VHS Tapes to DVD

Minion,
Thanks for the help. I'm trying to use Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 2.5, because it came with the Winfast TV 2000 XP deluxe card I bought. I capture video, but when I play it back I get no sound. I've checked the cabling twice and it is correct. The sound plays through my speakers when the capture is running, but as I said nothing on play back. Hav'nt tried to burn anything yet because of this. Will different software
help me do you think? Thanks again.
Billjr.

 

What it sounds Like to me is that you do not have the "Line In" set as the audio Recording Port in the Windows Settings....To set up Windows to record from the Proper Audio Port you right click the Volume Icon in your taskbar and go to "Open Volume Controll" and then go to "options" to "Properties" and then click the box next to "Recording" and below than Make sure that you have a Check Mark in the Box next to "Line In" and then click "OK" now Click the "Select" Box under "Line In" and then adjust the Recording Volume to about 75% and that is it ,you have just configured Windows to Capture audio from the Line in Port on your Sound Card...You also have to make sure that the Line In is selected in the Capture software as the audio recording Port.....I hope this helps...Cheers

 

Minion,
I don't have a "Line in". I have:Modem #1 Line record,
Modem #1 handset record, NVIDIA[R] nForce[TM]Audio.
These are listed under Sounds and Multimedia-Audio-
Sound recording, preferred device. I have Modem#1 Line
Record selected.....No sound. But thanks anyway. Any other ideas? Thanks Again.
Billjr.

 

So were do you Plug the audio into on your PC???
Generally speaking you are Supposed to Plug the Video Output from your VCR to your Capture Card and the Audio Output from the VCR to the Audio Input on your Sound Card and that Input on your sound Card is the recording source in your Audio properties...
The only other setup I can think of woul;d be if your Capture card also recorded the audio but this is very rare and from what I know of your device it doesn"t have that feature....??

 

Minion said:

It's because he's running the XP Media Center - that's what's adding the DRM. If you don't run the MC and just use MS's WMV 9 encoder, you won't have any DRM problems.

Also, have you even used WMV 9? If not, don't knock it until you try it. It produces amazing quality for the file sizes. The files may be playable only on PCs, but how else could you fit 25 hours of video on a single DVD in acceptable quality? When used for its intended purposes (usually streaming video) WMV 9 is a fantastic codec.

There are a lot of things you can put down MS for, but I don't think the quality of their codecs is one of them. Remember that the first version of Divx was just a hacked MS codec.

Oh, and Minion? No offense, but I can't be the only one who finds your posts distracting and difficult to read through. Is your SHIFT key broken? If not, you may find a guide like this useful:

http://library.thinkquest.org/2947/capitalization.html

 

HI All, I'm new to this forum so hope I'm not out of line.
Firstly I am a beginner with computers and have no IT experience.
SO!!! here is my dilema:- My wife and I want a copy of daughter and son-in-laws wedding video, problem is we don't have a VCR, only DVD. I don't want to have to buy software as I would have no idea how to go about it.
We live in St Clair NSW near Penrith, is there a business close by that performs capturing VHS to DVD for a fee?

 

Hi, Minion...let me express my admiration for your experiance in this subject and let me also ask a qustinon:

I want to capture 2hrs movie from VCR. My capture card allows me to capture only in two modes either 720x576 or 352x288. The later one is to small for me, I want the final result to be at least 480x360, so I used the 720x576.

I have Celeron 2.4 GHz but only 10GB HDD space. I tried to use Huffyuv and VirtualVCR as you advised in some previous message but the output is way too large (about 9MB/s, i.e. I would need 63GB for the whole movie!). What else would you advise?

Would the PicMJPEG codec solve the problem and give me the compression that I need, i.e. max 1.4MB/s? Or should I use MPEG-2 insted? If I want to use MPEG-2, can I get it somwhere as a codec for VirtualVCR (which otherwise I like a lot...) or do I have to use completely another software? What would be the best and possibly free/shareware solution for capturing directly to MPEG-2? Or would you rather recommend to look for some other, completely different codec that would give me the results that I need?

Any help from anyone is highly appreciated. Good luck in the future and nice greetings from Prague.))

 

Minion said:

I didn't mean that what you were saying was difficult to understand so much as that your seemingly completely random capitalization of words that shouldn't be capitalized is distracting. Sorry if I was unclear.

dahjee: Yes, MJPEG should suit your needs.

 

Do you think that at the res of 720x576 and bitrate of 1 - 1.4 MB/s (i.e. 8 - 11 Mbib/s) will M-JPEG still provide better results than MPEG-2? I guess the M-JPEG compression will have to be set high which could result in quite a low quality, am I not right? But I'll definitelly give the M-JPEG codec a try tonight.

 

Folks, could anyone recommend me a freeware/shareware program that is able capture to MPEG-2?

Or alternativelly, is there any codec that implements MPEG-2? (Then I could use VirtualVCR or VirtualDub to do the capturing).

