I have just bought a usb capture device, it's a tevion dvd maker vs-usb2800d. It comes complete with pvr plus and also power producer gold 2.0 by cyberlink. The program i've tried is the pve plus. So far i can only capture in avi or mpg1 although mp2, mp4 and dvd pal are all options. If i choose mpg2 or dvd pal my picture is very clear but stuttering and going very slow. If i choose mpg4 it gives me a warning that no mpeg4 codec is installed and that i should download and install mpeg4 or divix codec from microsoft. I've looked but can't find one. I have downloaded and installed dirext 9 and this has made no change. All i want to do is transfer my old vhs home movies to dvd and then maybe my other original vhs tapes. I don't want to loose any quality if possible. When i capture in avi and then convert to mpg (dvd) the picture is rubbish, very fuzzy. My system is inel celeron 2.7ghz, 512 mb ddr, 1 80gig + 1 120gig hd and 3d AGP Geforce FX5200 64mb with tv out. I'm not connected to a tv just a vcr. Is this system big enough and is there something else i need. The pvr plus comes with a mpeg enocoder as part of the program. I bought the usb device because i tried a pci tv/fm radio card connected via my tv and was only able to capture in mpeg1. Any please advise me. I have no experience at this at all. The program also offers being able to capture direct from vhs tape and burn directly to dvd disk. I tried this too but the disk failed. The codecs in the pvr program are microsoft v1,v2,v3 and divix.
One recommendation- check to see if your motherboard will support a Pentium 4 ~2.7ghz. If so, I'd upgrade to it and ditch the Celeron. Until then here's some more stuff to do regardless- Other stuff to consider since your using usb: Dedicate one of those drives to the processing of your videos. Delete as much as you can from this drive, empty the trash bin after deleting/removing stuff, defrag this drive. Eleminate as many programs running in taskbar or background as possible. Example- A network icon, sound icon, clock, anti spam program, are fine but if, in addition to these, you have a message prog., a packet writing prog, a printing utility, a sound card utility, "Dell" support program, and other such junk then they'll be using to much comp resources and should be disabled when capturing. After doing these minor tweaks see if things have improved. Another thing, although I doubt it, one can check the BIOS settings to make positive that USB 2.0 is enabled at the BIOS level. Most systems today have 2.0 enabled as default but one never knows. Depends on the system builder.
Thanks i will try all these suggestions, is there a particular setting i should be successful with, as in avi then encoding to mpeg or should i capture in mpeg1. Any ideas on my mpeg2 problem and the mpeg 4 asking for the codec to be installed? I've done loads of dvd backups but NEVER managed a vhs to dvd converted. I am determined to succeed this time (well at least i hope i do). I will post back when i've defragged etc.
The mpeg 4 issue is clearly a codec you don't have on your system. Do a search for mpeg4 codecs and install (Microsoft should have one) if you want to try it. Mpeg4 is a relatively new compression scheme and it's primary intent (imo) is for network streaming/sending of video/audio data. At this point go ahead and try a mpeg2 capture. Try a capture @ ~4000 kbps. Mpeg1 is a format suitable for divx stuff so if you don't plan on using divx then forget mpeg1 for now. After the capture is completed and successful close out your capture program and open the mpeg2 file in a convienient media player like Windows Media Player. If you find everything ok with the mpeg2 capture then compile/author into dvd. You can capture as avi (evidently) but like you found out- it needs encoded to mpeg or dvd compliant format. Nothing wrong with that but if you are not don't need avi for super duper editing purposes and such then it becomes moot. If you still find yourself with problems after all the above then it's time to look at some other things: 1) Software updates- as in Tevion stuff (btw- never heard of Tevion) 2) Motherboard chipset updates- these can solve many strange problems. 3) Bios updates- these have been known to solve the annoying, vague, and irrational problems. Bios flashing is not recommended for "rookies" and yet is quite simple.
Tevion is manufactured for Aldi. I nearly bought a usb capture device from maplin electronics but this does exactley the same thing just less £££££. I will try to capture in mpeg2 format but judging on my last attempt the picture goes very slow although the sound is fine???? I expected my system to be big enough to cope with capturing and converting old home movies on vhs to dvd. As i said in my first post i do have a pci slot tv/fm radio card that can also capture but i had the same problem with that too. Only able to capture in mpeg1 or avi and then the quality was poor. All i want is the same quality as the video tape i don't expect quality like dvds. What i don't want is my old video tapes some being 14 years old of my children from birth upwards wearing out and loosing all footage, they are irreplaceable!!!!. I just wish i understood more about the technology then maybe i could solve this problem easily. I thought buying this device would be simple, it says on the box i should be able to go direct from video tape to dvd without saving to harddrive but i haven't managed that either. Is there normally a reason (simple solution) for video footage to play real slow when capturing? is it my graphics card or processor? any ideas. Thanks for your help Jacqui
I'd say the two main draw backs in your current setup are the Celeron and fragmented drives. I'm assuming your drives are 7200 rpm so that is a definite plus. Motherboard chipsets can sometimes be problematic but the major players in this market have come a long way here. Differences among chipsets is not quite as bad as years past. Do you happen to know your motherboard chipset? (Intel, Via, Nvidia, SiS). Keep in mind I'm just taking educated guesses based on the % of problems resolved by these methods. Realize too, that video + audio processing and display in this manor is pretty intensive. Stop and think about what all is going on. Conversion of anolog to digital then some compression, then processing of the digital media stream, then playback (basically). Throw in the read and write cycles on hard drive too and things start to add up. All in all, your system doesn't appear to be that "far off". Hang on to that pci card too- it may come in handy. Does it have composite (rca) connection? It's possible with a little tweaking as mentioned, your Celeron can make it happen but I have my doubts. You have a valid point about those priceless tapes though- get 'em on new media while they still play! They'er too precious to watch waste away.
