ConvertX PX-M402U Not recognized

[jwasher]

HI:
Can anyone help on how to attempt configuring Movie Factry to recognize my hardware.

I purchased Movie Factory 3 as an upgrade to bundled software (WinDVD) that came with a rather pricy hardware video encoder, the Plextor PX-M402U.

Movie Factory is not automatically recognizing the hardware & apperently gives zero options for configuration. (At least I can't find any). I had to reinstall Movie Factory twice before it recognized my burner. (Also reistalled burner software prior to secnd try with Movie factory).

All hardware specifications appear to be met or exceeded for Movie Factory software. It goes through what I assume is an automatic sequence seeking hardware when I try to launch "Capture Video", but displays nothing under source & just sits there till it "times out" & returns to the main screen. Surely there must be some option for configuration problems when a video capture hardware source is not automatically detected?

Burner & capture work just fine with the other program, WinDVD. I hesitate to uninstall Win DVD as I have no confirmation that the Movie Factory software will recognize it. The support from Plextor & WinDVD has been abysmally poor as each points fingers at the other. Win DVD says its Plextors problem because their software was sold in a bundle with the Plextor hardware. Plextor says that they can't address technical issues with the Software as it is Win DVD software support issue.

The WinDVD software sucks as bad as their support for it & thats why I bought Movie Factory. If Movie Factory won't recognize the hardware then I am stuck capturing with one program, editing & burning from the other.

[dav4647]

I AM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM NOTIFY IF YOU HGET A REPLAY

[jwasher]

Hi: Still looking for solutions. I have Cyberlink Power Director, & Ulead Movie Factory, niether recognizes the ConvertX hardware & it looks like anyone buying a Convertx unit is stuck with this awful software company.

Plextor does not mention that you are "locked to one software vendors product", & worse, one version of that product. They say they are working with other vendors for newer versions of software to recognize their Codec / Hardware but I am not holding my breath. I would not have bought it had I known this.

Support from WinDVD is abysmal, help files are poor & no online support offered. Encouraged to learn by trial & error as substitue for documentation.

Capture works fine (once you figure everything out on your own), don't bother the vendor for answers. Trial & error over time (very expensive) is the only way to learn where all the controls are, what works & what doesn't.

I like the movie factory interface & documentation but it is missing Title effects / Title Animation.

I guess I can create Animated Titles in WinDVD or Power Director & then recapture as video clips. ;(

Doesn't anyone make a complete product that works with a wide range of hardware & has documentation / support.

[rwernyei]

Unfortunately, you will need to use the bundled software for capture and then import video into DVDMF3. This hardware encoder is not on Ulead's hardware compatibility list. In order for it to work properly a propietary driver needs to offered by Ulead. This driver would include device control, capture settings, etc. That is why it is not recognizing it. Fill out an official technical support form and inform them of your problem. They maybe working on this already.

[maddrummer3301]

That unit is an external hardware encoder and streams at USB 2.0.
The Maximum bit_rate for that device is 6000kbs.

The unit comes with WinDVD Suite. The WinDvd capture program
isn't that bad to use. If MovieFactory 3 can see the device then the
device would be seen under "Change Capture Plugin" while in
the capture screen. If the choice is there it would reference the plextor
or USB device. If the device isn't there then the company has to write
drivers for it. Can you return it? Many others on this forum are using
USB/Firewire external devices that work.

If you can't return the device I would look in all the help screens and
pdf files for instructions.
After you capture the videos you can import them into MF3 for authoring
to a dvd.

Hope this helps,

MD

[jwasher]

HI Guys:

Thanks for the input, unfortunately for me & other ConvertX owners, Plextor says that they are negociating with other software vendors to provide compatibility, but all they can offer is vague references to a new Nero product & some guys college project.

When I asked for some more information on Nero, an announcement or some techincal support contact to verify this Nero compatibility they couldn't provide it.

This ought to be UP FRONT in bold type as I would have gone another direction. The number of ConvertX units sold are likely going to be the deciding factor on whether they get other software vendors to write code.

I fear it will end up as orphaned hardware, - kinda like buying a BetaMax VCR, though not quite as expensive, it still ticks me off as this was not mentioned in magazine reviews I researched.

After asking Plextor Tech support some pretty straight forward "How do I" questions, I got one answered & "We wish we could answer all your questions" crap from thier Tech. He just blew off the queries with the encouragement to experiement. %^$@#@))**&&^ er! %$#tard.

WinDVD Creator just gets no support whatsoever from the company that makes it as it was "bundled" with the Hardware. My beef with their software was mainly the extremely poor & shallow "manual" that can with the ConvertX & encouraged learning by trial & error. The help file is a bit better but you need to print it one or two pages at a time.

