Jerky Video Capture

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Guest

I'm capturing DV from a Panasonic NVDS38 via firewire to a very high spec
Dell (3.6GHz, 1GB Ram, 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800 Pro) and to an empty
defragged 120GB 7200rpm Serial ATA HD. Speed/power/storage should not be an
issue!
However, when I capture the video and view the file (I've tried several
formats DV-AVI, High Quality Video PAL, High Quality Video large etc.) it is
always jerky. This is not just the playback on this PC (I've burned the file
to DVD and played back on other devices) - the file(s) really do have a
problem.
I've googled this issue and looked at papajohn to no avail - help!?
 
What other software are you running at the same time...... antivirus running
in real time and/or setiathome are often culprits.
 
Cari,
I've used msconfig to disable just about everything and rebooted (e.g.
stopped NAV, stopped all the Creative & ATI processes etc.). There are no
applications running (screensaver disabled as well) other than MM2 and the
only non-sysyem processes listed are the local services alg.exe; svchost.exe
and wdfmgr.exe and the network service svchost.exe. Running XP Pro SP2 MM2
Version 5.1.
None of this has made any difference at all, capture is still kerky - almost
stop/start (e.g. a few slightly jerky frames, then a pause, then a few more
slightly jerky frames and so on. Task manager is not giving me any clues.
Will have one more go without the network but I'd be grateful for any help.
Kim



Cari (MS-MVP) said:
What other software are you running at the same time...... antivirus running
in real time and/or setiathome are often culprits.
Click to expand...
 
A follow-up.
Even with no network connection and using both MM2 and Videoimpression to
capture the video, the problem stays the same.
 
Just for fun (!) I tried WinDV and DVIO and I'm still getting the same
problem, the dropped frame rate is very high.
 
HAve you ever been able to capture video which isn't jerky? or is this your
first attempt? It sounds like it may well be a hardware problem not letting
enough info through the system. Is dma enabled on the hdd's?
Graham
 
Hi Graham,
Yes, it's my first attempt to capture video on this PC.
I've checked the IDE channels and both give the transfer mode as 'DMA if
available' and state the current transfer mode as Ultra DMA Mode 5 (Primary
IDE) and Mode 2 (Secondary IDE).
I'm using an EIO DM-1007 (combined USB2/IEEE1394) PCI card which claims full
support for DV data transfer (guaranteed bandwith). Is there anyway I can
check transfer rates?
Kim
 
This is clearly is a problem that's beyond me to diagnose.
Just had one more try:
Logged on to just the local machine.
Used msconfig to disable everything unessential.
Rebooted (unplugged network cable).
Checked running processes - nothing unessential.
Tried video capture using MM2, DVIO and WinDV - all have a very high dropped
frame rate - very jerky. DVIO indicates around 50% of frames dropped.
Even playing back camera dv through the PC (no attempt at capture) results
in same dropped frame rate so it's not a capture issuse but an acquisition
one.
CPU use during all of this 3-8%, pagefile use very small.
If anyone has a clue where to look next I'd be grateful.
Kim
 
I wonder if teh combined card is sharing resources? Can you uninstall it
from device manager. Remove the card from the pc. Reboot pc, Turn off pc
refit pci card in a different slot and reboot pc and let it refind drivers.
Check to see if it works.
Maybe try a different firewire card and cable as Papajohn says.
Graham
 
I'm having the same problem as Kim in my very first video yesterday. I use a
Sony Digi8 TRV530 via firewire to my Sony Vaio PCV-RX770, speed 2.20GHz,
ATA-100, C drive 8.47GB free. Jerky video capture and saved as "Best quality
for playback on my computer (recommended)" saved to my D drive (92.6GB free
space avail). I didn't change any of the default settings. Any help
appreciated...
Lynn
 
I'm having the same problem with my Sony DCR-HC15E ref jerky issue. I have
tried most of the parameters in the software but does not help at all.
Nasir.
 
I'm having the same problem with my Sony DCR-HC15E ref jerky issue. I have
tried most of the parameters in the software but does not help at all.
Nasir.
Click to expand...


You may need to fine tune and optimize your system for video capture.
Things to check:

1. Hard disk is using best DMA setting (mode5 or better)
2. Hard disk fully defragmented.
3. No background processes running (including anti-virus, network
components etc).
4. Use firewire and capture in DV AVI format

For more details go to www.papajohn.org and browse to Setup->Hardware in
particular.
 
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