Dazzle DVC II question from newbie

[tamgiao]

Hi,

I've just bought a Dazzle DVC II and have started capturing.

1> When I captured from VHS tapes, the clips, be it MPEG1 or MPEG2, always have this weird tiny line at the bottom on every frame (not a black line, the color changes with each frame). It's really annoying. I've tried capturing with various combinations of cables (composite) and VCRs and different tapes too, but all of them result in clips with this stupid little line. Is something wrong with the Dazzle card? I've never seen this line on TV.

2> I experience frame drops periodically when capturing at DVD MPEG2 setting. It's not massive, but it is noticeable. How do I reduce frame drops? I have active cooling directed at the computer and the breakout box (i.e. they're next to the air conditioner running full-blast). I killed almost every process in the background before I started capturing. I reserved the whole 80GB drive for capturing, set the pagefile to a fixed size, and optimized my PC in every possible way, disable preview, etc. What else can I do to prevent frame loss? Is it the fault of the DVC II or my PC?

I have a Pentium III 733Mhz, 512MB RAM, 80GB Ultra133 7200rpm HDD controlled by Promise Ultra133 controller, SoundBlaster Audigy, Windows 2000 (NTFS), Dazzle MovieStar 4.23.

Thank you for any help/info.

[kv5]

The Weird flickering lines is a fact of life I'm afraid.... they will show up on your computer monitor.... however if you make a VCD/SVCD/DVD and view them on your TV screen you will no longer see them.

With regards to frame dropping..... It sounds like you've got a half decent machine and I would imagine the problem lies with your HDD.... (80GIG) is the drive partitioned ? - If so... fine, Just set aside one partition for the DVC2 captures and keep the drive defraged or better still format the relevant partition after use... this should fix the frame dropping problem - Maybe think of getting a second HDD just for capturing - Thats what I did and I dont get frame drops anymore.....

p.s - Are you using Movistar 4.24 ? - Its available from the Dazzle web-site (Much Improved)