This would be equivalent Sonic MyDVD 10
On Win XP x32 and Win 7 x64
The quality of the capture depends a lot on the quality of the signal
I'm not measuring the versatility of the capture tool.. simply the fact that its an easy setup and works
I use the captured video in other tools
Capturing is the one step that (until now) I have not found a "universal" tool that works with near all hardware
To avoid conflating problems caused by signal quality, I'm capturing the same analog signal reproduced from a digital source.. to that difference is eliminated.
Ulead tends to depend on plugins written by the hardware manufacturers which vary from manufacturer to manufacturer
This is the basic out of the box, same version on XP x32 and 7 x64, since it came from the same year, same manufacturer and same box.. all of the software was written by one vendor.. another variable eliminated
I have looked into WinDVR.. but they started back in Win 98 days and varied and were too small to cover (all) of the manufacturers.. I am collecting WinDVR versions.. but none so far have been as versatile as MyDVD
I am not using MyDVD to produce DVDs, no edit video.. I am (stealing) its unpromoted video capture function to produce capture files.. so in a way I am miss using it as the vendor intended.. certainly as the marketers intended.
I am hoping by studying MyDVD with each bit of hardware.. examining the Graphs in GraphEdit.. something like the source of
VirtualDub can be vastly improved.
I have already noticed it inserting something called "steam analysis" plugins.. which appear to "buffer" or "smooth out" problems during capture. I am guessing to avoid sudden changes in the stream.. similar to a tbc.. but I am not sure of that.. the streams have been remarkably smooth and "driftless" to my untrained eye.
I would upload the collection of samples, but its over 5 GB in size right now.
Perhaps I could host them somewhere else without letting them be transcoded. Or only a few samples.
They mostly look remarkably the same quality wise, only a very few devices seem to have a subtle tonal drift in color.
-- merged --
a little context from spending time with MyDVD
first, it was employees from Lucasfilm that left and started Sonic Solutions.. which I believe started as a sound company and later took on video in the late 1990's as digital editing became possible
the early products were somewhat like
Sony Vegas, divided into Studio and Consumer editions offering different levels of control over the actual capture.. mostly details that consumers had no reference for understanding.. so they offered them only a few commonly used formats, like DV or DVD encodings, and only four levels of DVD compression.. everything else was automated.. even finding an active input among many installed hardware cards and usb devices.
the actual component (within) MyDVD was called "Media Import 12" but its program name was "MediaCapture12.exe" its really small at 4 MB and comes in 32 bit or 64 bit versions.. but appears really smart.
Windows DirectShow has two methods of building video capture programs, Direct Connect (or) Intelligent Connect. Most default to using Intelligent Connect.. which is supposed to use a registry based "filter component" (merit based) system for automatically building a Graph in the background.. the problem is this gets corrupted when installing multiple video editing programs and hardware device drivers
So far..
It appears this does not use Intelligent Connect.. and uses Direct Connect.. which has an internal catalog of exactly which filters to link together for specific hardware.. so.. it appears immune to multiple hardware installs and multiple editing programs installed on the same system.. a Major.. benefit.
Most people don't tear down and rebuild their operating system just to switch hardware.. or to switch from one editing program to another.
I would guess their longevity in the marketplace led to them leaving the simpler cheaper method of programming using "Intelligent Connect" for "Direct Connect".. since they sold the tool as being useful to more than one hardware vendors capture devices.
MyDVD had a long long run.. version up to 7 or 8 were 32 bit only and generally targeted much smaller collections of hardware. I dare say (without personal experience) they were more likely to use "Intelligent Connect" like the vast majority of other bundled capture software. And would be just as vulnerable to the "Merrit corruption" issues.
After Version 9 introduced Windows Vista support they started supporting the install of a 32 bit version and a 64 bit version, meaning the exact same user interface worked across 32 bit versions and 64 bit versions of the operating system. This is a major plus.. since I don't have to relearn or adapt to a totally different user interface.
What it does not do and cannot do is provide device drivers for each capture device, those the capture device manufacturer has to provide.. and they are often for 32 bit only or 64 bit only versions of the operating system.
So while it will work with legacy XP only hardware, with the same user interface.. it won't make that capture device work on a 64 bit version of the operating system.
But conversely, it will work with Windows 7 only hardware, with the same user interface.. or 32 bit versions of the device driver for the 64 bit hardware.
So its very flexible.
I have been testing using the Roxio Creator Pro 2010 suite.. which can still be found online used and otherwise.. the activation keys work, but the online registration no longer works.. because the Roxio company was sold to Corel many years ago.. and they don't support something this old.
