A: This only happens with Win98SE and WinME, and it is caused by a bug in a DLL of Microsoft. I have provided a patch in the download section for WinME. This will NOT happen if you use a DirectShow based video capture application such as Ulead Media Studio, or Ulead Video Studio. Unfortunately, Adobe premiere is NOT a DirectShow capture application. TIP: I have recently found that clicking on the task bar twice (means, outside of the capture app.) does unlock the computer and allows video capture to finish properly. Donīt know why , but it works for me!

A: Simply, due to a flaw in VideoForWindows compatibility layer with DirectShow, sometimes you donīt get the overlay window working. Please, use Preview instead of overlay. The chipset canīt support Overlay mode and capturing video simultaneously unless both are at the same resolution and colordepth - space, or both are set to provide images of less than half the maximum height allowable for the current analog video standard. Thereīs a simple reason: One of the video fields can be used for preview, and the other can be used to be captured. If you set the size of the image to be captured to be more than half the maximum height, both fields are required to be captured to achieve that size, so no field is available to get preview with it.

A: When I designed the driver, I decided not to restrict the maximum achievable resolution by the chipset in the driver. So, if you donīt like this aspect ratio, simply select another resolution in your favorite capture/view app.

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A: This is a problem with your video app. The program is listing ALL the formats the driver supports, without taking into account that some of them are unavailable because they donīt apply to the current video standard (NTSC, PAL, etc) that the video decoder is using right now. DirectShow SDK tells somewhere that you must check that the format is available to the current video standard. Nevertheless, the driver will function properly, but if you capture at a frame resolution higher than supported, or at a framerate higher than allowed, you will probably dropped frames or a black border to the right of the image. Simply tell the app. author to fix it. I am doing it the right way.

A: When you start capturing video, and you have set your capture application (probably directShow based) to capture at more then half maximum vertical available resolution for the current analog video standard your videosource is broadcasting, both fields (even and odd) of the video frame are achieve the requested capture resolution , leaving no idle field to get preview. So you donīt get it!. But, despite of not getting a preview, you will capture the videosquence without problems. I have to say that this could be solved using an SmartTee (If you donīt know what an SmartTee is, donīt worry: Itīs the name of a DirectShow filter) , but this has to be taken into account in the User capture application... Maybe, the programmer/s of the video app you are using can add this feature to their programs. This is the way it should be solved.

A: The driver implements the TVAudio interfase to get/set this option. The app. you are using should let you pick the mode. Now, as a bonus, I have modified AMCap to let you set it. I have also provided the modified source code of it, so ... Hope it helps to bring that option to all the other apps! - See the Download Section.

A: To compile the source code, all you need is a working installation of a C compiler for windows (Recommended Visual Studio 6.0, other setups untested). Also you will need the Windows2000 SDK installed properly in your system. Nothing more is required. All source files and libraries are provided. Note that you MUST use the BUILD command line utility of the Win2000 SDK to build the driver. The project provided to be used inside Visual Studio is only provided to edit/modify the source code. But NOT to compile the driver. I think the BUILD utility is the supported and best choice to get the driver compiled properly.

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A: Seems that the TV tuner model/brand selected at installation was incorrect. Here is some advice to try to guess the tuner type/brand if you donīt know... Try to determine tuner brand selecting one of the Temic, Philips or Alps Models ... If channel does change when you change it, you have successfully determined tuner brand. (It does not matter if the channel tuned is not the one you selected, the only thing important for tuner brand determination is that channel must change when you change it. Now that you have determined the tuner type, you must select the tuner model (The brand is already found, except if the brand selected was Philips, because it can be also LG). You must select the tuner model that makes the video application program show exactly the TV channel you have selected. Note that all this process is a trial and error one, and it requires reinstallation of the driver each time. Unfortunately, this canīt be done automatically, except with a very few cards (like Hauppauge or Miro)

A: Unfortunately, there is no standard specification under WDM to let the user apps. handle and recognize the remote control. It is obviously a proprietary API implemented by the manufacturer of each card. And if I donīt have the specification of this API, I canīt support it - Sorry.

