When trying to capture VCR tapes the audio is fine and the video starts out fine, but all of a sudden locks up. I have reinstalled USB driver, verified the VCR box is checked, captured without preview, disabled background tasks, unplugged USB printer and nothing works. Noticed it also does this when just watching the VCR video in the preview screen or even live TV. If I merely click on "Settings" and when it comes up, click "OK", when it goes back it will be capturing\viewing live video again....does it for a while (different lengths of time and then freezes video again).

Funny, my Studio 9.5.3 I could capture VCR fine, but not DV input. Now new computer with VISTA and I can capture DV fine, but not VCR. I thougth I had captured all my VHS tapes before buying new system, but found I missed a couple.  Please help as I don't want to resort to using old PC with Studio 9.5.3!  VISTA makes DVD's SO much faster....

What specific model of Moviebox are you using? Have you updated your drivers?

I uninstalled and reinstalled the USB-710 driver over the weekend like the Pinnacle Chat person said...Did nothing for me.  The strange thing is that even with just the VCR tuner feeding the preview screen, after a while the video freezes, but the audio still is fine.  Than all I do is click on "Settings" and when it opens, click "OK" and the video starts again fine.  It's like something is causing the video sync to glitch and the USB device freezes.  Was wondering if it could be the connection box between the VCR and the USB port?  Really lost at this point.  I've tried shutting down as many background tasks as I could, turn off the network connections....all the tricks I used to use on Studio 9.5.4 on my old XP computer...

unplugged USB printer and nothing works

Have you Disconnected ALL USB2 Devices, including External HDD & Connected MovieBox to PC's BACK Panel USB2 Connectors, instead of front?

Are you using a desktop or a laptop?

Yes I tried plugging it into the back of the computer and unplugged all USB devices except the wireless remote for the keyboard and mouse.  I had an external Western Digital 160 gig USB drive plugged into the monitor USB and it did seem like it was better (didn't lock up as soon) with all the USB stuff unplugged...but I may have been imagining it!  The other thing is my monitor has a built in webcam and it seems the capture likes to default to it.

I am using a Dell desktop - Inspiron 518 Core 2 Quad Q6600(2.4Ghz, 2X4MB) with 4 Gig ram.  Monitor is Dell SP2208WFP 22 inch widescreen flat panel with webcam.  Video card is AMD Radeon HD3450 256MB PCI-Express X 16.  640 GB Sata 7200 RPM drive...I also added a 1 Terabyte SATA hard drive to capture and process the video on. Running 32 bit VISTA.

arysrus:

Yes I tried plugging it into the back of the computer and unplugged all USB devices except the wireless remote for the keyboard and mouse.  I had an external Western Digital 160 gig USB drive plugged into the monitor USB and it did seem like it was better (didn't lock up as soon) with all the USB stuff unplugged...but I may have been imagining it!  The other thing is my monitor has a built in webcam and it seems the capture likes to default to it.

I think it maybe causing a ruckus with the webcam. Maybe you can find a USB plug that the monitor uses with that webcam.

I'm on business travel until Friday night...will look at that this weekend.  Like I said, it's like something is making it lose video sync.  Do you know what's in the Pinnacle USB box?  Is it just a couple chips that convert the video to a USB format type data?  Is it possible that there is a cold solder joint or something like that in the box?

I have no experience in cracking open a moviebox yet. But before trying that out. Maybe you isolate all the other possible points of failure, like the webcam that I mention. Or possibly trying the device with another computer.

I've tried everything I can think of.  Don't know if it is worth trying to install it on my old XP computer.  That is why I bought a new computer to have a faster system and then had to buy the new Studio 12 (Movie Box) since the old PCI capture card with Studio 9.5.4 was not compatible.  Funny that Studio 9.5 captured VCR tapes fine, but not my DV stuff and now Studio 12 capture DV stuff, but not VCR stuff.  I was very happy when I first started to use this new Studio 12 with my new VISTA system.  DVD's took only 20-30 minutes to render versus the old 4 hours on the XP system.  But now I am back to wondering why I stick with the Pinnacle product???

