Can't capture .avi

[Zippy72]

Hi all,
I used to have a Pinnacle PCTV, and one day my system suddenly refused to capture avi at all. The picture would freeze after a few seconds, and massive framedrops would occur, then the picture would start again for a few and repeat the same cycle. I tried everything, even re-installing the OS (Win XP) twice (!) and still no joy. The bizarre thing was that using the PCTV software, I could capture to MPeg(2) no problem, but avi was a nightmare.
I eventually figured it must be the card and bought a new Terratec Cinergy 400. This comes bundled with Win DVR, which again captures MPeg(2) fine, but guess what......the problem is still there with .avi files.

Any ideas anybody? I'm going crazy trying to figure this out. FYI:

DMA on
Indexing of C Drive off
No Processes Running
No Virus Scanner running
Defragged Disk

Any help would be very, very much appreciated. Thanks..

[deadpac]

The fix for Windows XP not letting you delete .avi
http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=100406&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

This fix might solve your problem being in that you might not have access to read/write AVI files. I use a Pinnacle PCTV Pro card still in a Windows XP machine and the one problem I had was not writing AVI files but in deleting them, the fix above solved that problem because programs such as Explorer and AVI2SVCD woudln't open up any AVI file I had because they didn't have read/write access to AVI files.

What Pinnacle PCTV do you have? Never heard of Pinnacle PCTV having the ability to record to mpeg(2) in real time. Is it Pinnacle's software or some 3rd party app like PowerVCRII?

[Zippy72]

Thanks for the reply, I'll try tonight.

Perhaps some more info that may help, last night I tried downloading yet another app to capture with. This time it was the demo of ULead DVD Workshop. It still refused to capture in .avi (surpise, surprise), but this time I got an error message after the usual frame drops. It said there may not be enough space on the disk. Yet I have 35 gig free. Does this throw any light on the subject?

FYI deadpac, I was using the PCTV Rave (basic with remote), but I bought some new software from their website which allows you to capture SVCD in real time, and the quality's not too bad.
Check out www.pinnaclesys.com if you're interested.

[Zippy72 at home]

Hi , me again.
Well I tried deleting the reg key as mentioned above, but no joy I'm afraid. I don't suppose anybody else has any ideas, do they?
Are there some settings that remain unchanged even when you refomat the HD and do a clean install of the OS? I'm at a a loss to explain this, and vid capping was one of the main reasons I upgraded my PC to these specs (which I'll be paying for for another 18 months;-(

[avl1]

I had a similar problem, but with massive frame drops at some particular capture file sizes, which after a careful investigation was linked to a particular hard drive locations. I did all you did even low-level formatted the hard drive. No luck. A replacement drive fixed the problem. If you can try capturing to another drive. Since mpeg capture does not require that much of a data transfer rate this indeed may be your problem.

[Zippy72]

Hi avl1,
Well that's not exactly the answer I was hoping for ( ), but it makes complete sense to me. I guess I'll check out HDs this weekend. I was planning on getting a second one anyway.

Thanks for your help.

[avl1]

Hard drives these days usually carry a 3 year warranty. The drive you're using for capture shouldn't be older. I got my replacement drive from Maxtor fast and free .

[Zippy72 at home]

Thanks man, I checked this out and indeed there is a 3 year warranty. I bought another one anyway, as I still want a 2nd drive for video capturing. Do you know of any way I can prove to them that the older one is faulty, or do you think they'll take me at my word?
TIA

[Zippy72 at home]

avl1,
You are a star. I fixed in my new hard drive, and......NO FRAME DROPS!!!!!!!!! :P :P
Thanks a million, this problem has been driving me f*cking mental for 2 months.

[avl1]

Glad it helped. You should have asked earlier As for proving the drive is defective they should take your word for it. In my case after I explained the problem in detail they suggested checking the cable and running their diagnostic program. Since I already had done this by that point they just issued me a return merchandise authorization.