A: There are 3 possible answers to this:

• First, your choice of the card model at installation time does not reflect the model you actually have. Reinstall the driver, and this time, pick the right one.
• Second, Your card is unsupported. If you have the technical info (ICs onboard) and how to switch audio, we could add it to the driver database. Else, you will have to be satisfied with video , but not audio output.
• Third: There is a bug in the driver. You can mail me if you suspect that.

A: This problem will be solved by reinstalling the driver.

A: This option can be used to remove ANY driver that was previously installed to handle your Video capture card. This will let you install ANY driver (maybe my driver, maybe a vendor specific driver). This option gets rid of all the inf files that can be used by Windows to install a Driver for a Bt8xx based board, and may help to ensure that ONLY the driver you plan to install will be the actually installed driver (Yes, Windows Can and Will choose the "right" driver to install for a given piece of hardware checking the inf files, and will choose the most recent driver, or a signed one, but this chosen driver could be different from one you specify at installation time). So if you remove all the previously installed infs, you will ensure that the driver to be installed is the one that you have chosen to install, and not another one. But you MUST NOT use this option to install my driver, īcause the installer program already takes care of this .

A: When you reinstall drivers, all previous settings are lost, so you must reconfigure it. This includes the video standard and color settings as well as sharpness, etc.

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A: You should see only one entry for this driver in the Device Manager: Thatīs because I hate to have 3 files (Bt8xx.sys, BtTuner.Sys, BtCrossBar.sys) to drive just 1 piece of hard. So I have merged all the functionality of those 3 files in just one: Bt848.sys (And just one entry in Config manager is required to install just one file!). Donīt worry, the driver will be able to control the TV tuner and select the audio source without problems - The only driver files provides all tose services!

A: Most cards don't need a driver for the audio part of the Bt878 , because you are using your soundcard to capture audio. So , there is no driver for that part right now. But don't worry: Video and audio will capture properly (audio will be captured using your soundcard). And you should know that most hardware manufacturers simply do not connect the audio part of the Bt878, so a driver for that part would be useless for most of you.

A: WinXP does not allow the user to set the memory ranges used by PCI/AGP devices, but the ones selected by windows should work very well - There's neither need nor reason to set it manually - If driver does not work, it is probably a hardware problem unrelated to the memory range used by the device - and besides, it is not a driver/installer fault to prevent user to change the memory range. Complain to Microsoft if you don't like this policy.

A: You NEED at least Win98 Second edition to be able to use this driver. Upgrade your OS!

A: Yes, if your driver is of the WDM it must work, else you have a serious video or audio driver problem!

A: DScaler uses its own internal driver to run, so it does not use the WDM driver. If Dscaler works, but the other apps don't, it's probably a driver related problem, perhaps you have chosen the wrong card model or tuner model wt install time - Reinstall driver selecting the right type of card / tuner this time.

A: Use AMCAP (inside wdmmiscutils.zip) to test all features. This is the only program i usre to test it (though there lots of programs that should work also)

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A: This could be due to the wrong video standard is selected: To change analog video standard , u se the first option at the Video menu of AMCAP - The one that gives you a color image is yours. It could also be due to the color setting set to 0, or to the color enable property set to disabled. Using AMCAP, go to the first option under the Video menu, and change the required options. Use AMCAP (inside wdmmiscutils.zip) to test all features. This is the only program i use to test it (though there lots of programs that should work also)

A: To change analog video standard , u se the first option at the Video menu of AMCAP - The one that gives you a color image is yours. Use AMCAP (inside wdmmiscutils.zip) to test all features. This is the only program i use to test it (though there lots of programs that should work also)

A: That's probably because you haven't selected the proper card type when you installed the driver. And you must choose the right TV tuner model also (unless you have a FlyVideo, Hauppauge, Miro or Pinnacle). Refer to the documentation that came with your card to try to determine the card type, and , if you have a STB or STB2 card, see the following question. Please, before mailing about sound problems, do the following test: Plug your self-powered speakers directly to the line-out of the video capture card, and try to view TV with AMCAP (Select TVTuner as your TV source): If you get sound, then the problem is with your Sound Card drivers, NOT with the Video capture driver. In such a case, you should try to get the latest drivers for your sound card.

A: One of the users of the driver managed to make audiowork with an STB card : Here it goes the recipe!

