Problems capturing with DAC-100

[mikeveli]

I just recently purchased the DataVideo DAC-100 and seem to be having trouble capturing. Here are my troubles:

- Can figure out how to get it to capture with Virtual Dub. I set everything up and select capture but nothing happens.
- Since I couldn't get Virtual Dub to work, I tried DVIO, Adobe Premiere, and Videowave 4 and the video would capture for about 1 sec, then pause for about 1 sec and then continue so I was losing 1 out of every 2 seconds. Also the video quality wasn't very good.

If anyone has this device can they please inform me of how I can get the great captures this device is supposed to be capable of creating (i.e. no frame loss, same quality as source, etc.)? Thanks,

Mike

[mikeveli]

please help...

[Anonymous65]

First, Virtualdub is not WDM compatible, so you cannot capture firewire video with it. You will have to use one of the other capture software's you mentioned. If you get dropped frames, that most likely means that your PC is not fast enough, or you have a bad bottleneck someplace. DV video has a bit rate of about 25Mbits/sec, quite high. If you have a PC with a CPU over 1 GHz, and a large hard drive running ATA66 and higher, you should have no problems capturing DV video. I remember I had a 800Mhz CPU, and it could not handle DV video without dropping frames. Now I have a 2.2GHz CPU, and a ATA133 hard drive...

[mikeveli]

CPU speed is not a problem. This is what I have:

Operating System: WinXP Sp1
CPU Speed: Intel P4 2.2GHz w/ L2 cache
Harddrive space: 80GB WD, 120GB WD w/8MB cache
RAM Memory: 512MB
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
Capture Card: DataVideo DAC-100
DVD-ROM: Samsung SD-616 16X
DVD Writer: Sony DRU-500A

What is that bad bottleneck thing you were talking about? I am unsure of what that means.

Also, can you write out a set of instructions to follow in order to successfully make a good capture? Thanks,

Mike

[Anonymous65]

Nothing wrong with your hardware specs.
I don't know Windows XP, there might be some issues I don't know about. But, some things I would try is moving the firewire card to another PCI slot, or even get a new card. Install another DV codec in case the one you already have is very slow or incompatible. Another thing that can slow down capture is the video card driver. Download the latest video driver for your card. Do you have any programs running in the background? Shut down all programs when captureing and see if it has any effect.

Since you get only a few seconds at a time, that means there is a bottle neck. Meaning the data gets backed up to the point it stops. Some place between your DV converter and the hard drive there is a point of poor performance. You need to find that spot and fix it...

[mikeveli]

I've tweaked some of my settings and I'm getting slightly better performance (about 1 sec. dropped every 4 secs. instead of every 2).

Can you instruct me on how and where I can download and install a new DV codec? Thanks,

Mike

[mikeveli]

I just switched FireWire cards with another PC and my performance has improved. The old card I was using was made by Firestorm (never heard of them before) and the new one is made by StarTech. Using DVIO I captured 4000 frames and only experienced 168 lost frames.

When using Premiere 6.5 the performance was even better. The only time I experienced dropped frames was when the source tape went all funky (bad tracking) for a second, but then it picked up and resumed with no loss until the next point where the source tape went all funky. Is it possible to set it up so instead of dropping these frames it just records the funky portion of the tape?

I also tried both Firewire cards on a different PCI slot but found that this only decreased the performance.

I have the latest videocard drivers for my card so the only thing that I can think of is getting a newer and faster DV Codec. Unfortunately I know nothing about these so I would need to ask for your help on this one. Another possibility is that the StarTech firewire card is still not up to par with other cards out there (I've heard good things about ADS Technologies). Again I know nothing about which cards are better than others so I would ask for your insight on this as well.

Thank you so much for your help

Mike

[Anonymous65]

It sounds like you found the main problem(s). It is quite normal that when the video tape drops out that the DV converter stops capturing. The only fix for this is to get a TBC (Time Base Corrector) that will insert new video sync signals.

[mikeveli]

Thanks again for your help. I just finished capturing a 2 hour segment and only lost about 300 frames (because of tape drop) out of the 200,000 or so. I guess to remove this from the captured video I would just use premiere or something to cut them out and join up the parts before and after?

Mike

[Anonymous65]

Sure, it's easy to cut and edit DV video. Just do the fix before you encode to mpeg. (or leave the bad video frames in the clip)

[mikeveli]

Hey again,

Up until now I've captured very nice video with the only problems being tape drops in the source tape. However, I'm attempting to capture something off of another analog tape and I'm getting dropped frames for what appears to be no reason at all. At first there was slight (and I mean very slight) drops, but the device still dropped the frames and then there was what appeared to be no drops in the source (I could see no visual evidence) but I was still getting frame drops in my capture.

