###############################################################################
# Copyright (c) 2010 by
# theothercliff at easycap.co.uk
# Contact me there for issues concerning this copyright.
#
# All rights reserved. See the end of this document for further details.
#
# Sorry about that, but I don't want someone grabbing my hard work
# and claiming it as their own.
###############################################################################
This will get your ULead VideoStudio SE DVD software running flawlessly on Windows XP SP2. It has been specifically written to avoid or fix problems such as low video resolution, overloaded CPU, too much disk space used by video files, funny frame rates, loss of ULead settings each time you run ULead, pesky ULead relink issues, etc.
Follow all the directions, in exact order, even if you know what you are doing. There are gotchas that will be avoided by following them all and in exact order.
Prerequisites:
= Windows XP SP2 (SP3 probably works too)
It may be possible to use a slight modification of this guide to install
on Windows 2000, 32 bit Vista or 32 bit Windows 7, but that is untested.
64 bit XP, Vista, and Windows 7 are also untested.
= The EasyCap USB hardware device itself
= The driver/program CD that it came with
mine is yellow and (among other things) says:
Model No: DC60
Version 2.1c
Installation & Application Software
You can use downloaded drivers, but these instructions won't fit exactly.
= A video source with either Composite or SVideo output and sound output
such as a VCR, DVD player, TV Set Top Box, Console Game, Camcorder, etc.
Yes, you really need this.SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER:
It is assumed that you have already successfully installed the EasyCap drivers, by using my instructions or by other means.
If you have anti-virus or anti-malware programs running, you may have to click a button on a pop-up to grant some or other permission on up to 1000 different things during the installation. You will find it much easier to temporarily disable your anti-virus and anti-malware programs before continuing if at all possible. For Comodo Firewall Pro, that is a right click on system tray icon -> Defense+ Security Level -> Disabled, but remember to enable it when you are finished. Otherwise, make sure that you allow permission on everything that is asked, quickly and accurately, and that you don't accidentally press some button underneath when you are clicking 1000 (not an exaggeration for COMODO Firewall Pro) pop-ups in a row.
Be patient, especially if you have a slow computer. I tested this on a new dual core 3ghz computer and progress was slow in places, even for it. A slow computer that is bogged down with malware, anti-virus and 20 things in the system tray will be painful. Generally if it hasn't moved for 15 minutes you should poke it with a stick to see if it is dead.
INSTALLING DIRECTX 9 AND ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO DVD SE:
Insert the EasyCap CD, and if autorun does not pop up a window that says "USB2.0 Video Adapter with Audio" with "Install Driver" (and other things) at the top right then do the following to get it to run. Run "Windows Explorer". In Windows Explorer, double click "My Computer" to expand it if it is not already expanded. Find your CD/DVD drive (it should have a label that says "EasyCAP_DC60") and double click that. In the right pane double click "Autorun" (a folder) then "HAutoRun.exe" (a program).
Just follow the directions for the DirectX 9 installation. Now that you have the "USB2.0 Video Adapter with Audio" window running, click "Install Directx 9". Select "I accept the agreement" and then click "Next>" on the "Installing Microsoft(R) DirectX(R)", "Welcome to setup for DirectX" window. Click "Next>" on the "Installing Microsoft(R) DirectX(R)", "DirectX setup" window. There may be one or two simple screens to Accept, Install, Next>, whatever on, I don't know because my computer already has DirectX on it so this is all it did on my computer. Click "Finish" on the "Installing Microsoft(R) DirectX(R)", "Installation Complete" window. Do not close any other window yet.
