Vidcap capturing at 25fps intermittently-why

DelCallo wrote on 9/23/2017, 12:32 PM

I resurrected an old Gateway PC running Windows XP sp2 to take advantage of its firewire ports which my laptop does not have. I downloaded Vegas 6.0 from the "My Software" section of the Magix software area, installed it. Seems to be working fine.

I captured a tape from my Sony DV8 camcorder. The captured video played (and still does) play fine if I play it from vidcap, but, if I take it to the Vegas timeline, it is all garbled. If I navigate to the file in explorer, right click and play it, garbled. Check properties, and it shows 25 fps. On a subsequent attempt, vidcap split the session into two files, clip 001 and clip002. Clip 001 was approximately 15 minutes in length, captured at 25 fps and other than within vidcap, will not play. Clip 002 was 1 hr and 20 minutes in length, captured at 29 fps (as shown when I right clip the file name and check its properties).

So, I'm wondering what is causing this odd behavior. I know that PAL is 25 fps, but my camcorder is not PAL. I can set Vegas preferences to PAL 25fps, but the affected clip plays or displays no better when dragged to the timeline. Yet, click FILE-CAPTURE VIDEO to open vidcap and right click the affected file, hit PLAY and it plays fine.

Any way to save the file, any means by which to stop this behavior and capture all my footage at 29 fps (NTSC standard).

FYI, I tried Vegas 4.0, same issue. Was going to install Windows 10, but installer stops with an error message that it is not a valid 32 bit file. When downloading there is no option to download VegasPro10 32 bit version, so maybe it doesn't come in 32 bit.

Thanks for any replies/advice.

Caruso (formerly DEL)

Comments

OldSmoke wrote on 9/23/2017, 1:57 PM

Try a software called "HDVSplit" if. It's old but so is Vegas 6.0. It does a much better job with splitting the scenes than Vegas ever did. Also try and use the legacy drivers for your firewire port.

Proud owner of Sony Vegas Pro 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 & 13 and now Magix VP15&16.

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NickHope wrote on 9/23/2017, 8:55 PM

Is that a standard definition camera? If so, try ScenalyzerLive. HDVSplit is only for HDV.

DelCallo wrote on 9/24/2017, 12:57 AM

Thanks for the replies. I'm a bit rusty with Vegas (all versions). I'll give ScenalyzerLive a try. I see it is now free to download and activate. In the meanwhile, I have continued to transfer my Hi8 and DV8 tapes with Vegas Vidcap. It seems that the 25 fps problem occurs as capture finishes. Vidcap wants to save copies in my Clip Bins, even when I have unchecked the box that tells it to do so.

I find that, if I elect to change the name of all newly captured clips, I can exit out of Vidcap, and the original file appears where I told Vegas to place it, 29 FPS. So far, that's working. Once I get through these tapes, I likely will have no need to capture via firewire ever again.

Caruso (Del)

DelCallo wrote on 9/25/2017, 12:21 AM

Well, I messed up and changed the name of one of three clips captured from one of my 8mm tapes from the original to the original. That clip is now 25 fps, and my trick of changing clip names no longer works for vidcap. I had successfully transferred four tapes prior). There must be a smart gremlin in there. I have downloaded Scenalyzer using my laptop, transferred the files to my XP machine and installed it. Visually, it seems a bit more crude than Vidcap, and captures are 12-bit. But the transport controls actually function as one would expect (if you hit STOP in Vidcap, it pauses the tape. You have to stop the tape using transport controls on the camcorder - Scenalyzer actually stops the tape), and it seems to capture without hiccups. Vidcaps last failure involved a two-hour tape. I don't have to tell you how frustrating it is to lose that time. I'll be sticking with Scenalyzer from now on. BTW, I do not prefer splitting into scenes, so I turned that off in Scenalyzer.

I really do not recall having a problem with Vidcap when DV8 and Vegas 6.0 were the thing of the day, so this problem caught me by surprise.

New memory card based camcorders have spoiled me. Transferring and/or digitizing from DV8/Hi8/8mm is really time consuming. Add to that the fact that my firewire drives have only enough space to capture one tape at a time, and that I then have to transfer that file to my 3TB drive via USB on my lap top, the process is quite time consuming. The footage, of course, is timeless, so, I cannot complain.

Again, thank you for your helpful replies.