I know this is not the right forum for this thread (I dont know where to post it) but I hopefully some-one can help or move it accordingly.

I'm trying to get all our family Video's on to my computer in order to burn them to DVD. I have connected the video to my (old) Hauppage WinTV card via the composite connector and they play fine on the computer with the WinTV2000 player program direct from the player.

However, when I try to capture them with Nero or Windows (XP) Movie Maker I get a periodic system crash (not a lock up but a blue screen and memory dump etc etc) requiring an unplug and reboot. Both Nero and Movie Maker are using the Hauppage capture device. It seems to happen whenever there is a loss of "signal" from the video (ie: a scene change) which are frequent and unpredictable with our home video's. The blue screen of death (which I didn't know happened with XP) threatens all sorts of damage and Lord knows what which is scary!

I would be so grateful If some-one could help me with this. I've been struggling with it for weeks. I suspect the Hauppage driver (its up to date). Is there an alternative driver if this is the cause?The graphics card is an Nvidia5700 with the latest driver and I'm running XP Home.

If I changed my TV card which is the best one to buy?

Thanks in anticipation.

Does this crashing problem persist if you try to capture using vitrualdub?

(If you don't know about virtualdub, you should know that it is free software. You don't have to pay anything.)

Just use File > Capture AVI and see see if it captures properly. It's possible that crappy software is holding you back.

As to changing your TV card, the ATI capture cards have a good reputation, though mine is a higher end Canopus ADVC-100 that I love dearly. There are also some capture devices from Plextor and ADS that have reasonbly good reputations.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

VitualDub works perfectly! Its perfectly stable. I'm realy grateful to you. I cant believe, after all these weeks of struggle, (reinstaling drivers, rebooting, loss of audio etc) that the might of Microsoft and Ahead have caused me so much grief and that this guy wrote VirtualDub whilst he was at college!

This has been a lesson to me. Just because a program costs a fortune and looks flash doen't mean its the best.

I have a similar (but yet diffrent) problem. My Hauppauge is the PRV250 and I am attempting to use Nero Ultra 6 software. Yet when I try to capture my video I get the message the capture device is in use, please close other program. How do I find out what programs are using my capture device? I have been searching for the answer but am not having any luck TIA

SilverPony- I'd start a new thred with this one if I were you. I'm no expert but if you are running WindowsXP hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL will open the Task Manager from which you can see all your running programs and processes. Also, take Jucius Maximus's excellent advice as above. Worked for me.

Hey All.....

Here's a cheap way out especially for home video. Get V-Stream X-Pert DVD Maker. Comes with Power Producer 2 Gold & PVR Plus. You can get it new or refurbed from www.newegg.com for around $27.00 new and $22.00 refurb. I got the refurb and it works great.

Mark

Excellent, I am glad that you are in business!

And yes, more people need to learn that you don't necesssarily get what you pay for in the software world.

Which forum would you suggest I start a new thread in? I know ctrl+alt+del will show which programs are running, just don't know which one to stop. I am pretty good at hardware stuff, but not so hot in the software department. I can never figure out what doesn't need to be up and running all the time!

Hey Silver....

I'd try this http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdispla...aysprune=&f=59

it's the recording forum. There you can be generic or go into the Nero forum.

Mark

I found my answer! The PVR250 does not allow video capture by a 3rd party software so I have to use the software that came with the card. Thanks for the help