I need confirmation on this

[kidmegabit]

Thanks gadgetguy. That explanation was simple enough for even me to understand. LOL

[gadgetguy]

No problem. Post back and let us know how it went.

[kidmegabit]

Well, I hooked it up but now the TV is fuzzy and the video jumps during play. Is there anything I can do to straighten this out?

[gadgetguy]

There shouldn't be that much degradation. Try using "output3" and see if it's any better. If not, then there may be some circuitry to keep the different devices isolated that may cause problems with the "backwards" setup. If so, then that switch is not going to work for you. You should be able to find a simpler switch at Radio Shack that will do better.

[kidmegabit]

Thanks gadgetguy. I got the tv straightened out as it was the coaxial cable not screwed in tight enough. Tightened it and all is not fuzzy on the tv anymore. Though I will look for a more simple switch possibly an A/B switch would be better?

[kidmegabit]

Well, all it took was for my son in law to come fix it for me. I now can capture tv, vcr, and dvd on my wintv card. He connected the coaxial for the tv/vcr/dvd to work, then used the video composite connections to hook up to the capture card. And it's not fuzzy or rolling. He's a wizard with tv's and vcr/dvd's, and satellites, but computers muddle his mind. I tell you.....I owe him big time!!

And thanks to you guys I knew what I needed to tell him so he could figure out what I needed done.

[kidmegabit]

Well, it's broken again. I was able to capture the one vhs tape from walmart, but yesterday I tried to capture just some tv to make sure it was still working and nothing shows up on the wintv2000 screen, the program used for capturing with this card. I'm beginning to think I should have gotten a different card or something else to do my capturing with. If this is the case, the card's fault, are there any suggestions you guys have about what I should buy?

[junkmalle]

You will have exactly the same problems no matter what capture card you use. How is your system wired up now?

I'm just guessing, but the first thing to try is to press the little green button between the up and down channel buttons on the WinTV2000 program. This cycles the PVR-150's input source from composite to s-video to coax (internal tuner).

Some general guidelines:

Most devices with multiple inputs have to be told which input to use. For example, a TV with composite, s-video, and cable coax inputs will have a button on the remote (and sometimes on the front of the TV) for switching between the three inputs. This is because you can have different devices hooked up to each -- say a DVD player to the s-video input, a VCR to the composite input, and cable TV to the coax input.

In addition, many devices with multiple outputs have to be told which output to use. For example, many DVD players will not output to both the s-video and component outputs at the same time. Somewhere in the setup menus will be the controls to specify which output to use.

[kidmegabit]

I don't see any button on the tv remote to choose which input to use.

How it's hooked when I was able to capture was this:
Coaxial from vcr/dvd player to tv, then composite video cables to capture card. Satellite was hooked to vcr/dvd via coaxial to Satellite box's coaxial output. It worked that one time, and that's it. I was wondering if the coaxial over rode the composite cables. One problem I was having was that I lost sound on the tv. I'm not sure what happened there either. I don't know if it was the tv lost sound or the satellite that lost the sound.

I've gone back to walmart and bought a a/b switch, I'm going to try that next, unless someone has a better idea.

[junkmalle]

So this is what you have now:

      coax                coax
Sat --------> VCR/DVD -------------> TV
                     \
                      \  composite
                       ------------>PVR-150

Is that right?

Cable coax has the worst possible picture quality but it's the simplest because the one cable carries both the audio and video.

With a setup like this the satellite box will output on channel 3 (or 4, there's usually a switch) so the VCR input should be set to the tuner and channel 3 (or 4).

The VCR will then pass it's output to the TV on channel 3. So the TV should always be set to channel 3.

The VCR will usually also send it's output to the composite output (whether the source is a DVD, a VHS tape, or the satellite receiver). So the PVR should be set to the composite input. Since the composite cable (yellow RCA cable) only carries video you will need audio cables (red and white RCA) between the VCR and the PVR-150. Oh, sorry, I think the PVR-150 has a stereo pin-plug connector so you need RCA to pin-plug cable or adaptor.

There are better connectivity options (better picture and sound quality) but you'll end up having to switch inputs on the different devices all the time.

