Upgrade Recommendations

[kinetic]

Hi,

I've got an Athlon 3000 with 1.5 Gig's of ram (2700 DDR), a 160 Gig
HDD, and an All in Wonder 9000. Still, I can't get a decent picture
when I try to copy a videotape from my handycam so that I can burn it
as a DVD. In fact, if I try to use anything better than 480x480 MPEG-1,
I drop frames (which makes the sound cut out every 3 seconds or so
during playback). Is my system just too slow? I was thinking of adding
a second HDD just for recording, but would I be better off with a
faster system?

Thanks for any help you could offer.

~ Jamie West

 

[J. Clarke]

Hi,

I've got an Athlon 3000 with 1.5 Gig's of ram (2700 DDR), a 160 Gig
HDD, and an All in Wonder 9000. Still, I can't get a decent picture
when I try to copy a videotape from my handycam so that I can burn it
as a DVD. In fact, if I try to use anything better than 480x480 MPEG-1,
I drop frames (which makes the sound cut out every 3 seconds or so
during playback). Is my system just too slow? I was thinking of adding
a second HDD just for recording, but would I be better off with a
faster system?

Thanks for any help you could offer.

Your basic problem is that ATI's capture software is not very good and the
AIW's proprietary chip means that there aren't any really decent
third-party solutions.

If your handycam is digital, then use Firewire, not analog capture.

If it's analog, a cheap board using a current-generation Phillips or
Conexant chip and VirtualDub will give you better results than an AIW, but
the best way to go for quality is a media converter such as the Canopus
ADVC110 or a digital camcorder with analog inputs that can do an
analog-to-firewire conversion. If your handycam is a Handycam (i.e. a
Sony-bran 8mm device) then consider a digital-8 camcorder that can play
your tapes back directly to the Firewire port.

 

[T Shadow]

Hi,

I've got an Athlon 3000 with 1.5 Gig's of ram (2700 DDR), a 160 Gig
HDD, and an All in Wonder 9000. Still, I can't get a decent picture
when I try to copy a videotape from my handycam so that I can burn it
as a DVD. In fact, if I try to use anything better than 480x480 MPEG-1,
I drop frames (which makes the sound cut out every 3 seconds or so
during playback). Is my system just too slow? I was thinking of adding
a second HDD just for recording, but would I be better off with a
faster system?

Thanks for any help you could offer.

~ Jamie West

I capture DVD High w/o problems(no dropped frames) on a P4 2.4Ghz system so
your system should be fine. Make your system as clean as possible. Do not
run any unneeded applications or processes. Go into Device Manager and
disable any modems or network cards. Disable firewall and anti-virus. Defrag
the hard drive and make sure UDMA is turned on. Make sure you have the
latest chipset drivers for your M/B.

If your AIW has the Theater200 chip it should be fine for capture and MMC
is all you need for capture as well. You should be able to capture ok with
the Theater100 chip also but PQ won't be as good. Digitalfaq.com is the
best resource for capturing with an AIW that I've found. One of their
suggestions for something like home movies is to capture to uncompressed AVI
then rendering to MPG2 after editing to get the best quality.

What you need is knowledge. IIRC their is no 480X480 MPG1. 480X480 MPG2 is
the SVCD resolution. It is not a DVD compliant resolution though. More than
likely you'll want to end up with 352X480 MPG2.

Good luck.