Guess they figure no one reads offline anymore & their product is for Hobbists Only, not people who want to minimize the learning curve to get done learning & get earning.

I bought the product for a Business, not a toy or hobby & as a Tech, I prefer to read the documentation & understand as I go rather than making expensive coasters or wasting hours in trial & error.

DVD authoring consumes far to much time to play around, I want to know the consequences of actions to the degree possible before I spend 2 1/2 - 4 hours on a project.

I understand firewire is much faster in data transfer rates but suspect it doesn't actually factor into the equation for DVD creation as the limiting factor is burn speed & the need to ensure the burn is reliable.

Am I correct that the DVD burner & media is the limiting factor in production time, assuming of course one has mastered the software?

My work around for animated Titles in Movie Factory 3 will be to use Power Director & / Or WinDVD Creator to Generate the Titles, then save them on a RW as Clips to be reused in projects. Might as well use it since I'm stuck with it. I was disappointed to see Movie Factory was missing this, but am happy overall with my purchase & the support / documentation. (Should be in avaiable in .PDF though for printing).

Cheers,

James

[maddrummer3301]

If one can fit this into their budget :
I would suggest a device that converts an analog signal to DV.
Camcorders that have DV-In/Out and Analog pass-thru seem to
be the most compatible. Because the input signal to the computer
is DV almost every video editing program will work and recognize the
device. Using DV also allows one to use it on a MAC or other OS.

Doing this one can also export the video back to DV tape for archiving.

The new USB devices are hardware encoding before the computer
so in the end it's faster to create a Mpg2 file but then the problems of
editing Mpeg2 files crops up (up one plans to edit them).
Because of all the new Mpg2 hardware devices on the market, dvd camcorders etc the software market for editing Mpg2 files is growing.
Unfortunately the consumer is the testing grounds for these new products.

Hope this helps,

MD

[rwernyei]

Can you still return it? If you are wanting a hardware MPEG encoder, the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 is the best you will find. To this day, hardware encoding is still better than software encoding. It has an advantage over the others by allowing a "loopback". A "loopback" allows the user to take edited DV footage from the timeline and export using firewire to their camcorder. With the av inputs plugged into both camcorder and the ADS capture box the footage is then encoded to DVD compliant MPEG2 file in real-time. This is achieved by using the Capwiz program supplied with the capture box. This has full device control which allows the transfer to take place. This is where the other capture boxes fail, they rely solely on bundled software as a device control plugin. A number of Ulead software have plugin support with this device in case you want to use it for capture as well. So you have more than one option for capture with this box. Other pros are this encoder has color-correction, brightness, sharpening, etc. for features. You can make these changes within the encoder and not worry about waiting for the software to render it. Also, the ability to preview these changes on a TV at the same time is a huge plus. Instant feedback of what your final output will look like on TV, DVD. I tested some sample DV footage with some added effects and transitions. Encoded it to MPEG2 at 8000 VBR Single pass with ADS box against Ulead DVDWS2 and Media Studio Pro 7.2 at 8000 VBR with their new 2 pass encoding capabilities. IMHO, the hardware encoder's results were better, at least that's what my eye sees.

[slkx]

I have the same set up. I just capture mpeg in WinDVD using the Plextor and build and burn the disc in the Ulead DVD program. No big deal. It adds 10 seconds to the total time. ie opening the second (Ulead) program and closing the first. Surely that's hardly worth all the angst of returning things and so forth?

[rwernyei]

slkx,
Not exactly. These are areas where the Plextor capture box fails. OUTPUT There are no s-video out and a/v outputs for TV monitoring. No option for record to tape. TEMPLATE You are stuck with templates for quality, no manual control for bitrate size. COLOR-CORRECTION None. ADS users can do this within the hardware and preview changes on TV in real-time. I wasn't aware the Plextor box could do a "loopback" but if it can that's great. But with the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 having more professional features=better encoder=better quality=better buy.

[htchien]

I think the driver should be provided by Plextor. As I know the capture standards Ulead can support are:

Microsoft Video for Windows
Microsoft DirectShow
Sony MicroMV (for Sony MicroMV camcorders)
Firewire IEEE 1394 (for digital camcorders)

Any capture card driver that can support these standards should be able to be used in Ulead products.

However, if the capture card driver does not support these standards but use its own capture standard, then it cannot be used in any other softwares, it only can be used in the software that bundled in the capture card package.

If Plextor can provide a driver to fully support those standards or provide the capture standard they use to Ulead, then it's possible the Plextor device can be used with Ulead in the future. I think you need to ask Plextor for this problem.

Hope this helps.

H.T.