Another tape I was trying to capture had no signigicant drops at all, but the actual quality of the video was kind of shaky (wear and tear I guess). This caused an enormous amount of frame drops, yet the actual video was still very much watchable and for some reason the DAC-100 didn't like it.

Is there any way around this extreme sensitivty by the DAC-100 other than a TBC? I don't really want to spend another couple hundred bucks since I just spent that on the DAC-100; unless you know of any cheap, efficient TBCs?

Also, could you let me know where to acquire and how to install a new DV Codec because that still might be causing some problems? Thanks,

Mike

[Anonymous65]

I have bought the DV codec from Mainconcept. It was around $40 when I got it. The DV codec is much faster than the Microsoft DV codec. Now, I don't know if this is your problem or not, but it would be worth a try. I think you can download free DV decoders from the Tools section on this web site. When capturing, you only need the decoder for preview purposes, no need for the full codec (decoder and encoder). However, if you capture the DV video without any previewing, then the decoder should have no effect on the capture process.

There are no cheap ways of getting a TBC. A simple test can prove if you need a TBC or not. Simply capture video from a TV station (tune your VCR to a TV channel). You should not get a single dropped frame. If you do, then the problem is your PC, and not bad video. A TBC will not fix your problems when capturing good video.

[mikeveli]

I tried capturing from a retail VHS to see if there was a difference and I got no dropped frames at all. The retail VHS was just recently bought so the quality would be very good, thus resulting in no tape drops or anything. The tapes I was copying from before were tapes that I had recorded myself many years ago, which is why the quality wasn't as good.

So, since the problem sees to lie with the old video, I guess my only option would be to go for the TBC? Even if I got a faster DV Codec, that still wouldn't help when there were significant tape drops correct?

Can you explain to me exactly what the TBC will do? I am under the impression that it will enable me to record the tape drops and have not a single dropped frame instead of having the DAC-100 lock up during the drops, which results in a few seconds of still video and no sound.

Another question, I download the Canopus DV Codec from this site but can't figure out how to get Premiere 6.5 to recognize it. When I'm in video settings it only recoginizes Microsoft DV (NTSC) and Microsoft DV (PAL). How do I change this so that the Canopus DV Codec becomes the default codec?

Thanks again for your help,

Mike

[Anonymous65]

A TBC, time base corrector, inserts new horizontal and vertical sync pulses, and also inserts new color burst (color sync pulse). In addition, it slows down and speeds up the video lines so they start and end at the same time. If the video is in really bad shape, it will also insert new sync pulses when the sync is already missing from the video. The DV converter needs the sync all the time to keep it capturing, so a TBC will "force" the converter to capture all the time. Obviously, the TBC can not work miracles, but it can insert perfect sync pulses where one or more sync pulses are missing from the video.

As you pointed out, a new DV codec will ahve no effect on your dropped frames. When I install a new DV codec on my PC, it becomes the default codec, and is used automatically. I don't know about Premiere and how it assigns a codec.

[mikeveli]

Do you have any suggestions on which TBC I should get to go along with the DAC-100? I don't really need one with tons of features like gamma, noise reduction, etc. I guess I just need a basic one that will insert the new sync pulses. Any info you could provide me with would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again,

Mike

[Anonymous65]

There are basically only two models available for a good price, the Datavideo TBC-100 and TBC-1000. The TBC-1000, which I have used alot, is a stand alone unit with composite and S-video in and outs. No controls or adjustments. You can find it for just under $300. The TBC-100 is a PCI card that is powered by your PC (no controls). It also has composite and S-video in and out. You can find this one for just under $250. I have seen another TBC on e-bay for under $300. I have not tried it, and I don't know anything about it. But, I do know that it *only* has S-video in and outs, no composite video.

[mikeveli]

Cool, thanks. Do you know of anywhere online where I could find either of these units (the TBC-100 or TBC-1000)? I have checked ebay, but haven't been able to find either one.

[Anonymous65]

To buy a Datavideo TBC, go here:
http://search.shopping.yahoo.com/search/all/__yltc=s:22708228,d:14489115,w:???:earch-0...video+tbc&did=

[mikeveli]

Do you know anything about the Panasonic TBC-200? I came across one on ebay and was wondering if it is as good as the Datavideo ones?

[Anonymous65]

I don't know anything about the Panasonic TBC.
What to look for is what inputs and outputs it has, and that it is a full frame TBC. For use with a VHS, it needs to have composite input (not component), and the TBC should work without an advanced reference signal. Many rack mountable TBC's from TV stations will not work with a VHS VCR. So, if you buy an old TBC, make sure it will process a VHS composite video signal without a reference. Any new (consumer) compact units should work just fine.