How much video can you capture/transfer at once?

[heyjjjaded]

I'm transferring video from my camcorder to my PC with WinDV. I was very impressed that I suffered no dropped frames during the transfer of 1 continuous hour of video. When I played the video back, however, I noticed that the audio is out of sync with the video. It seems to be OK at the beginning of the video, becomes a bit noticable in the middle of the video, and is significantly off by the end of the hour video. Did I try to transfer too much at once? Is it recommended to transfer video in smaller chunks? Thank You!

[daamon]

Hi heyjjjaded,

I'm afraid that my response is only going to be half useful...

When transferring from a camcorder to PC, it is exactly that - you are transferring data from one storage medium to another and so it shouldn't affect the actual data. Think of it like moving (transferring) a file from a floppy disk (remember those?) to your hard drive - the file is the same, with the same data, but in a different place.

So, the size of the chunks is irrelevant - you didn't transfer too much. There isn't a "too much" - well, until your disk space runs out!.

That said, I've not had this problem so not had to fix it. But I would suggest that it's a software / hardware / setup issue, not any natural / inherent limitation. Try DVIO or VirtualDub to do your transfers (both freeware).

Are you using firewire? If so, the problem could be that your card is not in the best slot (could be something to do with IRQ conflicts I believe...).

Failing that, I have seen plenty of posts in the forums about "gradual loss of audio sync" (like yours), as opposed to the sync being out by a fixed amount.

I hope I've helped to eliminate one wild goose chase, sorry I couldn't give you the answer though.

Good luck...

[heyjjjaded]

Thanks daamon. I am using fire wire to try to convert my old Hi8 tape to DV (and then to DVD) and I'm pretty frustrated now. I tried transferring the same 1 hour home video to my computer with DVIO & experienced the same result as above: no dropped frames, but the audio & video are again out of sync when I play back the video with Windows Media Player. Here is what I have done with this same 1 hour video:

1st - tried to transfer with Ulead Video Studio and got a ton of dropped frames, but the audio & video were perfectly in sync

2nd - tried to transfer with WinDV and got no dropped frames, but the audio & video got progressively more out of sync from start to finish during playback

3rd - tried to transfer with DVIO and got no dropped frames, but the audio & video got progressively more out of sync from start to finish during playback ... apparently the exact problem as when I used WinDV

I just can't put it all together. Any ideas how I can transfer this video and accomplish both of the following: minimizing dropped frames and keeping audio & video in sync. THANK YOU!!

[daamon]

Hi heyjjjaded,

So near yet so far... Bitch eh?

Go to the "Capture" forum and there's a good "Sticky" topic about dropped frames. Might be worth a read as you're getting audio in synch by using Ulead.

Or, try VirtualDub in place of WinDV, DVIO etc.

[BSR]

I don't think Virtualdub can import DV.
I know I looked into it at one point but maybe things have changed.

heyjjjaded
Did you ever get your issue resolved.
I just started using WinDVD from your suggestion in another post and was curious just in case I ran into the same issue.
I saw someone elses post in the comment section of WinDV that said they had the same issue.

[heyjjjaded]

BSR -
I did a lot of reading & have found that the sync problem that I was having was more common with analog-to-digital transfers by means of the pass-through method. That is exactly what I was trying to do. Rather than get too technical, I just transferred my old Hi8 videos in smaller segments & everything came out beautiful.

[MpegEncoder]

BSR -
I did a lot of reading & have found that the sync problem that I was having was more common with analog-to-digital transfers by means of the pass-through method. That is exactly what I was trying to do. Rather than get too technical, I just transferred my old Hi8 videos in smaller segments & everything came out beautiful.

Try this instead: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=212374&highlight=

[maek]

Another thing that helps is to shut down any unnecesary programs. Analog captures are fairly demanding, so limit the amount of competition placed on your computer resources.

[MpegEncoder]

Another thing that helps is to shut down any unnecesary programs. Analog captures are fairly demanding, so limit the amount of competition placed on your computer resources.

His problem (heyjjjaded) has nothing to do with the DV transfer itself. I have this problem and it's not the machine. The fact that no frames are dropped indicates that the machine is not too busy to handle the incoming data.

I don't know if it's a bug, but both WinDV and DVIO have this problem when I use type-2 DV file format.

My solution is to frameserve with VirtualDUB (which I normally do anyway to select the range) and let it match the framerate of the video and audio. This works well. See link in previous post

[lenti_75]

strange......
i converted a whole bunch of HI8 using a digital camcorder (canon)who does analog->digital conversion, from an analog one, using Ulead Video Studio, and the result is PERFECT....no dropped frames no audio/video out sync...perfect.
i don't know how you do this conversion....but it is a hardware problem here....
i've read this before, it looks like the sync problem starts around 15-20 min....an ideea is to capture below this, and make a bunch of files, then encode as one...
i repeat, it is a hardware problem, i did this before and mine are perfect....

[MpegEncoder]

strange......
i converted a whole bunch of HI8 using a digital camcorder (canon)who does analog->digital conversion, from an analog one, using Ulead Video Studio, and the result is PERFECT....no dropped frames no audio/video out sync...perfect.
i don't know how you do this conversion....but it is a hardware problem here....
i've read this before, it looks like the sync problem starts around 15-20 min....an ideea is to capture below this, and make a bunch of files, then encode as one...
i repeat, it is a hardware problem, i did this before and mine are perfect....

I don't know what you mean by "hardware problem", but there is nothing wrong with my hardware. It may be a software bug in WinDV or DVIO. Either way it's FAR easier to use VirtualDub to resync the audio/video and frameserve than it is to mess with a bunch of small files. Even the tail end of those files will be out a sync a little.

Once again: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=212374&highlight=

[BSR]

lenti_75 wrote:
repeat, it is a hardware problem, i did this before and mine are perfect....

----------------
I have Ulead also and when i use it for capture, I do not lose sync.
Only when I used WinDV did I lose sync.
I do not believe it is a hardware problem or else Ulead VideoStudio would have the same problem.
My only problem with Ulead Video Studio is that it captures Type 1 DV, not sure if this can be changed?

[heyjjjaded]

I also tried to capture with ULead and the audio & video were perfectly in sync ... I got A BUNCH of dropped frames though.

[jellied]

heyjjjaded:

I saw your thread about this on camcorderinfo.com. I was having exactly the same sync problem as you capturing old Hi8 tapes passed through a Sony DV camcorder (using DVIO to capture the frames). In the end, I also resorted to capturing 10 minute or so segments (I broke the video down into scenes). Sync was fine. It wasn't too much of a pain to do this, especially as I could batch encode the clips using TMPGEnc. Also, the clips serve as nice chapter points at the DVD authoring step.

jellied

[heyjjjaded]

jellied!!!!!!!
I did get some help with this at camcorderinfo.com. I also recall you suggesting TMPGEnc Plus to me ... thanks! I've finally figured that program out (with more help from these forums) & it results in GREAT looking videos! Thank You Again!