Just follow the directions for the installation of ULead VideoStudio DVD SE, but we will configure it later, in the section titled "CONFIGURING AND CAPTURING VIDEO WITH ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO DVD SE". Now that you have the "USB2.0 Video Adapter with Audio" window running, click "Install Video Studio". Select your language and press "Next>" on the ULead VideoStudio SE DVD - Installshield Wizard" window. Click "Next>" on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for ULead VideoStudio SE DVD" window. Select "I accept the terms of the license agreement" and click "Next>" on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "License Agreement" window. Enter or change the name and company if desired and key in the Serial Number (from the paper envelope that the CD came in) on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "User Information" window. The serial number is the second line on the back. It is in bigger, darker letters. Later, when you are done with this install, you may want to write that number on the CD in indelible marker against the day that you loose or damage that paper CD cover. The serial number is your license. You may even be able to find a copy of the CD online somewhere, but you will need the serial number to install ULead. Leave the "Destination Folder" alone and click "Next>" on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "Choose Destination Location" window. Select either your country or your video standard and click "Next>" on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "TV System" window. click "Next>" on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "Start Copying Files" window. Make sure that you don't have any important programs running before continuing as the next step reboots the computer. If you are reading this online, remember how to get back to it to finish up after rebooting. then select "Yes, I want to restart my computer now" and click "Finish" on the "ULead VideoStudio SE DVD", "InstallShield Wizard Complete" window.
CONFIGURING AND CAPTURING VIDEO WITH ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO DVD SE:
These settings are optimized to allow capture of full resolution video that has a lot of motion while previewing the capture at the same time. Disk space usage is only a second consideration and is thus fairly high. If you want to post these videos directly on the web you will have to re-encode them to a much smaller size. This usually cannot be done in "real time" so it does not work for the video capture phase. Be aware though that most video web sites like vimeo and youtube will happily accept these large videos and will compress them down for you so that they can be watched on the web.
I prefer to capture to MPEG2 (*.mpg files) as it gives a compromise between needing a fast CPU on one end and taking a lot of disk space on the other end. It allows recording at the full 640x480@30 or 640x576@25 resolution of the EasyCap. It is also a standard that all computers can play and is the base format for the video on factory movies sold on DVD. The settings I use were able to record and simultaneously display full screen on an old 1.7Ghz (single core, 32 bit) laptop that I had.
After rebooting, run Ulead by double clicking the "Ulead VideoStudio SE DVD" icon on your desktop. If your computer screen resolution is less than 1024x768, ULead will complain and refuse to run. In that case right click on an unused area on your desktop and select "Properties" and then the "Settings" tab. Change the "Screen Resolution" slider to "1024 by 768 pixels" and click OK. You may have to accept the resolution if you have never used it before. This is so that if the display becomes unreadable it will time out and go back to your original setting.
You are now running ULead. Click on the words "VideoStudio Editor" in the "VideoStudio" startup window. After a little while the main "ULead VideoStudio (Untitled, DVD ... )" window will come up and then the "Registration" window will come up. Either click "Register Now" and do the registration (I can't help you there) or check the "Don't show again" check box (if you don't want it to bother you again) and click "Register Later".
Click the "Capture" tab at the top to go to the Capture section for configuration and capturing of video. First make sure that you have a running video and audio signal connected to your EasyCap device as you had before and then plug the EasyCap in to your PC. Wait for the connect tones, then click "Capture Video" in the middle of the window. After a short wait, a small window titled "Change Field Order" will pop up (just this first time) and begin auto detecting the field order. When it is finished (Processing completed. 100%) click "OK". The video pane in the upper left of the window should now show the video you are connected to.
Do the following to configure it to use a compromise of mpeg2 video settings. Select DVD in the "Format" drop down list in the middle of the screen. There will be a little while after that where it will seem to be locked up. Be patient. Change the "Capture folder" if you want to. I generally make a new directory; something easy like "C:\Videos", but you may want to stick to the "My Documents\Ulead VideoStudio SE\10.0" if that suits the way you do things better. Click "Options" in the middle right side of the window, select "Capture Options...", check the "Display Source Volume Panel while capturing" check box, uncheck the "Capture to Library" check box, and press OK. Click "Options" in the middle right side of the window again, but this time select "Video and Audio Capture Property Settings...". Now we will configure the capture bit rates, resolutions, etc. If you want to hear the sound while you watch the video while you are capturing video, check the "Preview Audio with USB device" check box. This is probably bad for live video (causes feedback) like from a camcorder, but good for all other video sources. Click the "Capture" tab at the top of this "Video and Audio Capture Property Settings" window and move the Speed / Quality slider to the right till it says 90%. Click the "Advanced" button at the bottom and check the "Deinterlace Output" check box. Later, you may want to come back to this page and play with the "Video bit rate - Bit rate value" and to a much lesser extent the "Audio - Bit rate" to adjust the compromise between CPU usage and disk space usage per minute of video. These settings use about 1 megabyte of disk space per second (3.6 gigabytes per hour). I recall that I selected MPEG instead of DVD, 640x480 instead of 720x480, 6000 video and 112 audio, and got a rate a good bit less than 1 megabyte per second. Know that this high video bit rate is really only necessary if the video has a lot of motion in it. Finally click "OK" and "OK" again and you are back at the main capture screen with audio now enabled (if you enabled "Preview Audio with USB device").
