Better Capture Device than Pinnacle???

[Crashed]

Did you try the test

http://www.bustrace.com/downloads/1394Test.exe

When running select your USB HDD.

The problem is not the capture hardware, it's the external HDD.

[tigerman8u]

I like my ATI AIW 9000 pro. ATI's MMC 8.x works great for me, once setup(pain in the *ss to install software) but good once setup. With the price of hard drives these days I got a 2nd hard drive for video only, although my maxtor 120gb didn't give me any problems when it was my only drive. Love my 2nd drive 200gb(western digital). If a 2nd drive is an option, in my experience, it is worth it if doing alot of video work.

[kuneo]

sfheath-

Not sure what i'm doing as i'm not as technical as you guys.

Here's what I do- SVHS (vcr) to Pinnacle Movie Box (analog rca/sv connections)-USB Movie Box to laptop computer via USB 2.0-then in the Pinnacle software menu settings-I enable transfer of input video to Maxtor HD via USB 2.0 (no firwire connection available on the Maxtor).

In the Pinnacle software setting's it allows you the change the Capture processing bit length-normal setting is 6K for MPEG 2,BUT sometimes I must change the setting down to 5K or 4K to allow all the movie to fit on one DVD.
Changing the bitrate may be causing the error,but i'm guessing here.

Would like to have it all Firewired,but the Pinnacle MovieBox capture device does not support firwire,and the Maxtor(model I have) doesn't either.I have captured the video to my laptpo's HD too instead of the Maxtor,and received the lockup also-so firewiring won't solve the problem.

So i'm limited to the equipment I have for now-

I will try again today the capture a 2 hour video,and try to keep the bitrate as high as possible.
It worked perfectly last night with two 1 hour video's-NO error'e.

Thanks again

CC

[rsquirell]

Your problem seems to be occuring on the longer videos...when the file size is approaching 4GBs. Are your sure that all of your HDDs are NTSF? (New external drives come defaulted as FAT32). Are you running Windows ME?

[kuneo]

Originally configured new external Maxtor to NTFS-so thats not it-but thanks.

Problem happens with native HD too-so it doesn't really matter which HD i'm using-BUT there is GOOD news!

I've done a couple of Capture's (1 hr and 2 hr) with NO error's so- I think i'm on the right path.

As I said before possibly changing/lowering the bit ratio was creating the conflict-
I'm now able to keep the bit ratio high,and the result (so far) is no issues.

I believe i'm out of the woods on this problem,and on my way to transfer NIRVANA!

Thanks again for all the input/help.

Regards
CC

[sfheath]

Glad you're getting there but the point I was getting at was the MPEG encoding. If you pulled the VHS stream in as an umcompressed AVI and then convert to MPEG2 later, you'd be relieving the processor load.
Good luck

[kuneo]

Thanks sfheath-BUT what you said is "Greek" (or "Geek") to me.

I'm not advanced enough to know how to do what you're proposing.
Regardless the way i'm Capturing now is working good (no error's for 3 movies) so I think I'm in a better place.

Thanks again

CC Rider

[Crashed]

Don't think sfheath understands how Pinnacle Moviebox USB
works, for starters as it's not the DV version, one cannot use
the capture device with OTHER SOFTWARE for capturing.

Also as it will only work with STUDIO 8/9 this means one can
only capture direct to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 in various bitrates.

It's not even worth the time and hassle to change the MPEG-1
MPEG-2 files to uncompressed AVI.

[atifsh]

Originally posted by Crashed
Also as it will only work with STUDIO 8/9 this means one can
only capture direct to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 in various bitrates.

hmm when did studio 9 came out?

[sfheath]

Originally posted by Crashed
Don't think sfheath understands how Pinnacle Moviebox USB
works

Yup, thanks Crashed

Kuneo, sorry for the confusion/misunderstanding.

[rsquirell]

Since there are no Universal MPEG Standards, MPEG2 capture devices will only capture with the manufacturer's provided software. The captured MPEG file can usually be imported to other editors, but sometimes the manufacturer does something fancy (like encode the audio in LPCM) which other editors won't accept. Since every MPEG device is different...it's best to find the user forum on the manufacturer's site where current users can provide work-around solutions specifically tailored to the device in question.

[Crashed]

hmm when did studio 9 came out?

January 14 th it was out (I think)

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/newsitems/pinnacle_studio9_news.html

[atifsh]

thnks Crashed, just saw the pinnaclesys website, seems microsoft has curropted everyone........

now u hav to activate online if u want to use mpeg2/dvd encoding/burning.......

[Crashed]

If Activation was a drug, M$ would be drug lords.

[geffroman]

Well if MS activation can be disabled I am sure so can Pinnaclesys