Video capture device not working or detected. Can someone help? Options

[terry1966]

if it's only about 8 months old then it will be under warranty so contact Honestech again and get them to repair or replace it free of charge if they won't tell them you'll get in touch with trading standards unless they do.

[leader2]

They said their warranty was only for 90 days. What is trading standards? Who are they and how should I bring them up to Honestech? Do they have a phone number and a website? I mean if Honestech said it was only 90 days how can I bypass that with trading standards?

Thanks,

leader2

[Doug]

Hi Leader2,

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that replies and suggestions you receive here in these Forums are offered by volunteers and that we do not represent ourselves to be vested with any particular authority, professional standing, nor ability to prevail over common business practice or agreements you may have entered.
_____________________________________________

With that said, the information and suggestions you receive may be highly valuable because it is based on experience and remedies that others may have found to be successful, and which you may decide to try for yourself. -- Your mileage may vary.

Observartions:

Manufacturers are free to warrant their product --- or not.
The conditions and period of time allowed in warranty is up to the discretion of the manufacturer.
90-Day warranties are legal.
90-Day warranties are not common in the computer/electronics industry (for "new" equipment), and you will most often see 12 month warranties.
90-day warranties are more common in instances of "used", "refurbished", "open-box" items.
Manufacturers know that most faults will occur in the first several hours of operation, but still usually allow the full one year period.

Your "first line" of warranty is with the Retailer from whom you purchased the product. And don't let them tell you any different.
They sold it. They are responsible.
The product warranty may be "served" via the manufacturer, but the Retailer has responsibility to facilitate your warranty claim.

Often Retailers offer their own warranty terms, or extend the warranty offered by the manufacturer.

Credit Card purchases sometimes offer additional and extended warranty protection.
If you purchased with a Credit Card, your product's warranty may have been extended, doubled to a second year, or other added benefit.
Don't forget to ask your Credit Card company about protection, if you used one for the purchase.

[terry1966]

your legal rights depend on where you live, but over here we can take any complaints to our governments trading standards authority if we're not happy with the retailer/manufacturers answer/treatment of our complaint to help resolve the issue(not something they usually like doing, costs more to them than the trouble of fixing or replacing the item in the first place).
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/index.cfm

If you have had your goods for more than six months when they go wrong, you can still ask the trader to repair or replace them, but you may have to prove that they were faulty when you bought them if the trader doesn't agree. You can ask for a repair or replacement at any time up to six years after you bought the goods (five years in Scotland), as long as it is reasonable for them to have lasted this long. If the goods go wrong after six years (or five in Scotland), you no longer have the right to ask for a repair or replacement.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_w...things_go_wrong

by law we actually have 6 years to expect a repair or replacement if something goes wrong when we would expect the item to last at least that long, not that i've ever tried to have anything repaired or replaced after the first.

so with something only 8 months old i'd definitely look into your consumer rights in your country and see if you legally have a right to expect the retailer/manufacturer to repair or replace the item.



This post has been edited by terry1966: Dec 16 2011, 01:46 PM

[Doug]

Thanks for that good information, Terry!

Over here in the US, the situation is different in some ways and in some ways similar.

Here, a manufacturer is allowed to "limit"liability of warranty if and only if the terms are clearly printed and communicated in print at time of sale.
If manufacturer has competently limited warranty to a 90-day period, it may stand, unless there are other commonly known industry standards regarding similar products.

Warranty replacement or repair is first governed by each of the 50 states and varies depending upon where the owner lives.
Procedures and remedies are different from state to state, but always include diligence to seek resolution directly with retailer and/or manufacturer, and then move on to "arbitration" if necessary, and to civil court if necessary after that.

In my experience, if the buyer/owner has a good argument, retailer/manufacturer will quite often settle if buyer/owner makes it clear that they are willing to proceed to arbitration and court.

Small claims courts are notoriously favorable to the buyer/owner, if any shred of unclear or inaccurate terms of warranty exist on the part of retailer/manufacturer.

Hope you get a satisfactory solution, Leader2.
And I do understand that some folks would just prefer to go elsewhere to buy an alternate substitute product rather than engaging the claim procedure.
It's up to you.

