Tried to make the box work with analog from a VHS tape in a VCR player. My first attempt with MBD and analog. AL7.1 S1 recognized the VCR and the Movie Box, but only showed a gray screen with a bunch of diagonal lines at the top of the screen.

1. Moviebox Free Download

I let it digitize for a while and then stopped it. Playback in the inlays showed the same gray screen with diag lines. So it is digitizing what it is seeing, but it is not seeing what is on the VHS tape. (The VHS tape played perfectly on the VCR hooked to my TV). I tried a different VHS in the VCR hooked to the MBD and had the same screen with diag lines. I have read some 'rules ' about having only the MBD connected to a USB port. But I have several devices which operate off USB2.0 (Printer, headset, optical mouse, etc.) which I hate to give up.

In addition, because of my setup, accessability to these connections is difficult. Does anyone have a suggestion which will make the MBD work for analog? Anyone with a good solution to the 'nothing but MBD USB2.0 on the USB 2.0 ports? (By the way my motherboard has USB 2.0 built in and in addition I have a USB 2.0 board in a PCI slot and have tried the MBD in all the ports.

Also, the VHS is of a wedding and was shot by a pro wedding videographer. Any chance that the VHS is copy protected?) Thanks for any help. This can be hard to get right when you're first starting. It took me a while.

By the way, my computer has - and I'd bet many users' computers also have - two USB hubs. I have the BOB connected to one and a printer and external drive on the other. I used to capture from the BOB to the USB drive all the time. Maybe your Live Input settings aren't right for the inputs you wanted to use. Are you using EZCapture or the Logging Tool? Did you have a signal on the video input before you opened whichever one you're using? Knowing this information, I can give you some specific instructions to help you make sure your settings are right.

I ran a scan of all my drives and find compdrvbox.exe installed in my LE6.1 directory, but not in the AL7.1 SP1 directory which I was using. And I can find it in the AL 7.1 Installer download, as well as the AL7.1 SP1 download.

Question now is how do I install it? Do I reinstall drivers in Device Manager? Right now the MBD line in Device Mgr shows the Marvin driver and several others which were installed earlier using the Pinnacle Studio 9 MBDeluxe USB2.0 disc. I assumed the Marvin was an indication of all the right drivers. Maybe I'm wrong on that. Answering your other questions, I'm using Logging Tool.

I have the VCR on with inputs connected prior to clicking the Logging Tool. When I activate Logging Tool I get 'Live', Project name, and Rack in the top line above inlays. After digitizing for a minute, then stop digitizing, I get a clip in the Rack which plays back the grey screen with the diag lines at top. Thanks for helping unravel this mess. Looking forward to your next revelations.

In the Logging Tool, click on the icon next to where it says Live. That takes you to the control panel Player settings. Click on the Connections tab. Select Live on the left if it's not highlighted already. On the right, select which inputs you want for video and audio. You don't need a communications port for this, so disregard that setting.

For analog audio, you want Ch1 - Ch2. Once you've made the selections, click on the 'running man/exit' button. Make sure you have connected your VCR to the BOB and you have video running (even if it's just the blue screen some VCRs put out when idle) before opening the Logging Tool. If you don't see video in the capture window, close and reopen the Logging Tool.

If you're using s-video (Y/C) and you don't see video there, go back to the Player settings and select composite (CVBS), connect a composite input to the BOB and try again. The reason I suggest that is because when I first started with Liquid and the BOB, I had trouble with my favorite s-video cable. The connector housing was too large to allow it to fit completely into the jack (the connector's diameter wouldn't go into the recess on the BOB), so I had to switch cables. Between trying to figure out the settings and having a cable that wasn't going in all the way, I was having a lot of trouble.

If you also want to monitor the video and/or audio from the BOB's output, you'll also need to click on the Live Output icon along the bottom of the screen (below the timeline). If you put your mouse over it, the pop-up info will say Live Output.

Under Liquid Pro, select one of the three options. I've been told that it doesn't matter which one you select - that all outputs are live for any of the settings - but it's safer maybe to select the one you're connecting to. If you select anything under Liquid, the BOB output will turn off. If that doesn't get something to happen, let us know and we'll try something else.

I ran a scan of all my drives and find compdrvbox.exe installed in my LE6.1 directory, but not in the AL7.1 SP1 directory which I was using. And I can find it in the AL 7.1 Installer download, as well as the AL7.1 SP1 download. Question now is how do I install it? Do I reinstall drivers in Device Manager? Right now the MBD line in Device Mgr shows the Marvin driver and several others which were installed earlier using the Pinnacle Studio 9 MBDeluxe USB2.0 disc. I assumed the Marvin was an indication of all the right drivers. Maybe I'm wrong on that.

Dave, All I really know is what Liquid's Pro BOB uses. For the MBD, I don't know.

But to install the MBD drivers, you run compdrvbox.exe (use the one from the 7.1 SP1 update because it's the latest - assuming you're using Liquid 7). When the installer comes up, you'll have several selections to choose from. I'd say click on the MovieBox Deluxe option, then OK and let it do it's thing. If you haven't installed the drivers yet, doing this and also checking your Live Player settings like I suggested in another post should get you going. If the MBD drivers don't help, I remember some earlier posts saying that the 700-USB drivers were the ones to use for MBD. Since there's an option in the installer for MBD, I'm assuming that those would be the right ones now. Looking over this again, maybe I should be clearer about the driver installer.

That file won't be part of your Liquid installation in the Programs Avid. It will be in the updates that you've downloaded. I think it would be best to run the one from the latest update download (the 7.1 SP1 download). Run that file (compdrvbox.exe) and it will present you with the various BOB options.

