Frame drop during Video Capture

Art wrote on 3/21/2001, 3:23 PM

How come my capture is droppping so much frames? Is this a
fault by the software, firewire card or video card? I have
a home made machine with AMD Atlon 700 with 384 MB RAM and
32MB ATI Pro Video Capture card. Please help. My capture
looks like 15fps (very choppy because of the frames being
dropped) instead of 30fps. My Video Camero is a Panasonic
PVDV200 (Digital Video Camcorder). Please advise.

Comments

nlamartina wrote on 3/25/2001, 12:49 AM

Art, I might be able to help you, but you have to provide
me with more information. Please answer these two questions:

1. Are you capturing with a FireWire card (1394) or an
analog capture device? What brand? If an analog device, is
it a USB device or internal PCI?

2. How large is your hard disk, what brand it is, how many
RPM's does it spin at, and do you have Ultra DMA enabled?
If you have UDMA enabled, is it 33, 66, or 100?

Try to answer those questions as best you can and I'll see
if I can help you out.

Nick LaMartina

Art wrote on 3/26/2001, 7:12 AM

Thanks Nic. Here are the specs you requested:

Matrox Firewire Card (IEEE 1394)
Quantum 20 Gigs HD /ULTRA 66 / 5400 RPM

Hope this helps. Thanks.

nlamartina wrote on 3/27/2001, 11:13 AM

Art,

Looking at your specs brings a few things to mind. Here are
some possibilities for the cause of your problem:

1. The RPM of your hard disk is too low. At least 7200 is
recommended for DV capture.
2. Your disk is badly fragmented. This makes it very
difficult for you computer to record a consistant stream of
data.
3. You're recording on your system disk. This is extra-
taxing on your system, and not the ideal capture
environment.
4. UDMA is off. Check in your system settings to make sure
DMA is enabled for your disk.
5. You processor is too slow. Anything below 450 is pushing
it.
6. You've got too many programs running in the background.
If you've got a virus scanner, disable it during capture.
7. You don't have neough RAM. Have AT LEAST 64MB,
preferably 128MB.
8. Your motherboard may not support UDMA 66. Check with the
manufacturer to make sure.
9. You're running a Windows version below 98 Second
Edition. Upgrade if possible.

Those are a few possibilities. Here's what you can do to
streamline your system:

1. Defragment your disk COMPLETELY (meaning empty space as
well as program files).
2. Make sure UDMA is on.
3. Close any idle programs.
4. Set your screen resolution to 640x480x16 to free up
resources during capture.
5. Perhaps add a seperate partition on your hard disk as a
seperate drive for capturing only.
6. Make sure you have enough disk space (At least a couple
gig).
7. Disable active preview during capture.
8. Try using another DV capture program to see if the
results are the same.
9. Empty your recycle bin and purge your internet cache.
Every bit helps.

Give those a shot and tell me how it turns out.

Good luck,
Nick LaMartina

Art wrote on 3/28/2001, 8:22 AM

Thanks a lot. I will try to do as you suggested and let you
know howe it turned out. I just purchased a new 40 GIG hard
drive (this will be dedicated to capture and VF only). Also
purchased a PCI Adapter Ultra DAM 100 card to support my
new Ultra DAM 100 /7200 RPM Hard Drive. I'll let you know
how this works. Again, thanks for the help!

Art wrote on 4/2/2001, 2:54 PM

It worked great, Nic! Thanks for all the advice. Now if I
could only burn MPEG2's to SVCD from Nero.....