I'd suggest that you try it out on your XP machine. Just to eliminate the possibility of having bad hardware.

Marc:

 I'd like to jump in on this string.  I just purchased Studio 12 Ultimate last weekend and have been having the SAME exact issues all week.  I have a fairly robust system (3GHz Dual Core, Vista SP1, 4GB RAM, 8800GTX w/768MB, and dual internal 10,000 RPM SATA drives - one strictly for storage where the video is going).

 I've spent the week capturing my wedding video in 15-30 second increments.  Sometimes I can get up to 2-3 minutes of video.  The same thing happens though - I can hear the audio playing but the image has frozen.  The system is not even usually counting any dropped frames either - it's like Studio doesn't realize there is anything wrong.  I can usually fix it in the same fashion by clicking into Edit, then back to Capture again, but sometimes it won't even bring the VCR input back up.  I have also shut down all other processes, including firewall and anti-virus and disconnected from the LAN.  I've also changed priority of Studio in Task Manager to the second highest setting - no matter what I do I still get the same issues during capture.

 I'm about ready to return this product and was glad to see someone else with the same issue as me.  Please help, I'm trying to get this moved to DVD for my anniversary in a few weeks.

Here is another guy jumping on this string.  I bought Studio 11 plus last September, with the 510 USB box.  It works fine with capture from my mini DV movie camcorder.  They this week I tried to capture some VCR tapes.  Exactly the same problem you guys cite above.  The audio jumps to where it does not belong to the clip where it is "attached", and when I try to edit out the problem the whole audio track ends up with gaps and timing mismatches. 

Given all the input above over the last two years, wouldn't you think Pinnacle had a fix for this by now?

 

Jim H

Jim Hirshfield:

Here is another guy jumping on this string.  I bought Studio 11 plus last September, with the 510 USB box.  It works fine with capture from my mini DV movie camcorder.  They this week I tried to capture some VCR tapes.  Exactly the same problem you guys cite above.  The audio jumps to where it does not belong to the clip where it is "attached", and when I try to edit out the problem the whole audio track ends up with gaps and timing mismatches. 

Given all the input above over the last two years, wouldn't you think Pinnacle had a fix for this by now?

 

Jim H

my mini DV movie camcorder

If that Cam has AV-IN, connect VCR AV-OUT to Cam's AV-IN & Record your AV tape to DV tape in Cam & then Capture that, via Firewire. Try that.

I decided I'd try capturing from my camcorder using the DV input.  That also has the same problem...captures for a while and then locks up the video, but the audio continues.  This is strange as I had captured tapes from the DV input with the camera a month or so ago.  Could it be that the USB device is defective?  I've wasted a lot of time trying to troubleshoot this and all's I have gotten from Pinnacle is to be sure that I'm running 12.1, which I am and reload the USB-710 driver, which I have done.  My system configuration has not changed in the past couple months, so unless Windows has pushed an update causing this, I'd have to think the USB interface box could be the problem.  With the old Studio 9.5.4 I had the internal PCI card that came with the S/W and that worked fine with VCR's but not the DV input, but I got around that by using a shareware program to capture and then just rendered with Studio.

What thoughts do you have now Marc?

Another thing....I just spent a few hours playing with the AMCAP program that comes with Pinnacle.  It captures the DV camcorder fine...all of it without stopping and I can then edit in Studio.  The VCR stuff captures fine, all of it also with AMCAP, but when I play it, it is at 1/2 or 1/4 speed with no audio.  I've tried multiple things, but can't get the VCR capture with AMCAP either.  After I got the DV camcorder working with AMCAP, I figured VCR would work also, but no such luck...and yes I tried it checking the VCR input also...

This method may lend hope to the guy trying to capture something for his anniversary...luckily my 25th was a couple years ago and I used Studio 9.5.4.

