On Your Side: Cut! Glitch Stops Home Movie Maker

My Dell PC's Movie Studio video capture and editing program (a Dell-packaged version of Roxio's VideoWave) can't capture video from my Sony Hi-8 camcorder. I keep receiving error messages saying that my recorded video is copy-protected material, which it isn't--I recorded it all myself.

On Dell's forums, I found that lots of other people had the same frustration.

Dell sent a technician to my house to replace the PC's video capture card. When the tech finished, he couldn't start the program again. He told me that the issue must be with the software, which was not Dell's responsibility--though I had reported the problem within the 30-day support period for installed software.

Randy Kahn, Los Angeles

On Your Side responds: After I contacted Dell, the company sent another technician to Kahn's house, Dell spokesperson Lionel Menchaca says. The tech tried many options, including having Kahn clean his Hi-8 tapes, updating the driver for the video capture card, and replacing the video capture card again. Finally, Dell's technician installed an updated version of the software, Dell Movie Studio 3, which corrected the issue completely.

If you run into video capture problems, Dell recommends installing the latest driver for the video capture card; replacing the card; or upgrading to the newest version of Dell's Movie Studio software. For more assistance, call Dell's tech support at 800/624-9896 or visit support.dell.com.

Grace Aquino is senior associate editor for PC World. E-mail her at consumerwatch@pcworld.com. Click here for more On Your Side columns.