Automatic capture stop

MSED

Newbie Joined: Apr 13, 2021 15:40 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Apr 13, 2021 15:51

I’m using Power Director 12 and a Diamond VC500 capture device connected to a VCR to digitize my VHS tapes. Most of the VHS tapes do not use the full amount of physical tape (for example I may have a 60-minute tape with only 20 minutes of recording). My question is how can I have the Power Director capturing process automatically stop when the VHS tape reaches the end of the recording rather than keep capturing to the end of the physical tape or until I manually stop the capture ? Is the DV Parameters-DV Auto Stop setting(s) used to do this and, if so, how ? Is there any other way of doing this ?
Thanks, in advance, for your help.

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Apr 13, 2021 19:54

Use your VCR to determine the time of capture.
Pop your tape in, set time on Vcr to zero, and fast forward till the counter stops. That is your timeline. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

MSED

Newbie Joined: Apr 13, 2021 15:40 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 13, 2021 20:14

Thanks for your reply, Barry.
I'm not sure I understand your reply.
I have many VHS tapes to digitize with each having different lengths of recordings on them so it would take a lot to time to use your suggested method if I understand it correctly.
Is there not a Power Director setting to automatically stop the capture if it encounters a section of 'blank' tape ? I had hoped the DV Parameters-DV Auto Stop setting(s) would do this.
Thanks

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Apr 14, 2021 05:51

VHS capture requires babysitting.
Not only for time, but also to be sure the old tape in an old machine does not get destroyed.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 14. 2021 05:52

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

MSED

Newbie Joined: Apr 13, 2021 15:40 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 14, 2021 11:31

Quote VHS capture requires babysitting.
Not only for time, but also to be sure the old tape in an old machine does not get destroyed.

So the bottom line is that there is no way to automatically stop the capture when it hits blank tape. Correct ?

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Apr 14, 2021 12:05

Quote So the bottom line is that there is no way to automatically stop the capture when it hits blank tape. Correct ?

Correct.
You can, however, set capture time or size limit, but you'd need to know the length beforehand.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 14. 2021 12:06

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

MSED

Newbie Joined: Apr 13, 2021 15:40 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 14, 2021 12:13

Quote
Correct.
You can, however, set capture time or size limit, but you'd need to know the length beforehand.

Thanks again for your replies on this, Barry.
It's disappointing that Power Director can't do this but so be it and on to the VHS babysitting.
Thanks again

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Apr 15, 2021 00:24

Quote It's disappointing that Power Director can't do this but so be it and on to the VHS babysitting.

This post may have the answer: https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/37971.page .