Beginner troubles with blocky display

[Duncan]

Hello,

I've recently purchased a "Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator" in the hope of capturing our old family VHS tapes. I am now in day three of trying to get this to work correctly. The trouble i am currently having is the image is displayed extremely "blocky". I have not had any success with changes made to various settings. Here is a small example of how the image is displayed (and captured)...

http://www.zombiehordes.com/stuff/capture_test.MPG


Equipment being used:

Motherboard - ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (has 6x USB 2.0)
CPU - Athlon64 X2 +5000 (2.6Ghz)
Display - GeForce 7950GT (512mb)
Memory - 2GB RAM
OS - Win2000 SP4 (i actually use WinXP-Pro x64 but the device does not support it)
Capture Device - Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator using composite cable and set up for PAL.
Other software: VideoStudio6 (comes as the editor for the device) and also tried VideoStudio10.

A search of these forums has shown other people to have similar problems with this particular device. I opted for this device purely since i was hoping to avoid the need for an internal device to be installed. However, after three days of not being able to record any video, i am planning on going back to the place of purchase to see if i can exchange it for a different device (i have my doubts). Regardless, i was hoping someone may know of the cause of this problem and how it can be remedied.

Thank you


-Duncan

[Ron P.]

Hi Duncan, welcome to the forums..

First I know very little about the Belkin USB2 device. I do know that USB is not recommended for capturing/transferring video. USB uses a Slave-Master architecture, where the computer handles all the arbitration functions and dictates data flow to, from and between peripherals. This can add to the overhead, which can cause certain data flows to slow, when you don't need or want them to. You should be using Firewire (Sony's iLink, IEEE1394), to capture or really transfer the video to your PC.

Firewire uses an intelligent Peer-to-Peer architecture, where the peripherals can negotiate which ones can best handle the transfer of data.

What format are you capturing to, and it's properties, DV, MPEG2, MPEG4, / Upper Field First, ?

For analog video you should be capturing UFF, and if you are not able to capture to DV, then it is recommended to capture to MPEG-2 DVD compliant.

[Duncan]

I originally looked for a firewire device, but was unable to locate one for the price i was prepared to pay. I went for the cheaper route since i do not plan on doing much video transfers. I only have around a dozen or so VHS tapes i wanted to burn to DVD. After that i would have no need of the capture device. Well... at least until i finally get around to purchasing a DV Cam, but i believe they can connect straight to the PC via firewire anyway.

The actual capturing is not the problem at the moment. I have been reading through the wealth of information here as well as checking out tutorials. They have proved invaluable in helping me to understand what is required for actual video editing. I believe the true problem stems from the capture device itself. Even the preview mode shows the same blocky image without trying to capture it. I have also installed some other software to test this and they too show the image the same as can be seen in the capture test clip provided in the first post.

I have tried to get at the devices settings, but all i can change is the connection type (composite or s-video) and either PAL or NTSC. Other than that it simply says that it is using 160x120 resolution which cannot be changed. I am wondering if that is the problem right there. It does not matter what resolution i capture at (using Videostudio) as the image is coming into the PC in a messed up state.

There have been a few driver releases for this product, but all produce the same problem. Other than that Belkin support is no help. I know it was a long shot, but i was hoping someone may have encountered this sort of thing and could slap me around the head for failing to set something correctly and wasting three days.

I'll be heading back to the store tomorrow to see if i can exchange the device. It's a shame really since i do not need to do anything advanced. All i want is to get the home videos onto DVD since some of these tapes are 20 years old.

[Ron P.]

The very small resolution is certainly problematic. I just looked up the Belkin USB 2 DVD Creator. I see that there would not be any way to change settings in the device itself. I should have realized, being a Belkin that it would be just a connection/cable device . Belkin does make some very good quality cables though.

What you could do is in VS6 SE, go to the Capture tab and then on the pull-down menu for Format set it to MPEG if it is not already. Then we need to click on the Options(cogwheel icon), and select Video and Audio Capture settings..


Now in the Properties Settings window look at the left side, and it shows what they currently are. We need them to be DVD MPEG-2


At the top you should see some Radial buttons, select DVD


Now you may or may not have an Advanced button. If not navigate to C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Ulead Systems\Ulead VideoStudio 6<--Should be whatever version you have. Then look for the uvs.ini file. Double-click on it to open. It should open with Notepad. Then scroll to find the section heading of "[VIODRIVER]". Add the following to that section, Advance=1. Save and close. Now you should have the Advanced button available.


