Is my computer powerful enough for capping with little or no

[TheGame316]

Hi,
I've an AMD Duron 750mhz processer, 192mbSDRAM, NVidia Vanta AGP Graphics card and I use a Voodoo TVFM tuner card and i was wondering if my comp is powerful enough for capping with little or no frame loss because i can't cap 3 minuites of video (I cap at 352x288 ) which i have recorded of television without prominent frame loss.

I personally feel that my computer is powerful enough and that the capture card is the problem.

Could i've other peoples opinions on whether if the card is the problem cause i'd like to get it sorted out as quickely as possible.

Thanks in advance

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: TheGame316 on 2001-07-31 10:47:54 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: TheGame316 on 2001-07-31 10:49:11 ]</font>

[Tommy]

should be fast enough....... hows the harddrive?

[TheGame316]

I've a 30geg harddrive. I'm not 100% sure on the speed but i think it runs at about 5400rpm

[WMike]

I had frame loss until I changed my soundcard. What sound card are you using? Also, do you have dma enabled and the proper motherboard drivers installed? Search the archives, there are some great posts regarding configuring your harddrive for max performance that I found quite helpful. Looking at what you posted, I would think you could capture with that system without any big problems.

[TIbrO]

Yes, you rcomputer certainly is fast enough. According to my old Voodoo 3 3500 TV AGP box, you need 500Mhz processor minimum for capture without frame loss, and both of the cards use the same TV chipset. So your stuff is fine, probaly your HDD that is too slow. Get a second HDD for video capture only. You also have to remember that Windows must not have a virtual memory pagefile on the drive that you use to capture to. So it's almost mandatory that you get a second drive for just capture.

[TheGame316]

Hi, thanks for your help . I managed to get it capturing but it messes up the capture on stuff which i have recorded in long play. It captures finely from videos which have been recoreded in short play. And the stuff which i'm looking to capture is on videos of which are recorded in long play. any ideas???

Thanks in advance,
Steve

[zzyzzx]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
You also have to remember that Windows must not have a virtual memory pagefile on the drive that you use to capture to. So it's almost mandatory that you get a second drive for just capture.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Where did you get this information from? I don't use a separate HD for capture.

[suspect]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-31 18:56:43, TIbrO wrote:
Yes, you rcomputer certainly is fast enough. According to my old Voodoo 3 3500 TV AGP box, you need 500Mhz processor minimum for capture without frame loss, and both of the cards use the same TV chipset. So your stuff is fine, probaly your HDD that is too slow. Get a second HDD for video capture only. You also have to remember that Windows must not have a virtual memory pagefile on the drive that you use to capture to. So it's almost mandatory that you get a second drive for just capture.

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

unless his 5400 rpm harddrive is less than 30 gigs its probably fine for capture. Do test captures using the virtualdub auxsetup program. Punch in 720x480x32 rgb 30 fps capture and do a 300 meg test. If it can handle that without any frame loss you should be fine. If it doesnt do that, I wouldnt worry too much either. Huffyuv compresses without quality loss at 4:1 ratios. So basically your hard drive can capture data compressed as well as another that is 4 times faster can uncompressed.

<rant>if I hear these macintosh morons at my company talk about needing 10000rpm scsi hard drives and a g4 just to do some basic DV captures again i'll. . .</rant>

[CordeliaII]

the voodoo tvfm card can be a real ba*tard with irq's.
have you reserved and assigned an irq to the card?
I used to use it on a much slower machine than yours with only one 4gb drive. on its own irq it dropped about 10 fames an hour which was ok by me. before reserving the irq it dropped at least one frame per minute.

I had to ditch the voodoo when I got a new pc as i couldn't sort out the irq thing in the bios or in windows.

if you can use a vcr with s-vid or composite out that should be better than an arial.


there is a forum just for this card at h**p://pub1.ezboard.com/f3dxtremefrm14
(but if you are TheGr81141284 you already know that.) Really you are not going to get anything but user manual help there though.

I took a gamble buying the card as I knew 3dfx were dead and there would be no support.

[TheGame316]

I'm not sure on how assign an irq to the card. I've been thinking of purchacng another capture card. What one would you guys reccomend. I have been thinking of getting Happlauge Win Tv Go or an ATI All in wonder. I dont really want to go over £100 but would the ATI All in wonder 128 be worth the extra? Also would any of these cards behave in the same way the voodoo tv fm is behaving???

Thanks in advance,
Steve

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: TheGame316 on 2001-08-02 11:57:37 ]</font>