Terrible X3 Capture Bugs! Any solutions?

[amby19]

Over and over again, VideoStudio X3 arbitrarily stops video captures whenever it feels like it! I'll start a capture, then about a third of the time, anywhere from 90 seconds to 20 minutes later, it stops by itself with no user interaction at all. But it happens without noticing because there's no beep or anything to alert you! It's ridiculous to expect a user to watch the display every second to see if it's still recording or not!

I capture in MPEG-2 format using a Canopus ADVC-100 via IEEE connection on my Dell laptop running Win 7 Home Premium, and the "Stop DV Tape when capturing stops" is turned off.

Other extremely serious bugs are that fairly often it loses lip synch so bad that it's 30-40 seconds behind, and even worse it often records audio at the wrong speed such that when I play back the recorded mpg file the voices are about 10% elevated in pitch! (This is true no matter which player I use).

Sheesh!!

Anyone else seeing this? What can I do?

[skier-hughes]

Unfortunately VS has had a problem with this sort of capture for a while now, since the capture engine was changed.

What happens if you use another app to capture, something like the free windv?

If this works ok, then capture with windv, import into vs and edit.

Windv will give you a dv.avi file which will be larger, but it'll be better quality than your mpeg and easier to edit.

[BrianCee]

I'm not sure if I am reading your post correctly - are you saying you use the Canopus ADVC-100 to convert from analogue to Digital - then use a firewire cable to connect to your laptop - then use VideoStudio to convert on the fly to capture as MPEG2 ??

If that is what you are saying then converting digital to analogue as you capture "on the fly" may well be the source of all of your problems - your laptop cannot keep up with the conversion and either gives up (drops out) or at least converts video and audio at different rates and becomes out of sync.

If you have a firewire connection to your laptop then capture as DV-avi - better quality and much better for editing - then convert to mpeg on completion of editing - you will have bigger file sizes but that is a small price to pay for flawless capture and good quality video.

Alternatively - where does the video originate ??? - I am guessing from an analogue source (hence the use of the Canopus) why not then fit a video card with external analogue video and audio connections and capture straight from origin to laptop. If on the other hand the video originates from a DV source what is the Canopus doing ?

Incidently I always watch the whole footage as I capture - it is usually the first chance I have had to view the video and I can form some first impressions of what editing might be required.

[amby19]

Hi, skier-hughes, and thank you for your reply. You write:

Unfortunately VS has had a problem with this sort of capture for a while now, since the capture engine was changed.

What happens if you use another app to capture, something like the free windv?

If this works ok, then capture with windv, import into vs and edit.

Windv will give you a dv.avi file which will be larger, but it'll be better quality than your mpeg and easier to edit.

Well, it captures fine when I use the free-for-personal-use Enosoft DV Processor, but capturing to DV first is not at all acceptable to me because I capture a LOT and rendering it all later to DVD format would take a ridiculously long time (not to mention all the disk space that would require). Capturing to DVD/MPEG-2 format is precisely why I bought VideoStudio Pro X3 for this machine in the first place!

But just to make sure, you're saying these are known problems, right? Is that true of all the problems I'm seeing, the arbitrary capture stopping, the lip symch problem, and the weird audio pitch problem?

[amby19]

I'm not sure if I am reading your post correctly - are you saying you use the Canopus ADVC-100 to convert from analogue to Digital - then use a firewire cable to connect to your laptop - then use VideoStudio to convert on the fly to capture as MPEG2 ??

Yes. Thanks for your reply, BrianCee, and I apologize for incorrectly reporting that I'm using a Canopus ADVC-100. Actually I'm using a Canopus ADVC-55.

If that is what you are saying then converting digital to analogue as you capture "on the fly" may well be the source of all of your problems - your laptop cannot keep up with the conversion and either gives up (drops out) or at least converts video and audio at different rates and becomes out of sync.

I'm sorry, Brian, but that contradicts both what Corel tech support has told me in the past -and- many years of my own experience. First, Canopus makes the very best analog to digital audio/video capture devices and they emphasize that they won't lose synch or drop frames on any modern laptop. But I realize that's the easier part of the job, so more to the point, capturing direct to DVD is not only fully supported by VideoStudio, it's worked perfectly on this very machine for years and years 95% of the time until recently with X3. It's worked quite well from v 8 through 12, although X3 Pro fixed some other problems I was having so I want to stick with it.

Also, X3 (like the older versions) has the ability to report dropped frames (I always have that option enabled), but it's never reported any.

No, VideoStudio is definitely up to the job. Having worked as a software developer implementing software MPEG-2 encoding and decoding for a company named TV/COM in the 90's, real-time encoding simply isn't very demanding of hardware resources. Especially not today, with dual-core multi-gigahertz processors and 4 GB of RAM. What I'm seeing is definitely not hardware limitations but actual bugs. I have no other apps running when I'm capturing and the CPU-usage meters I use report that neither core exceeds 10-15 % utilization when capturing to DVD files. I also frequently defrag and optimize my hard disks, so that's not what's going on either.

But the main fact is that I have hundreds of hours of video correctly captured directly to DVD format using VideoStudio. What I'm seeing are bugs, not limitations.

