Video Capture has distortion

shooter71 wrote on 10/22/2006, 5:04 PM
have successfully captures many tapes from my Panasonic PV-GS400 miniDV camera. The last tape I tried to capture starting having distortion problems. When the tape is being captured, you can tell the video and sound becomes choppy. I stopped capturing, and just "played" the video through the system, and still no better. I than used a tape that I already successfully imported and again the choppy video and audio exist. I went into the capture options and reset everthing back to their default settings even though I am sure I did not adjust anything exist the disk management file location and still no luck. When I play the video tape on the camera, the video and sound are fine. I reconneted the wire between the camera and computer as well. Any help?

Comments

IanG wrote on 10/23/2006, 5:42 AM
It sounds like your disk may be having problems keeping up with the data - defragging's always a popular solution, but failing that I'd check the DMA settings on your disk controllers.

Ian G.
shooter71 wrote on 10/23/2006, 3:35 PM
Would that make sense during the capture mode in which I am only downloading from the camera? I would not think the disk is even being used or is it as a buffer?
MSmart wrote on 10/23/2006, 4:28 PM
The disk *is* being used. How much space is available on the HD your capturing to (GB and percent)? If it's getting low then that could be why it's having problems. Trying freeing up some space and defragging should help.
Chienworks wrote on 10/23/2006, 6:41 PM
Actually defragging will make almost no difference at all. It's not worth the effort as the gain is immesurably small. It's unnecessary extra wear and tear on the drive and it jeopardizes your data. Don't bother.
shooter71 wrote on 10/23/2006, 8:44 PM
I have a 300 G harddrive and it still has 80+G remaining. Based upon this, I would not think it is a hard drive issue.
IanG wrote on 10/24/2006, 2:22 AM
>Actually defragging will make almost no difference at all

Normally I'd completely agree with that, though there have been posts here where problems have been fixed by defragging. I should have said check to see if the OS recommends defragging.

Ian G.
rustier wrote on 10/24/2006, 4:30 AM
I guess it boils down to answering the question - what has changed since you report success previously.

Sounds like you more than likely eliminated the possibility of hard drive problem, or cable problem.

Have you tried another tape and another capture? I know you said it plays fine in your camera, but sometimes what one system can tolerate another can't - this is definitely true for VCR tapes. If the tape is old it can stretch. If it was left setting on a dash too long it could get warped or rippled. I have heard of some people running a new tape all the way forward and back again to make sure the tension is consistent. There are quite a few possible ways for a tape to "bug" you.

Do you have a program running in the background (that wasn't running before)?

Have you changed the configuration of your computer in any way? I ask this because I changed my desktop to show a particular photo and I could immediately see a difference in the performance of the computer - which I assume is because the photo wasn't the right size - so my computer had to "think" about it. I changed the photo and my computer returned back to its snappy performance. I know for a fact there are some folks in this forum that have removed junk programs and cleaned up their computer - defragged (I know Kelly, I know) and have cleared up their problems.

If you are absolutely sure it is not the tape (by trying another one), perhaps trying to recapture with the computer set to basic settings and minimal apps may help. This may reveal a particular issue with one or more of your processes you have running at the same time.

Good luck with it.