Analog capture question - system related

[Klaa2]

I have a p4 1.6 gig Intel motherboard with 512mb RDRAM, three hard drives 80, 40, both 7200 rpm and a 20 gb unsure if its 5200 or 7200rpm.
I have the 80 as my primary master and the 40 as my primary slave. I have a Lite-on 811s DVD+/-RW as my secondary master and the 20 gb hd as the secondary slave. I bought an Adaptec VideoH! PCI hardware mpeg2 capture card to archive my VHS-C tapes and from now on will go MiniDV with a new model sony.

I already have my operating system and all my software on the 80gb drive, probably a bad idea, I should have used that as my dedicated capture drive. I use the 40gb now. I have been dropping frames. I know that the source will never be even as good as the original when capturing analog video. I have tried to use both a brand new VHS machine as well as the original JVC VHS-C camcorder in which to play the tapes to capture.

I have not tried to disconnect from the internet. I didn't realize that I should do that , thank you for that advice Sticky. Is disconnecting enough or do I have to actually remove the Lan card? What about USB devices? Should they all be disconnected, even if not being immediately used? Should I use the USB to serial port connector for my optical mouse to unplug all my USB devices?

What about the hardware profile capability of the operating system (which mine, by the way is WindowsXP Pro)? What is the use of the hardware profiler? Is there a way I could create a profile that is optimal for video capturing?

Also, what is everyones opinion of a raid card to add an additional two IDE slots so I can put my DVD+/-RW on the Secondary alone without a hard drive as a slave and put the dedicated Capture hard drive as a master on the raid card? Would that take up more resources and actually make the situation worse? I have every IDE slot filled and do not exactly know if one drive is slowing another down. I understand that if you have a slow drive connected to the same IDE port as a fast drive it will bring the fast drive down to the slow drives speed. Would adding another port help or make it worse (resourses?). I hope I'm explaining myself correctly. Right now, my capture drive is the slave to my master, both are 7200 rpm drives.

One last question. I know I've said a lot, thank you for listening. When I bought the Sony miniDV Camcorder, the salesman asked me what system I was planning on capturing to and editing. I told him my specs and he was doubtful that I would be able to use the firewire port and edit in realtime (using Premiere). I haven't tried yet because I want to archive all my older stuff first before I even use the miniDV. Does anyone else have a similar setup as I have? Does it work for you? The salesman told me he has a 2.6 gig p4 with 512 mb of 2700DDR Ram, but my ram is supposedly much faster. Does the speed of the ram make up for the gig difference in speed of his processor to mine (2.6 as opposeed to my 1.6)?

I just am not sure if I should go out and but a new motherboard, processor and a gig of 2700DDR Ram. I don't know if it would make a significant difference (because of the ram type). My board only supports RDRAM (so I can't just buy a lot of DDR ram and if you haven't checked the prices of RDRAM, you'd be shocked.) and the highest processor I can upgrade to is a 2 gig, not significant enough to warrant the price tag.

Well, again, thanks for any advice or comparisons you may have for me. I appreciate everyone's patience.

[Stas]

I think it is good idea to get an additional IDE controller, so you can put all of your drives as master. This is the cheapest way to resolve your problems. Of course you can spend much money in your system and ... nothing better.

You should not have ANY running software while capturing and disable some screensavers etc. Also check your cables - sometimes they make some drops.

OK, experiment a while and post once again.

Luck!

[Karlos]

A goog idea is to check various codecs you may have loaded I installed a PCTV card and loaded a codec which caused so many problems which drove me mad for a while i resulted in reinstalling the operating system and installing the Pctv checking its capture, it was ok no droped frames and gradually installing the rest continually testing the card till you find the culprit. it turned out to be a DX filter causing the problem.
This might not be a great solution but compared to the time i wasted trying different things i got the result a working card. As for speed etc i dont know what the salesman thought but i've captured loads using a pinnacle PCTV Pro card on an old 1100 Mhz PC at various capture quality's, VCD, SVCD, DVD no problems Firewire port also worked without problems. My internet is always connected while i capture on my AMD 2800+ which runs at 2.0ghz with 512 DDR 333mhz but in comparison previous speeds have also been as suitable its more likely a system issue.

[FulciLives]

This card must suck donkey balls.

Why do I say that?

If a so-called hardware encoder drops frames on your computer specs then IT is the problem not your computer.

The Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 is a hardware based PCI card that can be used even with a PII given a fast and big enough HDD

You got ripped if that thing is not working on your system as it is more than fast enough for a "true" hardware MPEG encoder.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
In fairness some poor quality VHS videos can cause frame drops. But if this is causing frame drops even on very good quality VHS or worse yet clean video such as that from cable TV then junk it. Otherwise you might benefit froma TBC aka Time Base Corrector.

[Klaa2]

John, I believe you are correct. I am not happy with the card. Usually Adaptec makes pretty good peripherals (sp?) but I don' t think this one is so great. I just bought the WinTV PVR250 from CompUSA. We'll see how that goes. I can always return it

As for the addition of a raid card, the guy at CompUSA said it would not be as fast as the built in IDE's because it goes through the PCI slot. does that sound right? If so, then how come raid arrays are supoosed to be the fastest setup for video, servers, etc..?

Thank goodness from now on its DV and Firewire.

Thanks everyone.

[FulciLives]

John, I believe you are correct. I am not happy with the card. Usually Adaptec makes pretty good peripherals (sp?) but I don' t think this one is so great. I just bought the WinTV PVR250 from CompUSA. We'll see how that goes. I can always return it

As for the addition of a raid card, the guy at CompUSA said it would not be as fast as the built in IDE's because it goes through the PCI slot. does that sound right? If so, then how come raid arrays are supoosed to be the fastest setup for video, servers, etc..?

Thank goodness from now on its DV and Firewire.

Thanks everyone.

You don't need RAID nothing as long as you have a half way decent speed HDD

I have an old P3 650Mhz with an 80GB HDD and I know my motherboard does not support ATA-133 as per the HDD but I still capture without frame loss using the correct codec (I do AVI captures).

Since the WinTV PVR-250 is a hardware based PCI card you should have no issues. I've heard of many people using it with PIII and even fast PII systems.

However I have heard that the WinTV PVR-250 doesn't like big-time drop-outs as you may get on some old video tapes. In that case the only solution is to get a TBC such as the AVT-8710 by AV TOOL BOX

Here is a recourse on the WinTV PVR products that you might find usefull:

http://www.shspvr.com/

Good Luck !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[OmegaSupreme]

Klaa2,

I had a similar problem that was fixed by defragmenting the HDD.