This file is just one of the many that are run during an initial install or during an update. This one happens to install the BOB drivers. From what you've said, you may already have the drivers installed but they may have a problem or maybe there's something different about drivers for Liquid. Maybe there's nothing wrong with the drivers. Try the Live Player settings first and then the drivers.

After you install or reinstall the drivers, you'll probably have to recheck all the settings we're talking about again. Usually, those things get put back to defaults when there's a reinstall. Scott, I found the right compdrvmbox.exe and ran it, selected the Pinnacle Movie Box Deluxe option, which installed the drivers. In Device Manager a new entry for MBD now appeared, with the old entry remaining visible, but with the yellow exclamation mark. I checked the drivers in both and they were identical to each other. I then checked the details tab and for the yellow exclamation mark instance the entry for 'device instance id' was 'ROOT MEDIA 0000', whereas for the entry made by compdrvmbox.exe the 'device instance id' was 'USB VID2304&PID0206 5&1BEA6C5A&0&001'.

Not sure of the significance of this, but since Liquid did it, feel sure that it has a bearing on successful performance. I will not have a chance to try your other suggestions until later today or tonight, but will try to do them and will report back. I feel we are making progress and won't be surprised to see some video show up in the capture window soon.

Again, thanks for your generous help. Lew and Scott, I have tried as Lew suggested.

After running compdrvmbox.exe I looked in Device Manager and found the usual list of drivers in both Pinnacle Systems Moviebox Deluxe Devices under Sound, Video and Game Controllers (in both the yellow exclamation device instance and the normal device instance.) And I found Pinnacle Marvin Bus under System Devices. I then rebooted as suggested, but XP did not try to install the drivers. But after that Liquid still behaved as before, showing and capturing the green screen with lines at the top. I then took my VCR to my TV, hooked it up and ran it to be sure a picture was coming through the yellow, white and red cables.

It worked perfectly. I then tried the things Scott suggested and still get the green inlay with Logging Tool and Digitizer.

The things I have been calling diag lines are mostly horizontal and within them one can see what remind me of horizontal lines of video, but highly compressed in the top 3/8 inch of the top of the otherwise green inlay. The other thing I have learned is that I am getting audio through (I guess previously I had the speakers turned way down and the headset not being used.

Couldn't hear anything, so thought there was no audio. But there is.) I also notice that there are subtle changes in color of the lines at the top of the screen when there are major changes in the true video, which I can identify because of familiarity of where major scene changes are relative to the music. So I conclude that the problem is in the video part of my set-up or system. But at that point my inexperience with Liquid seems to stall me out. By the way, I have been using the DV (AVI) codec. Don't know whether that is right for analog. The manual lists codecs for analog, but does not provide any guidance on what to choose.

Moviebox Free Download

So, what shall I try next? I sure appreciate the help from both of you. Dave, Have you tried a different video input yet (S-video instead of composite or vice versa)? Make sure to change the Live Player setting to match which input you're connecting to. If it's s-video, make sure it's plugged in all the way. The first time I tried capture, my s-video cable connector was too large to plug into the BOB (the jack is recessed). It seemed like it was plugged in but it wasn't.

Only after I gave it a firm push did I start to see some video in the Logging Tool. Then I realized I'd have to use another cable with a smaller connector body. What you're describing sounds a lot like what I saw when I started out. That cable and the Live Player settings were the problem for me. The codec you choose for capture should have no effect on whether you're getting video through the MBD. Even before you start capture, you should see your video in the Logging Tool window if things are set up right. Have you opened up the device listings where you see the exclamation marks to 'update' the drivers?

The Marvin bus device sometimes shows a yellow exclamation when I update or reinstall Liquid. I have to open it up when that happens and 'update' the driver so that Windows will look up the files and finish installing them.

That might be the holdup in your installation. If the drivers are fully installed, you should not see any yellow exclamation marks in the Device Manager. Allow Windows to search for the drivers using the automatic option. Is your USB interface USB2? Have you updated your video card drivers? I don't have any experience with the MBD so I'm not sure what else to do.

Scott, Taking your suggestions paragraph by paragraph: My VCR was a top of the line Sony a couple of years ago, but surprising has no S-video input or output. The only i/o's ia yellow,white,red RCA plugs. I have tried two different cables with the same results, and one was the one I used to insure that the video and audio outputs were reaching my TV when I hooked it up. I have reseated the connectors numerous times. Thanks for the assurance on the codec matter. When I initiate Logging Tool I immediately get the green screen with lines at the top when I select the Reel. After running compdrvmbox.exe, when I get the device listing with the yellow exclamation marks, I also get a MBD device listing immediately below the yellow MBD listing, but which has no yellow exclamation mark.

I have been uninstalling the MBD device listing with the yellow exclamation mark and keeping the'normal' one. Both have the full contingent of device drivers which I've checked so many times I'm on the verge of having them memorized. My impression is that compdrvmbox.exe yellow marks the previous MBD device listing and adds its own new MBD device listing. I have also tried the 700-USB choice offered by compdrvmbox.exe to no avail.

My Abit IC7-MAX3 motherboard has four USB2.0 ports on the back panel. It also has two USB2.0 port headers mounted on the motherboard itself. In addition I have a USB2.0 PCI board installed. I did that because I read that the MBD and the Pro BOB like to have their own dedicated controller and I assumed that adding the board was also adding a controller, but that may not have been the best decision.

I have been using the MBD connected to this board for the tests reflected in this thread. Previously I have tried other ports without success. But we have tried some new ideas in this thread, so maybe it is time to again retry different USB2.0 ports. Based on what I've told you, do you have any idea if any port is the most likely to satisfy the MBD? My video card is an ATI Radeon X1600 AGP, which is new enough that I didn't consider the age of the driver to be a problem, but will now search for an update, just to be sure.

Once more, thanks for your help. It keeps me encouraged enough that I can keep trying.