I Think I hate Pinnacle Studio 7 and the DC10+ Card......

[bluevine]

.....that I recently purchased for a variety of reasons. Mostly my inability to cure my drop frame problem. The reason for this post however is that I am trying to make a backup VHS tape copy of a DVD I own. The DVD has macro on it so connecting it direct to the VCR is a non-starter.
So I ripped it to my harddrive using CladDVDXP (nice little program). I then created a full quality MPEG2 file from this. Now I'd like to export it back out through the Pinnacle DC10+ Capture Card video output to my VCR. However, I get this error when loading the file "the file was not compressed with Studio DC10 Plus M-JPEG(16) so it cannot be output to tape". I then tried loading an AVI file of the same movie but get the same message. To me, this implies I can only output video if I initially captured it through the capture card to begin with! What a scam! Does anybody know any other way I can direct the output of an AVI or MPEG through the output of this card?
Thanks

[MaDmiZe]

What it is saying is that it wont output to tape unless you rendered using Pinnacle's own compression (codec if you wish to call it that) M-JPEG(16).

I ran into this problem...I would edit videos then try to output them...they never say use any compression you want....unless you expect to out put to tape using this card. So seemed (to me to be extra time spent rerendering stuff to their special format) so I replaced my video card with one that had a TV out. Now I can tape any thing I can get on my screen....regaurdless of format.....And only use pinnacle card to capture.

SO...in summary have studio 7 render using the M-JPEG16 compression if you wish to output using it.

[bluevine]

I've come to the same conclusion
I guess I could hook up the video output of my home DVD player to the capture card and "rip" the DVD that way (in other words convert it to AVI using their MJPEG compression method). Don't know if I would still have a Macrovision problem though. Guess it might be worth a try.
This is too much work for something that ought to be easy.
Maybe I just need a new capture card!

[MaDmiZe]

If you already have on hard drive just have Studio7 render in appropriate format...Just thought of this: if you have virtualdub, you can have it recompress video in avi format using dc10plus mjpeg16...would be faster than studio7 and less crash prone.
By the way you didn't say if you had a CD burner on your PC...if so you could make VCD and tape that (dvd player to vcr) no macro would be present.

I am testing using uleads DVD Workshop for this type stuff....But I have not tested it with DC10 capture card yet..I was told it works great.

[bbb]

1. Connect your DVD player Video Out to the DC10+ Video In. DVD Audio Out directly to your VCR Audio In.

2. Connect the DC10+ Video Out to VCR Video In.

3. Turn on your Computer and open AVI_IO (should work with Studio; if not, download the trial version AVI_IO).

4. Record the DVD onto VHS w/o macrovision. (this has worked for me in the past with level 1 macrovision--the brightening and fading macrovision was stripped out)

[crjackson]

bbb has got it exactly right. It works perfect for me like that. One thing I should mention. You can go into the Pinnacle Tools (included), run the control program, and deselect AGC. This should solve any issues with macrovision.

[bluevine]

The Macro on this DVD is not the "bright flashings" but is more like multiple horizontal lines which cross the screen. I'll try the direct hookups and see if that works.
I thought about using Virtual dub but it won't open the MPEG2 file (pack syncronization error).
What is "AGC" in the Pinnacle tools?
I've tried AVI_IO but got no better results on captures than Pinnacle studio 7.

[crjackson]

What is "AGC" in the Pinnacle tools?

Automatic Gain Control

That's the circut that where MacroVision does it's magic. You have the option to turn it off through your software tools that are installed with the package.