getVariable nightmares

[sandwiches]

Hi there,

Scenario: VB.net in vis studio 2005.

Problem: getVariable expects argument string. yet an exception occurs stating that the expected value was out of range, complaining about the string.

dim something as int
something = video.getvariable("next")

am i using the wrong types here? can't get more stringy than "next"...

any help much appreciated