1. Get the latest version of the drivers from the Web site (you will need at least 5.1.0 drivers for this to work)
2. Execute the installer. When you are asked for the card you have, tuner, you have, etc, you should set:

• CARD -- STB2
• Tuner -- Philips 1236 input 2

and then for the chips (this options are under the "advanced" button at this page of the installer)

• TDA 9850 set to "Yes" , 12c address 0xb6, (also try 0xb4 if audio does not work)
• TEA 6420 set to "Yes" 12c address 0x98
• TDA 7432 set to "Yes" 12c address 0xff (the driver will autodetect it)

All the other chips can be left in "Auto" mode, or perhaps you prefer to set them to "No" Go on and install the driver... Audio should work now!

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A: You must download the latest drivers from VIA and use them. VIA chipsets have some serious compatibility issues that can be solved this way.

A: You must neither select "TV tuner does natively FM" nor "Try to use TVAudio to get FM radio" at installation time. Then, open AMCAP, go to TV tuner and select Tuner Mode : FM Radio. That should do it.

A: That program must be fixed by the programmer who wrote it: There are lots of programs out there that don't read the maximum and minimum values allowed by a driver (mine is using Microsoft's recommended values), but unfortunately, Conexant's reference ones did use a propietary scale (and most manufacturers are using them). Programmers should not assume anything about video property ranges!

A: Please, let the installer initialize! - This could take up to 30 seconds on a slow system. This time is the time used to autodetect the configuration of your system.

A: Please, reinstall driver and ,when asked to pick card type, go to advanced settings and make sure the compatibility options related to SIS chipsets are turned off... Then install the driver. Those should be the only options that can make the driver not to work under SMP machines.

A: That's because your video source does not provide those lines. A typical example is a home VCR , that does not record the last 2 or 3 lines of video. So, there's no fix. Crop the image before compression with a video editing program , such as VirtualDub.

A: It should allow to capture AND preview at the same time in full screen mode. Beware: The smart tee does require a fast system to run, and it consumes a lot of processing power (that could make video compression impossible) - Use only if you have tried it before, and your system can cope with the extra requirements.

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A: You need to update to the latest drivers for it. If you are using Win98Se or WinMe, or WinXP, Use the Microsoft drivers supplied with Windows OS.

A: Video capture should always work, but TV audio maybe won't. Remember: there are lots of cards out there that are fully compatible with some of the listed ones, so, maybe that's your case. If your card has no audio connectors, and no TV tuner, then it should work as a generic card without problems. If there are no settings that make it work, mail me, and we will see i there is a way to support your card.

A: Those entries are obsolete entries, and can be deleted safely : They are not required anymore.

A: The only difference is that STB2 has a Bt878, while STB has a Bt848!

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A: This is a hardware related problem, and you should take into consideration that the video capture card is trying to transfer 33MBytes per second using the PCI bus, so any hardware problem (does not matter how small the problem is) will crash the system very fast; But, before giving up, just try:

• To plug the capture card in another PCI slot (i suggest the closest one to the video card.
• If you have a SBLive! or Audigy card, unplug it and try again: Unfortunately, both cards have serious (and documented) compatibility problems with some PCI motherboard chipsets and with some PCI cards - Maybe that's the cause of the problem (and there's no way to fix it in software)
• If you have a VIA chipset in your motherboard, it's a MUST to update to the latest drivers provided by VIA - Unfortunately, this chipset has some nasty hardware compatibility issues, and the latest drivers try to fix them.
• You can try the Compatibility Options of the WDM driver, maybe they could make the video card work. When asked to select the card model, go to Advanced Settings, and check Triton Fix , then install driver. If it continues crashing the system, check the VSFX Fix, and try again. You could also try combinations of both compatibility options.

A: I think that it should work... At least hardware is prepared for that, and the software should be also!

A: I'am using AMCAP (inside wdmmiscutils.zip) to watch: It is a rustic program , but provides all the functionality required.

A: If your board is NOT a VHX (VideoHighway Xtreme) or a Miro/Pinnacle, set when you install the driver: "TV Tuner does support natively FM", Then ,using AMCAP, go to TV tuner, and set mode to Radio. That should do it.

A: Those inputs are there because the Chip does support it. There's no way to know if the manufacturer of the board has placed the required connector to use those features. Besides, if you build a Composite thru Svideo adapter, you will be able to use the composite input. The adapter is just a plug!

