Hi, Ryan!

This subject has been dealt with at length in the PD14 forum. The situation you have is where dirty tape in your VHS deck is triggering a false "copyright protected - recording is prohibited" warning at any point along the tape where dirt or damage to the tape itself is caused. This is not the fault of the software, your computer or your VHS recorder, though it can't hurt to run a cleaning tape through the VHS recorder to clean the heads after this incident. The PD8 programme bundled in with your capture device will, however, be a "bare-bones" version with many if its features unavailable. The full version has been long deleted from the catalogues and is no longer available, but you may be lucky to find a copy at some "bargain basement" shop or warehouse that sells to the public. Failing that you can always go for the later versions of Power Director. PD13 may still be available but 14 is the current version, and yes, your USB capture device will work with the newer PD versions because it is essentially a "plug-and-play" device.

Cheers!

Neil.

Thanks Neil , I guess if my tapes have all been gathering dust in my basement this is going to keep happening, hmmm not sure what t do about that, just try and clean them from the outside I guess.

Is PD14 a good idea if I have Windows 7 and just an integrated graphics chip? I figured with my old computer the older version would go easy on it.

Quote: Thanks Neil , I guess if my tapes have all been gathering dust in my basement this is going to keep happening, hmmm not sure what t do about that, just try and clean them from the outside I guess.

Is PD14 a good idea if I have Windows 7 and just an integrated graphics chip? I figured with my old computer the older version would go easy on it.

Hi, Ryan!

You shouldn't have any problem with PD14 on Windows 7. My computer also runs W7 and I have PD14 Ultra. Something I should've mentioned but forgot to tell you is that I also have PD8 Ultra on the same computer. Unlike PD7 or 8, any later version of Power Director(Version 9 through to 14) will allow a previous version to remain installed and will not ask you to first uninstall the earlier version before installing the newer version. I've found this useful in that with PD8 I can burn my DVDs at DVD-SP profile and pack close to 2-and-a-half hours worth of content onto them, wheras with PD14 I can only choose between DVD-HQ and "Smart Fit" If I want DVD-SP in PD14 then I'm restricted to 4:3 aspect ratio content, but I'm hooked on wide-screen 16:9 so it's PD8 for my DVD burning. As for cleaning VHS tapes, there was a device put out some years ago that cleaned the tapes. I forget the exact workings of these devices but video libraries used to have them(maybe there are some still out there, somewhere), and I think there were cleaners also sold to the public. There were also VHS tape rewinders(if you have one, you may be able to adapt it to clean your tapes as you rewind them). Remember those days when you hired a movie for the night, the cassette itself or the presentation box it came in would have a sticker saying "please rewind before returning to library"? Those rewinders were for those who hired out multiple tapes(movies) and while one was playing, another was rewinding. Just a thought. If you hunt around second-hand shops or recycling centres, you may find one or the other.

Cheers!

Neil.