Why Am I Dropping Frames?

[JamieBecks23]

I had a PC with 64MB ram, it was too slow to capture so i paid 80 quid for 256 mb, i have put it in and in virtual dub, I cnt really notice anything different. Do I have to activate this ram or something, cos Im still dropping the frames i was before, O, i have 1.2 Gig cpu.

I have reinstalled windows, defragged, enabled DMA, what the heck do i need to do to capture at 352 x 288!!!!!!!!

[KingJohn]

352 x 288 should not be much of a problem, is your hard drive a 7200rpm ? or slower ?

What capture card do you have, does it not come with its own program, are you saving uncompressed AVI or Mpeg1 ?

You need to experiment with the capture settings to suit your computer.

As for the memory, all you need to do is talk nicely to your computer and it will use it.

On switch on, say Use new memoryand it will use it..

Don't believe me huh, then you just try it, then go to the control panel > system icon and read how much RAM you have, bet it has the new memory now ?

[vhelp]

evening darthbooker,

Wow, that many frames using 352x288??
Pfeww! you shouldn't be dropping these many at 1.2g, so there must be
something up w/ your:
* system
* capture card (ATW, WinTV Go, etc)
* Capture APPLICATION, ie, MMC xx, avi_io, vdub, or iuVCR etc. and settings
* codec(s) (huffy, uncompressed, ATI codec, RGB, etc)
* graphics card (ATI, nVada, etc)
* hard drive(s) (5400 or 7200rpm, but doesn't matter in your case)
* IRQs sharing (shaing w/ audio or too close to powersupply)
* much, much more...
The above is just some of the reason for frame drops.

* your system seems fast enough for 352x288 captures
* capture card brand/type? ? ?
* A good AGP graphics card is a good helper (to boost captures) vs. a
PCI graphics card. My sys specs are ATI-Rage Fury Pro (AGP) w/ an ATW
capture card pci version, but not the VE - got over a year ago for $79
but now you can get for $49 at compusa, etc.
Look out for those IRQs sharing, though, if U C "steering" it's ok
* what's your capture app?? for capturing
* are you capturing to AVI or real-time mpeg1/2??
* bla, bla, bla

-vhelp

[KingJohn]

What about his mouse and keyboard ?

[vhelp]

kingjohn,

that's I said "* much, much, more. . ." cause there's so many posibitilies
to why there's so many frame drops, he, he... I just mentions some of
the most common ones, thats all.

-vhelp

[enchantedbear]

I tried to capture video on my 7200 hardrive, and on 20 mins of video I dropped about 20 frames. I bought a firwire converter for about $100 made by pyro. it converts your hardrive to firewire. I didn't drop a single frame. If your doing video you may want to consider that route.