The Roxio Creator Pro version comes with a Blue-ray disk plug-in, but the standard edition may have the same "component" of MyDVD for Video capture (Media Import) so having the full suite may not be necessary.
They stopped including the XP 32 bit edition of Media Import after their version called Nxt4.
So minimum optimal version is MyDVD 9 (Roxio Creator 2009) up to Corel/Roxio Creator Nxt3 after that it only works with capture device that have a 64 bit device driver.
To me its a gold mine of information.. and Super convenient since even with ATI cards I don't need to install the full ATI disc of software to get a functioning capture system. All I need do is install the ATI device drivers for the Video Display (if its a true All in Wonder) and the supporting WDM device drivers for the capture hardware and the Roxio MyDVD, Media Import software just works. I can quickly swap cards out and install their device drivers and WDM device drivers without removing the old device drivers and there are (No) conflicts.. this is much more like I am used to using Windows.. its admittedly "messy" and doesn't keep the file system or registry "clean" but its more "familiar" to me.
Much of the video capture hardware I tried that works.. has no other video capture software that will work with it.. and that includes
VirtualDub.. for the most part VirtualDub relies on "Intelligent Connect" which makes it vulnerable to "Merrit corruption". VLC does not use "Intelligent Connect" entirely.. and OBS Studio uses it even less.. I have never seen anything not use it at all however.. which so far is what I am seeing with this program.
I'll wrap this up by stating.. it is not perfect.
Magewell XI100USB ($700) does not work "reliably" but does paradoxically work with VirtualDub
Diamond VC500 for Mac ("bluescreens")
EyeTV Hybrid Pinnacle PCTV for Mac "does not work"
but in each case.. you really wouldn't expect it to work because those devices are designed for something other than the Windows Platform or for use with alternate firmware versions.. they are "extreme" outliers.
For the vast majority of legacy gear from 2002 to about 2015 this one program (32 or 64 bit versions) seems to just work.. and I can't say that for any other software I have tried.
True it does not produce Uncompressed capture.. but not all of this capture hardware can produce an Uncompressed stream.. some of it only has an MPEG stream.
This software has a lot of information inside it.. and its still being developed today. I don't know about the capabilities of its current version.. but it does say it works on Windows 10.. so that is intriguing.
After contributing to a conversation in another thread.
I realized Hauppauge (on the low end) and AverMedia (on the high end) are still importing SD video capture hardware from Asia. The Hauppuage Live USB 2 works with this software. I'll be borrowing an AverMedia EzMaker 7 later this week.. it comes with a Software Development Kit with a documented API (typical of Avermedia.. they tend to document their stuff a lot more) and the AverMedia device is supposed to work on Windows 10 or MacOS 10.14
It will be interesting to see if this 2010 software can still work with something as new as the AverMedia EZMaker 7 if so.. it can't possibly be using Direct Connect only.
I suspect since the Magewell failed.. it will fail on this new a hardware too.. but here is hoping.. (fingers crossed).
The Latest 2020 version might work with it.. and that would be interesting information too.
-- merged --
ATI All in Wonder 7200 PCI (This is the VE card)
ATI All in Wonder 7500 AGP
ATI All in Wonder 8500 AGP
These also work with MyDVD
720x480 MPEG2 4:2:0 in Stereo
That's 32 PCI, AGP, PCIe, USB devices
- if for no other reason, its good for testing whether the capture devices work
Its also been good for figuring out (how fast) I could setup a card by going direct to the Driver and WDM folders to install the Display driver and the WDM capture driver without going through the Disc Wizard.
Only the ATI 7500 proved really difficult.. it seems the oldest card, and had its driver stored side by side in a DrivX9 next to a DrivXP directory. I kept trying to install the X9 driver and the WDM drivers also also thrown into the same directory.. so installing the wrong display driver also tried to install the wrong WDM driver for the Windows 98 operating system. Once I figured that out and used the DrivXP device driver directory it was smooth sailing.
All subsequent driver discs renamed the device driver directories to clearly distinguish them.
The MyDVD program always accurately figured out which Input had the video signal and which sound card and Input to use for the audio signal.. so it was really click and go when capturing.
-- merged --
This may only be very temporary, since its shared from a dbox account.
ok.. uncle
I tried to share some samples.. but dbox offered it up in a web player that looks terrible.
You could download the file before playback to see the real video image.. but it takes minutes per file.
i will have to rethink this.