DV capture process freezes!

[zeek543]

When i try to capture dv over firewire from a camera, the capture process will always at some point freeze up and so does the capture program, but not the whole computer. I have WINXP PRO SP2, sony DV cam (not sure of model), PCIMA expansion firewire card, Dell600m laptop. Sometimes i am able to capture less than a minute of dv footage, other times i can capture more than an hour. But it will freeze up 90% of the time. Does so in WinDV, Windows Movie Maker, etc. I have no idea how to fix this. I am pretty sure it is not the camera or firewire expansion card, as i was able to capture as much video as i wanted with them on a dell700m laptop. Please help, quickly...this is a very frustrating problem. Thanks a ton.


My problem is similar to this one https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=312234 but is more related to the capture freezing up and not the camera disconnecting.[/url]

--Please help, this is bizarre. Could it be the card having a conflict? It is a Cardbus Pc card with 2 usb 2.0 ports and 1 6pin firewire and 1 4 pin firewire. (my Dell60m doesn't have firewire builtin sadly)

[ofbarea]

I used to have this problem in my main PC. Basically captures would stop suddenly.

Before doing anything else, try disabling the sleep mode of your video camera. If this does not help, it could be a card adapter problem.

My own situation and problem fix.

With my former PC (Intel 755P chipset) I was able to capture using the firewire port that is bundled with ATI AIW 8500DV.

Then I changed the PC, but I kept the video card.

My current PC has a motherboard with VIA PT880 Pro. I´m using the same old ATI AIW 8500DV, but this time, when I attempt to capture through this firewire port, I have exacly the same problems you are reporting.

IN this PC I have attempted using firewire cards with Agere and VIA based chipstes, and with them I had the same problem.

I fixed this problem by installing an Adaptec Firewire card with TI chipset. Now everything is fine.

As you said making sure that the firewire card works with your older laptot, does not ensure that it will work with the current one.

Do not change your card, first try a BIOS upgrade in your laptop as this may update the some cardbus and PCI low level configurations settings. Also try using the firewire card in all available slots. If this does not work, you should try a new card.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Are any of your external drives connected via Firewire?

[ofbarea]

I have a BenQ DW1650 in a Firewire case (Oxford 911 with latest fw) connected to my PC using firewire. It works fine with the current Adaptec TI firewire card, but it presented several problems with the Ageere and Via firewire cards that I tested before. Also if I connect this burned to the port present in the ATI AIW 8500DV the same problems occur. I sometimes use an 40GB firewire HD (Maxtor in an even older Oxford 911 based case) and it presents the same behavior as the DVD burner.

I think this VIA motherboard is very picky about the expansion cards used.

[edDV]

It seems like a problem frequently encountered in laptops or desktops that have a single internal drive. Some laptops work fine. Others hang on the edge of working and any little thing will cause frame drops or stop the capture. The camcorder is sending ~28Mb/s continuously and the path to the disk needs to be continuous.

Internal Drive - there needs to be enough unfragmented space and the OS + other applications need to step back from disk activity in order for the capture to continue. Background applications need to be disabled including antivirus. The idea is to keep a continuous data flow from the PCMCI card to the PCI bus, through memory to the disk controller and on to the drive without the OS taking priority on the bus or the drive for its own needs.

I find it easier to manage DV transfers by partitioning the drive so that one can clear files and defragment the partition in less time than defragmenting the entire drive. Delays occur when the OS needs to search for available unused fragments on a fragmented drive especially when the drive is near full.

External drives (USB2 or IEEE-1394) - these often work but since the disk controller is in software, the CPU needs to be busy to keep data flowing through memory to the external drive. This task should be the CPU's priority activity. Other applications should be shut down during capture.

A desktop machine has it much easier if there is a second drive and second disk controller. Through a process called bus mastering, data can flow from the IEEE-1394 card through the PCI bus, through memory, back to the bus, to the disk controller and second hard drive isolated from CPU activity on the primary drive. This was the key breakthrough for high speed video capture back in the early Pentium days.

Bus mastering will not work with external drives.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pciMastering-c.html

[ofbarea]

External drives (USB2 or IEEE-1394) - these often work but since the disk controller is in software, the CPU needs to be busy to keep data flowing through memory to the external drive. This task should be the CPU's priority activity. Other applications should be shut down during capture.

True, but CPU utilization will be lower if a firewire case is used.

[edDV]

External drives (USB2 or IEEE-1394) - these often work but since the disk controller is in software, the CPU needs to be busy to keep data flowing through memory to the external drive. This task should be the CPU's priority activity. Other applications should be shut down during capture.

True, but CPU utilization will be lower if a firewire case is used.

Yes but some firewire cards don't work well for simultaneous capture and hard disk control.

[JohnnyMalaria]

External drives (USB2 or IEEE-1394) - these often work but since the disk controller is in software, the CPU needs to be busy to keep data flowing through memory to the external drive. This task should be the CPU's priority activity. Other applications should be shut down during capture.

True, but CPU utilization will be lower if a firewire case is used.

Yes but some firewire cards don't work well for simultaneous capture and hard disk control.

Agreed on both perspectives!

I use USB 2.0 external drives (even though they have Firewire interfaces, too). I have successfully captured 3 DV streams to the same drive from 3 camcorders at the same time and never missed a beat.

[edDV]

External drives (USB2 or IEEE-1394) - these often work but since the disk controller is in software, the CPU needs to be busy to keep data flowing through memory to the external drive. This task should be the CPU's priority activity. Other applications should be shut down during capture.

True, but CPU utilization will be lower if a firewire case is used.

Yes but some firewire cards don't work well for simultaneous capture and hard disk control.

Agreed on both perspectives!

I use USB 2.0 external drives (even though they have Firewire interfaces, too). I have successfully captured 3 DV streams to the same drive from 3 camcorders at the same time and never missed a beat.

I've played four DV-AVI files from a USB2 drive at once . Sometimes #3 or #4 have studders but #1 and #2 don't seem affected by adding more. Theory says USB2 is first come first in priority. This seems to be the case. Max continuous USB stream is supposed to be around 160Mb/s so maybe 6 DV playbacks are possible under ideal conditions.

I've been using DV-AVI files as proxy for HD MPeg2_TS at similar bitrates. 4x MPeg2 requires much more CPU or Graphics card load for decode.

[Bjs]

You first port of call is prior to any hardware update ... and this was information from a manual and manufacturer site .

Remove all ieee , and usb device's from pc ... only have the camera connected during the capture .

Ieee , and a/v , require these devices to be powered on via power adapter , set to correct mode , cable connected to camera , then cable to pc ... then turn the pc ON .

Doing it any other way can cause damage to the camera / pc .

Usb streaming also requires the "ieee / a/v" method , but pc can be on (must remove other ieee / usb device's first) .

I had only a usb mouse connected ... when this was removed and a ps2 installed , and the pc restarted in the correct order as mentioned by the manufaturer's site ... there was no further issue .