Learning The Hard Way

Tchak wrote on 8/15/2008, 9:59 PM
Capturing video from my Canon HV 30 has been nothing but a nightmare for me with V 7.0 e.

Here's what I have found:

VidCap 6.0- 6 useless frames at the end of each clip. 6 frames w/o audio, and the last 3 frames should be on the next clip.

HDVSplit Capture- Audio and video is split perfictly. But, Viewing in the preview window (Both the Time Line and Project Media) even in draft mode is terrible.

HDVSplit Scenes Splitting- Taking a clip (multiple scenes) from VidCap with no scene detection is split perfectly but still looks terrible in the preview window, but not as bad as capturing with HDVSplit.

Terrible= freezes on one frame then freezes again anywhere from 60 to 100 frames later on video, Audio is perfect.

I have to capture an entire event or tape and place it on the time line and cut out portions, re-arrange, waste time to creat anything.

Really Friggin' frustrating.

I know I have an old computer (4+ years old) that I will replace after taking vacation. How soon after depends on how much I blow on vacation.

Is there a simple solution to this, or will I have to wait till I get my new computer and VidCap >6!?

Tom

Comments

UlfLaursen wrote on 8/15/2008, 10:21 PM
Hi Tom

Strange... I have the HV20 (almost the same cam) and have not yet had theese problems. I have never captured in Vegas, only in HDV splitm, and only without the split.

I have tried to edit on my test PC, which similar to yours, maybe with a bid more RAM, but else somewhat the same, and have not have theese freezes you describe.

Do you get dropped frames when capturing?

How is regular DV on the same PC?

Maybe a defragmentation of the media drive would help?

/Ulf
darg wrote on 8/15/2008, 10:26 PM
It's not your cam, it's Vegas 7. I had tested it also and it was not working out in HDV. After I got V8 everything worked out besides the issue, that V8 does not like the HDVSplitt material. Preferable under V8 is using the internal capturing tool.
V7 is not the best version for HDV, Sony did a better job with V8 in regard to HDV.

Regards

Axel, San Jose
farss wrote on 8/15/2008, 10:45 PM
I hope that's a typo. VidCap isn't even meant to capture HDV.
You should be using Vegas's internal HDV / SDI capture.

Bob.
Tchak wrote on 8/16/2008, 1:00 AM
Thanks for all the responses.

Never had a problem with SD. Been capturing since Screenblast 3.

Maybe I mispoke about the vidcap 6. When choosing Capture and selecting HDV a different UI appears, just assumed it was vidcap for HDV.

Looking forward to upgrade when V9 Pro comes out. Until then I guess I'll just have to wing it!

Tom
blink3times wrote on 8/16/2008, 4:26 AM
"VidCap 6.0- 6 useless frames at the end of each clip. 6 frames w/o audio, and the last 3 frames should be on the next clip."

I have the same issues with vidcap and that's why I use HDVsplit. I suspect your machine (its age) is at fault for the other issues.

One note about using HDVsplit.... Vegas doesn't like scenes split from HDVsplit that have been split on the fly (a lot of crashing). If you capture the entire tape first THEN scene split it will be as close to crash free as you can get.
UlfLaursen wrote on 8/16/2008, 6:47 AM
One note about using HDVsplit.... Vegas doesn't like scenes split from HDVsplit that have been split on the fly (a lot of crashing). If you capture the entire tape first THEN scene split it will be as close to crash free as you can get.

I do the same as you, Blink, and it works for me too.

/Ulf
Tchak wrote on 8/18/2008, 8:35 PM
Update, Observation and question.

Until I spend some more money, my best results are capturing with Vegas; either capturing the entire tape, or splitting the scenes w/o using HDVSplit. I never had a problem with Vegas crashing using HDVSplit, just the other problem mentioned earlier.

I still get the jerky motion but it's not as bad as before.

One thing that I did notice is; when I preview a clip from the Project Media, Explorer, or the Trimmer the clip plays flawlessly (Captured with Vegas). Not so on the Time Line. Is there something different about the way a clip is (processed) previewed from the Time Line than the others mentioned? Just curious.

Tom
farss wrote on 8/18/2008, 10:23 PM
"Not so on the Time Line. Is there something different about the way a clip is (processed) previewed from the Time Line than the others mentioned? Just curious."

Yes but not certain of the precise details as to why that is.

Keep in mind that unless the preview window says it's playing back at your footage's frame rate any jerkiness you notice will not appear in your final render. All that's happening is that Vegas and your CPU cannot decode, process and scale the frames fast enough it to give you real time playback.

You could edit your footage on any CPU, the preview could be really bad but that has no bearing on the rendered output with regard to your specific issue of jerkiness.

Bob.
teaktart wrote on 8/19/2008, 12:55 AM
Make sure your project properties match your media and preview properties ?

Try 'preview/auto' instead of 'draft/auto' if possible ?

Turn off any anti-virus/spyware protective stuff when capturing ?

Turn off anything else you can prior to capture and edit...

Run CrapCleaner to clear out any junk and temp files, etc.

Pray....a bit....

Good Luck !
bsuratt wrote on 8/19/2008, 6:55 AM
I manually capture video (HDV or SD) in chunks generally < 1gb each. Then open in trimmer and select clips to time line. No problems whatsoever.

johnmeyer wrote on 8/19/2008, 9:28 AM
1. Do not capture with HDVSplit. I think you will find that playback is jerky, especially with 7.0e. Vegas plays back m2t files captured with HDVSplit using the MainConcept DLL which is MUCH slower and clunkier.

2. Downgrade to 7.0d, if possible. 7.0e causes problems.

3. Do not use scene detection when capturing with Vegas. It doesn't work very well (doesn't split on scene boundaries).

4. Most important, do NOT re-use tapes that have previously been used to capture DV. This will cause major crashes and all sorts of problems, I absolutely guarantee it.
Tchak wrote on 8/21/2008, 4:00 PM
farss

My renders come out good (rather lenthy) even with the problems in the preview window. Thanks for the input!

teakart

Never used Crapcleaner, but have used SmartClose (didn't work very well), disabled Antivirus, disabled internet, Project Properties match media, used a clean hard drive, Prayed, and even listened to what my wife had to say!

johnmeyer

1. I gave up on capturing with HDVSplit.

2. I have a copy of 7.0d, I'll be uninstalling 7.0e and installing 7.0d this evening. I'll let you know how that works.

3. The last few captures, I used Vegas without scene detection (entire tape), it looks a lot better.

4. I never re-use tapes. I have 47 Hi-8's, 6 Mini DV's, and still learning thanks to all on this forum. Still an Amature ands always will!

Tom

MarkHolmes wrote on 8/21/2008, 4:59 PM
I capture my HV20 footage using HDLink from Cineform. Been VERY happy with it. It also removes the pulldown for the 24P footage. The bonus is that you end up with Cineform's very high quality avi files for your editing. Much better than trying to edit HDV on the Vegas timeline.
CClub wrote on 8/21/2008, 6:09 PM
Not trying to be adversarial here... I just honestly wonder why people don't purchase Cineform. For all the jury-rigging systems that people come up with to try to circumvent the Vegas capture problems, I truly don't understand it. I can't stand wasting time struggling with systems or software, so once I read some people talking on this forum about using Cineform, I researched it and bought it. I don't have piles of spare cash sitting around, and I thought of all the other odds/ends I could use with $250, but a couple late nights of what some people are dealing with -- re-capturing footage, running it through two other pieces of software, capturing without scene-detection and then going through it and breaking it up... I'd go crazy. One night wasted doing those things would be more than enough to convince me to download Cineform... battle over.