dv ditigal noise on capture

[AF54]

Hi, new guy here. I bet this is covered at length in these forums, but here I go anyways.

Capturing DV tape to Sony Vegas. DV originally shot on a Canon ZR930, played back to the PC with an old Samsung unit. Never had any problems before, but this last batch has consistant digital noise (broken-up image) every five or so seconds. I ruled out bad tapes or heads, because those glitches I am familiar with, heads have been cleaned and the tapes are new.

This looks like something occuring in the capture itself, since it is so consistant.

I have never really adjusted any settings on the Vegas, having had no difficulty up to now. So any ideas where to start would be helpful.

I do like the idea of capturing to a dedicated hard drive, and fragmenting beforehand, two things I have not yet done. Maybe I will start there.

Also, I know nothing about digital noise reduction and/or time based corrections. Where do I start there?

AC

[edDV]

Use WinDV to capture DV. It is simple and predictable.

Vegas (Sony Video Capture) has more features and many more settings that can affect the capture. I use WinTV for DV and keep Vegas capture set for HDV.

What are your general computer specs?

[AF54]

Thanks for the tips. Actually, I am at work so I don't have PC specs on hand. So far with digital editing, I've been lazy and just used the default settings on Vegas - I am sure there is some tweaking I can do. However, I think I ought to also try some new software, such as the WinDv you suggest. Many thanks.

Do you agree that capturing to a dedicated hard drive is helpful as well?

AC

[edDV]

Thanks for the tips. Actually, I am at work so I don't have PC specs on hand. So far with digital editing, I've been lazy and just used the default settings on Vegas - I am sure there is some tweaking I can do. However, I think I ought to also try some new software, such as the WinDv you suggest. Many thanks.

Do you agree that capturing to a dedicated hard drive is helpful as well?

AC

Yes a drive separate from the OS and ideally a EIDE or SATA drive on a hardware disk controller (not USB).

[AF54]

Yes a drive separate from the OS and ideally a EIDE or SATA drive on a hardware disk controller (not USB)

I assume this means an internal hard drive with an EIDE or SATA cable connection? This is what I had intended, other than an external USB drive. Which one of those cables is the wide one, SATA? Either are good?

[edDV]

Yes a drive separate from the OS and ideally a EIDE or SATA drive on a hardware disk controller (not USB)

I assume this means an internal hard drive with an EIDE or SATA cable connection? This is what I had intended, other than an external USB drive. Which one of those cables is the wide one, SATA? Either are good?

Yes internal EIDE (PATA ribbon cable) or SATA (small connector). Either will work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA

[AF54]

Hey, I had an old hard drive kicking around, so I put it into the PC, and captured some DV onto it with your WinDV software this morning. Spotless! I am going to spring for a better hard drive, and go from there. Many thanks - this was really an eye-opener!

[Cornucopia]

I agree with the above suggestions, but I think it all boils down to: Make sure your capture pipeline doesn't have bitrate bottlenecks, or your capture will have glitches in it.

What this means: Vegas (and MOST OTHER dv apps) is PERFECTLY capable of getting spotless captures EVERY TIME if you make sure you have a fast enough PC, enough RAM, plenty of contiguous HD space, a Firewire connection that has NO driver problems, fast HD access/read/write time, a HD bus channel that has NO driver problems, and VERY FEW apps/services/processes using the CPU and/or the HD - low overhead)

WinDV works as well as it does because in and of itself it has VERY LITTLE OVERHEAD or demand on the CPU, whereas VEGAS's demands are much higher.

And, BTW, you're NOT getting "digital noise", you're getting skips/glitches in your capture because your system is not a "lean, mean fightin' machine". "Digital noise" is almost an oxymoron, like "JUMBO shrimp". With standard Error Correction methods in place and working, any digital transfer, copying and/or storage should be bit-for-bit identical with the original, with NO noise added. That's one of the major benefits of it being digital in the first place. Those glitches you're seeing are probably because you've captured inconsistently and it's not only breaking of the content signal but also the error detection/correction data, so it can't automatically fix the errors like it normally does.

Scott

[Clevo89]

but if the glitches were recorded it'll be on the tape... it's how I am reading it. If that's the case then it's possible there was regular interference perhaps from a mobile/cell phone too close to the camera.

[Cornucopia]

If the glitches a "recorded" and on the tape, they'll show that way no matter how it's played back, no matter which app is capturing it. Since you mention using WinDV to a spotless cap, this couldn't be it...

BTW, what you are mentioning above is known as RFI or EMI, and it's actually an "analog" noise, even if it comes from a digital source (like nearby computer or cell phone). Basically, it's a higher level of background radiation static. Digital noise might often be considered "louder" than analog, mainly because the 1s and 0s are full strength excursions in power as opposed to the infinite in-between variations of "true" analog, but on a receiving device, that's the ONLY difference.

Scott

[Clevo89]

I stand corrected...it is a capture issue and glad it's been sorted out...