Proper equipment for converting & restoring video, need advice

[admin]

Does the card work fine in Catalyst? Can you capture MPEG in the free Catalyst ATI software that came with the card or computer? If so, then it may not be an issue on the card.

Are you using a current version of VirtualDub, part of the 1.9 series? Not an old old. The ATI 600 I tested here worked great on version 1.9.7.

I'll just need to make that ATI Catalyst guide here soon for you. Won't be right away, lot of things going on right now, towards end of month looks good for it.

[privategomer]

Like I said previously never any hurry… I know I have Catalyst, but I’m not sure what it is? The ATI TV Wonder HD 650 came bundled with an Arcsoft PVR which seems to work fine. My previous card the Theatrix ATI Theater 550 Pro came with Cyberlink Power Cinema which also works fine.

Here is a part list of trial and demo software I have tried, either on the ATI 550 or the 650.
Sony Vegas: Can’t find capture device and crash to desktop.
Adobe Elements: Can’t find capture device and crash to desktop
Ulead Video Studio: Works fine.
Cyberlink Power Director: Works fine.
Pinnacle Studio 9: Works fine
Pinnacle Studio 10: Freeze, hang, crash.
Pinnacle Studio 11: Rock Solid
Pinnacle Studio 12: Rock solid.
Pinnacle Studio 14: Proprietary capture only.

I currently have Virtual Dub 1.9.7 installed on my fairly freshly formatted Vista computer with new capture card. I also have Virtual Dub Mod bundled in the AGK Program folder and it can’t find capture device and now has to close.

[admin]

Catalyst Media Center is the free software from ATI: http://ati.amd.com/products/catalyst...ter/index.html

Vegas and Premiere generally suck at capturing. Great programs for editing -- the best, in fact.

Pinnacle Studio is why most people cuss the name "Pinnacle" in video.

Power Director had major quality issues in older versions -- I've not used it in a couple of years now, probably worth a re-test here soon, this year sometime.

Ulead Video Studio has always been seen as a decent program. Lots of happy owners and users.

See if you can install Catalyst.

[privategomer]

Thank you… I can’t figure out where to find or how to install Catayst Media Center download.

Like most Adobe products Premiere is excellent, but also just like other Adobe products its overkill for my limited abilities and more then what I need.

I didn’t like Vegas at all; it would crash every time just opening a regular video file.

Cybelink and Ulead are OK, but not as flexible or powerful as Pinnacle. The new Cyberlink has a special MPEG CODEC that does not play nice with my other software.

I certainly don’t want to come across as a cheerleader for Pinnacle, because it definitely has its faults. Probably the most glaring short coming is the lack of customer support or help.

However I have been using Studio 9/11/12 for 4 years now and it has never dropped a frame, and it very rarely hangs or freezes. I have tried hard on purpose to make it crash. I would work with two full size 720x480 6000kbps video streams, including transitions, titles, credits, menus, several filters and it slows a bit but keeps on chugging. When it rarely locks up, it has a pretty decent automatic save and I can’t think of any work I may have lost that wasn’t my fault.

Like I said previously I like to capture allot of documentaries from the TV box, and it all looks great to my untrained eye using the Pinnacle software. Of course I prefer to use open source when ever I can, and had VirtualDub worked for me from the beginning I would have 4 years experience using it by now.

Is there anything fundamentally wrong with the Pinnacle MPEG video codec, or the Pinnacle MP2 VBR audio codec?

[admin]

I'll see about uploading Catalyst for you. Give me a day or so here.

[admin]

That ATI 600 USB card works with PAL and NTSC both, capturing MPEG-2 using the included Catalyst Media Center, or lossless/uncompressed AVI (like HuffYUV) via VirtulDub.

A VirtualDub guide, made using that exact card, is forthcoming. A special ATI-only version will also be made, because there are some quirks.

There are some downloads for you on the server, to burn to DVD-RW or DVD+RW (or DVD-R/DVD+R if you don't have any RW), to test on your TV, to verify 100% that the captures are true PAL. Will post more on that very soon.

I know it's been several days since new posts were made here, but work on answering these questions never stops. It just takes time to get to some of these harder and more complex issues.