I'm not sure but i think my motherboard chipset is intel. I've had a look in my device manager and all i can see is intel. My old setup had SIS. I am going to defrag my drive once i've finished clearing it out as much as possible. I know one of the drives is 7200 rpm 8mb cache but not sure about the one that came in my system and i don't know how to check. I've looked in BIOS and my usb is enabled. I've altered my Primary video adapter in advance settings in BIOS from PCI to Onboard (AGP) not sure if this will help in any way. I tried windows movie maker just out of curiosity and it captured slowly but played back normal. Don't know what it captures as though as the quality was like avi. I tried Nero but the program kept crashing so no joy there. Could you tell me which of these settings to choose please: Composite or S Video PAL I PAL B/G PAL M PAL N these are in video system in the software program. The software also has MPEG 4 Codec Microsoft V1,V2,V3 or Divx. It says the most common is V2. Video input YUY2, UYVY or RGB24 Capture quality fastest, faster,fast,normal,high,higher or highest Capture size 160 x 120, 320 x 240, 352 x 288, 640 x 240, 640 x 480, 720 x 480 or 720 x 576. I realize that when you choose mpeg2 or avi etc that the capture size is altered automatic. I also have the option to choose avi, mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4 (which doesn't work says no codec) dvd pal etc. I've looked for an MPEG4 codec at microsofts download centre but can't find one. I must be thick......(don't answer that lol). I thought i'd found a codec pack, downloaded it and installed it but it stills gives me the same message, no codec. Regards Jacqui
Most likely you have another 7200 rpm drive. Simplest way to find out is open up the case and check the label on the drive. Or, get the model number thru Device Manager and Google search that number. On the AGP Bios setting- I'm not sure (check your mobo documentation) but usually when you select agp onboard as primary adapter then it detects a card automatically. It will then proceed to use this card instead of "onboard" graphics. If you didn't see any other reference to agp selection then this is what's happening. So yes, that's a good thing. Windows movie maker is junk. I wouldn't use it on a regular basis. The composite or s-video settings are dependant on what input cable you are using (s-video or rca). So set these accordingly. The PAL settings are also dependant on your input/output. I live in NTSC land so I'm not familiar with the different PAL's. Depends on what PAL system you use in your land. Did you try this link for codecs?-- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324290 It gives you another link to download from. I'm not familiar w/ your software but apparently it's doing this: Fastest= 160x120 Faster= 320x240 Fast= 352x288 Normal= 640x240 High= 640x480 Higher= 720x480 Highest= 720x576- which is Full D1 Dvd PAL compliant. That's my guess anyways. The various resolutions are for mpeg1 and 2 compliance. http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/DVD/Book_B/Video.html System and Bios tweaking guides: http://www.rojakpot.com/ http://www.tweakguides.com Great general info for optimizing your system. It helps.
Just one more question for now, i have both rca and composite connected. Could this cause my problem, should i only have one of these connected, it's just the usb device has both so i thought i'd need both. lol I will check the sites out you've given me and post back. Regards Jacqui
composite and rca are often used in conjunction because they mean the same thing. The s-video is the small 4 pin keyboard looking round connection. Composite is a single large pin. It's called rca because RCA invented it. But generally just connect one or the other then choose the one that's connected in your capture program. You should also have a white and red for the left and right audio output and input.
I am finally capturing VHS to MPEG2 with high quality & no dropped frames with a Celeron 2GB cpu (400FSB) & 512MB Ram & Leadtek Winfast TV2000 XP Expert Capture Card.I found my original USB capture device was too slow, so after a couple of days, exchanged it for this much faster,PCI one. I also found that fitting AGP Video & PCI Sound cards, instead of using "on board" speeded the system up quite a bit. I have tried most of the available software, and with my system, Cyberlink PowerProducer is the only one that captures without dropping frames (verified with PVAStrumento), and Sonic DVDit is the only one that edits & authors without lip synch problems. I produce a Video_TS file, check it with WMP and burn to DVD with Nero. Increasing virtual memory helped a lot. ON a tight budget, I am looking for an older P4 2.4Ghz Northwood cpu to replace the Celeron and my next capture card will be hardware driven. Help is not needed, thanks,just thought the results of many hours of testing may be useful to others with a similar system.
hey guys... I got that tevion DVD thingy.. but the problem I have is... I stupidly threw the Cd to 1 side when I baught the thing... I have power producer installed already so no problem there... I just can't see mto get hold of the drivers anywhere... could someone please upload them as a backup?!?!? Thanks a lot... Kiran
