Analog capture and conversion.....

[Guest]

Bought a Pinnacle Studio 8 product for analog capture from both VCR and Analog Camcorder. Did a LOUSY job from the very start. Pinnacle doesn't tell you that you need to buy a separate sound card to capture the audio, as thier software does not use the resident audio inputs from most computers (I've tried 2 different machines) so that was an ordeal

Yesterday, successfully captured (with Pinnacle) a VCR tape. Used WMM to "convert" the file. Took HOURS (on a brand new high end machine). Video came out choppy and lousy. So.... Now I guess I'm gonna try capturing from VCR to my digital camcorder and try it that way. WMM SHOULD allow for capture through someone else's capture card OR.. Pinnacle should make the captured file into something that other programs can use and use and recognize. It doesn't. It makes a proprietary file type that only Pinnacle can recognize (and consequently burn to DVD) but that didn't work either. Got an "error" when trying to get Pinnacle to burn the DVD.... oh well

I'm starting to think that maybe I should buy one of those new VCR/DVD burner combos and the heck with all this wasted time and effort. Bought so much hardware and spent SO much time that now I feel COMPELLED to try to do it.... :

Sorry about the rant
Steve

 

[print_maker]

I don't have an analog capture card, I do have firewire and a DV camcorder.

When I wanted to capture an old VHS tape, I recorded the VHS tape to my DV
Camcorder - then used MM to capture from the DV Cam. Not fast, but worked
fine.

In my case, I have so little analog I'd ever need to capture, this works
fine for me - and I don't consider it lost time as I just hook it up and do
other things around the house while the record and capture are running.

try rec.desktop.video to find other pinnacle users if pinnacle doesn't have
a forum

good luck

Bought a Pinnacle Studio 8 product for analog capture from both VCR and

Analog Camcorder. Did a LOUSY job from the very start. Pinnacle doesn't tell
you that you need to buy a separate sound card to capture the audio, as
thier software does not use the resident audio inputs from most computers
(I've tried 2 different machines) so that was an ordeal.

Yesterday, successfully captured (with Pinnacle) a VCR tape. Used WMM to

"convert" the file. Took HOURS (on a brand new high end machine). Video came
out choppy and lousy. So.... Now I guess I'm gonna try capturing from VCR to
my digital camcorder and try it that way. WMM SHOULD allow for capture
through someone else's capture card OR.. Pinnacle should make the captured
file into something that other programs can use and use and recognize. It
doesn't. It makes a proprietary file type that only Pinnacle can recognize
(and consequently burn to DVD) but that didn't work either. Got an "error"
when trying to get Pinnacle to burn the DVD.... oh well.

I'm starting to think that maybe I should buy one of those new VCR/DVD

burner combos and the heck with all this wasted time and effort. Bought so
much hardware and spent SO much time that now I feel COMPELLED to try to do
it....

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

After capturing from the vcr etc by pinnacle, if you import and edit in
studio 8, you should then have an option for saving as an avi, which you
could then import into another dvd authoring app, means spending more money
though!!!! Studio 8 has been a very buggy app, with quite a few people
reporting problems with the final dvd making, version 9 appears to be much
better, but means spending more money
Unfortunately it is pinnacle who decide what format the saved movie from
there card will be, so nothing MS can do about that.
As you have a digital camcorder, do you have a firewire port? If so, you
should be able to use pass through to capture to studio 8 using this. It
will save wear on the camcorders heads, save time as only one capture will
need to be done and will often give better results than analogue capture to
pc.
"Pass through" is connect analogue source to camcorder, connect camcorder to
pc using firewire, set cam to vcr position, press play on analogue source
and press record on studio 8. This should capture the analogue material
digitally.
Graham

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.simplydv.co.uk

Bought a Pinnacle Studio 8 product for analog capture from both VCR and

Analog Camcorder. Did a LOUSY job from the very start. Pinnacle doesn't tell
you that you need to buy a separate sound card to capture the audio, as
thier software does not use the resident audio inputs from most computers
(I've tried 2 different machines) so that was an ordeal.

Yesterday, successfully captured (with Pinnacle) a VCR tape. Used WMM to

"convert" the file. Took HOURS (on a brand new high end machine). Video came
out choppy and lousy. So.... Now I guess I'm gonna try capturing from VCR to
my digital camcorder and try it that way. WMM SHOULD allow for capture
through someone else's capture card OR.. Pinnacle should make the captured
file into something that other programs can use and use and recognize. It
doesn't. It makes a proprietary file type that only Pinnacle can recognize
(and consequently burn to DVD) but that didn't work either. Got an "error"
when trying to get Pinnacle to burn the DVD.... oh well.

I'm starting to think that maybe I should buy one of those new VCR/DVD

burner combos and the heck with all this wasted time and effort. Bought so
much hardware and spent SO much time that now I feel COMPELLED to try to do
it....