PCTV cards. They are labled as PRO because they came with a remote. I was told that they are not the Pro cards so keep this in mind if you install the 3rd party drivers - they should autodetect your card anyway.

Best of luck whichever way you go.

[Hong Kong Phooey]

The PCTV pro cards,(& according to everything I have,including the box, it's clearly labled the PCTV Pro),have FM radio & you can record/Tune in Stereo TV which you can't on the standard PCTV card,(mono only supposedly). the additional input is there too.
With the old V4.02a driver's I can capture 640x480. (PAL) stereo sound.

However if you insist on using the pinnacle vision s/w you're limited to 320x240 using the older drivers. But Virtual Dub,AVI_IO etc. will work on larger sizes but overlay must be switched off.

[wh thompson]

Thanks for all the very helpful comments and suggestions. I have downloaded and installed the third party drivers at http://btwincap.sourceforge.net/ . Now Virtual Dub works !!
I am having some problems with it (B&W instead of color, jumpiness, etc.) but i need to play with it awhile to better understand the settings etc.
BTW the iuVCD , which used to capture ok but crashed my PC when I used PREVIEW, now crashes whenever I open the program. If no one has any suggestions on this, I think I'll delete iuVCR and concentrate on VirtualDub.

[heretyc]

Hi

As a complete newbie to capturing today I received my pctv rave. After difficulties installing software I have no probs (apart from dropped frames).

I have PII 266 with over 300megs of ram. But I did get it to work with vdub with no probs, apart from quality of capture from analogue v8 camcorder.

So Vdub does work with these cards.

Hope this helps.

H

[tmcmvd]

Hi ...using PCTV rave with BT8x8 Chipset on XP fine...

Try using generic drivers available from : ?? can't find it right now..but it's there.

they work fine on XP and 2000.

Use virtualdub for capturing at any res with these drivers.

Pinnacle drivers are up to 5.1 (not 5.01) now...but have al;ways been crap...

chances are pinnacle software stops working after driver exchange.

be sure that no pinnacle "process" in the background in keeping the pc-tv in use while starting VDUB.


let me know if it worked.

[heretyc]

Sorry didn't mention I have 98se

h

[tmcmvd]

No problem...should also work...the generic drivers are for all windows versions...just it took some IRQ trouble under 98SE to make it do what I wanted it to.

Try them...it's your only chance of highres virtualdub capture.

[tmcmvd]

Don;t forget to install most recent Direct-X version.

Perhaps use of a WDM wrapper make VDUB capture possible.