Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac

Question

Level 2

177 points

Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac

After talking with a bunch of salesmen (considering getting a DvD writer), I took the advice of someone in the Apple Store and bought a Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac to copy my laserdiscs. It was $100 before tax, and didn't do stuff I don't plan on doing anyway. I did spend another $25 to get an S-video cable.

I installed the software and connected it up to my LD. I started capturing the movie, and selected S-Video (although in the small window they showed, I didn't see any difference between that and video out. I selected a max time from a limited selection, and let it record.

After a while, I went downstairs and saw that the audio and video were not synchronized at all. I let it continue.

After a while I came down again, and the movie was finished, so I stopped it. I found the MP4 - it was in the iTunes movie directory, and played it in iTunes. I fast-forwarded it to near the end, the voice and video were way off-set.

I haven't tried burning this yet.

Quicktime player doesn't think this is a valid movie file. I selected "open with" and "other" and the recommended applications had iMovie greyed out.

Why in the world would the audio and video record at different speeds?

Do I have to buy software to edit the movie down to the correct size?

My Mac has:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version: 1.21f4

I noticed the Pinacle Video Capture program was still running, so I tried to quit it, and got a window asking for my administrator ID and passsword to allow Pinnacle Video Capture to make changes. Why?

24" iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.1), Home workgroup

Posted on Jul 6, 2008 6:22 PM

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Answer 1

bompi

Level 1

10 points

Jul 26, 2008 8:52 AM in response to Howard Brazee

HI.

I ran into exactly the same problem yesterday evening. I used the Pinnacle Video Capture plugged into my 800 MHz iBook (more than enough since the lowest frequency required is 500 MHz) and finally got my recording w/ audio and video not synchronised.

Next time I'll use my PowerBook, just in case : the problem may occur because the Mac CPU isn't powerful enough (when saving the file ?)

Anyway, while slightly annoyed by the issue, I'm glad enough to have found QTSync (here : http://www.qtsync.com/qtsync.php). Simple, free : in a snap I got a synchronised recording. You should give a try.

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Answer 2

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Jul 7, 2008 4:09 AM in response to Howard Brazee

Audio and video do drift as the time samples are not locked together in most formats.

Try using iMovie to capture the material rather than the Pinnacle software. And, you can try to capture in smaller increments - 15 minute chunks seems to work well. You can stitch the segments back together in iMovie once the capture is complete.

Good luck.

x

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Answer 3

MartinR

Level 7

25,460 points

Jul 7, 2008 7:42 AM in response to Howard Brazee

The audio drifted out of sync because the Dazzle doesn't support locked audio. For short videos (say, under 10 minutes) this won't be very noticeable but when you capture longer videos it becomes progressively worse over time.

What do you want to do with your Laserdisk copies? Watch them on your iPod? Edit and/or burn to DVD?

A device like the Canopus ADVC-110 will do the video/audio conversion properly, keeping the audio and video in sync regardless of the length of your video. It converts to DV, not to MP4, and you would use it with iMovie or Final Cut (not iTunes). However you can export your video from iMovie or Final Cut to iPod/AppleTV formats.

The Dazzle device will not work directly with iMovie or Final Cut.

ps. If all you really want to do is transfer your Laserdisc videos to DVDs, it will be a whole lot faster & simpler to get a DVD player/recorder that has analog inputs and record directly to DVDs. There are many brands & models to choose from and many good ones are as inexpensive as the $100 you spent on the Pinnacle converter.

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Answer 4

Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

177 points

Jul 7, 2008 9:15 AM in response to MartinR

That means that on the recommendation of the Apple salesman, I wasted $108.11 on a product I bought from the Apple store and $24.89 that I spent on a cable at Radio Shack.

The reason I bought this product was to back up my laserdiscs so that I could see my movies when my obsolete player finally gives up the ghost. My son's laserdisc already died.

I asked about the Canopus, and told him that I had no desire to watch TV on my Mac, which is why he recommended the cheaper product.

Neither one of us guessed that there was a market for video that didn't have audio locked with it. I still have no idea who would be satisfied with it, but since both of my local Apple stores sell it, Apple must believe in that product, (although there are far less charitable explanations available).

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Answer 5

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Jul 7, 2008 4:32 PM in response to Howard Brazee

IMO.

I'd agree with Martin's advice on a DVD recorder, simple, relatively inexpensive, and you have a spare recorder/player. Hard drive DVD recorders are worth a look as well, you can do do a lot more stuff with them.

You will also find that most DVD recorders can set the compression rate so you can get longer times on a single disc without loosing too much quality. Up to 8 hours on a single sided 4.7 disc.

As I recall some Laser disc movies required up to 3 sides to view a complete movie. I'd seriously look at a hard drive model that can do basic editing and titling.

Al

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Answer 6

Howard Brazee Author

Level 2

177 points

Jul 7, 2008 6:44 PM in response to Alchroma

I had considered that, but I never recorded anything with a VCR, and figured I didn't need another DvD player until I can afford Blu-Ray. At any rate I spent the money on the Pinnacle, either I find out how to use it, or I return it for some of the money for an upgrade. I also spent money on the S-cable which I expect is money I won't see it.

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