VS9 not recognizing ConvertX digital converter for VHS tapes

jhgustaf · Post by **jhgustaf** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 4:25 pm

I am attempting to digitize and edit VHS tapes to DVD. I installed a Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U digital converter (USB 2.0) to my WinXP system. The ConvertX came with a basic software bundle of Intervideo WinDVD which quickly recognized video and audio input from my first VHS tape. I prefer the more complete VideoStudio 9 that I purchased for this purpose, but VS9 refuses to recognize my ConvertX digital converter. What am I doing wrong? I want to use VS9 for my editing and do not want to upgrade to a full version of WinDVD!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:44 pm

Sadly, Plextor is one of the companies which tweaks an older version of VS specifically to work with its capture device (which otherwise is an excellent choice, by the way). Any other version of VS will not work with the device. I understood your Plextor should have also been shipped with Video Studio 8 SE DVD. Was that not the case?

Anyway, the only thing you can do is to capture using the software which came with the device (either the InterVideo stuff of VS8 SE DVD) and then import the captured video into VS9 for editing.

jhgustaf · Post by **jhgustaf** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:16 am

Thank you for you honest appraisal of my situation. It looks like I will be forced to stay with the older Intervideo WinDVD 2 as I purchased the ConvertX almost a year ago when Plextor was not offering the VS 8SE DVD package. Then I had health problems that prevented me from trying it out until a few weeks ago. Looks like I am stuck due to circumstances.

I am amazed that a quality company like Plextor would market a very much needed piece of hardware and not have a broad range of software that would support it. It sounds like I can't even safely pay for an upgrade of the Intervideo WinDVD to find more functionality. Bummer!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:30 am

If the InterVideo software allows you to capture DVD-compatible mpeg-2 (as it should), there should be nothing wrong with the file per se, and in general terms another program could not necessarily capture a better quality file using the same properties, if you see what I mean.

Nor is it at all anything unusual to use one program to capture and another to edit, and then a completely different one to actually burn the disc. Lots of us here mix and match all the time. I for instance tend to capture using the freeware WinDV program, which can only capture in DV format (from a DV source), but does it extraordinarily well. I then edit in VS10+, but then usually used Movie Factory 4 or 5 for burning my discs. Now instead of MF, I am starting to use Ulead's DVD Workshop 2 for creating more versatile menus and actually burning the disc. Another workflow might be to capture and edit using Adobe Premiere Pro, then revert to VS10+ to convert the output from Adobe to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 and then Workshop to produce the DVD...

The moral to my story is not to think you are necessarily disadvantaged because you have to use two different programs for different parts of the process.

And on the positive side, you might even have been prescient since InterVideo actually took over Ulead late last year (though more recently has been swallowed up by Corel). So it's all in the same happy family anyway!!!