TV Capturing

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:41 am

Hi,

I'm using VideoStudio 10 now for a couple of days because I've been deeply impressed about the quality of the encoder when I tested the trial.

I just wonder about one thing (even it's really not present or I'm just to stupid) : is there a possibility to set the starting time of a recording ?

Only thing I could find was how to set the duration of the recording.

Any help's highly appreciated.

Hans

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:59 am

As far as I know, there is no setting for a timer to start capture. VS is a non linear editing program with capture capabilities, not a media control center, sorry.

It's aim is to edit your video taken with a camcorder and edit it. The capture process usually starts when you are ready to capture

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:10 am

Thanks for the quick response.
Well, it could make things much easier to start a TV capturing without being forced to sit in front of your PC just in time.

I don't think this would be a difficult feature to integrate, but that's rather more a topic "wish list" for further releases.

I wonder if I was the only one with such a request ?

Thanks again
Hans

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:45 am

A lot of us with TV/capture cards tend to use the software which comes with the cards as this has been tweaked to work specifically with the hardware. I have done this with two successive TV cards now, and I prefer the extra flexibility of controls (e.g. colour, contrast, luminance etc) I get with that software -- though VS does a good job as well.

And it has been my experience that the software that comes with a TV card also contains timer controls. Another reason for using that software.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:46 am

I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a neat feature to have, if you want to record TV programs that is. If I wanted to do that, I would just get a media center or a DVD/HDD recorder. These offer such things. You would be well advised to get one of these rather then wanting to include it into an editor.

It would also be nice if I could take my car to the beach and do a bit of boating. A car with that functionality, as we have seen in the past, wasn't much of a car and also not much of a boat either.

Horse for courses I say. It would be good if one program could do all we want to do, collectively that is. I don't think you would want to pay for a monster like that or the system to run it on.

To do my videos, I use PI and Cool 3D for the titles and overlays, MSP for capture and editing and DVD MF 5 plus for authoring to DVD. Some people are quite happy to just have DVD MF to capture, do a bit of editing and burning their creations to DVD. Others want more functionality and have opted for MSP, Cool 3D Production Studio and DVD WorkShop. I haven't and, sure as hell, would not want to have to pay for that functionality with a program which does it all. I wouldn't want to have to pay for a timer to start capture at a certain time either. I'm in front of my PC when I capture from my miniDV camcorder tapes or capture my old VHS movies via my digital camcorder.

Sorry for the rather long rant, had to get this off my chest

I'm sure every farmer would be lining up to get the egg laying milking pig chicken as well, especially if it would make a good cappucino also.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:24 am

Sorry, I can't agree.

And comparing this issue with a demand for an "egg laying milking pig chicken" doesn't hit the point.

The software that came with my capturing card doesn't deliver the same quality than Visual Studio does (by far).
As long as you talk about capturing old VHS movies there's for sure no need for a "set starting time". But why should I need 2 different softwares, one for capturing video and one for TV, if it could easiliy be done with only one.
What's the key feature of a video recorder ? Programming -> setting starting time and duration of the recording. Have you ever seen a video recorder (being VHS or DVD) without that ?

Could you imagine having two recoders, one for digitalizing VHS tapes and another for recording TV as the first one forces you to stay awake until the movie in TV starts ? Surely not. Same for me when talking about software.

Regards
Hans

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:41 am

What TV Capture card do you have?

I use Hauppauge TV cards and record with WinTV2000.
It has its own scheduler but I tend to use CTPVR Scheduler instead.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:04 pm

I have a Terratec Cinergy 250 USB card (including original Terratec software)
I tried the newest Terratec software (Home Cinema) but it didn't work at all.

Hans

Post by **Ron P.** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:28 pm

Hans,

What Heinz is pointing out is, that VS, MSP are editing applications. They are intended to capture (ie transfer) your video from a camcorder to your pc so you can edit and produce a variety of media like DVD. They are not TV programs. I too would not want to pay for that sort of function in my editing application.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:39 pm

Hi,

maybe I was a little mistakable. I don't want Video Studio 10 becoming a full TV media software with EPG and whatever...

