In order to archive my PAL VHS and Betamax tapes, I created a dual boot system on my computer. Adding to my previous win10, I now also have Windows XP Pro SP2 32bit (that I can boot through the boot menu). I was lucky that the MB of my i3-2100 (Intel Corporation DH61SA (LGA1155 CPU 1)) still supported WinXP.
A friend of mine borrowed me a USB capture pen-drive Pinnacle PCTV PMC 800e, which only works on WinXP 32bit. He claims that "it was one of the last truly good ones". He advised me to archive my data using the codec FFV1 version 3, as it is very good. Virtualdub2 includes that codec, so off I went and connected my VCR via SCART directly into the composite plugs of the pen-drive. (The VCR is a Sony SLV-SX700 (Hifi with 6 heads.)
I started "Capture AVI" in VDub2 but there was no image whatsoever from the VCR. I couldn't start video capture or even test video capture because it would invariably return the error "unable to capture video". Everything seemed correct: the PAL settings, the codec, the drive in "device" was selected, the drivers had been updated, yet I still couldn't even start.
However, I discovered that the original video recording software from Pinnacle included a hardware options in settings where I could test the video preview of the pen drive. To my surprise, there was image from my VCR!
Then I found the log in VDub2. As it stands:
* with ffdshow_rev4533_20140929_clsid (32bit).exe *
"CapDShow:failed to build filter graph: create renderer (VFW error code 80040273, VFW_E_DDRAWW_CAPS_NOT_SUITABLE)"
I can't get around this error.
Then I remembered to test it with
VirtualDub 1.10.4, my latest non-VDub2 version. To my amazement, there was signal and I was able to capture the video! However, with 1.10.4 I can only capture in FFV1 with ffdshow (I set to yuv422p), whose encoder settings seem a big finicky to me. I'm not sure I'm getting as much video quality and fidelity as I would be getting with VDub2's FFV1... Not to mention the interlacing seems a bit off to me...
Another strange thing is that, in Capture Filter -> Video Decoder, there's no signal or lines detected, despite clearly having video signal coming from my VCR. Is this important?
I made a test video using
Virtualdub 1.10.4 with fddshow's FFV1 to show you. Tell me what you think of it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rgC...ew?usp=sharing
Here's the most dubious test: there are no interlaced fields even though it's a standard PAL recording from a VHS VCR!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uOZ...ew?usp=sharing
How can I solve the issues with VDub2? Should I just switch to 1.10.4 or even an earlier version? Is ffdshow's FFV1 just as good as VDub2's FFV1?
Thank you in advance.
PS.: Could the Hauppauge USB-live 2 provide the same capture quality as the PMC 800e I'm currently using?
Cheers.