Diamond ATI 750HD PCIE - Problems capturing, black overlay after first capture

[danexpo]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to these forums but everything I've been reading has been great to get me started on capturing VHS tapes.

I picked up a Diamond ATI 750DHD PCIE card yesterday and installed it under Windows 8.1 x64 using the v2 driver from Diamond's website. I managed to get one great capture out of it using virtual dub (quality was very impressive.) Since then, every time I go to capture, it just displays a black overlay and doesn't capture anything. Also, before starting capture I can see the input video in the overlay.

If I reboot my PC I can occasionally get the capture test to work, but shortly after it stops working again. An initial file is created on disk but is only 10Kb in size. So far I've attempted to uninstall the driver and install the Windows Vista and 7 x64 drivers without any progress. I've also tried both the VirtualDub copy posted here (1.9?), as well as from their site (1.10?) I've also deleted the registry keys for VirtualDub, with no avail.

Anyone have any experience/ suggestions to rectify this issue and get it working consistently?

[sanlyn]

Is this a different tape than the first one you captured? Sounds like Macrovision.

[danexpo]

I used the same tape, an old home movie throughout my attempts. After my initial attempt I couldn't even capture the blue screen from the VHS player.

[sanlyn]

Assuming you have the same hardware and software that was OK earlier, the sudden and variable character of the problem sounds like hardware rather than software, IMO. Check that your PCI card is firmly seated, that inserting/removing cables doesn't loosen something inside your PC, and that all components and cables are secure.

[danexpo]

I attempted to re-seat the card and all the cables, but there was no change.
I ended up returning the card and purchasing the USB version, which has been working flawlessly so far.

I appreciated the help though!

[sanlyn]

Yep, looks like a bad card sample. Not exactly routine, but it does happen. Welcome to the club.

[metaleonid]

Is VHS PAL or NTSC? By default the PCIe version always defaults to PAL. Every time you start VD, you need to reset it to NTSC. It's not the case with the USB stick.