Firewire Newbie Question

[jneste]

I am having a problem here. I used the video capture software in XP to capture from my JVC DV camcorder and tmpgeng to do the encoding and tmpgenc author to author it and burn the video. The picture looked terrible! I just upgraded my computer and it's pretty much clean with not too much running in the background. Befor I upgraded my computer I used Divo to do the capture and everything came out pretty good. But I noticed when I used Divo this time the frames dropped is very high. Like 1/3 of the total frames, so I stopped it and tried the Windows capture. I don't remember last time if the frames dropped was that high or not. It it normal for that many frames to drop or am I doing something wrong? Everything is captured through the firewire port.

Jeff

[daamon]

Hi jneste,

See this link:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=157660

...for a whole host of possible causes for dropped frames.

It it normal for that many frames to drop?

No, I transfer via firewire from a miniDV cam and rarely drop any.

Good luck...

[jneste]

OK..this did not really help. I even uninstalled Norton for now. I am getting MAJOR frame drops....close to 1/3 of the frames. I am using the built in firewire port on my motherboard. Could this be a problem? I am about ot go back to using an analog cam and VHS. This is rediculous!

Jeff

[rcb]

jineste -
If you were using the same jvc camcorder and f/w cable and dvio in yuor old cumputer with good results, then it just about has to be a faulty 1394 setup (h/w ,etc.) on your new rig.. ?

[Richard_G]

If you've upgraded your computer to a Pentium 166, I would expect you to drop frames with Firewire. As I assume you've upgraded to something a little better than that, you've got a problem. Have you loaded all the chipset drivers (particularly if the motherboard uses a VIA chipset), Firewire port drivers, set DMA for your hard drives, etc?

[MrMungus]

You shouldn't be dropping *any* frames with the computer you have.

Try different capture programs, particularly WinDV.

[jneste]

Yes, I did set the DMA and loaded all drivers. I just bought a Belkin firewire card since that's what I had in my old comp. and see if that takes care of my problem. I'll put it in tomorrow and let you know the outcome. Thanks for the help!!!

JN

[jneste]

OK this did not help at all. I did set the DMA if available though but it still says under that "PIO Only" with no way to change it. Is there a way to change this? Also someone said to make sure the chipset drivers are all loaded and up to date. I have a Gigabyte 1000p board. Where do I get the most up-to-date drivers for this. I figured they should be pretty up to dat considering I just built the comp. My old comp. had no problems at all and it was a cheap PC Chips mobo. I did use mu old 1.6 CPU in the new board until I get some $ to get a new one but I wouldn't think that would make a difference. I also defraged the HD with no good results either. There is also one other thing in my device manager that may be a problem. Is says something like "WDM (or something like that, Im not in front of MY comp) failed to start". But, I wouldn't think that this would make a difference transfering through firewire.

Jeff

[jneste]

jineste -
If you were using the same jvc camcorder and f/w cable and dvio in yuor old cumputer with good results, then it just about has to be a faulty 1394 setup (h/w ,etc.) on your new rig.. ?

How do I check the 1394 setup. I thought they just worked? Do I now need to disable the on-board 1394 port. I did notice that there are now 2 drivers loaded under the device manager. I'm not very good at setting up the chipset drivers and stuff like that. But I do know how to go into setup and change all that stuff. My mobo is a brand new gigabyte 1000 pro with the intel chipset. Should I update that? Should I unplug my internet connection? (broadband always on).

Jeff

[Kingnog]

If you've upgraded your computer to a Pentium 166, I would expect you to drop frames with Firewire

HEY! What are you trying to say? 166mhz is bad? I have a 166mhz Pentium 1...

Of course, I dont use it (except right now, to type this message. It's horribly slow!)

[Noek]

you should be able to go to your motherboards manufacture website to see if there are any current chipset drivers, or you may try driverguide.com, but I hear the manufacturer drivers are your best bet

Is youre file system NTFS or FAT32?

[jneste]

I think FAT32...how do I check...and what would the difference be?

[Noek]

I could be wrong here, but can you set your IDE to DMA while using FAT32? Not sure, but it might be worth looking into. Just an idea.

to check your file system, open My Computer and right click, properties on your HD....it will tell you there.

Sorry I cant be more help but I think getting your IDE channel to set to DMA and not defaulting back to PIO is one thing you need to figure out

[jneste]

OK...I figured it out. A guy here at my work actually figured it out. I'm surprised I din't find this fix on here somewhere. The problem with the drive defaulting to PIO only was because of the jumper on the back of the HD was on cable select and not on Master. I switched it to master and.....bam! Not a single dropped frame for 1.5 hours of tape! Thanks for all your help guys, I would have never figured it out to even look at the PIO thing without this forum.

Jeff

[sgrech]

jneste wrote

How do I check the 1394 setup. I thought they just worked?

So did I. I recently bought a JVC GR-D50EK dv camcorder with a view to transfer VHS tape of my daughter on DVD for future safekeeping.
I am not a techie and didn't want to spend a lot of money on new drives, caputre cards e.t.c

So I am simply (probably not a good choice of words) trying to capture film from my DV via Microsoft MovieMaker, but to no avail. When I try to tranfer using my firewire cable there are lots of large blocks of pixels missing. I have tried other pieces of software but unfortunately had the same experience. Then the other day I tried capturing via a usb cable (using Arcsoft's Videoimpression) and I the pixel problem disappeared although obviously the general quality of the output wasn't so good.

Anyway to my question. Is it possible that my problems could be down to a dodgy firewire cable. I bought for only £3 from Ebay! Is there anyway that I can simply test this cable.
Also the firewire card was purchased from ebay. I just plugged it in an available slot and let windows xp do the rest. According to windows the device is working correctly - it drivers is a microsoft one dated 1/7/01.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Simon

[RabidDog]

start a new thread ,, and restate the exact problem you are having with your exact computer configuration, software (with version numbers) what you have substituted to get it to work, the results you are getting now, what you think may be the problem and why. And title the thread correctly.. you will get fewer views but the people who do view are FAR more likley to help (eg thread title "newbie..needs help" bad "dropped frames in firewire capture with jvc100" good title...

no offense intended ....flame on! Johnny Reed? fantastic four