And just to be sure we all agree on the terminology, cable coax is usually a thick black or white cable with connectors that look like this:



Composite video RCA connectors look like this:



And stereo RCA to pin-plug cable looks like this:

[kidmegabit]

Yes that explanation above is what I had. I had an adapter for the audio, connecting the white and red to the adapter, which had a single male end that was input into the audio on the capture card.

And yes, I know which are coaxial cables and which are video.

And the tv and vcr and satellite were all set to channel 3. And still are. I tried setting the 150 pvr to composite but for some reason it will not pick up whatever is played.
When the capture card was set to pick up Antenna/channel three, then I manually switched it to C1, which is how the card sees composite, it worked. Afterwards I tried having it capture directly from C1, it didn't work, then switched it back so it was picking up antenna/channel 3, that didn't work either.

The thing is, I don't know how I had the capture card software setup to pick up whatever was on the tv, whether tv channel, vhs, or dvd, when it worked that one time.

[junkmalle]

The only flaw I see in that setup would be if the VCR/DVD combo didn't always feed the output to the composite cable for the PVR-150. But that seems unlikely.

A slightly better setup would be:



This will get you a better picture all around but wouldn't let you watch and record on the PVR-150 at the same time.

Replacing the A/B switch with an A/V amp would let you view and record at the same time.

This:



Would allow you to use the PVR-150 to record from either the VCR or the Satellite box and watch on TV at the same time.

Even better, but harder to use:



This would get you the best recordings from the satellite box (both to the VCR and the PVR-150), the best picture from the DVD player to the TV, and the lowest quality recordings from the VCR to the PVR-150 -- but VHS tape is pretty poor anyway so it may not really matter to you. Unfortunately, you'll have to switch between the s-video (or component) and composite inputs on your TV all the time, and the coax and s-video inputs on the PVR-150. You don't need to record from DVD player to the computer because it's faster to just rip a DVD on the computer -- you get better picture quality too.

[edit]Oops, this last one isn't feasible because audio routing will be a problem[/edit]

[kidmegabit]

What's an A/V amp? And what does it look like. I do hands on not reading. If you could post a photo it would help me understand what I'm buying.

So you're saying use composite from the Sat to the vcr/dvd, then composite from the vcr/dvd, then add either the a/b switch or a/v amp composite to tv, with a leg to composite to the pvr-150? However, that won't work because I don't have two composite out connections on the back of the vcr/dvd. Only one. The other connections say "in". I guess I still don't understand what you guys are talking about.

[gadgetguy]

For simplicity's sake, think of the A/V amp as a powered splitter, so your composite out from the VCR/DVD would go to the A/V amp, then one output from the amp would go to the TV, and the other would go to the pvr-150.

[junkmalle]

Oops, we cross posted.

What's an A/V amp?

An A/V amp is an audio/video amplifier or reciever. Like this:

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Id=3978555

I suspect that's farther than you want to go though.

So you're saying use composite from the Sat to the vcr/dvd, then composite from the vcr/dvd, then add either the a/b switch or a/v amp composite to tv, with a leg to composite to the pvr-150? However, that won't work because I don't have two composite out connections on the back of the vcr/dvd.

The A/B switch in the first diagram allows you to route the single composite output of your DVD/VCR to either the TV or the PVR-150, and easily switch between the two. But like I indicated you won't be able to record and view on TV at the same time. The second diagram is the better solution because it lets you watch on TV and record on the PVR-150 at the same time.

[kidmegabit]

It's a lot further than I wanted to go. I don't want to have to buy more equipment when I've been told just the capture card with the necessary cables would work for what I want to do.

And if you'll read back the S-Video and component connections only work for the DVD part of the vcr/dvd player. So those won't do it either.

And why did it work when my son in law hooked it up the way he did, is something I don't understand either. It was working fine one or two days, then I lost sound on all equipment, not attached to the computer. Then I lost video on the capture card.

And now the only thing I really need is a video editing program that will let me title the one vhs it did capture, adding or moving bits and pieces of this video. Btw, when I captured that bit of video, it captured at mpg., is that mpeg1 or mpeg2? I guess that doesn't matter at this point because it did play after I burned to dvd+r.

