I Have a Pinnacle PCTV Rage that is about a year old and want to make SVCDs. I tried recording AVIs and converting them with TMPGenc but got very frustrated with it as I can only do a few minutes at a time as the thing stops when it gets to a certain file size, and the encoding takes all night and I end up with an SVCD which plays alright bu the sound is out of sync. I think I might do better with real time encoding which the new version 5 software for PCTV is set up for, but the capture format is 'locked' and I can't click on the SVCD choice. I have installed the 5.10 update but it still does not work....... is this because I only have 'PCTV Rage' and need to get 'PCTV' or 'PCTV Pro' card instead?
Will uLead DVD Workshop work with any of the Pinnacle cards, or any similar 'cheap and cheerfull' cards?
My computer is self assembled Athlon 1.3 Gig (pre-XP), 512 Meg SDRAM, 40 Gig 7K RPM hard drive.
I need to do this at a reasonable cost to keep my lady friend happy!

Advice:

Get rid of those horrible Pinnacle drivers and make yourself a promise never to buy any Pinnacle product again. (That's what I did, and it still feels good).
The out-of-sync problem is a Pinnacle problem and they refuse to even try to create good drivers.
While the hardware is oke, the software stinks.

Go for them btwincap drivers !
Go get VirtualDub !

I have a self assembled computer. The basis is a Soyo Dragon motherboard, P4 2,4 CPU, 512DDR Mozel RAM, and 3 Western Digital 120GB SE drives. Added to this, my several years old PCTV Pro card. I have had too many kind of computers through the years, and always struggled with this PCTV Pro card. TV is OK, but the problemīs always been the sync. Now it is finally working PERFECT. I installed the latest 5.1 drivers from Pinnacle. Still had some problems. But then - almost in pure desperation I decided to try the InterVideo WinDVR. And that made the trick!! Now I am able to capture directly to any quality MPEG - with perfect sound/image sync!! Itīs a cheap piece of software, and worth every penny!! And no - I donīt work for InterVideo I simply wanted to share my experience with this software. I have tried every piece of crap there is out there, and I havenīt found any other working OK with the PCTV Pro. Not as nicely as this one. And itīs not a drawback itīs also very easy to set up properly, no more messing around with countless settings in the software, and also - using this one, I donīt have to do any changes with the files after I am finished capturing, I can write them directly to a CD.

Thanks Baldyman I am going to find InterVideo WinDVR and will try using that. It sounds like the answer to my prayers!

I would totally agree that pinnacle are the worst company ever!!!!!! I will never purchase a pinnacle product ever again and i would warn others against it also. I have just had the worst experiences with them and everytime you look for a solution to a problem with their products all they do is suggest spending more money on their crap.

Yeah, I donīt disagree with you there - Pinnacleīs support is by far the worst I have ever experienced.

But for the people out there already having a Pinnacle card of some kind, InterVideoīs WinDVR might just be the piece of software they need to make the card working properly. I mean, compared to WinDVR the bundled software the card is released with is simply a joke!! I am not disputing Pinnacle might be the worst, I am simply saying the PCTV Pro is actually capable of producing quite nice MPEG if being used with the right piece of software. After all, the PCTV Pro card is not a "high quality" capture card, TV & Radio is the main functions.

WinDVR has totally changed the way I use my computer, and now I am actually having fun with video!! I can schedule my captures all around the clock now, and capture being done directly to SVCD or DVD I donīt need to hazzle too much with the files before transfering them to CDīs.

To clean up the files before using the CD-writer I use Mediaware M2-edit Pro to cut them where I need to do so. M2-edit Pro is also a piece of software which is easy to learn how to deal with, just like the WinDVR.

For too many years now I have been fiddling around with video on my computers, testing all the software I could find - as always in search for the "ultimate" solution. Of course itīs a nice hobby to have, testing different kind of software all the time, installing, deleting, doing it all over again with different settings .... tuning memory settings, drivers ... what have you!! The list is endless - I am sure you all know what I am talking about. The search for the setup that give us sound & image sync, and at the same time is affordable and easy enough to actually put into daily use.

Pinnacle PCTV Pro + WinDVR + Mediaware M2-edit Pro = a bundle I safely can recommend!!

Yes if you want to capture High Quality Mpeg1/2 files Use "WinDVR or WinCoder" they are the best mpeg capture programs I have tried and I have tried them ALL...accept what I do is encode at Super high bitrates then encode the mpeg file with CCE 2.64 useing AVISynth..and Get Really good quality considering I"m captureing 15 year old VHS Tapes at 352 by 240...

Hi,

Virtualdub frameservice is very easy too.

Capture AVI (use not divx but MJPEG or Mainconcept codec 100-200MB/min) and load it to Virtualdub, use any of dozens of filters and frameserve it to Mainconcept 1.1 encoder (or CCE if You have extra dollars enough).

MC can do resize too unlike CCE.

Well I've been playing with the WinDVR all weekend and have produced several good quality SVCD recordings. The sound is in perfect sync when I play it back on the computer, but is slightly out when I burn it using Nero and play it back on my DVD player. Maybe if I do the De-mux Re-mux thing in TMPGenc that will sort it out. The amount the sound is out is only very small, in the region of 20 Millisec.s, and I've an idea it might be because I'm using the onboard sound card. I'll try getting a PCI one and see if that makes any difference if the TMPGenc doesn't work.
I'm nearly there and I won't give up!