Need Urgent Help Installing A Capture Card/TV Tuner...

[MichelleMyBelle]

Hello,

I recently purchased a STB PCI Capture Card/TV Tuner. The person I bought the card from was supposed to give me step by step instructions on how to install the hardware in my computer.. but has not followed through on this promise. Is there a simple way to install the capture card in my computer? Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks so much, Michelle

[Jens Gervil]

Pull out the powercord.
Open the cover.
Find a free slot.
Plug in the card.
Put the power cord back, and turn on your PC.
Install the software.
If it works, put back on the cover (remember to pull out the powercord, just to be on the safe side)
If thats not enough, let me know where you need help.

[MichelleMyBelle]

Hello,

Thanks, I appreciate it. I have the capture card installed. I'm not sure how to go about capturing though. I have a RCA coaxial cable, which is what the guy who sold it to me gave me. Do I need another type of cable? For some reason, I can not get any programs to capture video. I've tried quite a few and none seem to work. I've tried Ulead Movie Factory, but it always freezes up. Any help you can give would be most appreciate because I am completely new to this thing and am just trying to back up my old VHS and camcorder tapes.

Thanks, Michelle

[theDruid]

Hi Michelle,

what other leads you need depends on your card to an extent. My analogue card (an old Avermedia TV Capture 98 ) feeds the audio back into the sound card, so when I capture with it, I use (phono to headphone jack) cables to feed audio directly from the VHS into the sound card and 'cut out the middle man'.

What other inputs does your capture card have? I ask because I don't think that the RCA cable is going to give you the best quality. If you can use s-video or composite, it might be better (a scart adaptor on the back of your VHS should enable you to use these cables to feed into your capture card).

VirtualDub is the best software I've found for capture - and it's free! There's a link to it in the tools section of this site. You'll need the drivers etc.. for your card installed first - have you managed to do this?

You'll also probably want to use a codec to compress the video you capture (otherwise you're going to need a lot of disk space to back up VHS tapes). The HuffyUv codec is very good, and also free.

What OS are you using? I ask because if you're capturing to a drive that is FAT32 (Win95/98/ME) you'll need to limit the size of the files you write while capturing. Anything over (roughly) 4gig and FAT32 won't cope. An NTFS formatted drive (Win2000/XP) doesn't have this problem though. If you are using FAT32, you can make VirtualDub split the files at a certain limit, to avoid running into this problem.

The best advice is to have a go - capture a few minutes of one of your tapes using VirtualDub, and see what the quality looks & sounds like. Then try a different cable etc.. and find what suits you best.

Finally, what format do you want to end up with? If you want to be able to burn the captured footage to CD's or DVD's this is another story!

So, first get VirtualDub to capture to an avi that you're happy with, and then decide what you want to do from there - post again if you need to, or use the many guides on this site to make (S)VCD's or DVD's.

Hope this helps - post again if you want anything clarified.

cheers,

mcdruid.

[MichelleMyBelle]

Hello mcdruid,


Thanks for replying and for your help, I appreciate it.

My capture card has a FM, TV, Audio In, S-Video In, and Video In. The FM and TV are regular antennae type connections.. The Audio In needs the type of connection that you would see on the end of a microphone and the Video In is the type you would see on regular videocameras. I hope I've explained this well, I'm not very familiar with the different types of cords and connections. Where would I go to purchase these cables? I've called RadioShack before about a cord and they had no idea what I needed. Maybe if I had a name to go with the cord, they might be able to help me out.

I have VirtualDub, but when I try to get video all I see is a blue screen. I have installed all the drivers that were given to me on the disk that came with the capture card.

I'm operating Windows XP. I would like to convert the VHS into either VCD or DVD.. so the quality does not waver on down the line. Just as a backup for some of the movies and home videos I have that can not be purchased on DVD. If I can get the video from the VHS captured on my computer in either avi or mpeg.. I have all the editing and converting tools I need to burn it to a vcd or dvd. I have TMPEGnc, DVDit, Ulead Movie Factory, Nero and all that good stuff.

