Go to "My Computer", right click on each drive, select "Properties". Make sure that "Compress Drives" and "Allow Indexing" are both un-checked.

It sounds like you have "Compress Drives" checked.

Steve Mann

I think the main clue of all is the fact that footage on a Vegas timeline will only play smoothly if the video track is dimmed or deleted. With the video track enable, it stutters just like the dropping frames problem on capture.

Now, wait a second. Are you sure that you are dropping frames?? From this last post, it sounds like you are having a playback problem and then are simply assuming that you have dropped frames. I re-read all your posts before that one, and you said you are dropping 60% or more of captured frames. Is this what the capture application tells you, or is this something you assume because the playback is jerky? Playback problems are a different issue.

johnmeyer makes an excellent point! Use the Vegas "Advanced Capture" tab - it will tell you how many Dropped frames you encounter.

John, Odie,

There is a capture problem for sure. It exists on all of my editors and the stand-alone DVGATE Motion.

In Vegas, a 10-second capture resulted in 82 dropped frames. This is lower than I reported percentage-wise, but still quite unusable.
It looks like the programs are dropping around 1/3 of footage now.

In my previous posts I was basing the dropped frames on the actual number displayed by Vegas in the capture program. I would sit and watch the dropped frames number increase like crazy during capture.
I see your point where I might have confused playback issues with capture issues, but I am trying to keep the clues organized and distinct from each other to avoid confusion.

I am capturing to a basically empty D: drive, lots of room.
Tried capturing to C:, no difference.

Because video playback is also affected by this problem, and because Vegas will play ok when the video track is disabled but sound is left alone, it seems like there must be a solution somewhere in Windows, but I don't have the expertise to figure this out.

There are no issues with the Camera or 1394 connection. It also seems clear that this is not a Vegas problem.

I downloaded a Norton AV program from Symantec, installed, updated, turned off my previous install of PCCillin, and ran the 2 hour check of every single file on the drives, and there are no threats or problems.

To me, it seems as though a video issue on the computer is interfering with capture since there is a video component in capture (duh ! :-) ), but as I stated, I don't have the Windows or hardware expertise to know how to figure this out.

I am taking all the posted suggestions seriously and actually do them. I'm trying to stay methodical and make sure that I carry out the suggestions in the proper manner. I'm really hoping that together we can all figure this out.

In return, I will remain a member of the forum and contribute in the areas where I do actually have experience.

Eric

I don't have much more advice to give, other than to once again point to the dropped frame FAQ on the VASST site (which I wrote). You should never drop a single frame when capturing from a digital source (e.g., DV tape). When you are dropping LOTS of frames, then something is fundamentally wrong. DMA is usually at the top of the list, and if you have a DELL computer, you have to set this through their utility (see the FAQ). You might also go to the System section of the Control Panel and go to Hardware -> Device Manger and make sure there are no yellow or red icons next to any of your hardware.

If you have System Restore enabled, you can use that to "roll back" your computer to a time before all these problems started.

You probably don't want to hear this, but you should seriously entertain formatting your C drive and reinstalling Windows. As John mentioned, there is something fundamentally wrong with your system and you'll most likely have to start from a fresh install. The amount of time you'll put into starting fresh will most likely be much less than the time you'll take continuing to troubleshoot your system. If reinstalling Windows doesn't work, you most likely have a hardware problem.

The best approach to anything like this is the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. Strip and simplify everything down to the the absolute minimum needed to run. Your hardware, the operating system, the applications and drivers on the machine. Hopefully it'll run. Then start adding one piece at a time until something breaks. Hopefully, there you'll find your answer.

I feel for you man. Be there, done that, several times, not fun!

John

I just reformatted and reinstalled my home computer a couple weeks ago and it's amazing how much better it works. I had accumulated so much cruft over the previous couple of years that was just gooking up the works. I'm doing the same with my work computer right now (though not voluntarily). I also opted to get an XP Pro install disc straight from Microsoft rather than using HP's built in restore function. I now no longer have the 45 or so extra free programs that HP includes, and even though i had disabled and uninstalled them all before, it's now running much faster than it did when i first got this PC.

Reformat & Reinstall is highly recommended now and then.

Since the problem is both playback and capture, that suggests the processor is busy doing something else. If it looks OK, then maybe the drive is starting to fail.

Try looking at the Task Manager -> processes; click on CPU to get high % user at the top of the file and let's see what you have. Here's what I see when doing a quick render...

Image Name User Name Session ID CPU MEM Usage
vegas60.exe Joe 0 91 162,798 K
taskmgr.exe SYSTEM 0 3 5,004 K
...

Something getting lost in formatting on the message board. The 91 is 91%, 3 is 3%.. You get the idea... You could have something weird going one -- like explorer chewing up all the resource.

I'm gonna jump on the reformat bandwagon - if your out of ideas and you have spent about a day trying to figure this out - reformat will only take another half a day, give or take.

I spent a bunch of time off and on trying to solve a m2t render problem - finally did a reformat/reinstall - solved my problem. It's a pain but I spent more time messing with my system than It would have taken to just start from scratch.

My only last hail mary piece of advice would be to update or re-install your video card driver - it's a long shot but video cards can do some wierd stuff with a system.