If you have a firewire connection to your laptop then capture as DV-avi - better quality and much better for editing - then convert to mpeg on completion of editing - you will have bigger file sizes but that is a small price to pay for flawless capture and good quality video.

As I wrote above, that's not an acceptable option. I don't need or want DV quality -- DV's a real burden. No, I bought VideoStudio precisely so that I can capture direct to DVD format. Lots of other vendors' software can do that, and so can VideoStudio. It's X3's bugs I'm complaining about.

Alternatively - where does the video originate ??? - I am guessing from an analogue source (hence the use of the Canopus) why not then fit a video card with external analogue video and audio connections and capture straight from origin to laptop. If on the other hand the video originates from a DV source what is the Canopus doing ?

Most of the time I'm capturing from my DVR, which does not permit digital output, even if you open it and connect the DVR's hard drive to your computer directly, because the contents are essentially encrypted. At least that's true here in the U.S. DVR's get full, too, and not infrequently I want a permanent copy of all or part of what I've recorded.

Incidently I always watch the whole footage as I capture - it is usually the first chance I have had to view the video and I can form some first impressions of what editing might be required.

When I'm capturing it's usually the first time I'm playing what I set my DVR to record, too. However, to work around the most serious bug in X3 -- stopping capturing arbitrarily at random -- I'd have to watch nothing other than the Capture/Stop Capture indicator on VideoStudio's screen every second! And that's completely ridiculous and unacceptable. If I didn't do that, I'd have to watch everything twice immediately: The DVR copy and then every second of the VideoStudio output to make sure it's all there. To hell with that!

To close, I'd like to request that posters comment on the bugs I'm currently seeing with VideoStudio rather than suggesting I capture to DV or the like.

Thank you.

[BrianCee]

I'm sorry I tried to help.

[Ken Berry]

To close, I'd like to request that posters comment on the bugs I'm currently seeing with VideoStudio rather than suggesting I capture to DV or the like.

I am not sure that I understand. You want people to comment on a known bug, for which there is no solution since Corel have not seen fit to provide one. Rather than suggest workarounds, which at least would allow you to proceed?

[skier-hughes]

But just to make sure, you're saying these are known problems, right? Is that true of all the problems I'm seeing, the arbitrary capture stopping, the lip symch problem, and the weird audio pitch problem?

As Ken says, unfortunately it's a known bug, Corel haven't seen fit to work on fixing it, and as it is the capture part that is broken, any capturing you do will result in various problems and those you describe are all ones we've seen before.

Your only real option, now we know your work flow etc, is to use one of your early versions of Ulead Video Studio to capture to your mpeg and then use X3 to edit, or buy a different app that will allow you to capture as mpeg from an analogue source via an av/dv converter.

[Black Lab]

it's worked perfectly on this very machine for years and years 95% of the time until recently with X3. It's worked quite well from v 8 through 12

So why not continue to capture with a previous version, then do your editing in X3?

[amby19]

To close, I'd like to request that posters comment on the bugs I'm currently seeing with VideoStudio rather than suggesting I capture to DV or the like.

I am not sure that I understand. You want people to comment on a known bug, for which there is no solution since Corel have not seen fit to provide one. Rather than suggest workarounds, which at least would allow you to proceed?

Sheesh. Have you no self-respect at all, sir? First you quote only the least relevant part of my post and then insult me and then add the roll-eyes to boot. Why do you blame your reading comprehension problems on me?

I asked if the problems I noted were known issues and if there were workarounds, but you refused to answer those questions and childishly decided to ridiculously pretend I had asked something quite unreasonable and mocked me instead. I apologize if you're only 11 or so, but if you're an adult there's no excuse for that. Grow up.

How could I have known that Corel had provided no resolutions or work-around before being informed of this unambiguously? I had not unambiguously known that one or more were even known bugs until skier-hughes answered helpfully in the post after yours! I searched the fora with various search terms before I posted my OP and found nothing relevant. It's not always easy to guess which search terms will yield fruit, but I did at least try to find out on my own.

Most significantly, I did not come to the Corel VideoStudio forum to ask about some other program or method, but apparently you find that beyond the pale and worthy of mockery. I can only hope you're not being paid.

Somehow, it's not surprising that you likely moderate your own posts. I wonder if this one will survive intact.

[amby19]

But just to make sure, you're saying these are known problems, right? Is that true of all the problems I'm seeing, the arbitrary capture stopping, the lip symch problem, and the weird audio pitch problem?

As Ken says, unfortunately it's a known bug, Corel haven't seen fit to work on fixing it, and as it is the capture part that is broken, any capturing you do will result in various problems and those you describe are all ones we've seen before.

Your only real option, now we know your work flow etc, is to use one of your early versions of Ulead Video Studio to capture to your mpeg and then use X3 to edit, or buy a different app that will allow you to capture as mpeg from an analogue source via an av/dv converter.

Thank you most sincerely, skier-hughes, for your mature and genuinely helpful reply! At least now I actually know just where I stand. Your responses are quite appreciated.

[GuyL]

I'll back Ken up on this one. It is a known problem that has been around for years. Search is your friend.

I did a lot of analog capture in the past and capturing MPEG is probably the worst option to use with Video Studio. In past years, the subject has been discussed at length. Ken and others spend countless hours helping people out on this forum and rehashing what has already been discussed countless times is pointless.

....search is your friend.