I'm totally new to this and basically have no idea what I'm doing, so any help you can provide would be most helpful.

Thanks so much, Michelle

[MikeV]

The audio plug will be a 1/8" stereo plug. If you are connecting it to a VCR, you will need a cable that has 1/8" stereo to RCA plugs. The video should be RCA to RCA.

I used to work at Radio Shack many many years ago(over 20) and back then when you asked a salesman a question like yours not only did they know the answer but they would get the exact cables you needed. Or some like me would get parts from the shelves and build you the cables while you waited. Now adays if you go in and ask them what a resistor or capacitor is they will give you a funny look and ask if it's a new rock group. All they know is they have a computer at home and can browse the web.

Gone is the days of the true electronics technicians.

[theDruid]

Michelle, have you got your card working at all? - as in have you managed to watch TV or the VHS source with any app? Does the software it came with work at all?

I don't know anything about the card, but from looking on the web, it looks like it's pretty old and discontinued - did 3Dfx used to make them? I don't think there is a driver for 2000/XP - which might be your first problem!

Have a look at: http://www.stbtv.n3.net/

and see if that's any help.

let me know how you get on.

good luck,

mcdruid.


PS. There's also a few reviews of the card in the capture card section of this site - they're not entirely positive I'm afraid!

If you really can't get it working under your XP, you could consider setting up a dual boot with 98 or something like that.

[MichelleMyBelle]

Hello,

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it. I was shocked when I called RadioShack and they didn't have an answer. I used to go into RadioShack all the time and they always solved whatever problem I had for them. This time I called 4 different RadioShacks and not one person from any of the stores could help me out. After studying the capture card and my VCR/videocamera, I basically knew what type of cable I needed, but wasn't sure of the measurements or correct names. Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.

Thanks, Michelle

[MichelleMyBelle]

Hello mcdruid,

I have not managed to get it working yet. I purchased it from ebay and the guy said it worked with Windows XP. He gave me the software and it was DScaler, but it did not work with it. So I downloaded DScaler from the web and tried it, but it will not capture from the VHS.. I'm not sure if this is because I do not have the right cords or if they're just not compatible.

Thanks, Michelle

[theDruid]

Michelle,

have a look at the driver site above, and try just running an RCA cable (I think they're what we generally call phono plugs in the UK - like the ones you use to connect a CD player to an amp, with one red and one white plug) between the video output of your VCR and the (composite) input of your card.

Then try running VirtualDub, and make sure you try the different sources under capture mode - I think the option is called composite.

See if you can get a picture that way (make sure the VCR is outputting something!)

Can you get a picture?

mcdruid.


[edit - the voodoo files driver i linked to before was down, but there are a few that mention your card in this list: http://www.voodoofiles.com/type.asp?cat_id=1 - you won't get much done at all if the driver doesn't work properly for XP, so that's the first thing to concentrate on. Luckily the card is based on quite a common chip, and you'll hopefully find a driver to get it working!]

[Jens Gervil]

Hi again.

The blue screen is because you havent set up the channels (just like on your normal TV). There must be a "viewer" program you need to set up so you can see TV on your screen? In Denmark channel 36 is normally the VCR channel, but I don't know if it the same all over the world.

You need a scart adaptor and a S-video cable to connect your VCR with the TV tuner card. (I made a Google search and you can see the adaptor here : http://www.laservision.co.uk/video_2way_scart_adaptor.htm)
You plug in the scart adaptor in your video, the s-video cable in the scart adaptor and in the s-video connetor on your TV tuner card, you might need an audio cable as well. (yellow plugs, just one lead).

Once connected, you turn on the video, and run a tape. Then you start up the program to view TV with, tune the channels until you find the video, and keep the channel there. Turn of the TV viewer program, and start up the grapping software (Virtualdub is fine). You should now see the video, and be able to make your "grapping".