Main Concept MPEG Encoder problem HELP!

[livedead13]

So I use Main Concept MPEG Encoder to capture video from my camcorder. I have it set to capture video as MPEG-2 DVD comliant. My computer is not good enough, nor is my hard drive big enough, to capture raw DV.

Anyway, I never used to have any problems with this program, but I have recently been having issues while transfering.

I can capture the first couple minutes of video, then I get an error that says: Capwrapper Error, cannot finish capture. When I playback the video that did get captured, the audio is very slow.

Has anyone ever had this problem and have a solution? It is driving me crazy.

Please help!

[Unidecker]

get vegas 6.0b and dump main concept it has it built in . and your problems will be gone.And capture as AVI which equals full quality DV. then render to mpg and wav. seperate streams

[livedead13]

I have Vegas 5, but I can't use it to capture because I don't have enough speed or space to work with raw DV or AVI files, and I can't afford to upgrade my computer.

Does Vegas 6 allow you to capture as MPEG-2?

[h_vargas]

ummm, actually, i would *think* it puts more strain on the PC to constantly try to convert an incoming video signal to DVD-compliant MPEG-2 format than to capture DV .AVI files (which require almost 13 GB of hard disk space per hour of footage). i say that because compressing to MPEG-2 on-the-fly is difficult if it's not being done with a dedicated piece of hardware (like a nice Canopus capture card). even then, the quality will be better to convert DV .AVI files to MPEG-2 using good software, as opposed to capturing to MPEG-2 on-the-fly, especially if you do any editing to the video.

the ScenalyzerLive capture software is great for capturing DV .AVI files, and i've read accounts from MANY people who use a slow 500 MHz computer to capture the DV .AVI files (with a decent sized hard disk, i.e. 40 GB or bigger is a good size) using this software. and i these very same people recount how they do not have issues like dropped frames, audio out of sync, etc. so it's obvious that with a good capture software like SCLive - which isn't a RAM hog - that even slower computers can handle the capture load of DV .AVI files with ease.

however, for your issue of not having enough space to capture DV .AVI files, you have several options. buy an additional hard drive for your computer (they're dropping in price constantly); or forget about DV .AVI files and don't bother with them, and try to work out issues with capturing to MPEG-2 on-the-fly.

if you really want to try to tackle the latter, then let's go there. what capture card/device are you using? what version of MainConcept are you using?

[Unidecker]

firewire is the only way worth capturing. the rest is analog nonsense.

[livedead13]

what capture card/device are you using? what version of MainConcept are you using?
Thanks for your reply.

I am going straight from my camcorder to my computer using firewire and I have the latest version of Main Concept 1.4.2

I have been using this set up for a while, and I have never had any problems untill recently. The quality of the "on-the-fly" MPEG-2 compression satisfies me just fine, and I think probably takes a lot less time capturing in MPEG-2 rather than having to convert after capturing DV. I really want to resolve this problem, as I can't invest any more money into any computer related stuff right now.

Thanks.