Getting that video off of that tape

Pappy wrote on 11/1/2008, 9:03 PM
Is there an easy step by step on capturing VHS through a Belkin module (to digitize signal) into Vegas 8's capture mode. I revert to ULead 6.0 (yes, that free jobby) because somehow I can capture ok (in that case capture to MPEG-2). When I did a capture using Vegas the audio and video looked and sounded ok but it was so far out of sync it was laughable (audio about 20 mins and video only a couple of mins long). When played the audio sounded normal but video was moving VERY fast - it must have repeated itself though as the video kept going until the end (it was my son's football game and I couldn't tell what was going on- the whole tape was 20 min tho). Anyway I have no problem editing AFTER I get something to edit with (adding chapters, trimming, etc). For some reason everything I read about capturing doesn't register I guess. Maybe old age and senility setting in (65). This codec thing really confuses me but I guess that's for another time. All I want to do is get that video off of that tape. Thanks.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 11/1/2008, 9:25 PM
Vegas has a known problem with mpeg2 syncing when importing it. So until this problem is fixed, you are better off with ulead. File a bug report with Sony btw, the more people reminding them of the problem, might get it eventually fixed.
Pappy wrote on 11/2/2008, 1:56 AM
Thanks Eugenia. I just filed a bug report with Sony.
Pappy wrote on 11/2/2008, 7:23 PM
Well Eugenia maybe I shouldn't posted that bug report as the same thing is happening when I capture using ULead (6.0 btw). The thing about all of this is just last week I captured VHS that was 80 mins long with no problem. It didn't look too bad (my first one too - used Ulead). Now all of a sudden Ulead does the exact same thing that Vegas did. It would record the audio fine but the video looked like it was picking up only a couple of frames a second. It would be very herky jerky when recording and when playing back it acted like it just put those few frames it recorded and played it all in one big blur. I would almost describe it as a massive dropout of frames (like over 90%). I'm too tired to do this tonight but maybe I'll try lowering resources to the min as possible, etc. I googled this but came up with very little except the resource thing. Anyway I case I get a response from Sony tech support about the "bug report" maybe he may have some ideas. Thanks Eugenia.
Chienworks wrote on 11/3/2008, 1:18 AM
You don't mention which Belkin device you are using, but my google searching seems to indicate that they are all USB devices. I strongly suspect that is your problem. I'll make the bold and simple statement that you simply cannot successfully capture video with a USB device. There has never been one made that was worth the plastic bag it was packaged in.

Looks like Belkin themselves agree with me. They don't sell any video capture devices anymore.
Pappy wrote on 11/3/2008, 5:32 PM
Your are correct that it's a USB device (Belkin hi-speed 2.0 USB dvd creator). I made a successful capture with Ulead about 10 days ago and that's when I decided to try Vegas and ended up with the (evidentally) dropped frames. I changed something between that one successful capture and the next one about a week or so later. I guess dropped frames (I say this because I when I was playing it the past couple of days the frame count was going very slow - same rate as what was showing on preview - so my guess when played back there weren't that many frames to play back and consequently it played super fast).

I think I'll send a trouble report to Belkin and maybe they can come up with an idea or fix (thanks to your comment Chienworks). If I ever get this figured I'll leave a message here (or should I start a new thread?) in case anyone else has this problem and if anyone out there come up with any other ideas I would appreciate reading it.
Edverd wrote on 11/11/2008, 9:37 AM
Yes, you absolutly can use USB2 to capture VHS.
I've been using an ADS capture device for years.
But one thing I've discovered is that you should
disconnect any & all other USB devices first.
And no hubs, connect capture device directly to
port on computer.
Byron K wrote on 11/11/2008, 7:45 PM
I also use an ADS video capture device to convert VHS to digital format. It came with a basic copy of ULead.

To the original poster, you may want to uninstall and reinstall the hardware drivers and see if that works.
Pappy wrote on 11/15/2008, 1:51 PM
OK a little late with this but thought worth mentioning. Sony told me that Vegas doesn't capture through USB-2 only firewire (boo hoo). So fyi: I opened Ulead video studio 6.0 (the freebie with Belkin Hispeed DVD, etc) and do some experimenting to see why all of a sudden it no work when it work before. I decided to start with what worked before - using template MPEG-2. Well guess what - it worked like a charm. The only thing I can say is I must have made some adjustment that it didn't like (Ulead) and it stopped working properly. So as the old saying goes "Don't fix it if aint broke" (or similar) and will just stick with that until Sony can figure out how to capture usb-2 video (from vhs etc). Heck if Ulead can do it I don't see why Vegas can't do it. Is there a place to go to see what updates they have done as I don't frequent forums too much unless I need to know something. Hope this was helpful.
AimHere wrote on 2/27/2009, 7:50 PM
Hi all,

Even later responding to this thread, but I wanted to chime in with an alternative to using VMS for capturing video from USB 2.0 devices. I've found that VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org) works great with a USB video capture dongle I recently bought. The user interface is kind of obtuse, but it does the job. Best of all, it's free.

Of course, this would be a moot point if Vegas supported USB2 devices directly. VMS' capture app doesn't even connect to my USB2 capture device. :P
mike_in_ky wrote on 2/28/2009, 9:35 AM
I have a USB capture device (CameraMate by Zio Corporation). I am able to capture video with it using the Video Capture program built-in to VMS 9 Platinum Pro. That's how I get video from VHS by connecting the VCR outputs to the capture device inputs. Once the device is connected to my computer, I select that device from the Video and Audio tabs once the Video Capture program comes up. Granted, you don't get control of the VCR, but I can capture from within VMS and manually control the VCR. However, it does drop frames, about 1 per second. So, I may try VirtualDub referenced above. Thanks.

mike_in_nc