When performing a capture from a VHS VCR, Studio will stop capturing the sound to the AVI file.  Sometimes it stops playing the audio in the capture preview during the capture but still captures the audio into the AVI file (you can see the green fluctuating in the level bars in the Audio capture part of the screen), and sometimes it just quits capturing completely.  It does this in different places within the VHS tape, so it's unpredictable.  When I notice that audio is no longer capturing, I'll quit the capture (leaving the VCR running), and the audio comes right back.

I end up doing the same capture over and over until it finally captures the entire audio track, which ends up wasting a lot of time. 

Also, I get the "A valid Input Signal has not been detected. Please check your cables." error, but can always start the capture without problems.

Dell Precision 490, nVidia Quadro FX3500 (latest driver), ATI TV Wonder 650 (latest Catalyst driver), Windows XP Pro (x32), SP2, Studio 11.1.1.5224 Plus

Studio capture settings:

Capture source Video:  ATI AVStream Analog Capture

Capture source Audio: ATI AVStream Analog Capture

VCR Input checked, Capture preview checked, NTSC, 4:3 aspect ratio, Automatic scene detection, capturing to the AVI "BEST" preset, plenty of fast disk space available

I'm not looking for things to try, like unchecking Capture preview, or try turning off auto scene detection, or try reinstalling Studio.  This should work either 100% of the time, or not at all.  It's like the software is losing the capture audio thread, as evidenced by the audio coming back on when I stop the capture.  The audio is there, it's just that Studio has stopped processing it.

Pinnacle tech support advises to uninstall/reinstall Studio, but I'm not going to do that unless somebody knows FOR SURE that that will fix the problem.  Based on all the similar posts reporting this problem, I'm intending this email to be more of a bug report than a plea for suggestions on how to fix it. That said, if someone knows of a fix, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.

Chris

PhoenixEditor:

When performing a capture from a VHS VCR, Studio will stop capturing the sound to the AVI file.  Sometimes it stops playing the audio in the capture preview during the capture but still captures the audio into the AVI file (you can see the green fluctuating in the level bars in the Audio capture part of the screen), and sometimes it just quits capturing completely.  It does this in different places within the VHS tape, so it's unpredictable.  When I notice that audio is no longer capturing, I'll quit the capture (leaving the VCR running), and the audio comes right back.

How old is the tape. Have the heads on the VCR been cleaned? I used to have a problem similar to that with the old DV500 and Premiere. Finally, I used the camera that I captured the video in as my playback "vcr". Audio sync was fine.I would gather that you are using the ATI card for capture? What other programs are running the background while you are capturing. I would suggest that you have nothing running in the background. Are you capturing to a second drive or your system drive. Is it defrag'ed? Sure you can listen to the audio when capturing stops because you are not using the computer to capture.

 

I end up doing the same capture over and over until it finally captures the entire audio track, which ends up wasting a lot of time. 

Also, I get the "A valid Input Signal has not been detected. Please check your cables." error, but can always start the capture without problems.

Dell Precision 490, nVidia Quadro FX3500 (latest driver), ATI TV Wonder 650 (latest Catalyst driver), Windows XP Pro (x32), SP2, Studio 11.1.1.5224 Plus

Studio capture settings:

Capture source Video:  ATI AVStream Analog Capture

Capture source Audio: ATI AVStream Analog Capture

VCR Input checked, Capture preview checked, NTSC, 4:3 aspect ratio, Automatic scene detection, capturing to the AVI "BEST" preset, plenty of fast disk space available

Have you tried changing the Capture preset to something less than "BEST"? If it does capture then, there is a resource problem with your computer.

 

I'm not looking for things to try, like unchecking Capture preview, or try turning off auto scene detection, or try reinstalling Studio.  This should work either 100% of the time, or not at all.  It's like the software is losing the capture audio thread, as evidenced by the audio coming back on when I stop the capture.  The audio is there, it's just that Studio has stopped processing it.

Pinnacle tech support advises to uninstall/reinstall Studio, but I'm not going to do that unless somebody knows FOR SURE that that will fix the problem.  Based on all the similar posts reporting this problem, I'm intending this email to be more of a bug report than a plea for suggestions on how to fix it. That said, if someone knows of a fix, I'd love to hear it.

Well, if you are not willing to try to find a solution to the problem by trying those things suggested, then I would look for another product. These are base solutions that will help to point to the cause of your problem. It's like when a doctor asks "where does it hurt, what are the symptoms", and then touches or exams you. Just because I have not experienced your specific problem with your specific setup does not mean that I can't help. But.... if you don't want any suggestions to solve your problem. Fine.  

