Sunday, September 14, 2008

Capturing Makes me Feel Alive


So yesterday new episodes of Sushi Pack and AiCaL came out.  As you know from reading my blog, these two shows are my bread and butter.  However, I despaired because I knew that while I could watch them, I could not capture them (or When Will Ben be Zen/Wharf City on the Half Shell).  
You see, back in July I got a new laptop, but unfortunately, my USB TV tuner stick (a Pinnacle, you may recall) didn't work with it.  Oh, it could read digital TV signals just fine (or as fine as it ever did), but it wouldn't capture analog input.  And since I captured through my VCR, that was a big problem for me.  So I spent some time doing research, and finally decided to get an AverMedia DVD EZmaker USB Gold capture device, since that was (as far as I could tell) the best capture device that works with Vista.  Meanwhile, however, the main TV decided to implode one fateful Saturday, and my father took the opportunity to upgrade to HDTV.  Which meant that the actual TV was in flux for a while as things got set up and kinks got ironed out.  But finally I had my device and the TV was set, and I got ready to capture.  Only to come up with nothing.
At first, I wasn't sure what was going on, I could only feel crushing despair at having my hopes dashed.  But then I decided to try using the new device in my old laptop (which I still have, but it only actually works for about 10 to 20 minutes at a time), and see if the problem was Vista or not.  But still, I got nothing.  So then I tried using my Pinnacle to see if maybe the problem was the VCR, and when nothing came up, I knew that the solution was near.  Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about setting VCRs or TVs, so I called on my father, and he was able to come up with a solution.  It had something to do with the line in not being the right thing, which is odd, because with the old TV, I always used the line-in and it was just fine, so I don't really know what was different.  But I was able to capture, and now I'm working on editing, and it feels great.

1 comment:

Wade Brandis said...

To capture TV, I just use a Sony DVD Recorder, which is hooked into my DVD/VCR unit, which gets its signal from a small cable box (at college), or a satellite receiver. I then use a DVD-RW disc to record content I want to digitize, and use my Toshiba Laptop, "Wendell" to rip the DVD and encode it.

Question time! :P Two questions for you....what caused the old TV to stop working? Also, what brand is your VCR?

I like HDTV, but I believe flat panel TV sets are good only for HD content, and most of my animated content is either on DVD or VHS. I also play older video games like SNES and Genesis, which look far better on an old tube TV set like my RCA set.