Choppy/jerky playback of captured DV AVI

[Guest]

Hi,

For a while I had no problems capturing DV-AVI footage via FireWire from my
MiniDV camera using Windows Movie Maker. I have several captured tapes (~12
GB each) that playback just fine.

Using the exact same hardware, now all of my NEWLY captured DV-AVI video and
audio plays back as if running at the wrong speed and/or skipping every
second or so. On the camera's LCD, it looks fine. If I simply view the video
playback in the WMM preview window (while not capturing), it plays smoothly.
The preview does appear choppy while capturing. Disabling preview makes no
difference to the actual captured video. Capturing to WMV seems to work OK
(in terms of playback smoothness).

I tried AVID DV Free, and it has the same problem, which makes me think it's
an OS, configuration, or hardware issue. Playback is also the same through
other players such as QuickTime.

At first I suspected a video driver upgrade was to blame, but I reverted to
older drivers with the same problem.

My system is virus/spyware free, CPU usage is about 5% while capturing, hard
disk is defragged. I've tried the documented reinstallation/repair process
for WMM.

I figure something in my system configuration has changed since I last
successfully captured video, but that was a few months ago so I have no idea
what it might be. Maybe it's my camera, cable, motherboard, or software
environment.

My specs:

-Canon Elura 85 MiniDV
-FireWire
-P4 3.0 GHz / 1 GB of RAM
-ATI X850 with latest drivers
-10,000 rpm drive running at ATA-6 speeds, 300 GB free
-XP SP2, latest patches

Any ideas? I'm thinking of purchasing another FW cable to see if that's the
problem.

Thanks
Sam

 

[Rehan]

I suspect some software installation/uninstallation have changed the
configuration of your system subtly. A change in the order in which
different codecs are found in the path affect the system greatly.

First try this batch file, to re-register some system DLLs back to operating
system.
http://www.rehanfx.org/utils/reregdlls.bat

If this doesnt improve then try to see if a System Restore can help.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Rehan.

I tried the batch file, but still no go.

I don't have any system restore points that are old enough.

Sam

 

[Guest]

I just discovered that in addition to my VIA motherboard-based FireWire
ports, I also have a FireWire port on my SoundBlaster 2 Audigy sound card. I
plugged into this port and voila! It captures DV-AVI just fine.

I'm guessing that either my VIA FireWire adapter is defective or its
low-level drivers (assuming it has a vendor specific driver) are messed up.