If you have not made any changes with your previously working setup, this may most likely to a windows update or a program  you installed that brought about the change. With the way the captures behave, it seems as though the device is a bit under the weather, either it needs its original drivers or the latest one (depending on which one you are using) as it may have gotten corrupted somehow. Or need to give your capture device USB priority and eliminate other USB bandwidth intensive devices.

I've tried installing the latest drivers multiple times with no luck.  I've unplugged ALL USB devices except my wireless mouse\keyboard.  This seems to ALWAYS be the canned answer from Pinnacle.....reinstall the drivers\reinstall the program.  The fact that the AMCAP works to at least capture the DV input makes me think something is wrong on the Pinnacle side.  If I could only figure out why the VCR capture from AMCAP was playing back at 1/2 or 1/4 speed, I'd just resolve to use AMCAP because it looks like it works.  This is just like Studio 9.5.4 when the VCR stuff would work, but I had to resort to a freeware program for the DV capture.  I guess I would have thought Pinnacle would have this figured out by now, but maybe I'm wrong.  It's frutstrating that no one seems to have an answer.....

arysrus:

I've tried installing the latest drivers multiple times with no luck.  I've unplugged ALL USB devices except my wireless mouse\keyboard.  This seems to ALWAYS be the canned answer from Pinnacle.....reinstall the drivers\reinstall the program.  The fact that the AMCAP works to at least capture the DV input makes me think something is wrong on the Pinnacle side.  If I could only figure out why the VCR capture from AMCAP was playing back at 1/2 or 1/4 speed, I'd just resolve to use AMCAP because it looks like it works.  This is just like Studio 9.5.4 when the VCR stuff would work, but I had to resort to a freeware program for the DV capture.  I guess I would have thought Pinnacle would have this figured out by now, but maybe I'm wrong.  It's frutstrating that no one seems to have an answer.....

I wish I have the answer, but these cases have been the same ever since. It's either the drivers are funky, the device isn't getting enough USB juice or the hardware is being unpredictable. As for the software side, there are many factors. Background services could be a cause.

But that's just for me and how I look at the problem.

Isn't it possible that the USB device from Pinnacle is bad?  How would I go about getting a replacement if it is defective?

You will need to contact support for this procedure.

bumping this because

A. It is happening to a ton of people

B.  All day the customer support site says its "under going maint"

 

How do you assign first priority to the pinnacle device?  I have tried all previous remedies and have tried this on different machines both XP and Vista.  Very frustrating.

 

 

MAYAman:

bumping this because

A. It is happening to a ton of people

B.  All day the customer support site says its "under going maint"

 

How do you assign first priority to the pinnacle device?  I have tried all previous remedies and have tried this on different machines both XP and Vista.  Very frustrating.

 

 

Have you tried my solution HERE?

See my post earlier where as I was able to capture without a problem with the AMCAP utility that comes with the Studio S/W for my digital Sony camera.  I was also able to capture the VCR tape, BUT when playing it back its at 1/4 or 1/2 speed with no audio.  I've also disabled about EVERY background thing I can think of and it still doesn't work with Pinnacle capture device and their software, but the fact it does work like stated above with the AMCAP routine would seem to point to there being a problem with the Pinnacle Studio S/W and their capture device.  The only other thing I've noticed is I think it freezes, 'hangs up' when the disk drive is accessed during the capture.....I've seemed to notice that it will be capturing fine and then I'll see the disk access light blink and the video freezes......its like the disk access is causing the glitch possibly, but I don't see how you can get around that as the video has to be stored to disk.....

This is VERY frustrating as I can no longer capture any old video VCR tapes.  Luckily I captured 98% of what I had with the old Studio 9.5.4 S/W, but recently came across a few tapes I missed. 

Am wondering why no one from Pinnacle has replied about the fact that the AMCAP works???  If it works for the camera input and doesn't freeze, why doesn't the Studio capture work?????

Can you change the capture format to MPEG and start capturing from the lowest quality up and use the back ports.

If AMCAPTURE works, this means that you may need to change a setting in Pinnacle.