Canopus ADVC 110 Possible problem?

[Drexter]

Hello guys,

I'm kind of new here, visited often for advise on already asked questions, but now I just cant find an answer for the one I have. Problem is that when I capture video from a VHS or a Hi8 camcorder using the canoupus 110, and the Pinnacle Studio 11.1 and Ulead 10.0 I get always the same result, the captured video runs faster at normal speed. what I mean is that a 2 hour realtime video on the VHS or the Camcorder gives me a 1hour and 30 mins video on the computer. Sound and picture play faster like and old movie

I First thought it may be a capturing software problem but I tried with another one and same result.

The way I capture and encode I select the MPEG option on the capturing software so I dont end up with a 26 Gb avi file on the computer and then spend 6 hours converting it to DVD.

When I capture directly in DV format I have no problems, I only happens when I choose either on Pinnacle or Ulead Studio to capture in DVD quality.

Is it the Canopus problem or software issue?

Canopus Dip switchs are left as factory settings.

By the way my I use a Intel Pentium Dual CPU @ 2Ghz, 2 Gb RAM, Intel Chipset, 2 HDD, master 300 GB and slave for storage 540 GB.

Thanks in advance

[redwudz]

I'd guess it was your capture/conversion programs. You mention that a direct DV transfer to your hard drive doesn't have the problem, so that probably leaves out the ADVC as the cause.

I would drop one of your 'fast' videos into MediaInfo, tree view, and see what the fps shows. I'm assuming you are converting at 29.970 fps? If it's not the problem, maybe post the MediaInfo screenshot here and there may be something in it that indicates a problem.

And welcome to our forums.

[Drexter]

Thanks for the Quick replay, here's the result from the tree view in text format.

General
Complete name : C:\Documents and Settings\Paul\Escritorio\Video 1.mpg
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 1.13 GiB
Duration : 25mn 41s
Overall bit rate : 6 291 Kbps
Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Default
Format_Settings_GOP : M=3, N=15
Duration : 25mn 39s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 817 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 8 500 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Standard : NTSC
Resolution : 8 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.562
Stream size : 1.04 GiB (92%)
Audio
ID : 192 (0xC0)
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 2
Mode : Joint stereo
Format_Settings_ModeExtension : Intensity Stereo + MS Stereo
Duration : 25mn 41s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 224 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 41.2 MiB (4%)


Thanks again,!!

[edDV]

I can add some experience here.

The DV steam from the ADVC 110 is 25Mb/s plus two uncompressed PCM audio channels at about 1.5 Mb/s each.

ULead Video Studio 10 has a real time Mainconcept MPeg2 software encoder module but your 2GHz pentium (is there a Pentium D 2GHz?) is probably not fast enough to keep up without buffer overflow. Thus you are probably encoding with frame loss. I used to do this with a 2.6GHz Pentium 4 but found buffer overflow when I lowered bit CBR bit rate below about 7Mb/s. It was worse with VBR. Have you played these files back? My guess is you have frame loss gaps that add up to the time difference.

The basic real time encode rule is CPU load increases the more you compress. If you are encoding PCM uncompressed audio at the same time, this adds to the CPU load. If you can match bit rate to your CPU, the Mainconcept real time compression is quite good but not as good as non-realtime encoding from a DV capture file.

Pinnacle and others use a different technique for real time encode. They lower quality to match the CPU speed. In that case the quality is much lower than a post encode from a DV capture but it probably doesn't have lost frames.

Other PC factors can affect encoding efficiency, mainly background tasks or other PC activity during capture.

A Core2Duo CPU will give you enough CPU capacity to real time encode 4-6 Mb/s without frame loss unless other tasks are running. Monitor the CPU performance in task manager. For your current system either raise the bit rate or capture DV, edit, then encode MPeg2 as a non-realtime process. In Video Studio watch for the "buffering" warning window.

[edDV]

Also, you should be encoding from the DV stream lower field first.

If by Dual 2GHz Pentium, does that mean two CPUs? The encoding software is probably only using one of them.

The non 1x playback is a new one to me. my WMP and VLC just show frame loss jumps. Which media player are you using?