Capturing VHS - Pulling My Hair Out

[TrentS]

Hope someone can help. I have got:

- Syntek STK1160 Capture Device Installed
- RCA connectors
- ULead VideoStudio 10(Came free with capture device)
- 5 VHS Videos that I've promised to upload to the net for family to view
- A headache

I've been searching the forums for the last hour but am not finding an answer. Hopefully there is a simple fix and someone can point me in the right direction.

I have everything plugged in and have starting playing the VHS. I then go to 'Capture Video' in the Capture tab in VideoStudio but get a nasty box with the title 'Ulead DirectShow Capture Plug-in' with the error message 'No input signal or signal is unclear. Do you still want to continue to capture?'

If I continue it just records a load of nothing.

Any advice for a non-techie would be great.

[DVDDoug]

Analog capture is one of the trickiest parts of this whole tricky digital video business...

Did the package come with any other capture software? If Video Studio is the only software bundled with the hardware, it should work. But, usually it's best to use the software that's specially made to work with the particular hardware. Sometimes a Ulead/Corel program is thrown into the bundle so that you can edit and/or make DVDs.

If it doesn't work with the supplied software, I'd return it!

What operating system are you running? Vista might be a problem with your version of Video Studio.

I am always suspicious of "cheap" capture devices. I don't know if this falls into that category. Some MiniDV cameras have analog inputs and "pass-thru" capability. This is one of the best ways to capture analog video. The ATI All-In-Wonder capture cards seem to be very popular. I have a Hauppauge capture card and it works great (with the Hauppauge capture software) but It's MPEG only, and I can't recommend any MPEG capture device, due the problems I've had when editing MPEG video files.

For more information about video capture:
DigitalFAQ.com
VideoHelp.com


FYI - You probably have an SE version of VS10, which has limited features (not related to capture).

P.S. When I searched the net, STK1160 looks like the part number for the chip inside the capture device, so I don't know exactly what you have.

[TrentS]

Hi Doug thanks for the reply. A bit more information:

The Capture device is called EasyCAP (model - DC60). Yes it was the cheapest I could find

I am connecting it via USB2 to my XP laptop which more than meets the recommended specs.

You are right, VideoStudio is the SE version.

A MiniDV camera sounds like an expensive fix, is there any other capture devices to recommened? I'll probably return the current capture hardware unless you can suggest anything else to try.

[Ken Berry]

I too have not been able to find out much about your capture device apart from the fact that it is a USB device, is cheap and can capture in 'popular formats' == though I have not been able to ascertain precisely which ones.

However, being a USB device at the cheaper end of the market means that it will definitely not capture in DV format (which will give you the best quality). However, it seems to me that VS, in currently not being able to see the device, is trying to capture in DV format using the Direct Show Capture Plug-in. You will need to manually change this.

So in the VS10 Capture page, select 'Capture Video', and wait while Video Studio tries to see what devices it can capture from. Regardless of what appears, change the Format (middle right of screen) to MPEG. Then go to the Tools menu (top left of screen) and select Change Capture Plug-In. In the drop down menu which appears, select Ulead DSW MPEG Capture Plug-in if it has not already been selected when you changed the capture format to mpeg. Now see if you can capture anything...

Apart from that, I can only repeat Doug's question as to whether the device came with any other software than VS10.

[alanball]

Hi TrentS,

not sure if it's any help, but if you have a DVD recorder, I have had some very good results in capturing from VHS to the hard dirve on a DVD recorder and then copying that to a DVD disk. The file can then be loaded into VS10 and editied (in MPEG).

[heinz-oz]

.....
A MiniDV camera sounds like an expensive fix, is there any other capture devices to recommened? I'll probably return the current capture hardware unless you can suggest anything else to try.

True, but at least you can use it for something else after you captured your VHS tapes.

I have mucked around in the past with all sorts of capture cards, not very satisfying. In the end I bought a small palmcorder, about the same cost as the expensive capture card I bought just prior (didn't work all that well either, sound out of sync etc.) and had no problems anymore.