[junkmalle]

And if you'll read back the S-Video and component connections only work for the DVD part of the vcr/dvd player. So those won't do it either.

That's why I showed both the composite and s-video cables between the combo and TV. The VCR portion is hooked up with the composite cable, the DVD with the s-video or component. You'll see a big difference in picture quality over your current coax connection. There has to be a button on your TV's remote that allows you to select the input source. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what it's labeled because every manufacturer uses different nomencalture. But routing audio from the satellite box to both the PVR and combo will be a problem with that last configuration.

At this point you need to start diagnosing the problems one piece at a time. Let's assume the wiring is OK since it was working before.

Put a VHS tape in the combo and start playing it. Do you get picture and sound on the TV? If so, then the connection between the combo and TV is working properly. If not you have to figure out what's wrong. With a coax cable between the combo and TV it's virtually impossible to get a picture without sound. This points to a setup option on the TV or the combo. Once you have that working properly we can move on to the next step...

And why did it work when my son in law hooked it up the way he did, is something I don't understand either. It was working fine one or two days, then I lost sound on all equipment, not attached to the computer. Then I lost video on the capture card.

With coax between the satellite box, the DVD/VCR combo and the TV it's not possible to lose the audio without also losing the picture -- they're both carried on the same cable. Something else is wrong.

And now the only thing I really need is a video editing program that will let me title the one vhs it did capture, adding or moving bits and pieces of this video.

Did the PVR-150 come with that nanoCosmos MPEG editor? (It came with my PVR-250). It's not very good but it might get you through the one file.

Btw, when I captured that bit of video, it captured at mpg., is that mpeg1 or mpeg2?

It could be either depending on what settings you captured at. If the frame size is 352x240 or 352x288 it's probably MPEG 1, otherwise probably MPEG 2.

[kidmegabit]

Ok how it's set up now, without the capture card connected, I get video on either vhs or dvd to tv. Nothing wrong there so far. I am thinking about going the a/v amp but will have to do some researching on the best price. It may have to wait until pay day again.

And yes, the nano did come with that card but when I tried to use it, it would not start and I got an error message about it not being installed correctly. I also get an error message at times about the wintv2000 not starting correctly and I have uninstall and reinstall to make it work. I've even updated to lastest version.

[kidmegabit]

Will this work as an amp? 4-Way A/V Distribution Amplifier:
Great for multi-VCR dubbing setups. Connects up to four VCRs or TVs to the line-level stereo audio/video output (RCA jacks) of one VCR. Also converts composite video input to an S-video output. Provides one S-video input and four S-video outputs.

[junkmalle]

Will this work as an amp? 4-Way A/V Distribution Amplifier

Yes, a distribution amp like that will be perfect. Nothing to configure, no controls to fiddle with, etc.

Ok how it's set up now, without the capture card connected, I get video on either vhs or dvd to tv. Nothing wrong there so far. I am thinking about going the a/v amp but will have to do some researching on the best price. It may have to wait until pay day again.

Now we know the cabling between your DVD/VCR combo and TV is working correctly. Next try viewing from the satellite box. Do you get both video and sound? Can you record onto a VHS tape?

And yes, the nano did come with that card but when I tried to use it, it would not start and I got an error message about it not being installed correctly. I also get an error message at times about the wintv2000 not starting correctly and I have uninstall and reinstall to make it work. I've even updated to lastest version.

There's something wrong there. I have a PVR-250 and never have problems like that. The nanoCosmos editor doesn't work well and crashes now and then, but I've never had to reinstall it or the PVR drivers.

If you want to try another program, a lot of people like Womble MPEG Video Wizard and it works with files produced by the Hauppauge PVR devices. You can try the free demo. http://www.womble.com

[kidmegabit]

I'll see about getting that amp this weekend.

As for the Sat getting video, yes, but that is because they are all hooked together, the Sat, vcr/dvd player, and tv. I haven't tried the tv/vcr/dvd alone without the Sat attached. Should I?

And thanks for the link to the editor, I'll check it out too. I thought about buying Premiere Elements because it is only $90 and with my daughter's discount from where she works I could get it for about $70. I just don't know if Premiere Elements would do what I want either.