It's interesting how we've become conditioned to believe that we should be willing to accept endless hours of trial and error debugging SHIPPING code.  If this was a beta piece of software, I'd happily try all top of mind suggestions, but this is GOLD CODE (supposedly).  Odd how nobody from Pinnacle has replied to this email.

Also, I forgot to include more details about my hardware/software, so restating here:

Dell Precision 490 (single 2.3Ghz dual core Xeon processor), 4GB RAM, 2-73GB 15K SAS drives configured in RAID 0 configuration, 1-500GB SATA drive, nVidia Quadro FX3500 (latest driver), ATI TV Wonder 650 (latest Catalyst driver),

Please believe me, constrained resources are not possible on this machine.  And yes, I'm using the ATI card for the video capture.  It handles both the video and the audio.

With any software product, the chances of it being 100% absolutely perfect with millions of variations of computers is just asking too much of any piece of software. Ask Bill Gates. Go to ANY NLE forum and see if everyone is "happy".

What I suggested are simple things that you can do to possibly find out what the problem might be. Your hardware is up to the task obviously, There is something else causing your problems.

I capture just fine with a much lesser system than you have. But, I am using Avid Liquid Pro BOB for capture. A friend of mine is using Pinnacle USB 710. No problems. No debugging. Editing right away. Maybe it's your ATI card.

You also didn't mention if you tried any of my suggestions. How long have you been editing? Old VHS tapes are problems. Sync issues, dropped frames, etc., are common unless you are using a TBC.

So now, you can go try another software for editing. I hope you have better success in transferring your tapes for editing.
 

Hi Chris.

I am trying to capture analog video using Studio 9. The video is capturing but the audio is not. The audio capture is "on" but there are no volume levels or bars to be found.

Could we ask for more information like you system specs, software you are using to capture and what capture device your are using?

I agree with all here.......I have worked professionally in the computer environment ofr over 30 years so I fully understand software and hardware issues and I agree it is difficult with all of the differnt products out there.

 Here is my input:

 - The message "No input found, check cables" is a real issue. I see it on every analog capture. You can workaround after getting throught the sub menus, but it is a nuisance thing.

-  The audio issue is real.  I worked this all weekend to debug and believe this is a real bug.  The audio is working fine (audibally) during the capture and the strength meters are showing audio signal and all appears to be fine.  When you go to edit mode, the audio plays for about 3 seconds and the then drops out, for good.  There is no indication of audio waveform in the edit bars at the bottom of the screen.

-  Tape quality issue?  I tried at least 5 different 8mm tapes used only once to record source.  Same problem.

- Resource issue?  I have a brand new HP M8330F designed specifically for this kind of use.   It has a Phenom quad processor, with 3GB memory and 640GM hard drive.  The Vista performance meters never show above 35% use in both memory and cpu usage.  Video capture is acheived via a ViXS Pure TV-U 48B0 card. 

- Another rub is that in the case of Studio I must bring the audio in via the standard HP system audio input.  When I Use Cyberlink DVD included with the system I can choose any of the various video or audio combinations (front or rear jacks). In Studio I can only see the ViXS card itself with no choices of the various jacks.  The only way the audio works in Studio is via the HP provided audio in jack.  To even get video in Studio I must first choose the video port via Cyberlink DVD.  If a competitor can allow me to choose and capture properly, both audio and video, I do not believe there is a driver issue, but more likely a software issue within Studio.

I really hope these issued get resolved as I am excited to get working on a few edits.  I have been using Studio products since AV, but I hate trying to get these working right on every new release.  It is painful.  I would jsut once like to load it, and configure it and be on my way!

I am now running into the same sound problem. I start my capture and everything is fine, however all of a sudden there is no audio being captured. If I stop and capturing the sound returns and I can start another capture try, but again after awhile the audio will stop recording again and no sound thru the speakers.

While its not 100% related, maybe you can give this a try. I've seen good results with this in previous similar situations.

Almost a year after the original post and it appears there is still no fix or real solution for this. Way to go Pinnacle! Well I have what appears to be the same issue. My machine is plenty capable, Quad core CPU, 4GB Ram, NVidia 8600 GT video card running Windows Vista. I am using Pinnacle studio plus 11 and capturing through a Pinnacle PCTV HD card. Yeah I know, I  know, 2 Pinnacle products and Vista it’s a miracle I got anything working!

Here is what I was seeing. In the preview window I could see the video and hear the sound great. As soon as I start a capture the sound is gone, I can no longer hear it and it does not capture any audio. I checked the capture settings and the video was set to Analog video, but the audio dropdown was empty. There were no choices, not my audio card or the pinnacle card. Everything seemed to indicate that my sound card was working fine, but I plugged in a microphone to make sure everything was ok.

