Can I get past the 70 minute limit with a Pinnacle DC10+?

[Chopper Face]

Been using my Pinnacle DC10+ with the software it came with for years to capture shorter stuff. I'd like to be able to capture things that are longer than 70 minutes but it just says that it can't do it. Read someone that avi_io would solve my problem. Installed it and tried it and it didn't work. Get bsod or just total frame drop after a bit over 70 minutes.

Anyone ever gotten more than 70 minutes out of one of these cards?

[widemouth]

I have contacted Pinnacle about that exact problem and they assue me that the problem only exisits in Windows 98 or less.

I am about to install Win 2000 and will see if the problem has been resolved.

[Chopper Face]

Hm... I have windows 98. Thanks for the tip. Does the program work with XP? Be sure to let me know if you can get it to work with 2000.

[disturbed1]

I owned one a while back, used Windows Me, didn't remember having any problems after 70 minutes. I did a few 2 hour caps. One time I set the settings to the highest, and let it fill up a 40 gig drive.

If you still have problems and want to sell the card, let me know, I wouldn't mind having another

[Chopper Face]

Well it's not a file size problem as far as I know. If it were bumping down the frame rate is something I could handle.

Actually I'll try that but for some reason I don't think that's what the problem is.

[bbb]

A few rare individuals have odd motherboards that lets them avoid the 71 minute capture limit in Windows 98/ME. However, most people, including myself, do experience a 71 minute capture limitation in Win 98 that fatally crashes the computer and renders the AVI files useless.

You have 2 possible solutions:

1. If you want to stay with using Windows 98, you can use AVI_IO to get past the 71 minute limitation. According to the programmer, AVI_IO drops a few frames at the 71 minute mark (not noticeable) to achieve this feat. In terms of benefits, AVI_IO provides unparalleled Audio/Video sync, Markus Zing provides great support for his program and he is currently programming a XP compatible version. Buying AVI_IO is the cheapest and quickest solution. You can even get a student discount if you ask him.

If you have a problem with AVI_IO, consult Markus on what settings to use (there are DC10+ specific settings to use). Sometimes AVI_IO crashes but I think that has to do with the not entirely stable Windows 98 Pinnacle drivers.

Or

2. You can upgrade to Windows XP which doesn't have the 71 minute capture limit. With XP you can also use NTFS with lets you capture to 1 big AVI file (in Win 98 which can only use FAT32, you have to capture in 2 GB segments). However, you will need to use/buy a Windows XP compatible capture app for your DC10+. Studio 7/8 work well. This is the more expensive and more time consuming solution (you have to buy XP, install XP, get XP apps, and get used to XP). However, the biggest benefit is the ability to work with 1 AVI file.

I started out with the AVI_IO solution and was happy with it. But, I wanted/needed to work with 1 AVI file and so eventually moved on to XP. My decision to move to XP was made easier since I received XP as a X-mas gift. My adjustment to the XP interface and apps wasn't difficult but I actually found Win 98 to be more stable. Go figure.

[Chopper Face]

Well as I said I tried using avi_io and still experienced the same problems. Well once I went off to eat and came back to a bsod which lost all captured video. The second time I just watched it going at about 73 minutes and it seemed to be dropping about 30 frames per second and stopped it which did actually let me keep the files it had captured. I will look into the settings and stuff. Hopefully that will fix the problem for me. Thanks.

I guess the XP approach is sort of a good alternative although yeah I don't actually have XP or that Studio 7 or 8. It's a fairly old machine I'm working with though. 466mhz. Don't want to put XP on something that won't handle it well.

[bbb]

Well as I said I tried using avi_io and still experienced the same problems. Well once I went off to eat and came back to a bsod which lost all captured video. The second time I just watched it going at about 73 minutes and it seemed to be dropping about 30 frames per second and stopped it which did actually let me keep the files it had captured. I will look into the settings and stuff. Hopefully that will fix the problem for me.

Dropping 30 frames per second! That's dropping more frames than one normally captures per second. You mean per minute, right?

Unfortunately, AVI_IO is the only known solution to circumvent the 71 minute bug in Windows 98. I've also experienced occasional crashes with AVI_IO in the past but usually it behaves well and doesn't crash twice in a row. Also, according to my experience, the demo version tends to be more flaky than the full version so I went and bought the full version which worked well for me. Markus will tell you what settings to use for the DC10+ card.

I guess the XP approach is sort of a good alternative although yeah I don't actually have XP or that Studio 7 or 8. It's a fairly old machine I'm working with though. 466mhz. Don't want to put XP on something that won't handle it well.

With XP you will experience noticeable system slow down and probably even more dropped frames on a 466 MHz system. So, I guess if you were to go with XP, you'd have to get a new motherboard with more RAM (128 MB - 256 MB) and a faster CPU (1000 MHz or faster). It might not be a bad idea since with a faster system you can encode your AVI into MPEG at a faster rate. Also, you will be able to capture in full resolution at the highest bitrate with your DC 10+ card which will produce better (more detailed) looking MPEGs/VCDs/SVCDs/DVDs. So, for better quality and greater processing efficiency, you will need to spend more moola.

[Chopper Face]

Well I have a better computer but I got that diagonal line noise problem with this card. I've got my system capturing at maximum quality on this old computer because I have a drive just for capturing and it hasn't given me problems. Using my "better" computer on the other hand I had to reinstall the card every time I wanted to capture which was a nuisance to say the least.

As for the 30 frames per second thing that's exactly what I meant. More like 29.97 frames per second. So much to say that when it was misbehaving it was just dropping all the frames but hadn't bothered crashing yet.

[Chopper Face]

Okay I've tried to bring down the bit rate so that I can try to fit the 71+ minutes under 3 files with the latest trial version of avi_io but it still junked out at 71 minutes and about 38 seconds. Now I don't want to go speding 25$ on something which isn't going to work.

[widemouth]

In case anyones interested. The capture length is limited to 2^32 Miliseconds which works out to be 71 Minutes and 34 Seconds. ( Divide by 1000000 then again by 60 )

The limitation is in the DC10 driver. Probably as it only uses a 32 bit length register for the counter which then overflows and manages to kill the capture.

I find it strange that Pinnacle havenever bothered to fix this problem as they have known about it for a long time.

I installed Win 2000 over the weekend but haven't tried a big capture yet. Will let you know how it goes.

[widemouth]

The 71 Minute limit doesnt exist in windows 2000