Capturing video from VCR

[Guest]

When I tried to capture video from the vcr I could see the preview of the
movie in the preview pane and I would hit capture for a 15 second or so and
then stop it and let it import into movie make to see if it was working. I
could only see a gree screen with a funny line at the top and when I hit play
to see the clip I would see a green scree with a moving squiggly band of
color at the top. I assume that was the video. What is the problem? I
have checked the driver and it is the most current one for the program. I
have used movie maker for converting some other type of video files and the
preview worked fine for that.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

I suspect that you have a "poor" connection between your VCR and Computer. I
use the word connection very loosely here and use it to include the type of
capture device you have as well as the physical cables and their connections.

To save time I will describe two methods of capture available to you, although
in straight technical terms they are actually one in the same

Method 1
======
Using an Analog to digital converter A Dazzle converter perhaps, you connect
your VCR to the converter which in turn is connected via a USB or Firewire
cable to the computer. Movie Maker would recognise that and although it would
not be able to control the VCR it would allow you to capture your video. Some
users need to connect the audio directly to the Sound Card on their machine.

Method 2
=======
Using your DV camera which has the ability to "Pass Through" a signal from your
VCR or any other analog source, you connect the Video Out of your VCR to the
ANALOG-IN of your DV-Camera, then set the camera to VCR mode and remove any
tape it has. You then connect the DV camera to your computer in the normal way
via a firewire connection. Using this method you MUST connect the audio out
from your VCT to the LINE IN of your sound card.

So that's the two general methods. If you have done anything essentially
different to the above you will fail to capture any video.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting and free "Complex Project" restoration at
www.the-kellys.org
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[Guest]

I have a brand new Dell 8400 Media Center with a ATI Wonder TV tuner. I am
connecting my vcr into the composite rca plug on the tuner. I don't have the
audio connectors I need yet for the connection to the sound card to get the
sound but I wanted to make sure I could capture the video before I invested
in the cable.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

OK, so you can capture from the tv card??? a tv program or whatever? If yes
then you need to discover what method is available to you to route the signal
from the composite socket into the output from the tv card...the self same
output that Movie maker must use to capture a tv program. I do not have
experience of those cards, you will have to consult the manual or help file. I
could make a guess that the composite signal must appear as a channel number
perhaps or "special Input channel" What ever it is, Movie Maker will still
collect its data from the same source...the tv card. So your problem is most
likely a software setting....

But.......

With respect to the composite signal. What standard is it and of course, is it
the same standard as the output from the VCR. If there is a standards mismatch
your previous description could easily be the way you would see it. Note that
VHS and S-VHS are sufficiently different and if connected could cause this type
of problem.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting and free "Complex Project" restoration at
www.the-kellys.org
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All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
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[Graham Hughes]

I'm not entirely sure because I've not played with an MCE machine yet, but I
thought there was another app which did the capturing in these machines for
the tv signals, which produces a dvr-ms file. This has to be converted to a
usable file for MM editing, see http://www.thegreenbutton.com/downloads.aspx
for a dvr-ms to wmv convertor.

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
Laird of Glencairn
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Are you trying to capture analog video protected with macrovision?

 

[John Kelly]

The description does not indicate Macrovision which causes a fading up and down
of gamma values for the image causing brightening and darkening of the image

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting and free "Complex Project" restoration at
www.the-kellys.org
----
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All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

Actually it must be some kind of right protection. We took a older videotape
we had recorded of a tv program on a vcr and one of a very old insignificant
movie and they both recorded fine to the computer running it from the vcr
through the composite plug on the back of the tuner card. The ones made more
recently followed the pattern I described of being a wiggly line at the top
of a green screen.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

Actually it must be some kind of right protection. We took a older
videotape
we had recorded of a tv program on a vcr and one of a very old
insignificant
movie and they both recorded fine to the computer running it from the vcr
through the composite plug on the back of the tuner card. The ones made
more
recently followed the pattern I described of being a wiggly line at the
top
of a green screen.

Are you now saying that the tape in question is copy protected therby
making it a commercial (probably) tape????

Earlier (your first message)......

When I tried to capture video from the vcr I could see the preview of the
movie in the preview pane and I would hit capture for a 15 second or so and
then stop it and let it import into movie make to see if it was working. I
could only see a gree screen with a funny line at the top and when I hit
play
to see the clip I would see a green scree with a moving squiggly band of
color at the top. I assume that was the video. What is the problem? I
have checked the driver and it is the most current one for the program. I
have used movie maker for converting some other type of video files and the
preview worked fine for that.

If you can see the video in your preview pane then it is nothing to do with
copy protection. When you have sorted out what kind of tape it is do let us
know....working with half a description is a little hard.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
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All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

The first tape I tried to record was a commercial vhs tape of "Hello Dolly"
and it would not record but I could see it on the capture box. When I hit
start and let it go for 15 seconds and then played it back it would do what I
described-- A wavy line of video at the top of the screen with a green screen
under it. When we tried another older commercial tape of "Inspector
General" it captured and played normally. The tape we had made with the vcr
of a tv show also recorded normally. I also tried a "Mighty Ducks" and it
would not capture and play either. You tell me what the problem is then.
The only thing that makes since is that the copy protection prohibits the
recording.

 

[John Kelly]

hello,

Well it seems you had the info all along and you have answered your
question....you ARE trying to record copyright protected video....its
almost certain that at the start of the problem video there is a
message....and highly likely there is also a hologram label on those tapes.
Copy protection DOES stop copying.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
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All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

Actually the first video we tried had no such warning. We only tried the
other ones to test to see if it truly was that problem. We were only doing a
test to see if we had the everything set up correctly to capture. We had
only had the computer a month or so and had not tried this function yet.
The description of macrovision protection sounded nothing like what we were
experiencing so it seemed more a error with movie maker. Sorry to have
bothered you. You seem a little put out to me.

 

[Jeffraham Prestonian]

Actually the first video we tried had no such warning. We only tried the
other ones to test to see if it truly was that problem. We were only
doing a
test to see if we had the everything set up correctly to capture. We had
only had the computer a month or so and had not tried this function yet.
The description of macrovision protection sounded nothing like what we
were
experiencing so it seemed more a error with movie maker. Sorry to have
bothered you. You seem a little put out to me.

For every informative post you get from Mr. Kelly,
you get 2-3 posts that are either attacking another
contributor, have a tone of smug self-righteousness
or are in some way paying homage to his ego.

My solution? Killfile him. He won't tell you anything
useful that Google can't easily provide.
..

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

Asking a "blind" question has resulted in the answer already given. If you
had given a proper account of what you were doing you would have received a
much more informative answer.

--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
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(oo)
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All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[John Kelly]

And this from the idiot who had already said..."I have seen to many
newsgroups....." Sir, you aree another PRATT....please put me in your kill
file, we will not have to listen to your wounded pride then.....IDIOT

--
John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
----
\|||/
(oo)
----------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work