Why does WinDV sometiems craete really small files.. 1 or 5 secs etc?

[ozstar100]

I know the general drift that WinDV breaks files into smaller block according to what is set, but why are there sometimes really small files for a few secs or even 0 secs, every now and then in a capture.

oz

[johnmeyer]

I know the general drift that WinDV breaks files into smaller block according to what is set, but why are there sometimes really small files for a few secs or even 0 secs, every now and then in a capture.oz

I've captured thousands of hours of DV, mostly using Scenalyzer. I have seen less than one frame garbage files occasionally and it is usually due to one of several things.

1. Is the material you are capturing actually from a DV tape, or are you using some sort of capture device (including a DV or Digital 8 camcorder) to convert analog video? When converting analog video, some capture software will attempt to create new files based on scene changes. This software can glitch. The solution? Disable optical scene detection.

2. If you are capturing DV or Digital 8 tapes, these can sometimes contain dropouts. If you have scene detection enabled for digital tapes, that detection works by simply looking for an interruption in time code. Any glitch on the tape can cause an interruption in the time code. The solution? Once again, disable scene detection.

3. There can be sync issues when capturing. Does WinDV have a setting which attempts to fix sync? Scenalyzer does, and it can help with this problem.

4. Dropped frames. In the early days of DV, when computers were slower and Win98 and WinME had lousy 1394 drivers, it was quite common to have dropped frames. With any computer built in the last fifteen years, and with any software from WinXP onwards, this should be a thing of the past, but I suppose it it possible you have some sort of dropped frame problem. When you set your software to capture as one single file, do you notice any dropped frames or other issues?

[aedipuss]

winDV creates files by looking at the timestamps in the video. by changing the "discontinuity threshold" you can vary how long a gap in timecodes is allowed to be considered 1 file. when it's set to 0 winDV makes the entire recorded part of the tape 1 file.