I'm just missing one simple option in the existing program / surface : the possibility to start capturing at a specified time :

Why not adding one line like this
Start recording at : 00:00:00
(where you type the desired time lke 20:15:00 when capturing should start at 8.15 pm). Just one single line and maybe 5 lines of source code.
With the already existing (!!!) option to set the duration and therefore the end of the recording you could easiliy avoid an additional TV media software on your PC for many people.
That would be enough to fulfil my demands. Do you really think this would blow up the software ?

Regards
Hans

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:49 pm

Hans wrote: That would be enough to fulfil my demands. Do you really think this would blow up the software ?

If Ulead were to try to fulfill everyone's demands then, yes, it would blow up the software. As has already been stated, VideoStudio is primarily a video editor. There are other apps out there that do what you want.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:28 pm

Magix Video on CD & DVD is a video editing tool, too.
Although they even have a separate TV Media part included, they offer this mentioned option also within the capturing part.
Unfortunately this software is - at least on my PC - pretty unstable and the results of capturing with Video Studio are better, too.

If Ulead were to try to fulfill everyone's demands then, yes, it would blow up the software

Take a look at the large "Video Studio Wish List". Is that the kind of answer you'd give all of them ? Sorry, but that's a pretty useless statement.

Hans

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:12 pm

Hans wrote:Magix Video on CD & DVD is a video editing tool, too.
Although they even have a separate TV Media part included, they offer this mentioned option also within the capturing part.
Unfortunately this software is - at least on my PC - pretty unstable and the results of capturing with Video Studio are better, too.

Exactly our point. VideoStudio sticks to what it does well. It does not try to be all kinds to all people.

Black Lab wrote:If Ulead were to try to fulfill everyone's demands then, yes, it would blow up the software

Hans wrote:Take a look at the large "Video Studio Wish List". Is that the kind of answer you'd give all of them ?

Yes I would (in fact I have, if you read some of my posts on that, and similar threads). If Ulead would to incorporate all of those things into VideoStudio it would no longer be an entry level, consumer oriented video editor costing $100. It would be a prosumer version costing upwards of $400. Oh that's right, they have that and it's called MediaStudio Pro.

I'm not saying VS is perfect, but you get what you pay for.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:48 pm

Hans wrote:Hi,...
I'm just missing one simple option in the existing program / surface : the possibility to start capturing at a specified time :

Why not adding one line like this
Start recording at : 00:00:00
(where you type the desired time lke 20:15:00 when capturing should start at 8.15 pm). Just one single line and maybe 5 lines of source code.
With the already existing (!!!) option to set the duration and therefore the end of the recording you could easiliy avoid an additional TV media software on your PC for many people.
That would be enough to fulfil my demands. Do you really think this would blow up the software ?

Regards
Hans

This one demand surely not, but all the other "small" demands for little extras from many other users might

VS is not designed to capture TV programs. Every capture card comes with its own scheduler, why should VS have one as well? If the software that came with your card is not so good, maybe you bought the wrong card.

I and many others here do not even have a TV capture card but we do edit our own videos. Why should we have to collectively pay for a feature that comes with any capture card software anyhow?

On top of that, there are a number of posts on this board allone bearing testimony to the fact that standard VS programs often don't work with capture cards and people are forced to use the software that came bundled with the card.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:06 pm

Plus there are people like me out there who have HD TV cards, which work magically well with their own software (including scheduling) but not so well for the same functions with VS.

Now I have been using VS for over 5 years, but it has never -- never -- occurred to me that VS, which I use as my main editor -- should have the same functions as the the software which came with my HDTV card or the analogue TV card which came before it (Winfast DV2000). Far from it. In fact, I am not even sure VS works with it.

But that is my point exactly: I haven't even tried. And that is not defeatist. It is a simple recognition of the fact that the software which came with the HDTV card is what is meant to work with the card. And it works superbly well, I have lots of other things for VS10 to do -- working directly with my TV card is not one of them.

Yet once I have captured with the HDTV software, I can open the new video and edit it in VS 10 with no problem and great results.

And lest you think I work for Ulead, I don't and never have. Just have used their products for years and perhaps have been one of the lucky ones with virtually no problems. And wanting to help those who do in fact experience problems...

Cheers