Instance of WMEncode causes crash (vb .net)

Question

I'm trying to use the windows media encoder sdk to make a function to video capture my screen. I use the WMEncoderlib in VB .Net. When I do

dim encoder as wmencode

followed by

encoder = new wmencode

the program crashes immediately, no line numbers, nothing, vshost.exe even crashes when debugging. If I just say

dim encoder as wmencode

then I get a null reference exception, but it does not totally crash.

What could cause this? has anyone experienced something like this. Any help would be great.

Thanks!