Unaable to switch to capture mode

nappen · Post by **nappen** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:49 pm

I am using the trial version of VS9, before buying. I have had no problems using files already on my computer, however when I try to capture video I get the message

Unable to switch to capture mode
Ensure video driver is working properly

Failed to build a preview page

I am able to capture with windows movie maker (came with my computer) and used Sonic DVDLE without difficulty (but didn't like it so uninstalled it).

I am using windows XP Media SP2, Dual TV tuner via a composite video input and a 1/4 audio jack (tuner came installed with the computer).

Any help appreciated and I am new to this, so do not know what other info would be useful.

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:26 pm

What is the exact model of the capture device you are using, and what capture plugin is selected?

nappen · Post by **nappen** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 6:36 pm

I am using an Angel MPEG Device with the latest driver installed. I have the capture plug in set to the default (directshow) but have tried the ulead DSW MPEG plugin with the same results.

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 7:57 pm

I've found a few posts about that device on the XPMCE site, as well as a troubleshooting guide from Dell.

Start by going into the Preferences in Videostudio, going to the Capture tab, and turning on the option that allows access to the capture device settings during capture.

Make sure that the device is not using the TV tuner if you are capturing from a camcorder or other analog source.

Also, you cannot have two separate programs trying to capture at the same time from the same device, so if MCE is trying to use the device, Videostudio won't be able to talk to it.

nappen · Post by **nappen** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 8:24 pm

I looked at the troubleshooting, everything seems fine with the device (and it works with other programs)

I went in, turned off the tuner's recieving, made the change suggested, insured under input that the right device was selected.

No change.

nappen · Post by **nappen** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:17 pm

I finally just worked around it. I import using movie maker 2 and then use the batch convert function to convert to an avi and use that to edit. Takes a little longer and probably looses some quality, but I can't think of anything else to do.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:00 am

Movie Maker 2, being a Microsoft program, captures in DV/AVI format (which is the format they developed to transfer DV video from your camera to your computer with no loss of quality). Therefore, there should be no further 'conversion' as you put it, to AVI. If in fact you are somehow converting it, the only way I can think you are doing it is to make it uncompressed AVI which is huge: an hour of DV/AVI will take roughly 13 GB, while uncompressed AVI will be over 60GB.

nappen · Post by **nappen** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 4:10 pm

Movie Maker 2 will only import from analog into a WMV file. VS will use that, but will not auto split or a couple of other minor things. So actually, I don't bother to covert to avianymore, just edit it in WMV. And yes, it was a huge file in AVI...about 16MB per hour.
It seems to be working fine this way and I just manually split with the multi-trim function.
I will tinker some more to try and get it to capture, but

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:26 pm

Well, you learn something every day! Mind you, I have only used Movie Maker 2 a little bit and did so more than a year ago, just as an experiment. But I was using input from a digital video camera so naturally it captured in DV/AVI format. But it just so happens that I have an analogue camera connected at the moment via a Winfast TV2000 card, and see what you mean about it only capturing analogue in WMV format. The quality seems to be OK though. But WMV is a very lossy format, I think, so you are probably right about losing quality in the conversion to DV. FYI, by the way, DV capture normally averages around 13 GB per hour.

For what it's worth, I normally capture my analogue tapes with the above TV card, direct to mpeg-2 using the card's own software (because it seems to offer more flexibility in the capture settings). The result is excellent (well, as excellent as captures from an analogue source can be). Then I edit these mpgs in VS9. It take VS9 a little while to import the files, but once in the project, everything works well. VS9 can certainly see the card, which I set to 'composite' if I do use VS to capture from my analogue camera (as it does not have an S-video port). And I capture with a bitrate of 6000 kbps, which is probably just a touch high for analogue VHS (4000 kbps would probably be about as good), but the results are fine.

Kittyeater · Post by **Kittyeater** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 1:58 am

USB 2.0 fixed this problem for me