Hi. I purchased a TV tuner with my Inspiron 1520; I haven't much used the TV tuner to date. It's the TVT8 external USB tuner, aka a Lumanate Wave.

 

Now, I want to digitize a few VHS tapes, so I thought I'd try the TV tuner as a means to do so.

 

I have the VCR connected via its composite video output (RCA connector) to the corresponding input on the Lumanate.

 

Now, for software.  Media Center will play back the signal, though of course it thinks it's live TV. Thus all the cabling is good, channel settings are appropriate, etc.  But it will not record.

 

I don't think this is copy protection kicking in; it's a really old VCR (~1990) and besides which I don't think the tape in question would be likely to have copy protection; it was not a commercially issued tape.  And in any case, doesn't Macrovision just degrade the signal?

 

I've tried looking around for any other 'recording' software but have found nothing that will support this tuner.

 

So I have two questions:

 

1)  How should I/can I get Media Center to record?

 

2)  Is there any other recorder software that supports this device?  (I tried SnappySoft from the Lumanate web site, which sounded like it ought to do the job, but it did nothing except eat virtual memory and then die).

 

OS is Vista Home Premium, now at SP1 level.