Frame loss, but not "dropping"?

[Li Wang]

My system:

Windows XP
Athlon XP 2000+
1.66 ghz
512 MB RAM
GeForce 2 MX400 Card (Xtasy Everything 64 MB AGP version)

OK, I think this may be the same problem others have mentioned elsewhere in the forum. I am quite sure my problem is not frame dropping, but frames (or some kind of information to handle motion) from the original broadcast are clearly missing from my captures. Virtualdub assures me that no frames were "dropped". Unless this problem is also known as "frame dropping" (as opposed to the system actually being too slow), I don't know what name to use to describe it. On movies or shows that have a filmlike look the problem is barely noticeable except when there is panning. But with live tv shows it's a different story. Although they play at the right speed and the sound is in sync, the captures come out filmlike rather than the smooth motion you regularly see on live tv. It's almost as if it's capturing at NTSC film speed rather than 29.97 fps. Does anyone know what I'm talking about or how to fix it? Does it have to do with some kind of motion setting rather than frames actually being skipped? I've tried all kinds of different settings in different programs but the result is always the same. I was beginning to think it might have been the card itself, but none of the reviews I've ever read mention this problem.

The only thing I have set differently than in the Virtualdub MJPEG/HUFFYUV tutorial is the data format UYVY instead of YUY2. YUY2 won't work with this card, apparently. Could that be something that would make such a huge difference?

Anyway, thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

[Chyron]

Capture resolution?

[Li Wang]

I solved the problem. I had actually solved it before I posted here but stupidly didn't realize it. Using the Huffyuv 2.1.1 codec was my answer. I didn't realize this at first because I was using Windows Media Player to preview the clips and it can't keep up with the files I encode with that codec well enough. The output it gave looked exactly as filmlike and choppy as previous actual capture quality with other codecs so I didn't even notice it was the player and not the files themselves.