VS9 freezing during analogue (VHS) capture

triangle going sick · Post by **triangle going sick** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:40 pm

Hi, new to this but have read the manual and searched. Tried a couple of things out but am pretty stumped, I've spent days trying to get this right.

While trying to capture from my video player, I have a couple of related issues. Sometimes during capture, VS will freeze and I cannot shut it down. I have to power down/ power up the PC. Whatever it did capture will not relink and is not playable. The other problem is during capture (if running OK) if I press 'stop capture' the program will freeze and I'm forced to go through the same procedure.

I've stopped all unnecessary programs, deleted codecs, turned off virus protection/internet etc. I've viewed CPU usage at about 20% while it's running and PF at 400 or so.

The VCR is connected to a WinFast DTV2000H capture card by Composite video connection. I've used the audio connections on the capture card (which is internally connected to sound on MB).

Program: Ulead VideoStudio 9.0 SE DVD

Capturing as AVI
720*576
YUY2

Thanks for any ideas.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:13 pm

Did your VS come with the capture card?

triangle going sick · Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:11 am

Black Lab wrote:Did your VS come with the capture card?

Yeh it did.

triangle going sick · Post by **triangle going sick** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:43 am

Any ideas?

I've been trying everything and i'm stuck with a capture card I can't use.

From what I've read, there are trial downloads of other versions of VS. Would it be worth downloading and trying them out? It might indicate whether my PC/drivers are a problem or my version/installation of VS is a problem.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:50 am

Probably not because the SE version bundled with your card would have been tweaked to work with the hardware.

What are the property settings for your AVI? I think your system is choking on the data it receives from the card.

triangle going sick · Post by **triangle going sick** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:07 pm

heinz-oz wrote:
What are the property settings for your AVI? I think your system is choking on the data it receives from the card.

Hi, are these the settings you are asking about?

I haven't selected any software compression.

Microsoft AVI Files
16 Bits, 720 x 576, 25.00 fps
Compression : YUY2
PCM, 48000 KHz, 16 Bits, Stereo

And yes, it is as if the sys. is choking. It's nothing flash, but I thought it should be capable.

Post by **Ron P.** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:20 pm

Can you change the compression setting from the YUY2 to perhaps DV Video Encoder-Type 1?

triangle going sick · Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:57 pm

vidoman wrote:Can you change the compression setting from the YUY2 to perhaps DV Video Encoder-Type 1?

Compression types available are:
RGB16
RGB24
YUY2
YVU9
I420

Tried all these to no avail.

Then there is software compression. I haven't tried these, I assumed that this would further load the system??

Post by **Ron P.** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:05 pm

Did your WinFast card come with any other software, perhaps just for capturing? VS is generally regarded as an editor. If so, try using that to capture the video to your PC. Once that is done, you can use VS to edit with. This is a very common practice by several of us..

skier-hughes · Post by **skier-hughes** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:33 pm

Do you just have the one hdd fitted, the raid?
Although fast, reading and writing such large files whilst the OS is running can be a problem.

triangle going sick · Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:14 pm

Vidoman, sorry only software was VS/Movie maker. I'm happy to try/buy other capturing software and use VS to edit if anyone can recommend anything. Alternatively I'm willing to buy a later version of VS as it's something I'm interested in getting into a bit more.

skier-hughes, Only the raid fitted and one external drive, but that's USB so I'm not too hopefull there. Are you thinking it might be writing/controlling the array itself that is a problem or the OS? Not the first time I've had issues with raid arrays and data corruption.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:02 pm

I happen to have a DTV2000H on one of my computers and it works fine for capture, both the in-built TV signal and composite connection to an analogue device (VCR or analogue camera). And it definitely DOES come with its own software. That is installed when you install the drivers for the card -- you must have received a CD with it and you must have installed the drivers if it is working for you!

If you hover the mouse over various buttons on the DTV2000H control panel, one will show Configuration (or Set-up -- sorry don't have that computer switched on at the moment). There you can choose the capture format. I use the DVD setting (which is DVD-compatible mpeg-2). Though I do not normally capture direct to mpeg-2 in other circumstances, the only other viable option with that card is uncompressed AVI and that is too large to be usable. (The other available capture formats, such as VCD and SVCD, are in my opinion too low quality to be compatible with later burning a DVD...)

Once DVD/mpeg-2 is selected as the capture format, you then connect your VCR via the analogue composite cable to the card and begin playing it in advance of where you want to record from. Then you find the big red button on the DTV2000H control panel, and click it to begin recording using the built-in software (which is not VS). Or, if you want to record a TV program, you set up recording times in the control panel and the program will be automatically recorded using the built-in software. I do this for both High-Def/Digital channels and analogue channels... Then simply open those captured files in VS11.5+ (or earlier versions) for editing.

I repeat that the results are good, with the obvious caveat that if you are recording VHS, the captured quality is never going to be any better than that of the original tape. And in DVD terms, that is not particularly good.

triangle going sick · Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:20 am

I didn't even think about using the Winfast program to capture, automatically went to VS. I'm only a couple of minutes into capture but it appears to be functioning correctly.

I presume I should use this for all my capturing whether digital or analogue, rather than VS - which I should reserve for editing.

Simple option was right in front of me and I just made it hard for myself. I've been pulling hair for weeks on this.

Thanks to all for their advice and ideas. Ken Berry for making me realise that the program was for capturing software as well!!!

Now I'm going to get into these videos and in the bin they go.

Thanks.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:29 am

Glad it worked!

And yes, the general idea is to use the software which comes with the card for capturing as it has been specifically designed to work with the card, whereas VS is really only provided for editing the captured video...