[leader2]

Hi Terry and Doug. Sorry for my late reply.

I appreciate the information you both gave. Since Honestech said the warranty is only 90 days and I would have to go to court to get that overturned, I will pursue a purchase with another company. I am hoping that things will work out better with this next capture device than the first. Still a good heads up Terry and I didn't know that information from either of you. I will definitely keep it in mind.

[jglefler]

Hi. I own a Honestech VHS to DVD 5.0 Deluxe video capture system. It was working fine if not with choppy video for months. Then I used Golden Videos VHS to DVD video capture software with the hardware and this improved the video quality. Today I was going to use it and then for some reason I couldn't. Golden Videos said :

No video capture hardware Found. You must have a video input device to connect your vcr to your computer. If you have a USB video capture device, please check it is plugged in now and press Try again...

Hello,

Since this thread is quite old I hope it is OK if I add to it in case some help may come to others who may have this same, or similar, problem with their Honestech VidBox. I am not offering advice but simply relating my similar experience to leadre2’s problem. I don’t know if leader2 tried installing the Honestech software and hardware on another system or not. I did and found that it was my computer causing me a similar problem to leadre2’s problem and not the VidBox hardware.

I am on a Windows 7, 64 bit machine. I have the Honesttech VidBox 3. This VidBox was working on my Windows 7, 64 bit system but suddenly stopped working. I installed it on an older computer with Windows Vista 64 bit and it worked just fine. Since the VidBox worked on the Vista system I uninstalled the VHS to DVD software and VidBox driver from the Windows 7 system and ran cCleaner on my registry. I then reinstalled version 5.0.29 VHS to DVD software first, rebooted and then reinstalled the version 3.0.6 VidBox driver and rebooted. I then plugged the VidBox hardware in to be sure it was recognized. I then started the VHS to DVD software and made sure it was set to use the VidBox on composite NTSC_M and started the VHS tape playing. The VHS to DVD video screen was unresponsive and completely blank. While I got no error messages the traditional black window didn't even show up in the VHS to DVD software. I did, however, get audio.

The VidBox stopped working on the Win 7 system shortly after trying to configure VidBox 3 to work with NCH Debut video capture software. Initially Debut worked with the VidBox video option and was showing the VCR video on the capture screen but it didn't seem to like the VidBox audio option. When I tried to save the VidBox audio setting in Debut it would hang up and crash the software. After a reboot the VidBox would no longer work with NCH Debut, NCH Golden Videos, NCH Video Pad, or even Honesttech’s VHS to DVD. VidBox used to work with all of these programs. I also tried another video capture device I have and it too works on the Vista system but will no longer work on the Win 7 system. I have no errors in Win 7 device manager and it shows the VidBox is “working properly”. It is as if some setting got switched and is only recognizing the audio and not the video portion of the VidBox.

Thanks for this forum and all you do. It is the only help on the issue I have found anywhere. Honesttech’s support has been responsive but primarily information gathering and very little in the way of solutions to try. Doug’s advice is excellent and looks very logical. I will try his suggestions and report back.

Thanks,

John

[jglefler]

Doug’s advice is excellent and looks very logical. I will try his suggestions and report back.

Update:

I uninstalled/reinstalled all universal serial bus controllers and it, unfortunately, didn't work. I am really stumped on this one. This is the first time I have ever had a challenge with a hardware device that I couldn't eventually overcome, but I am out of ideas on this one. I will probably have to settle for using the older computer for VHS video capture.

Thanks,

John

[Doug]

Hi John (jglefler)

Thanks for your detailed description of problem and course of events that you followed.
And thanks for the follow-up of what did not work.

Unfortunately, I am also out of suggestions.

[jglefler]

Hi John (jglefler)

Thanks for your detailed description of problem and course of events that you followed.
And thanks for the follow-up of what did not work.

Unfortunately, I am also out of suggestions.

Hi Doug,

Your suggestions were what my instincts also told me to do. I was reluctant, however, to do it until I saw your post. That gave me the courage to give it a go. The only problem I encountered was the loss of a bluetooth driver that I am having trouble locating but that's not that big of a deal.

Thanks for the help.

John