A: This will probably happen due to at least one of these factors: First, the programs are using some custom APIs from the original drivers that are unsupported with this driver. There's no way to fix these without proper information about that APIs. Second, those programs are probably checking that the vendor supplied drivers are the ones that are installed, but they are finding this driver instead of theirs, so they assume you don't own the their card, and they refuse to work. And third, maybe the applications are simply incompatible with your current OS - So, if you want to use their applications, you are stuck with their drivers. It's your choice.

A: There are some things that must be properly chosen to be able to get Stereo Sound: The card you own must be supported by the driver, and at installation time, it must be properly selected. Second, you MUST choose the right Video Standard for your Tuner (when you change TV channels, you can select the video standard the Tuner is using), Third, you must wait at least 4 seconds after TV channel selection to let the driver autodetect the audio standard used in your country, and fourth, you must go to TV audio property and select Stereo, to get stereo.

A: There's no way to do this. WinXP ONLY supports WDM drivers. Most other drivers simply won't work.

A: Please, get in touch with the application programmer. It's not driver's fault if the user application is losing settings - The driver does store them, but the application is overriding them so the application itself must be fixed.

A: This is a problem with the program itself, not with the driver. Probably they are using iKSSetProperty in the wrong way. Contact me if you want more info about it, but esentially they are passing as the input buffer a pointer to a buffer that begins with KSPROPERTY, while they should pass a pointer to the data following KSPROPERTY, and the size must be the size of that data - So , send your complains to the application programmer, not to me!

A: This is a problem with the installer itself, not with the driver. So, if DScaler autodetects it properly, the driver will autodetect it also properly, and it should be safe to select Autodetect as the card model. To fix this installer problem would mean to write another driver just to autodetect the card model, and this seems to be very stupid. I prefer to spend time improving the video capture driver, instead of improving/fixing a driver that will be used just once to autodetect the card model.

A: This driver will ONLY work with a Bt8xx based video capture board. A Zoran based capture board would require a new driver. Neither i have time nor resources nor a Zoran based card to be able to successfully carry out this task. If someone wants to do it, then, go ahead! - I will be glad to help.

A: Unfortunately, to support that chip, a major driver rewrite is needed; Even worse, i should know some propietary details of the AIW never released by ATI... Sorry, you will have to use Win2000 drivers that were supplied by ATI (do NOT use the ones that came with WinXP or Win2000 !)

A: Look carefully: Did you download a file that contains the word "src" in it's name ? - If that's exactly what you have done, you have downloaded the source code of the installer/utilities. You need to download the file without the "src" word in it's name to get the prebiult executables.

A: Unless you are looking for the Bt8xx based video capture card driver, I don't have it. Simply I don't collect drivers as they are useless to me. So don't ask me, ask other users of that piece of hardware on the Internet forums (driverforum)

A: First, do NOT attempt to build the driver from the Developer Studio workspace, as this can't be done without changing most of the settings of the project. The ONLY supported way to build this driver is using the "BUILD" utility that is provided with the Win2000 DDK. And, if you try to build it with the WinXP DDK, don't set "Warnings as errors", as the driver won't compile (the compilation process will display some harmless warnings you can safely ignore)

A: Support can't be added unless you provide all the technical data required to support it. Sending the drivers is useless so don't send drivers to me. The ONLY way to add support for an unknown card is having that card. But I have provided a way so you can add support yourself to the driver: You MUST install the card into a machine running Win98SE or WinMe (this method won't work under Win2000 or WinXP), install the drivers and applications that were bundled with the card, and then run the BtSpy tool (you can find it in the download section) and follow each one of the steps the program tells. This will generate a card profile at thge end, that you must save in a safe place because you will need it when you install my driver. Now, with that profile saved you start the installer of my driver. When you are asked to select the card type, select "Custom", and also select the TV tuner model (probably Philips, but you will have to try others if TV tuning does not work) , and press "Next" button. Now the Custom card definition screen appears. Press the "Import" button and select the profile you have generated with that BtSpy tool. All the required data will be imported. Now press the "Next" button continue installation. The driver will be installed using your profile. Note that the profile is not dependant on the computer hardware: It does only depend on the video capture card, so a given profile will always work with the card it was generated for. Don't forget to send that profile , if it works, to me, so I can add native support for your card on the next driver release. My email address can be found in the contact section

Detailed explanations on how to carry the required steps to create a custom card profile can be found on the Custom card section of this Web site.

