Composite Video Capture Software

stoofa · 16 Apr 2007 at 02:32

I have a Hauppauge WinTV PVR150 installed under my Vista64 machine.
The card is working (to a point) - this is actually one of the Hauppauge cards that is supported under Vista64.

The main problem I'm having here is, to be blunt and to the point, I'm finding the Hauppauge software to be the biggest pile of in the world.
The main reason I bought the card was so I could transfer some old VHS tapes first to HD and then to DVD.

I configure a composite source on the card, run the WinTV software and all I see is a red screen.
I took the card and my VCR to work, plugged it into a Vista64 machine and I could play my VHS tapes just fine.
The only difference between the two machines was I have 4GB of memory at home and 2GB at work.
There appears to be an issue with 4GB and the Hauppauge software at the moment - support forums don't list my exact symptom but...

Long story short.
I have Hauppauge WinNT PVR150 installed on my machine.
Is there any otehr software out there that can utilise that card and give me the ability to setup a composite source (VCR into said card) and then tape the VHS tape onto the HD?
If you know for a fact it works with the card I have great, if you don't please indicate if you know if there is a trial version of the software.

I don't have a great deal of knowledge on this - all I know is I have an old VCR, a card that can capture a Composite source however at the moment no software thatg isn't rubbish!

Ta

bledd · 16 Apr 2007 at 02:58

winavi video capture seems to work ok (just used it to capture webcam)

jbloggs · 16 Apr 2007 at 03:24

You could "capture" with any of the following:

Roxio Easy Media Creator,
Nero Ultra Edition,
InterVideo WinDVD Creator,
Ulead DVD movie Factory,
Vegas Movie Studio DVD,
Pinnacle Studio Plus,
Adobe Premiere Elements,
Ulead VideoStudio, (supposed to be good)
ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD, (also supposed to be good)
Cyberlink Power Director (apparently the best)

stoofa · 16 Apr 2007 at 03:29

Thank you - just what I was looking for.
I'm a total novice here so a list of various software packages is what I was after.
I'll go download some trial versions now and see which ones work best for me - and then factor in their cost.
I'm sure I'll find a good bang for buck product.

Cheers.

jbloggs · 16 Apr 2007 at 11:42

stoofa:

Something a bit different:

If you know someone with a standalone VCR/DVD (player/recorder) combo, which you could borrow, this would be much handier, simply put your VHS video cassette into the player, select to record either directly onto a blank DVD-R (DVD-RW would be better) or onto the HDD of the combo, once finished, simply transfer onto the HDD of your computer to edit and make DVD Menus, and then burn to DVD blank media.

The capture cards can be really hard work to get good results from.

stoofa · 16 Apr 2007 at 12:32

jbloggs said:
stoofa:

Something a bit different:

If you know someone with a standalone VCR/DVD (player/recorder) combo, which you could borrow, this would be much handier, simply put your VHS video cassette into the player, select to record either directly onto a blank DVD-R (DVD-RW would be better) or onto the HDD of the combo, once finished, simply transfer onto the HDD of your computer to edit and make DVD Menus, and then burn to DVD blank media.

The capture cards can be really hard work to get good results from.

I'm going to be honest with you - I'm starting to believe the same!

I do actually own a Toshiba PVR.
It has a 160GB HD and also a DVD-RW drive in.
The reason I took the route I did was that I managed to get the PVR 150 from EBay for a good price.
Also from a "tidy" point of view it was just better for me to be able to attach the VCR to my PC in the "messy office" rather than doing so in the front room where the Toshiba unit is stored.
Finally I actually started offering a "No frills, VHS to DVD service online" under-cutting many places as I was simply offering the transfer without any editing - letting people have fun editing their own video.

I've had nothing but hassle with the Hauppauge setup since getting the card.
All I need to do is plug the Scart from the back of the VCR into the composite-in on the Toshiba and I could copy VCR's directly to the HD and then onto DVD-R.
Slightly more hassle yes, because we don't need or want the VCR plugged into our main system all the time.
But for the sake of doing it now and again I think I may just try to get my money back on the Hauppauge card by reselling it and take the other option...

mrgubby · 16 Apr 2007 at 13:16

My Liteon DVD recorder will not let me backup my old BOUGHT VHS tapes due to copy protection. I ended up buying a cheapo USB2 Video-in box for the PC :mad: