VHS = Very Hard to Serialize
February 26, 2010 12:13 PM   Subscribe

Help me convert a VHS tape to digital. I have a VCR, the "Dazzle Digital Video Creator" (DVC90), the drivers, but not the actual video capturing software.

I bought Pinnacle's "Dazzle Digital Video Creator" on woot.com a few years ago and have since lost the video capturing software that came with it. I can't get Pinnacle to replace the software because I didn't order it from them.

Question: is there any other software out there that will capture video from the DVC90, an A/V to USB converter? I'm not sure if it only works with Pinnacle software or not.

I don't even remember what the name of the original software was. Pinnacle has a number of software products on their Web site and although "Pinnacle Studio" sounds familiar, I'm not sure that's the one.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed to Technology (12 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Oh, and I'm using a Windows Vista laptop. Apparently there are no drivers for my Windows XP 64 machine.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 12:15 PM on February 26, 2010


Check out afterdawn.com for ideas beyond what anyone else here my recommend
posted by luvmywife at 12:20 PM on February 26, 2010


Best answer: Browsing around a little, it looks like that works as a standard capture interface once the drivers are installed. With a reasonably modern PC, you should be able to capture with Virtualdub and something like HuffYUV lossless video and PCM audio in an AVI container. From there, editing/re-encoding should proceed as normal. Also check out this list of tools in case there's something in there more to your liking.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 12:26 PM on February 26, 2010


I was also going to recommend Virtualdub.
posted by sanka at 12:27 PM on February 26, 2010


Response by poster: Thank you. I'll try VirtualDub when I get home. I'm not quite grasping what HuffYUV does or how it works, but I'm sure a little Googling and experimentation will answer that.

I also did a live chat with Pinnacle and they told me to try Windows Movie Maker; I tried, but it didn't recognize any video input devices.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 12:32 PM on February 26, 2010


Does Windows Movie Maker still come with Vista?
posted by GuyZero at 1:00 PM on February 26, 2010


WinDV should find it if the drivers are DirectShow or WDM.
posted by rhizome at 1:05 PM on February 26, 2010


I just did the same thing with some slightly different hardware using Windows Movie Maker...worked like a charm
posted by um_maverick at 1:32 PM on February 26, 2010


Response by poster: Does Windows Movie Maker still come with Vista?

Yep

I just did the same thing with some slightly different hardware using Windows Movie Maker...worked like a charm

Which hardware was it? Do you remember the steps you took to capture the video?

I don't recall my exact steps but I think I clicked on some option like "Capture from Video Device" and was then told no device was detected.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 1:59 PM on February 26, 2010


Huffyuv is a codec, and VirtualDub is the video capture program. Without a codec, you couldn't save (encode) the file as anything. Commercial video programs come pre-bundled with codecs, so you don't get involved with finding codecs.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:28 PM on February 26, 2010


Response by poster: Okay. I'm able to capture video but not audio. Here are my steps:

1. Open VirtualDub
2. File->Capture AVI
3. Device->Dazzle Video Creator
4. Audio->Audio Input = [No Input], x[Master Volume]
5. Audio->Audio Source = [No source], x[Audio Line]

It seems to me like there should be a Dazzle Audio option under Audio source?

I've installed and reinstalled my drivers several times from Pinnacle's Driver Page.

My Device Manager shows under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers the following items:
Dazzle DVC90 Audio Device
Dazzle DVC90 Video Device
Intel(R) High Definition Audio HDMI
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC

Any ideas why I can't get audio to come through the capture?
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 7:27 PM on February 26, 2010


Response by poster: Okay I figured out a sort of hack solution. I remembered that I had an AV audio jack to mic input so I unplugged the DVC90's audio jack and used that while capturing the video. Worked like a charm. Thanks for the help!
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 10:31 PM on February 26, 2010


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