Now this is kind of interesting my audio card detects when something is plugged in and it noticed the microphone being plugged in and enabled that input device. Now when I go into the Pinnacle studio capture settings my audio drop down has 2 choices; Analog Audio, and my sound card. I was hopeful and set the audio capture to analog audio and tried again, same result sound goes away. Then I set the capture to my microphone and tried capturing while talking into the mic, Hey I get audio and video!

In the end I ran the audio from my camcorder to the input jack of my sound card and ran the video through the pinnacle card and was able to capture video with audio. Too bad I wasted half a day reinstalling stinky software and trying different things to get this to work. Of course these things always happen on Saturday afternoon when there is no support!  (my guess is even on a week day your won’t get much help from Pinnacle).

We can all let Pinnacle know how we feel by simply not buying their crappy products. I have wasted more time trying to get Pinnacle’s @#*! Products to work than I care to talk about. I think when I upgrade my Photoshop Elements I’ll pick up  Premiere as well.

 

Can one of the Pinnacle Chaps - Still lend me a hand ?

 If not can someone, please be kind enough to advise on a different CC ?

 

J Lock:

Can one of the Pinnacle Chaps - Still lend me a hand ?

 If not can someone, please be kind enough to advise on a different CC ?

 

I have responded to your thread. Lets keep this one on topic and continue the discussion on yours.

Same issues trying to capture a dvd movie after upgrading from 9.4 to 11..

My setup - Using a Intel Media Series DG33TL, 2.4g Core2 Quad FSB 1333, 3GB DDR2 800 memory and a ATI All In Wonder X1800XL PCIe video card.

This setup worked Great with Pinnacle version 9,4 and then when I upgraded to 11, I ran into the same audio issues and all I got from tech support was they recommend I buy one of 'their' capture cards instead?! I don't think so..

I really didn't want to downgrade back to 9.4 so after several days of trouble shooting the audio issue between Studio 11 and my ATI card with no luck, I went out and bought a $8, 3ft Y-adapter RCA Left and Right Audio Cable with a 1/8in stereo phone plug on the other end from Radio Shack to plug into my 'Line In' jack on the back of my motherboard and totally bypassing my ATI All In Wonder audio ins but still using the S-video in on the ATI card for video capture..

I then selected the 'Line In' on the audio capture selection and proceeded.. I couldn't hear anything through my system speakers while it was capturing, but the left and right audio capture bars were moving the entire time of the capture and when I went to edit, the sound was all there, captured perfectly.

It's pretty sad that Pinnacle hasn't fixed this issue after all this time for the possible purpose of you having to buy their capture device as a fix to the problem.. I'll be sure to read the reviews before upgrading again..

 edited by: RVR2 at 10:44 (GMT -8) on Sun, Feb 22 2009]
I Missed this link..
http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pinnacle.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=15920
Currently testing it out and it looks like that fixed the problem!

 

 

RVR2:

Same issues trying to capture a dvd movie after upgrading from 9.4 to 11..

My setup - Using a Intel Media Series DG33TL, 2.4g Core2 Quad FSB 1333, 3GB DDR2 800 memory and a ATI All In Wonder X1800XL PCIe video card.

This setup worked Great with Pinnacle version 9,4 and then when I upgraded to 11, I ran into the same audio issues and all I got from tech support was they recommend I buy one of 'their' capture cards instead?! I don't think so..

I really didn't want to downgrade back to 9.4 so after several days of trouble shooting the audio issue between Studio 11 and my ATI card with no luck, I went out and bought a $8, 3ft Y-adapter RCA Left and Right Audio Cable with a 1/8in stereo phone plug on the other end from Radio Shack to plug into my 'Line In' jack on the back of my motherboard and totally bypassing my ATI All In Wonder audio ins but still using the S-video in on the ATI card for video capture..

I then selected the 'Line In' on the audio capture selection and proceeded.. I couldn't hear anything through my system speakers while it was capturing, but the left and right audio capture bars were moving the entire time of the capture and when I went to edit, the sound was all there, captured perfectly.

It's pretty sad that Pinnacle hasn't fixed this issue after all this time for the possible purpose of you having to buy their capture device as a fix to the problem.. I'll be sure to read the reviews before upgrading again..

 edited by: RVR2 at 10:44 (GMT -8) on Sun, Feb 22 2009]
I Missed this link..
http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pinnacle.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=15920
Currently testing it out and it looks like that fixed the problem!

Thanks for posting the FAQ link. I'm glad it worked for you.

I have this problem too and I've tried everything.  My CPU is fine, doesn't exceed 60%, I've tried writing to hard disk and DVD, all the quality settings and the same result.  I am using Instant DVD Recorder and there is not an option to choose a different audio source, please help! The above link that supposedly solved the problem is no longer valid??!!