My backup AVI file plays choppy

[rayc1234]

I recently captured a 1-hour video from my miniDV recorder to my computer. The file turned out to be almost 9 Gigs (AVI format). It plays fine on my hard-drive... Yesterday, I decided to copy this file to my new Portable Hard-Drive which has 110 Gigs of free space.

When I attempt to play the AVI from my portable hard-drive, the video is slow and choppy (including the audio). The reason why I wanted to copy my video to the portable disk is because I want to free up the hard drive space on my c: drive, I'm running out of disk space. But since I'm having problems playing the copy, I'm worried about deleting the copy I have in my C: drive.

Can anyone tell me what to do? Why is the copy on my portable drive playing choppy?

Thanks in advance.

[Baldrick]

Probably too slow connection between the portable hd and your computer. Are you using usb1 or usb2? or firewire?

DV-AVI requires at least about 3.6Mbyte/s or 30 MBit/s.

[rayc1234]

According to the documentation that came with my portable disk, it's a 22-inch USB 2.0 certified cable.

However, I notice one thing. Every time I connect the USB end of the cable to my computer, I get a message from the Windows tray area at the bottom right corner of the screen saying the following:

"This device can perform faster if you connect it to a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port."

How can I check if it's my USB port speed? And if it IS the reason for the choppy video, what other options do I have.

I have a port on the right side of my computer (Laptop) that says "S400". Is this a firewire cable? I use this port to send the video from my camera to my computer. Can I use this port to play it? If yes, how?

Thanks in advance

[mats.hogberg]

"This device can perform faster if you connect it to a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port."

Then your computer has USB 1 ports. SOL.

I have a port on the right side of my computer (Laptop) that says "S400". Is this a firewire cable? I use this port to send the video from my camera to my computer. Can I use this port to play it? If yes, how?

Unless your external HDD also has a Firewire port - no.
Remaining option is to first copy the AVI you want to watch to the computer hdd.

/Mats

[rayc1234]

I already copied it to the computer hdd. But I need to take it out from there because I'm low on disk space.

My question is this though. Could this be the reason why my video plays choppy when I try to play it from the externale disk? How can I be sure? If I'm absolutely sure this is the reason, then how can I convert my USB 1.0 port to USB 2.0?

I'll only go there if I'm sure that's the reason for the choppy playback.

Thanks in advance.

[guns1inger]

if you have another set of USB ports, either on the front, side or back of the PC, try one of those. If oyu only have a couple all grouped together, don't bother.

If none of them work then you will have to buy a PCI card with USB 2 ports on it and install it in your PC.

If your PC is a laptop then you are pretty much screwed.

[maxtrack]

I already copied it to the computer hdd. But I need to take it out from there because I'm low on disk space.

My question is this though. Could this be the reason why my video plays choppy when I try to play it from the externale disk? How can I be sure? If I'm absolutely sure this is the reason, then how can I convert my USB 1.0 port to USB 2.0?

I'll only go there if I'm sure that's the reason for the choppy playback.

Thanks in advance.

If you really want to be certain, can you copy the file to another hard drive on another machine?
I was just reading (somewhere else) that choppy AVI playback is a result of slow data transfer, not corruption, etc. AFAIK if the AVI is corrupt it won't play.

~ Allen

[Krispy Kritter]

The fact that it plays fine after copying it to your HDD, indicates that the file is fine and the issue is with access to your USB drive.

As stated above, you can get a USB 2.0 addon card for a PC assuming you have a free PCI slot. Otherwise, you are just stuck using the USB drive for storage and not playback.

[rayc1234]

I purchased a PCI card with USB 2.0 slots (Dynex USB 2.0 Card Bus Adapter) for my laptop. Now there's another issue. When I connect the external disk to the new USB 2.0 slot, Windows doesn't recognize the drive.

After some searching, it looks like the freakin' Dynex card doesn't supply enough power to the external disk. Their card takes the power from my old USB 1.0 slot. which does not supply enough power. So now I need a power supply that supplies 5V 1A output.

I drove to the local electronics store and quess what? All the universal power supplies that they have do not have the necessary 5V 1A power output. It looks like this isn't a standard.

What do I do now? I doubt that everyone out there who has purchased an external hard drive has had to go through this !!

[CogoSWSDS]

The amperage they are asking for is a minimum recommended amperage. If you can find a power supply of 5V to run the electronics but which can output more than one amp of current, that power supply should also work (assuming that the current types also match (AC vs DC) what is required by the external HDD.

CogoSWSDS

[rayc1234]

So you're saying that if I find one that has 5V DC and say, 1.5A, this should also work? I have a power supply that has 8.4V and 1.5A but that didn't work.

I also tried another test, I copied a much smaller video file (this time a .wmv file instead of an .avi file). And when I played that video from the external disk using my old USB 1.0 port, the video played ok! But when I attempt to play my 9Gig .avi file from my old USB 1.0 port, it's choppy. Can anyone explain this to me?

I thought the external disk wasn't feeding the data to my computer fast enough (because it was coming from the old USB 1.0 port)? If the smaller .wmv file runs ok, doesn't that mean now that the external disk IS feeding the data to the computer fast enough?

What can I deduce from this?

Thanks in advance

Ray

[Richard_G]

A DV .avi file is around 13GB per hour which works out to a data rate of 3.6MB per second. The wmv file will have a much lower bitrate (probably around 500kbs). Your external drive over USB 1.0 can deliver the 500kbs but not 3.6MBs, about 7 times the amount of data in the same amount of time.

[guns1inger]

What can I deduce from this?

I can deduce that you are a person who will happily ask for advice from people who know more than you, but then argue pointlessly with them if they give you an answer you do not like.

Different types of video need different bandwidths for transport. If DV could be sent easily over lower bandwidth connections then it would be used on the web. It isn't - WMV is. Why ? Because it can be compressed to travel over a lower bandwidth connection. The cost : quality and editability.

I would take the card back and ask for one that will power your HDD. If you can get one, then look for an adapter for it. At the moment you are just throwing money after money and still not solving your problem.

[rayc1234]

I communicated with Western Digital (the maker of my external hard drive) and explained the problem to them. They decided to send me a power booster cable that is supposed to send enough power to the drive. I received it this morning and tried it out. Now the drive gets recognized by Windows.

Again, though, when I try to open the avi video directly from the hard drive, it still plays choppy.

Is there a way of testing the speed that the computer is receiving the data from the external drive? I'm following all the instructions given to me but still can't get the video to play from the external drive.

[theewizard]

usb is rated 5v 500ma, you must be using a pocket/laptop external drive powered from the port

it does not need 1amp, usb ports are max rated at 500ma, any drive neding 1 amp should be on an external supply