 

Minion,
Thanks for the reply. I have'nt been around for a couple of days, so I'm replying late it seems. But,
the "line in" I said I did'nt have, was in the choice for the Audio recording."I don't have a "Line in". I have:Modem #1 Line record,
Modem #1 handset record, NVIDIA[R] nForce[TM]Audio.
These are listed under Sounds and Multimedia-Audio-
Sound recording, preferred device. I have Modem#1 Line
Record selected.....No sound. " I have a line in on the on board sound connectors, which is connected to the "line out" on the capture card as per the instruction booklet. I guess the sound is supposed to go from the SVideo cable through the c/card to the onboard sound, then to the HDD. I guess. Any ideas?
Thanks again

 

Well generally speaking the Audio either Goes into your Capture Card and then out from the Capture card to the Sound Card and it is the Sound Card that actually records the audio ,In a Lot of Cases it is Better to Not use the Input on the Cap Card and just go directly into the Sound Card..If your Sound Card has a "Line IN" this is the Port you should be recording with, and if you do have a Line in on your Sound Card then the Must be a Option in the Windows settings to select that Port as the Port to record the audio...I do not think you are Looking in the Right Place because the Setting I described are NOT in the "Sounds & Multimedia" settings, they are exactly were I told you they were..

That is the Port you should be chooseing in the Audio Properties and if you followed my instructions you should have seen the Option to choose this as the Windows Recording Port....

PS: Try not plugging the audio into the Cap Card and then to the Sound Card ,Try it Just with the audio going directly into the Sound Cards "Line In" port but of cource you have to make sure you have selected the "line In" ans the recording Input...

 

Minion:
I made my first CD using PowerDirector 3.0 version DE that I bought on the internet for $9.99. It took me a while to figure out how to use it and I'm still only 10% there. I could not figure out how to capture from my VCR in a better format than Windows Player so I had to take the file that I previously captured that way and convert it to MPEG. Then my first cut wouldn't play on anything and only showed a miniature screen on some backround. I went back found something like menu that I unchecked and then it saved so it can be shown full screen.

PowerDirector is supposed to automatically detect capture devices but all it did was show audio only for a microphone that I don't have connected. I'd like to save directly from my VCR to get the best picture but so far, this is my only option.
Frank-in-CA

 

Hi, Well let me install the program and then I will figure out for you how to capture in Mpeg2 format...
As for your audio only showing "Microphone" I think this is because you do not have the "Line in" selected as a Capture Port in your Windows Settings...
To make sure that Windows Knows that you want to use the Line In as the Capture Input you have to do this:
#1)Right click the volume icon in your Taskbar and go to "Open Volume Controll"...
#2)Now click "Options" and select "Properties"...
#3)Make sure your sound card is selected next to "Mixer Device"...
#4)Now click the box next to "Recording"...
#5)Now you will see a list of available input ports that windows supports, you should also notice that only the Microphone has a check mark next to it..So put a check mark next to "Line In" and then click "OK" at the Bottom...
#6)You will now see couple volume controlls, one for the "Microphone" and one for the "Line In" and there is a "Select" box at the bottom of each one so put a check in the Box next to "Select" in the "Line In" Volume Controll, You should also set the "Line In" Volume to about 75%....
Now just click them off in the Corner and start Power director and you will be able to select the "Line In" as the audio port......
So I will have to get back to you a Little later about how to select Mpeg2 as your Recording format because I do not have it installed at this moment because I do most of my Mpeg Capture with WinDVR 3.0 because it has better quality and uses less CPU and the Version I have lets me capture Dolby AC3 audio.....
Cheers

 

Thanks. I went through the steps you mentioned and I had, in addition to Line-in, the following also checked: What U Hear, Microphone and Auxiliary. But when I went to the screen with the slide switches, I did have microphone checked that I changed to line-in. Unfortunately, none of this seems to work. If I click capture in the top tool bar and then capture source, all of the options show gray and can't be selected. When I select capture in the second tool bar, it shows like it is looking at my system but only comes up with that microphone option. I'll be interested in seeing what you find for this.
Frank-in-CA

 

Minion;
In looking for more information in the PowerDirector Help files under Analog video capture options, the first instruction is to click video. I can find no place to click "video" on that initial screen. The only place I see "video" is on the layout at the bottom half of the screen where it also shows effect, pip, etc. And clicking that does nothing. Where is this video option I need to click?
Frank

 

I still haven"t had a Chance to install Power Director yet but for your Other Problem with the audio source I would suggest to Plug the Audio Output from your VCR into the "Microphone" Port instead of the Line In Port because for some reason It is Not letting you select the Line In...I"ll get back to you later today about selecting Mpeg2 as the capture format in PowerDirector 3.......

 

Minion:
Different jacks. The microphone jack is just one of those tiny pin type plugs while the VCR audio has those two white and red audio plugs that are larger.
Frank

 

I Know, You are Supposed to use an Adapter that will go from RCA/Composite to the Small Male Heaphone Type Jack...My Capture Device Came with one so I could hook up the Audio from the VCR to my sound Card..The Line In Port should use the same Type of Input Jack..
How have you Been able to hook up your VCR"s audio to your Sound Card without one of these Adapters??? You can get them for like $3 at radio shack....