Corel - Video Studio Pro X6 - Capturing Issues

[sleary]

Hi all - I am new to this is general and am trying to take video 8MM tapes from analog to digital so I can edit and save to digital formats to share with family and friends.

I had some issues getting the driver for the DVC 100 which is/was a Pinnacle hardware that allows me to connect the 8MM player to my desktop via USB 2.0.

It seems to be recognizing everything and the video plays in the video window but am having two issues:

1. No audio is available when capturing, but when I first tried a small time sample and played in edit mode the sound is there, this may be standard that you cannot hear the audio when capturing?

2. Today when I tried to get started capturing using a tape we bought and recorded it gave me an error that it is copyrighted and then stopped the capturing??? Very frustrated after much time checking FAQS etc to no avail!

Please help and thank you very much!! Sean

[Ken Berry]

As far as I am aware, that Pinnancle device only works with Pinnacle software. Do you still have that? I know that Corel has taken over Pinnacle, but Video Studio AFAIK has never been able to capture correctly from Pinnacle devices -- or a variety of other hardware capture devices, where you also have to capture with the software provided with the device.

[sleary]

Hi Ken - Thank you very much, so it sounds like I need to get another capture device if I want to use the newer version which is the Corel? Any suggestions on what I should buy?

Also, in general, can one hear the audio while it is being captured?

Thanks again!

Sean

[Ken Berry]

I am not really sure which devices can be used by Video Studio for capturing -- others here who use such devices might be able to make suggestions. But I wasn't at all suggesting you need to buy another device. What I was suggesting was that you install the Pinnacle Studio software which came with your device, capture using that software, then open the captured video in VS for editing. That is what we usually suggest.

My captures are all made using Firewire for both standard definition DV/AVI and high definition HDV. While I can use VS to make such captures of both formats, I tend to use small freeware programs instead -- WinDV for standard def DV/AVI and HDVSplit for HDV. I do so because both not only allow splitting the video by scene (which VS can do with DV/AVI) but more importantly because both allow me to assign my own names to the incoming video instead of the rather arcane naming process using by Video Studio. IIRC neither program plays the audio during capture, but that is probably because DV and HDV are captured in real time i.e. the mini DV tape on which the video is recorded plays at its normal speed during capture, and the audio can be heard from the camcorder's speaker.

As I don't use other capture devices, I can't comment on whether such devices play audio during capture. But again, hopefully, other users will be able to comment on this.

[sleary]

Hi Ken - Thank you very much. Great suggestions.

I will plan to do as you say and use the Pinnacle to capture and maybe the DVC 100 will work with the WinDV.

Thank you again and have a great day!!

Sean

[Ken Berry]

WinDV, as its name suggests, only captures DV/AVI via Firewire. As I understand it, your DVC100 is a USB device, so you will need to use the Pinnacle Studio software.

FYI, when I, like you, wanted to save all my old analogue 8mm tapes to digital format, what I did was go the Firewire route. DV/AVI is one of the most solid, easy to edit formats available. Though compressed, it is essentially not lossy, unlike DVD-compatible mpeg-2. This means you can re-render it several times without seeing any degradation in quality. Some mini DV camcorders allow what is called 'pass through' which means you can connect, say, an analogue 8mm camcorder (or VHS player) to the mini DV camcorder via its AV jack, and then connect the mini DV camcorder to your computer via Firewire. The tape plays in the analogue device, passes through the mini DV camcorder and is captured by VS or WinDV in DV/AVI format. You edit it, then convert it to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 for burning to disc. This process guarantees the best possible quality from your analogue originals.

Apart from having a mini DV camcorder, I am also lucky enough to have a Sony Digital 8 camcorder, which not only uses Firewire, but also accepts analogue 8mm tapes and Hi8 tapes. That way I can play my 8mm analogue tapes directly to the computer by connecting this Digital 8 via Firewire. Easy peasy!!

But of course you have to have such devices and above all Firewire on your motherboard!!