Capturing from a TV card...

GerryLeacock wrote on 12/3/2004, 2:50 PM
I could swear this was working yesterday. I click on the icon to capture from my TV card - this opens up the Video Capture Xpress screen. I should be watching my TV in the preview window, but there's nothing there but blue screen, and a notice telling me to connect a device. At the top, I click on Video, and the dropdown lists only my Hauppauge WinTV Capture card with a big dot beside it. I even try Options ---> Reconnect to current device, but nothing happens. My TV card is working, because outside of this program, I can watch TV on my computer. If I plug my camcorder in by firewire, it recognizes it fine and the preview screen is working. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Comments

GerryLeacock wrote on 12/4/2004, 9:19 AM
Making some progress here.... Like I said, when I click on Video at the top, it lists only my Hauppauge TV card, with the big dot beside it. Then there is a horizontal line with 2 thing listed under it: 1) Hauppauge WinTV Capture Properties, and 2) Hauppauge WinTV Capture Capture Properties (yes, there is a double "capture" in that). When I open the "Capture Capture" one, in the preview screen, it says "Preview is turned off". Yet under Options, I have the big dot beside "Always preview video". So how do I turn the preview on??? (Sony, it's your product, feel free to jump in here). Thanks again.
GerryLeacock wrote on 12/4/2004, 12:27 PM
Some more progress.... Had the camcorder connected by firewire. Disconnected it, went to "Video" at the top, the drop down now had several more entries in it under Hauppauge Capture Capture, etc. One was Svideo, the next was TV Tuner, and there was maybe 5 more. I clicked on TV Tuner, and got my TV back! Closed the program, opened it again, and I cannot get it to duplicate the drop down choices that it just showed me!! Again, they no longer exist!!! Help me anyone! I'm talking to myself here!
Thank.
ScottW wrote on 12/5/2004, 8:51 AM
First, keep in mind that these forums are not a formal support mechanism, so if you're expecting someone from Sony to respond - well, they might, and they might not. If you need formal support, click on the "support" link and select one of the options.

Now, it's been my experience that the video capture utility that Sony uses does not deal well with multiple video capture devices being connected to the machine - which is how your card appears to be presenting itself.

Download a trial copy of scenalyzer (www.scenalyzer.com) and see if it can handle this situation - if it can, spend the $40 and purchase it. It'll be $40 well spent.

--Scott
GerryLeacock wrote on 12/5/2004, 10:03 AM
Here's how it went... this "capture from WinTV" worked FLAWLESSLY for years (way back to Movie Factory 2) until I crapped out my computer 2 weeks ago and had to have WinXP re-installed, and or course, all the programs re-installed. The "Capture from WinTV" has not worked since. Now, this morning, I have decided to try some new things, so I checked off "Closed Captioning" just to see what would happen. Well, things went from bad to worse. Now it says it is unable to open Hauppauge WinTV. If only I knew why it would have worked for years, and now won't work at all. But, I will gratefully take your advise and have a look at Scenealyzer and see if this can help me. Sorry about being so verbose, there was just no other way to describe the problem. Oh yeah, uninstalling and reinstalling did nothing to help. Thanks again, and I'll let you know how Scenealyzer worked out.
GerryLeacock wrote on 12/5/2004, 10:18 AM
Tried Scenealyzer - it's only for capturing from DV camcorders. Oh hum.... But on another note, I did a System Restore to a few days ago. I'm now back to showing the Hauppauge WinTV as the active device, but the preview is still turned off. That's the first "step forward".
GerryLeacock wrote on 12/10/2004, 2:15 PM
Well, sent a copy of all of the above to Sony Support, and I must say, they really busted their hump working on this one. Their reply:

"Thanks for writing. Vegas Movie Studio technically does not support capturing from a TV tuner card. If you have a TV tuner card, you may be able to capture from it but it is not a supported feature. Vegas Movie Studio is designed to be a DV capture application. If you need to capture clips from a TV tuner card, you would need to use another program to do so."

Not impressed. What about the stuff raised in the 2nd and 3rd entries above?? Where it's telling me that the preview isn't turned on, and where I got those other options after I plugged and unplugged my camera. I guess if it had never worked, this might be the proper response. But it's worked for years. Oh hum....