The top left pull-down menu should say DVD NTSC (unless you are in PAL area). The Video Bitrate can be changed, and since you are capturing VCR tapes, changing it to around 4500 to 6000 will give the same quality as your tapes. The Output Field Order should be changed to Upper Field First, since you are capturing analogue video. The Audio Format should be LPCM if in NTSC, or if in PAL, use MPEG.

Then notice the greyed out section, the Frame Size should be either 720 x 480 (NTSC) or 720 x 576 (PAL). Click OK..

Now try capturing and see if you get a lot better quality...

[Black Lab]

I originally looked for a firewire device, but was unable to locate one for the price i was prepared to pay.

Not sure what your price point is, but you can buy a firewire card for less that $50 at any big box office supply store (i.e. Staples).

[NoM.O]

I have this exact device and I have to say, in my experience it has performed pretty well, certainly no blocky images to speak of. I know that doesn't help your situation, but if anything, my system is under resourced by comparison, so you should be able to get a decent capture out of it.

Having said that, it was designed purely for VHS transfer to DVD so I wouldn't bother trying to capture to anything other than the PAL DVD template. In my case, most other formats result in jerky motion due to the limitations of the usb transfer.

The settings I use (which I think are the default PAL DVD settings) are...

Video
File Format: MPEG-2(PAL DVD) Field B
Attributes: 24Bits 720x576
Frame rate: 25.000 Frames/Sec
Data rate: Variable bit rate (Max 6000kbps)

Audio
Audio Type: MPEG Audio Layer 2 Files
Attributes: 48000Hz 16bit Stereo
Bit rate: 224kbps

Use Ron's (Vidoman's) instructions to try matching those settings and see if you can get a decent picture.

It's also worth noting that I have found it is much more reliable to capture in 20 - 30 min sections, any more than that and you might start to run into problems. Also make sure that any and all background apps are closed before you start (disconnect internet, close anti virus etc).

Hope that is of some help.

peace.

PS - I'm not sure where you got those resolution sizes from but you'll see in the properties I listed, that it is capable of capturing at full PAL resolution of 720x576.

[Duncan]

Not sure what your price point is, but you can buy a firewire card for less that $50 at any big box office supply store (i.e. Staples).

If you are talking about a simple firewire card only, i already have a firewire connection on the motherboard. I was very limited in my choices of a capture device. The lowest cost for a capture device that used a firewire connect was over AUS$300. The Belkin device seemed good enough for my needs and was priced at AUS$140.

I'll reinstall VS6 and will give those settings a try. It may be a faulty device as everything about it says that after it is hooked up a clear image should be displayed. You then change your settings to your prefered capture method. That's the problem as it doesn't matter what i set the capture settings too since the capture device is messing things up.

Anyway, thanks for all your help. I'll follow Videomans steps and see what happens. Hopefully it'll save me a trip to the store.

[Ken Berry]

I had no idea the Belkin devices were so expensive in Australia! If I were you and decided to try to get a refund, I would enquire about the availability of the Adstech DX2 external capture box. I saw it for about the same price in a Harvey Norman store here in Canberra in the middle of last year.

The DX2 has the advantage of having a hardware chip embedded in it which does all the hard work. It certainly can capture direct high quality mpeg-2 suitable for DVDs (and other formats) in full PAL sized frame (720 x 576). You need to use the accompanying capture software CapWiz to capture, but then open in VS to edit and author. A superior product all round. The only downside is that it can't handle DV format, but for the rest, the result is excellent.

I am also surprised that there is not a 'DVD' capture setting within the Belkin device itself...

[Duncan]

Thank you all for your help and advice. I still could not get it to work correctly, so i returned it to the store. They gave me a full refund no questions asked. It was a Dick Smith store, so i can at least say they have an excellent return policy.

I am now in the market for a new capture device. I'll take a look into Adstech DX2 as Ken mentioned in his post. I'll most likely have to order something online since the local stores do not have a lot of choices. The only other devices they had were TV Tuners that had the ability to capture video. I'm going to be a bit more picky this time and make sure the device supports 64bit operating systems (as i have no interest in dual booting).

Again, thank you all. I'm sure i'll be back again soon with some bone-head questions for you