Capturing Problems w/ Virtual Dub

[jorwex]

So i just upgraded my system. its got the specs in the little button above. seems like its more than adecquate for capturing 352x240 29.97 fps in vdub using huffy.

problem is, im getting a worse amount of dropped frames than whe i used my p3 900 mhz. any ideas?!?!?!

btw i switched to windows XP cuz win2k wouldnt let me have my OS drive use ntfs on my secondary master; xp would.

my setup is:

primary master: western digital drive described above (storage, drive with vdub on it)

primary slave: liteon cdrw drive

sec. master: 40gig maxtor OS drive described above

sec. slave: dvdrom drive

the ONLY thing i didnt replace from before was my video card, AND im running dual channel ddr i have NOOOOO idea whats wrong now.

thanks people

[andkiich]

The ATI card and VirtualDub do not play well together. I tried that combination when I first started and I got dropped frames a littel bit, then over time it go to be unacceptable. You'll do better by with either using the MMC that came with the card, or use another capture program. I have been using Ulead VideoStudio 6 with good results.

[jorwex]

but i had BETTER results with my older pc. like i could capture for an hour or so with under 5 frames dropped at 352x240.

what about avi_io

[sayian_leo]

I am not sure, but are you saying that you put your WD HD in your new system, on the first primary ide channel and the CDR-drive on the secondary of the same ide channel. The HD does probalbly UDMA 100 or 133 and the CDR-drive only 33 .

If that is the case maybe it wil help to put both HD on one channel and the DVD-drive en CD RW-drive on the other.

Greetings

[mrtristan]

Keeping only the capture card the same and changing every other component pretty much changes everything. My current machine is a dual 1.67Ghz AMD box, but it drops more frames than my older 1.1Ghz Thunderbird machine, when I use Virtualdub.

I would suggest iuvcr, or VirtualVCR. I almost never drop a frame with iuvcr and drop one or two per half hour, with VirtualVCR.

[Will Hay]

The ATI card and VirtualDub do not play well together.

0
Very strange, because mine are perfectly suited and produce flawless captures.
W.

[Craig Tucker]

The ATI card and VirtualDub do not play well together.

0
Very strange, because mine are perfectly suited and produce flawless captures.
W.

As do mine

[non-linear]

I am not sure, but are you saying that you put your WD HD in your new system, on the first primary ide channel and the CDR-drive on the secondary of the same ide channel. The HD does probalbly UDMA 100 or 133 and the CDR-drive only 33 .

If that is the case maybe it wil help to put both HD on one channel and the DVD-drive en CD RW-drive on the other.

I have to agree with you. This is probably what's causing the problem. Optical drives can really bog down the hard drive performance if they're on the same IDE channel. This can affect video capture since the hard drive is having a harder time keeping up.

The best thing to do is have the hard drives on the primary IDE channel and the optical drives on the secondary channel.

Also, it's a good idea to check to see if the hard drives are set to use DMA (Direct Memory Access). this can be done in the control panel under System / Hardware / Device Manager / IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then click on the Primary IDE channel (where both your hard drives should be moved to), then click the Advanced Settings Tab for the DMA information.

[jorwex]

hey people,

thanks for all the help. i reformatted and set everything back up just in time to get hit by that big hurricane here on the east coast, so i just got my power back as well as phone, tv, internet, etc..

anyways, i changed my setup:

primary ide:
-master: western digital 120 gig drive
-slave: maxtor 40 gig drive

secondary ide:
-cdrw
-dvdrom

so ill try vdub again and, failing that, iuvcr. thanks,

[bottle-necked]

jorwex

I'd Partition the 120 with 64kb sectors in NTSF. I'd update my BIOS, Windows Motherboard Drivers, Windows Updates, software updates, etc, as well as I could. Just read the update instructions very carefully and follow all directions. I know it's new, but I'd still check on available updates.

XP has a neat little function called "perfmon.msc". You can either type this in the "RUN" box or find a shortcut to it in Control Panel Computer Management. You can right click in it's window and add a counter, right click an added counter and properties it, add graph lines, colors, etc and monitor your performance. I setup my own perfmon.msc that monitors each of my drives B/ps, CPU%, etc. during a capture test and while setting up Windows tells me alot about whats going on. It may help you also.

If your machine is dropping frames then it's either a driver/program conflict or something you're doing. This can be tough to figure out, but it is possible to do so. I'd record my CPU% Used during different capture setting to start with. This will help you isolate problems. I'd also keep records of CPU% usage so after a driver or program update I could again check to see if it helped. You should be lowering your CPU% while increasing your capture quality.

I'd download a small program called "Performance Test". It runs tests on your machine and benchmarks it against other known systems. It should help you see where your system is too slow.

Services.msc is another function you need to learn for a captureing machine. Disabling unnecessary services is pretty smart. I don't use System Restore or AutoUpdates either. YOu can learn alot about services on the internet.

You should be able to capture 720x480 AVI without much problems without dropping any frames, if it's running properly that is.

Good luck.

[2man]

hi jorwex
probably you don´t need to capture at 29.97 fps but make sure that in the rigth-bottom you see 29.97 fps instead of 15 fps
i can capture 720x576 25fps (PAL) in VD (asus 4800)
only get drop frames when all settings where for pal but in the rigth-bottom the 15fps keep active
so confirm the rigth-bottom for the correct fps for capture
2man
sorry the "english"