Do the following to configure some settings that work better for people that capture a lot of video rather than do a lot of video editing. In the very upper left of the window click the "File" drop down list and then "Preferences". Uncheck the "Relink checking" and "Check Ulead web site every X days" check boxes and click the "OK" button. Now we are going to save all these settings in a link on the Desktop so we don't have to set up ULead every time we use it. In the very upper left of the window click the "File" drop down list and then "Save As". Select "Desktop" from the "Save in" drop down list of the "Save As" window. Click in the "File name" box and type a name like maybe "Ulead Capture" (without the quotes) and click the "Save" button. Exit ULead by clicking the X in the upper right corner of the main ULead window. Now we are going to write protect this desktop link so that we don't accidentally change it in the future. On the desktop, right click the "Ulead Capture.VSP" or whatever you named your "Save As". Check the "Read-only" box and click "OK". If you ever want to change or delete this icon you will need to uncheck "Read-only".
Now when ever you want to capture some video you just double click this icon and you automatically get all the settings we did to ULead. Try it. Double click this icon and see ULead come back up. Click the "Capture" tab at the top left, then the "Capture Video" phrase in the middle of the window. You should now be previewing (but not capturing) video (with sound if you enabled audio preview). Click the blinking "Capture Video" phrase in the middle of the main window to start capturing. Click the button just below the video pane on the lower right corner of the video pane and that has help text "Full Screen" to go to full screen if you want to. Press the ESC key to get out of full screen and press the ESC key again to stop the capture. Stop ULead by pressing the X button in the upper right of the main window. Save changes to Ulead Capture.VSP? No. This is the icon that we marked read-only a little while back. If you really want to save your changes, you will probably want to do a "File", "Save As" to a different icon.
To verify that your capture worked and that you can play it back, bring up Windows Explorer and navigate to wherever you told it you wanted to save the videos when we were configuring. Double click the file named something like "uvs100828-002.MPG". Note that this file name is the date followed by a number. For the above example it was 2010 August 28.
If the playback is jerky you may want to decrease the quality slider as your CPU probably can't keep up while recording. If the files are too large, decrease the video bitrate, but watch out for jerkiness or loss of quality. If the picture quality is less than you need, increase first the quality slider, then the bitrate. When you get something that works well, do a "Save As" to another desktop icon as detailed above (I think I recall that the compression settings are stored in the VSP file).
I hope that this detailed installation document has got your ULead VideoStudio DVD SE running as smoothly as mine does.
Cliff
###############################################################################
# Copyright (c) 2010 by
# theothercliff at easycap.co.uk
# Contact me there for issues concerning this copyright.
#
# All rights reserved with the following exceptions. Copyright terms are
# subject to change. Contact me before hand to attempt to arrange
# permission to publish this anywhere or link to it. Written or
# digital copies are only allowed one per person and then only for
# personal use. Written permission from me on a physical, paper
# document is required before non personal use is made of this document.
# For instance, this document may not be linked to or included
# in any written or digital document produced by any company for any
# reason (without prior permission). If the owners of the web pages
# I publish this on do not like this copyright, they must delete the
# entire document and any portions of it copied elsewhere on their site.
# Failure to enforce this copyright in any particular case does not imply
# consent to ignore it in any other case.
#
# Sorry about that, but I don't want someone grabbing my hard work
# and claiming it as their own.
###############################################################################