Good luck

Hi Guys,

Ok, I'm buying a ticket to format city. I'll take the advice and get going on it. Sounds good.
This means a fair amount of backing up to DVD first, then I'll close my eyes and take the plunge.

Also, I'll take a look at the dropped frames FAQ before I begin, just in case.

I'm assuming that the discs which came w/ my VAIO will contain all I need.

I'll try to afford a couple of new drives too. Seagate seems to be a good brand.

I'll post back here to this thread after I finish, and tell all the results.

Thanks !

Eric

Kelly:

I don't want to hijak this thraed, and I should probably start another one, but I thought I'd mention it here first, then (if you're willing), maybe take it offline or somewhere else.

I'm very seriously considering doing this on my home PC, due to some "performance issues" coming up. I'm dreading this, because of all the info (6 years worth) stored on my PC, and looking for some guidance from your vast knowledge and great experience in getting this going.

When and if you have time, Can you email me?

Thanks

Phil

For anyone that is going to perform a reformat and re-install of Windows, this takes a serious amount of time, and all the wondersul little "tweaks" you've done to get things the way you want will be reset to default. If you go down this route, you'll be grumbling all the way "never again." Well, here's a hint for a way that avoids having to do this again (although this doesn't get around having to do it once).

Purchase one of the drive image backup programs, like Norton Ghost (I use NTI DriveBackup). After you have done the reformat and re-install, and AFTER you have re-installed your applications and got things working really well (usually a week or two after the re-install), create a bootable image restore DVD using one of these programs. Next time you are faced with this problem, you can restore not only the operating system, but all your applications and all your settings, simply by putting this disk in your disk drive, and re-booting. Of course, you'll sure as heck want to back up all your current data before you do this, but this dramatically reduces the time, pain, and aggravation of having to restore a computer.

HI guys,

I reformatted my C: drive using the Vaio recovery discs. I backed up all my important stuff onto DVD, and did the deed.

Unfortunately, the recovery discs did not restore some very important programs which had come bundled with the RX860 I have.
These are:
Adobe Premiere 6.0 (which I use for de-interlacing uplodaded footage)
Adobe Photoshop Elements (which I use constantly all day long)
Veritas Record Now DVD burning program

I haven't gotten to see if the stuttering on playback and capture is fixed from the re-install of Windows, as I am still loading my software. I will report the results here as soon as I try everything out.

In the meantime, I really need these other "bundled" programs, I cannot afford to buy them separately., and I use them a great deal in my workflow.

Is there a common solution to restore the bundled software, or were they merely one-shot installs designed to tempt me to buy the computer in the first place (which it did)?

Thanks (again) to everyone who is responding.

Eric

It is nearly 4AM, and the stuttering upload/capture and playback is fixed. Works good, no dropped frames, back to normal. Sure wish I could have isolated the problem.

Looks like the re-install of Windows "fixed" the problem, whatever it was.

The recovery disc part was easy. Backing up and now re-installing everything is a whole 'nuther story, though. That's why I'm still sitting here in the studio at 4AM.

I'm saddened that the only good parts of the VAIO media package (see post above) were not included on the recovery discs. They were a regular and valuable part of my workflow.

Any suggestions?

Eric

I did a little checking around on the Sony eSupport web site and found a few references that might be of some use:

1. You should have an "Application Recovery CD (ARCD)" to re-install the missing applications. A friend of mine has an older VAIO and he has both the system recovery and the Application recovery CD's with his system.

2. If you have a "configure-to-order" VAIO then there's a chance that you didn't receive application CD(s). The FAQ only mentions Premiere, but it might apply to the other missing apps as well.

This is their support FAQ concerning a "CTO" VAIO -- Contact the customer service support number by calling (877) 865-7669 if a Configure-to-Order (CTO) model computer with the Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional operating system was purchased with the Adobe® Premiere® software option, and the Adobe® Premiere® software was not included with the computer.

Most of the support information on the support web site is keyed to particular model VAIO's -- and there are quite a few of them -- so you should visit the site and fill in requested info to get more specific details on your system.

Jim,

Thanks for the tip. I went to the site and sent Sony a mail.

There was no Application Recovery CD with my bundle.

There were 2 sets of Recovery CDs, though. Maybe a boring day on the assembly line. The 2 sets (3 CDs each) are identical to each other.

My RX860 was not a configure to order machine. It was a standard issue media-oriented VAIO that Sony was selling a couple of years ago. The software bundle is pretty usable, with exceptions (such as Click to DVD which was useless). The Photoshop and Premiere are basic stripped-down versions, but I make do with them pretty well, ever since I discovered Vegas, which makes up for everything.
:-)

Eric

Glad to hear you have solved your problem - Congratulations!

Sorry to hear about the missing software but Imagine that one can be solved with a little poking around. Now if nobody has said this yet - get Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost (I have em' both and like Acronis a lot better) and create a disc image of your C drive. That way you can always go back to a good working state in a few minutes by just re-imaging your drive. It sure has saved my bacon on a couple of occasions.

Yoyodyne

I will echo Yoyodyne's recommendation. I use Acronis True Image, love it and is worth it's weight in gold.

Mike