Dropped Frames during Video Capture

Jman257 wrote on 7/4/2003, 11:18 PM

I recently captured some old video footage onto my hard drive from VHS tape. I used a JVC VCR, Hollywood DV Bridge setup with a D-Link firewire card. My computer is a P4 2.4 512 MB PC2100 DDR RAM. 40 gig Western Digital 7200 hard drive. I defragged my drive, enabled hardware acceleration, closed all unused apps, etc. to maximize my resources. I still had 74 dropped frames in a 1 1/2 hr video. Is this to be expected? Or is there a trick to control this?

Thanks ahead!

Jason

Comments

BriceWilliams wrote on 7/6/2003, 8:55 PM

My dropped frame problem was solved after I purchased Canopus ADVC-100. Many vegas users that have older VHS tapes have recommended this device. I have been very satisfied with it. I haven't dropped one frame yet. Still 1.5 hrs. of video and having 74 dropped frames is not that bad. Hope this helps, seems a quality converter is the answer.

musicvid10 wrote on 7/7/2003, 12:19 AM

Yeah, sometimes dropped frames are a result of old/worn tapes that have a weak vsync -- the frames are dropped rather than have them jump or roll. To check if this is the case, capture from some new good tape and see if you still have dropped frames.

Other things to check (in addition to the ones you mentioned) are:
Enable DMA on your hard drive (very important)
Don't allow IRQ sharing with your capture card
Close unnecessary background apps
Take slave devices off the IDE that might slow it to a lower UDMA
Try capturing to another HD on the IDE controller, not RAID

I don't know anything about the dazzle or how it works, but the ADVC-100 is widely supported here for analog capture.

brgeen wrote on 7/9/2003, 9:41 PM

i seem to be having the same problem except for when the frame drops i get an audio skip too, i am doing a project where clear audio is essential, i am running through the ADVC-100 also, and my computer is the latest and greatest, is there some setting for the audio, or some trick?

Jman257 wrote on 7/10/2003, 8:59 AM

Thanks for the input guys!!! I burned the movie to a DVD+R/W and the 74 frames that were dropped aren't even noticeable. There may be very,very slight audio glitches in a few spots but the video is apparently unaffected, at least in motion. I'm still going to make the adjustments mentioned and maybe even purchase the ADVC-100 device to boot!! Appreciate all your help!!!

PigsDad wrote on 7/10/2003, 9:17 AM

If you are running XP / W2K, take a look at some of the services that are running. The "Indexing Service" is one that has caused me problems in the past. Also look for services that perform actions such as periodically checking for windows updates, time updates, messaging services, etc. Norton Antivirus has several services installed that check for updates, etc. (they keep on running even if you "disable" the real-time protection.)

Generally, you can safely stop and later restart these services. I have put together a couple of simple batch files that automate this for me. I use the "net.exe" command to do this. For example:

net.exe stop "Indexing Service"

Just put those commands in a batch file, and you are set. Good luck!

Kurt

brgeen wrote on 7/10/2003, 2:11 PM

Hmmm, thanks for all the input... but i canceled the background processes and had 3 dropped frames within the first 30 seconds... like i said im running the latest and greatest of a computer, is there some setting in vegas that enhances the video capture?