Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Additional observations:
(Does VDub not save the previous settings from a past session?)
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It does have the option to save settings, but its a little hard to make it remember them.
1. With
VirtualDub open, and Capture AVI open
2. After making the changes to the current settings you want.
3. look up and click on [Device]
4. click on [Device settings]
5. The (pop up) box will have a check box labelled [Save current display mode as default]
"here is the tricky part"
6. click on the check box next to [Save current display mode as default], so its checked
7. click on [OK] to close the box
"that Saved the settings"
the next time
VirtualDub is opened it will open with your settings that were saved
if you open that box again, it will not reflect that you checked it before, it will be empty again, it will be unchecked and waiting for you to "trigger" it again
(it is VERY not intuitive, but this is the behavior)
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Device Drivers:
I had an exclamation point on a device when I started installing software/files last week, but ended up getting rid of it somehow. Attaching a picture of the device manager. Under Sound, I think the VC500 is both USB 2.0 Audio and USB 2.0 video.
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Probably, you usually only have one USB video capture device connected at a time. Windows has trouble distinguishing between multiples.. its not designed to support multiples at the same time.. especially Win10.. its a step backwards in capabilities from older version of Windows.. makes things easier for Microsoft to develop. Worse for end users.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
I also will add that I purchased the VC500 off of eBay and the copyright on the box says 2011. So not sure if there are more "current" versions of drivers than on the CD I have? Would contacting Diamond help? |
There are no more current "for your device" they release new ones for each year and thats it, they never update them "per hardware" version.. its done, shipped and that's that. Contacting Diamond is probably a waste of time.. you can try, but most people get angry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Actually, I think I may be finding out that the VC500 I purchased might not work with Windows 10 due to its age based on a FAQ that is posted on Diamond Multimedia site. I'll contact them to find out for sure.
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There are about a dozen USB video capture devices that "can" work with Win10.. but fundamentally its Win10 that they are fighting. The devices work as designed, but Win10 keeps updating and tightening security, and de-supporting hardware. They believe older hardware is a security risk, so they block its device drivers after a short period of time.. a year or two. This is by design.. your paying for Microsoft to block old hardware.. don't you feel protected?
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
VDub Version:
Is there a way to tell which version of VDub I'm using? Seems like I might have originally tried 64-bit and then read some threads and then tried 32-bit. But I can't find how to know which I'm using. I made a shortcut on the desktop and it points to this file location to start VDub. Is this right?:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\VirtualDub 1.9.11 + Filters\VirtualDub.exe"
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If the program doesn't have "64" after the name its probably 32 bit. Some programs default to 64 bit but not VirtualDub.. its a member of the 32 bit club and only got recompiled for 64 bit on demand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Display:
Not for sure I understand about the display. Mine is currently set on 1600 x 900. Attaching a pic of my video card info.
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1600 x 900 will almost certainly give you capture problems, but some people learn better by trying it for themselves. Also in some cases stepping the resolution down skews the display so much they have to abandon that PC and use a different one. The problem is updating that many pixels while trying to capture all the data coming out of the USB port at the same time is simply not possible, it starts skipping and dropping data. You can't change the speed of the USB 2.0 port, its a standard, you can change the display resolution, its the only knob you have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Display:
VDub Capture:
I tried to go through your steps. Sometimes an option is greyed out and I can't select it.
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Completely normal, VirtualDub was written to support an infinity of different capture devices, not all options apply in every case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Display:
Display:
I didn't understand about the color depth of the display. I found something in the Display settings that says: Bit depth: 8-bit. Is that what you're referencing?
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When you open the resolution changer, look for [Advanced] that should open the (real) non-Win10 display manager.. unless Win10 jumps in with the "cell phone" looking [Control Settings] manager thing.. which is basically kindergarten controls for finger painting.. win10 has a lot of useless stuff in it.
If you get the (real) Intel display manager, List modes or the Monitor colors will show the color depth.. it defaults to 32 bit these days.. but back in the day 16 bit was far more common. Things can look bad on screen when you switch to 16 bit but it dramatically speeds up your display and makes programs like VirtualDub run much smoother.
Its not super important you step the depth down to 16, but its a major difference. After capture you can easily step it back up for playback.
The goal is always to give your USB capture device a chance at maximum focus on capturing sound and video while its capturing.. and all other creature comforts are secondary.. while capturing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wyattladd
Thank you for your help. I just wish all this were more intuitive.
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More intuitive.. costs.. picture quality.
Both Windows and Mac adopted a video capture standard called DV (digital video) and that was super easy to use, Windows Movie Maker and Mac Quicktime (or iMovie) supported it natively.. its silky smooth, but those capture devices are very expensive and no longer made. Even their resale value is very high, usually more than their original cost on
eBay.
DV uses a slightly compressed, highly reduced color space for capture.. so its not a free lunch.
VirtualDub does not work with DV (easily.. it can, but its difficult).. but you don't need it.. so much free software works with DV. But its not an easy option to use DV these days.. its mostly a fragment of history.
For example to use DV you need a firewire port on your PC.. and that's very rare these days.
USB came along after, and its harder to use.
Tiny keyfob dongles.. were designed to capture higher quality video, terrible sound quality and shove it over a slower USB 2.0 port. They work.. but you have to make sure the device drivers are flawless, the system is dumbed down so its dedicated to video capture only for the entire session.. and sound and video tends to separate and drift out of sync.. so you need to sync them back up later. It also produces a HUGE video file you will have to compress down afterwards.. for long term storage.
DV files were big, but not as big as USB 2.0 files.
There are alternative/better USB 2.0 capture devices than the VC500 for more or less money, but navigating them takes experience.. and they will always be more complicated than DV.
There is no "royal way" to geometry.. and there is no "royal way" to video capture.
Doing it this way is simply "hard".
My Dad for example had a DVD recorder, and played his VHS tapes into that, burning DVDs as he went. When the tape was done, the DVD was finalized and he was done with that tape.
They don't make DVD recorders anymore.
But they do sell DVD recorders on eBay, but their DVD burners do not always work anymore.
A couple years ago I learned they also made DVD recorders with hard drives, for storing the captured video to the hard drive, before choosing to burn it to DVDs.
I figured out how to read those hard drives and told a guy who wrote a program for data recovery, called
Isobuster.
That now works very well, if you have a DVD recorder with a hard drive.. (And) its one of the recorders we figured out how to extract the video from.
That process is fairly easy.. and produces great looking, small video files.. but its not something that everyone is interested in doing.. its a little bit of work, and over kill for some people.
In my opinion though its easier than DV or USB 2.0 device and dongles and cards.