A: This could be due to a problem with the reference crystal frequency autodetection code that is in the driver. To determine if this is the case, you will have to reinstall the driver. When you are asked for the card type, select the proper one and the TV tuner model, and then press the "Advanced" button. Now, if you have a Bt878, a Bt879 or a Bt848A (as detected in the previous page), Set Crystal #1 to "No", and set Crystal #0 to 28636363. Press "Ok" and then continue installation normally. If you have a Bt848 based card (not Bt848A or Bt878), Select as Crystal #0 28636363 and Crystal #1 as 35468950. then continue installation normally. If the video problem is gone, you are done. Else, reinstall driver, and swap crystal frequencies (instead of using 28... use 35... and instead of using 35... use 28...). Always take into account that Crystal #1 must always be in the "No" position if you have a Bt878 or a Bt848A chip). This should solve all those problems.

A: Using AMCAP (inside WDMMiscUtils.zip) , go to "Video", "Video capture filter" and pick the one you need. And , if you are planning to see TV , go to "Video", "TV Tuner", and also pick it for the TV tuner.

A: I don't know. Just try it! - Actually, it should work with most 3rd party software (but NOT with the software provided with your video capture card)

A: The WinTV USB does NOT use a Bt8x8 chip to capture video. It uses a propietary custom chip that can't be handled by this driver. (Just note that it is an USB device , not a PCI one) - And, as the chip is propietary, the info required to support that chip is unavailable, so, the only one who can actually write a driver for it is the hardware manufacturer...

A: This is caused by a previously installed WDM video capture driver that has not been properly uninstalled by Windows at the time the btWincap driver was installed... There is just only a way to fix this: You will have to manually remove the (old) driver entries from the registry and reinstall the btWinCap drivers. To do this, open RegEdit, and delete all registry keys that contain the text "bttuner" and/or "btxbar". Now reinstall the BtWincap drivers. That should do the job. Keep in mind that, under Win2000/WinXP, you must be logged as the System administrator to be able to delete those registry keys. Also make sure you have the proper permissions for the keys you are trying to delete. (Right-click key name on the left pane of RegEdit, then select "Permissions" and check "Full Access"

A: The "invalid data" error, or the refusal of the system to install a new driver is caused by a bug of Win2000/WinXP... The only way to fix it is to use the registry editor... Open regedt32, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet, right click "CurrentControlSet" on the left pane and a contextual menu will open. Select "Permissions", select the "Administrators" group, make sure Full Control and Read is ALLOWED, Go to "Advanced", And check "Replace permissions entries...", Hit OK., OK. Perhaps an error will show... Just ignore it. Now reinstall the btwincap driver.

A: The "invalid data" error, or the refusal of the system to install a new driver / remove previous driver references is caused by a bug of Win2000/WinXP... The only way to fix it is to use the registry editor... Open regedt32, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet, right click "CurrentControlSet" on the left pane and a contextual menu will open. Select "Permissions", select the "Administrators" group, make sure Full Control and Read is ALLOWED, Go to "Advanced", And check "Replace permissions entries...", Hit OK., OK. Perhaps an error will show... Just ignore it. Now reinstall the btwincap driver.

A: This is usually caused either by faultly hardware, or by the previous driver refusing to uninstall (older drivers didn't support removal to to an internal driver bug). I suggest to boot in Safe Mode (F8 while booting), remove the driver with the uninstall feature of the btwincap installer, boot in normal mode and then install the btwincap driver as usual

A: The bt8x8 was not designed for this kind of application. It can be done, but there's no reliable way to do it, and there's no way to be sure it will always work. It requires special preconditioning signal hardware most cards simply do not have... And the driver requirements for this are completely different of those requirements to capture at maximum quality movies. As the btwincap driver was designed to get the best possible image from the bt8x8, and there's no way to be sure this (the simultaneous preview of all inputs) will always work, i have decided this project will never support this kind of operation. The hardware was simply not designed for that! It would not be serious to make people think the hardware can reliably be used in this way.