Frames dropped

[Guest]

Hi, Can someone plese help me. I have problem with all settings when
capturing video from my Sony DCR-HC32E, which otherwise delivers very good
results when connected directly to TV. But in Movie Maker, the frames are
being dropped, which makes the result simply unacceptable. In "best setting
for your PC", the problem starts after about 60 seconds of capturing, in
DV-AVI immediately, with horrible sound quality. My computer is 2.6GHz,
512Mb, with enough free disk space. No other programmes running when
capturing. Could there be a poblem with the firewire (Belkin Pro Series)? Or
is the camera faulty? Please give me some ideas what to do if you can. Many
thanks.

 

[Al Stu]

Try capturing as DV-AVI. This should be less taxing on the system while
capturing. Than later if you want to reduce file size you can save from
movie maker with desired settings.

 

[Wojo]

He said he tried DV-AVI and the problem was worse though.
This leads me to believe the problem could be either the cable or the card.
Do you have the ability to either try using a different computer or a
different camera on yours to help narrow it down? Easier yet, another
firewire cable to see if it works.
512MB memory is not a lot by current standards, especially when talking
about video editing but if nothing is running in the background 512 should
easily be sufficient so that isn't likely to be the issue.

 

[Al Stu]

In that case I look at disk speed. Perhaps run defrag.

 

[Wojo]

Good point
Could also run AdAware to see if anything unknown is still running in the
background.

 

[Graham Hughes]

I've started on page at my site for this covering the areas you mention
above plus a few others.
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/Tutorials/OptimiseMyPcForVideo.htm

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com

 

[Wojo]

Outstanding. Very well written, there's a few things in there I hadn't even
thought of.
One thing though, the Title for the page is "How to Optimize my PV for Video
Capture" instead of PC.
Just thought I'd point that out.
-Wojo

 

[Guest]

Thank you for so many valuable suggestions. I have tried some, but still
can't make any progress. Generally, do you think the Belkin firewire is good
enough for the job? I was waiting a Sony cable which they failed to deliver,
so I went for an easier option . .. Is there any significant difference
between cables quality?

 

[Wojo]

Belkin and Monster are IMO two of the best on the market.
If the Belkin cable isn't working and it truly turns out to be a bad cable
then I wouldn't blame the brand so much as just bad luck.

 

[Guest]

If you're using NTFS format on your hard drive, you need to have LOADS of
spare space, not just enough. A certain amount of fragmentation is built into
NTFS and defragging a hard drive that shows 5GB free (for example) will never
give you a contiguous block of 5GB to work with. Try to keep the hard drive
below 50% used.

Secondly, investigate with the hard drive manufacturer, whether it's
possible to turn off the 'write verify' mode in the firmware. This will stop
the hard drive reading back the data clusters as it writes them to verify
they're written OK.

In the UK, Sky+ boxes use 7,200 rpm hard drives with the write verify mode
turned off, which is how they can record two video channels, plus play back a
third simultaneously. (also, they don't use NTFS!).