How to install the BT Wincap drivers for AverDVD EZ Maker?

[Gildas]

Hello all,

I recently purchased an AverDVD EZ Maker capture card and was hoping to capture full screen NTSC video at 720x480 as avertised ("up to 720x480").

Here is a little description of my computer: Pentium 4, 2 GHz, 256 MB RDRAM, 80 GB hard drive, Windows XP Home edition SP1, DirectX 9, 64 MB Nvidia video card.

I want to be able to capture in AVI and not MPEG so NeoDVD that came with the card is not good enough for me. It seems to me that it only captures in either MPEG1 or MPEG2 high quality being 720x480 though.
Or is there a way to capture in AVI using NeoDVD?

So after reading so many good reviews about VirtualDub, I tried it. I was really dissappointed to see that I could not set a frame size higher than 320x240. I was wondering if it was a bug with VirtualDub so I tried several other freeware programs such as FreeVCR, Virtual VCR and AMCAP. They all gave the same error that the format is not supported if trying to set the frame size higher than 320x240.

I did a search on this forum and it seems that I am not the only one with this problem. And if I understood correctly, it seems I need to install some "tweaked" drivers "BT Wincap". I downloaded the EXE file to install the driver but my card is not auto detected by the installer.
Fine, I looked at the list of supported cards to select from and to my surprise, my card "AvedrDVD EZ Maker" is not listed.

However, just "for fun", I tried to install the generic without TV tuner one and I got error messages during the installation telling me that the driver was not officially tested to work with Windows XP. I clicked on "Continue anyway" and it seems that it got installed. But after restarting the computer and opening the capture program (any of the ones mentioned above), the whole computer locks up totally (no mouse and keyboard working). All I could do was press the power button to restart the computer. I also tried the other Avermedia capture card models listed in the installation program but same results.

So after explaining what I did, I am asking somebody who has been in the same situation as me to please tell me how to install this "tweaked" driver.

Any help will REALLY be appreciated as I am on the verge of returning this card but really liked the price and the fact that it is simple (no TV tuner that I didn't wan).

Thank you!

[Gazorgan]

More research!

The BTWINCAPS don't work for me, they force me into PAL resolutions at 25 fps, I use OEM drivers. You can manually install drivers by renaming some files and dropping them into a folder in XP. I don't reccomend doing this, but it's a good way to un-install sometimes. The hard part is figuring out what the file names need to be for the 4-6 driver files you need.

VDUB uses VFW drivers, whereas the ones you are talking about are WDM. You need the VDUB wrapper(see downloads section). Personally, I never use VDUB, too clunky. Try IUVCR or one of the others freebies(see downloads section). I cap in AVI with whatever resolution I need using HUFFYUV or MJPEG.

[fingernailX]

I have the Avermedia TV Stereo Card which is a BT878 based card. I am able to use the BTWincap drivers - no problem. They work with either Vdub or IUVCR. There are some iulab bt8X8 drivers available which might work for you. http://www.iulab.com/drv/index.shtml I would give them a try with IUVCR Good Luck

[jpconard]

Although this won't help you, there may be some ideas to try.

I purchased the AVerTV Studio, which I think is about the same as the capture only version. It seemed to work fine with the BTwincap drivers (autodetect). It did allow the 720x480 cap, but it uses a lot of HD space even with HuffYUV compression. Uninstall on the other hand did not work well. After uninstall VDub did not work at the lower resolutions as it did before BTwincap install. I did find a way to uninstall, use the AVer BT uninstall on the CD, then go to control panel and remove hardware - video and audio capture devices named BTwin something. Then reboot and when the card is found install the drivers that you want. I am currently using the latest drivers from the Aver site (but they don't allow AVI capture at higher resolutions, only the BT drivers seem to).

Try your original drivers, but select Primary mode rather than Overlay mode. You have to do this even with the BTwincap drivers and some people say this works without the BTwincap drivers. It did not work for me.

I have no problems with the BT drivers, but, I am new to this as well, is there an advantage to AVI capture over MPEG-2? I can cut commericals and edit in TMPGenc (before encoding) with MPEG-2 just fine.

My current issues are audio hiss on playback when volume is turned up, tried different line in settings and mic in port all are the same. Did try Audocity WAV/MP2/3 editor and can clean up the audio, but a lot of steps and time. Occurs with MPEG-2 or AVI capture in VDUB.

How does the your card work for MPEG-2 captures? What is the chip on your card, BT848A? Does your card support stereo in? I am asking because I may try that version with the Neo software. I am looking for steps to get to DVD faster (less encoding) and still have good quality.

According to the data sheet for NeoDVDstandard, you can save to AVI.

[Bob W]

I know the capture card that comes with Pinnacle Studio8 will capture directly to AVI but why would you even want to do that? I have the AverDVD capture card and just capture directly to mpeg2 as DVD compliant, that way it's very fast to convert to a burned DVD.

[housepig]

Gildas -

it might be something else in your system. I have a WinXP box with the Aver EZDvd card in it, I was able to capture to 720x480 .avi with Virtual VCR, no tweaking.


- housepig

[Atmos]

Likewise I have the same card (DVDEZ) and use the drivers supplied with it. I use iuVCR and have been capturing at max resolution with no dropped frames and perfect audio sync with win98. Likewise VirtualVCR captured with this card and drivers with no dropped frames (but I never solved audio sync with this program). Although not an answer to your problem it indicates that something else is preventing good capture other than the make/model of the card.

[Atmos]

Regarding capturing in AVI....I contacted Mediostream when I first got the card and got the following:-

Thank you for using neoDVD.



You can only capture as an AVI from a digital camcorder.

You cannot capture as an AVI from a analog source.



If you are capturing from a digital camcorder make sure that

You have your digital camcorder plugged in and turned on before you launch neoDVD.



Email me back if you have further questions.



Thank you,



Sonny Najera

Senior Technician

MedioStream Technical Support

Web site http://www.mediostream.com/

[Gildas]

Thank you all for your replies.

I didn't get to try all your suggestions yet.

I also wrote to AverMedia and got a quite similar reply as Atmos' but I got more details though. For everybody to know, I posted my reply in the "Capture Cards - Features & user comments" section so that everybody can have an idea if buying the card would be good for them.

Again, thank you for your replies, everybody. I will eventually try all your suggestions once I am not that busy around the house as I've been the past couple of weeks.

[Gildas]

Thank you for suggesting iuVCR. It works great!