DV playback and my new Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge

[TechJunkie]

It just arrived! Converted one of my Sony Hi8 Analog videos to DV. It was easy. The default format is 720 x 480 DV avi files.

Here's the question: playing the avi files using Windows Media Player in Full Screen mode resulted in video that was a bit fuzzy and a bit pixelized. In the future, after I transcode the DV to MPEG-2 to burn SVCD's or DVD's, will the video played on my TV be better?

Perhaps I shouldn't be using Media Player. I've seen MPEG-1 video's played off of CD's and they were not good. I really expected something better.

Really need your help here. Thanks.

[Dragonsf]

Your captured file shouldn't be fuzzy or blocky at all if captured correctly.I'm using nearly similar configuration and had no probs playing back avi with the win player.I'd try the free DV player or WinDVD or PowerDVD, but if the source is really bad, you can't expect the result after converting to (S)VCD to better.
If the problem is with your systems (no DMA or the HD is too fragmented), you might get better results after the conversioin (when you play the video with the DVD player). You should make some small videos for testing before going into a big project anyway.

[TechJunkie]

Your captured file shouldn't be fuzzy or blocky at all if captured correctly.I'm using nearly similar configuration and had no probs playing back avi with the win player.I'd try the free DV player or WinDVD or PowerDVD, but if the source is really bad, you can't expect the result after converting to (S)VCD to better.
If the problem is with your systems (no DMA or the HD is too fragmented), you might get better results after the conversioin (when you play the video with the DVD player). You should make some small videos for testing before going into a big project anyway.

Dragonsf! Thanks for getting back to me. What is your computer rig?

I have heard nothing but good about the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge: that it was a clean machine - no drivers - with all the A to D occuring in an external, well-tuned appliance. I also believed that, with my Athlon 1700+ looking like a 1900+ as a result of OC, I would have enough power to avoid some of the issues that I've read about in these forums. However...

...I'm dropping frames. Dropped frames occur especially when there is a scene change. The video freezes and the audio from the next scene can be heard. Then suddenly the video, whose audio could be heard with the frozen last frame of the previous scene, starts to play. Did I confuse you?

Also, one scene that was recorded had sound that was digitally distorted, if you can imagine what music that is analogous to being "pixelized" would sound like.

Any ideas? Is there a "Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge support group?"

Am looking forward to hearing from you.

[Dragonsf]

Hi,
all the things you're writing sound familar. I posted much about this issue here and in the mainconcept forum.There is more at dazzle/support about this issue.Look for keyword meta_id 41.
Your machine should be fast enough, but some adjustments should me made:
- DirectX accelaration 1 tick to the left: this should resolve the freezing frame problem
- distorted audio"frames" : how often do you encounter this ? is this only on audio or accomanied by bad frame?
- do you hvae silent audio "frames", i.e. no sound for the length of frame with bad frame? If yes, how often ? I get this king of error about 1 per minute.
Distorted audio about 1 per hour.
But before capturing, I'm always sweeping my harddisk. I've one 40GB decdicated only for capture.
BTW which app do you use for capturing in the first place?

[Boatman32]

hi man, had the same problem and the fix is win XP.if you look it is sharing the same irqs for most of the stuff you are using.i put the same software and everything on my other comp with win 98 and no more problems.i have looked at my different forums and talked to many many people and made the swap and all is well.now,win xp will not let you swap around the irq's and that is a big problem if you don,t have a xp cd to do a clean install and swap to HAL instead of ACPI when you install xp,HAL will let you change the irq's for most anything.i have even been on the phone with ms about this problem and they will not give you a straight answer on it.this is the only way i have found around this so far.if you have another comp or can play with someone elses just load your sw plug up the dv bridge and try that just to see it doesn't take much of your time and let us know
later boatman32

[Boatman32]

hi just about forgot, this is for your drop frames and sync stuff not the fuzzy stuff.try the other stuff with directx first and then this.
later boatman32