WMM/DV capturing skips frames

[LuisValenzuela]

I am a newbie on this digital video stuff. A few months ago, I started
converting DV tapes into digital using a JVC camera, Firewire cable and
Windows Movie Maker v2.1 on a lap-top Compaq Presario M2000/1.5Mhz/512Mb/60GB
with WXP Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600

At the beginning everything was fine and I made about 15 video clips with an
average of 20min-1.5hr length

The problem came up a couple of weeks ago when during capturing; the video
kind of freeze/skips a few frames every 2 or 3 seconds. The computer doesn’t
stop or hang and it still records all the way to the end. However, the
quality of the video motion is very poor as well as audio. It is not clear
and it looks/sounds like a poor VoIP call on a low bandwidth connection.

So far, I have taken the following steps without success:
- Disk clean up
- Disk defragmentation
- I cleaned out all the previous projects in WMM
- Obviously I have re-booted a hundred times
- Thinking that the problem might have been in the FW PC port, I swapped the
whole computer to a new one with the same specs only using the same hard
drive
- I tried using another program (ImageMixer with VCD v1.1) same problem
happened
- I installed Windows Media 9 Capture
- I have my C drive set to NTFS
- I have set the processor scheduling to background services and memory
usage to system cache
- Virtual memory is set to 3000MB initial and 4000MB maximum
- I cleaned out my hard drive size down to 22Gb used space leaving 33GB
available
- I have tried all the different options for video quality and checked on
and off the previw window box
- I have tried switching LP/SP
- I hae tried different cable.
- I tried using an external 100GB USB drive
- I tried using a different computer and it does work fine.... Since I also
tried a different computer using the same hard drive i conclude that the
problem is somewhere in the hard driv and the information/configuration
(Memory? WMM? Processing?) countained in it.

Any suggestion will be greatly appreaciated.
Luis Valenzuela
lf_valenzuela@yahoo.com

[guns1inger]

Have you tried WinDV instead of WMM ?
Have you disabled all un-neccessary programs from the system tray, including disabling all anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs ?
Have you disabled un-necessary items in your startup folder and the startup (run) section of the registry ?

[Bjs]

Start - settings - control panel - system - advanced tab - performance options - set for apps , ok , apply , ok .

System will apply new settings now ... and go .

Beware : Many update's from ms can also have adverse affects of current system causing numerous problem's that suddenly appear to develope without the user knowing anything about it .

Unistall any update's installed after assumed date of problem accuring ... reboot pc .

Xp will say new update's available , say no , you will be asked if you wish to be reminded later to install these , say yes , and ignore for now .

Try capture again , and see if problem is resolved .

If problem is fixed , an update is the problem ...

You will need to repeat this process to locate which update is the problem , via uninstalling them one at a time during reboot's , apply what I said about telling xp too leave it out for now , and try again .

When you find the problem one , when pc reboot's and xp ask's to install it , you can say no , and tell xp to never ask or install it .

This applies to that rotten "your xp may not be legit" popup crap ... there are other way's to get update's , I know , but that's for you too figure out ... it's dead set simple .

[LuisValenzuela]

- I tried WinDV with the same results
- I changed startup and systray down to basic programs, same results
- i erased all Windows updates downloaded even before the problem started happening.... no change..

[Richard_G]

As the problem seems hard disc related, have you made sure the drive is in DMA and not PIO mode?

[LuisValenzuela]

Would you mind telling me how to check that?

[LuisValenzuela]

As far as I can tell, device 0 is in DMA.

[LuisValenzuela]

I FOUND THE PROBLEM!!!

Gentleman!! After getting to a point of almost defeat. I was trying once more swaping the HD to another laptop of the same kind and it worked!!

What was the problem? It wasnt the hard drive, it was the Sprint boradband wirelless PCI antenna. THe first time I swaped PC's I moved the antenna to the new PC so I didnt see the difference. Today After I relaized thet the problem happened as I inserted the antenna.

THanks to all who gave me hints and help to solve this.

Much appreaciated..

If you ever need a spanish translation, count on me!!!!

God bless you all.