Btw, when I updated the editing software it came out as TitanTV? Is that correct or is it something else I got?

[junkmalle]

As for the Sat getting video, yes, but that is because they are all hooked together, the Sat, vcr/dvd player, and tv. I haven't tried the tv/vcr/dvd alone without the Sat attached. Should I?

No, I just wanted to eliminate sources of problems. If you currently have the Sat->DVD/VCR->TV hookup working properly there's no need disconnect those cables.

The next step is to reconnect the PVR-150. Does the TV still work properly? Can you still watch VHS tapes, DVDs and Satellite on the TV?

Then, can you watch TV with the PVR-150 and WinTV2000? Can you record?

And thanks for the link to the editor, I'll check it out too. I thought about buying Premiere Elements because it is only $90 and with my daughter's discount from where she works I could get it for about $70. I just don't know if Premiere Elements would do what I want either.

I don't know anything about Premiere Elements. I only tried Womble for the trial period. I didn't want to spend $100 on another video editor. One good thing about Womble is it is smart enough not to decompress/recompress the entire video when you cut out small parts. That's all I used it for when I was playing with it (the other software I had would reencode the entire video whenever I made any cuts or other changes).

I've played with several versions of Pinnacle Studio. Each version was full of crash-and-die and corrupt project type bugs. The program kept getting new features and new bugs. I gave up on it.

I've also used Ulead VideoStudio. It was stable and worked reasonably well. I currently use Ulead Media Studio Pro a bit. Mostly I use TMPGEnc, and the free VirtualDubMPEG2 and AVISynth (the latter isn't for beginners). And Ulead DVD Movie Factory to master DVDs.

Btw, when I updated the editing software it came out as TitanTV? Is that correct or is it something else I got?

No, TitanTV is a PVR front end. It allows you to view TV schedules, select shows to record, record them, etc.

[kidmegabit]

I'll try to hook up the card tomorrow night after work. I'm usually too tired to mess with my computer after working on computers all day long so I usually just cruise this site to see if I can help in the computer forum, or go work on my other computer tech help forum, where I mod. Or I just simply play online games.

[kidmegabit]

Remember this thread? I just got my setup situated differently. I no longer have satellite connection. I no longer live in one tiny room either, I bought a new house. I have straight up tv antenna, dvd/vcr, and tv. I am also three feet closer to the units. Actually they are about two feet apart.

Now I need to know if, RCA cables would do this or do I still need those adapters, or switches?

[kidmegabit]

I haven't heard from you guys, so I'll ask another question.

Looking in my dvd/vhs booklet, it says Compent cables are the best to use. Is that true for getting video into the tv? Because if it is, I also then would be able to use the Composite video cables to attach to my PVR-150 because the dvd/vhs has both connections. Composite and Component connections.

[jagabo]

Yes, component cables are better than composite or s-video.

[kidmegabit]

So if I go buy those Component video cables today, then I can use my composite video cables to connect the dvd/vcr to the capture card, this should work? It's been a year since I first asked this question and this year is the first time I've been able to get started on the setup again. Work has keep me too busy for any pleasure and I hadn't even noticed that both the tv and the dvd/vcr had component video connections until this morning. duh!! LOL

[jagabo]

So if I go buy those Component video cables today, then I can use my composite video cables to connect the dvd/vcr to the capture card, this should work?

Some devices let you select either component or composite/s-video output, but not both. It's worth a try since you'll get a better picture from your DVDs with component.

[kidmegabit]

And I didn't read the fine print. Below the instructions on which cables to use, it says and I quote "The coaxial, DVD Audio Out, S-Video, and Component Video Out jacks are for dvd mode only" So, I just spent $10 on cables I can't use for on the vcr portion.

[kidmegabit]

I give up. I'm just going to go buy a Pinnacle system, or a different dvd/vcr set and be done with it. I have no other options now as far as I can see. Switch boxes won't work for what I had intended to do with this. I wanted to be able to see the video on the tv as well as in the computer. And I can't afford an amplifier.

The way my son in law had this connected it worked for about two days then I lost sound, on tv altogether.

I do not have the DirectTV connection anymore, all I have is a standard rabbit ear antenna.