Need help trouble shooting dropped frame problem

[Touchdown]

I have a brand new Dell Dimension 4550. It's a 2.53 GHZ with 640MB of memory. I have a GeForce2 GTS Video Card and am running Windows XP Professional. I am trying to capture some home MiniDV video through a PCI 1394 Firewire card. I have verified that my drives are running UltraDMA. My capture drive has nothing on it.

My IDE layout looks like this.

Current Setup:
Primary Master: Western Digital 60GB 7200 HD (Windows XP, Program Files)
Primary Slave: Western Digital 120GB 7200 HD (Video Capture, Storage)

Secondary Master: Memorex DVD+R/RW Burner (must be master per manual)
Secondary Slave: Samsung CD-ROM

I get between 30-40 dropped frames per 15 seconds of video when trying to capture through Adobe Premiere 6.0 I have all background programs disabled. Something is going on. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[thefox149]

Are you capping the correct Frame rate .....Pal 25 fps NTSC 29.97/23.97 (NTSC FILM)

[andkiich]

Did yu go to the capture forum and read the sticky there about dropped frames? It's well worth the time.

[Touchdown]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am capturing in the correct format, NTSC for me.

I also did read the sticky at the top of this forum. Some great tips and it helped me with a few things. I tried to address all of the tips in my original post.

I just updated my Premiere version to 6.02 and also downloaded the latest Direct X from Microsofts website per Adobe's suggestions.

Still getting about 40 frames dropped per 15 seconds. Anything else?

[feeras]

Touchdown,

Maybe a long shot but have you tried moving your capture HDD (i'm assuming the 120G) away from the HDD that holds XP and programs? Maybe a swap with the DVDRW and the 120G may solve your problem.

Cheers,
feeras

[Touchdown]

I have not tried to move the HDD's to different channels but that's a thought.

I would think with a PC at this level would not be experiencing dropped frames like this.

I capture using another PC at work and we dont' have any problems.

Hmmm

[mkelley]

I have a similar setup to yours (the Dell Dimension; my drives and memory are a little bigger, and the 2.4 processor, but otherwise almost identical) with no dropped frames in Premiere capture (although I'm using 6.5) so there is something weird going on.

First of all, have you tried capturing using the software that came with your firewire card? My hunch is there is some kind of conflict between the Premiere drivers and this -- 6.5 has cleaned this up greatly by allowing you to pick the right capture card/device drivers but previous versions had a lot of problems with this. If the capture goes well with the firewire software then you've isolated this.

You might also visit the Adobe forums -- I'm sure I've seen this posted on the Premiere site, and they are very knowledgable and helpful there.

[Touchdown]

Mkelly -

Thanks for your response. I pulled the firewire card out of the PC we use at the office and just let windows xp install the standard drivers. That card is Texas Instruments (according to XP) card. It came from another Dell Card. I don't have the software that came with that card, but that is a good idea. I think I will try capturing with another software to see if I can isolate it.

I will also be uninstalling Premiere 6.02 and installing 6.5 tonight when I get home and see if that helps.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Touchdown]

Well I just uninstalled 6.02 and installed Premiere 6.5 and still had dropped frames.

I'll try and capture using anothe software program and see if I can isolate it as being a Premiere issue.

[mkelley]

Did you go into your capture card settings in Premiere and make sure it was selecting the right one (note this may require connecting to the internet and getting the latest versions)?

In 6.5 it's important to do this.

[Touchdown]

I just checked Premiere and it was set to select my IEEE1394 Capture Card. I checked the setting and everything looked OK.

I didn't see anywhere in there to connect to the internet to get the latest versions. Where would I find that?

[mkelley]

Um, I'm not at my Premiere computer right now (so to speak) so I can't tell you exactly -- but it should have been there, next to the selection of inputs (perhaps you have to press the "Test connection" or some such -- I'm an old man :>)

Also, make *sure* you visit the Adobe forums, because I'm sure I've seen this discussed there, and they are very quick to respond.

[2man]

it seems that you don´t capture "native DV" because capturing w/firewire there only a "transfer" a the file in DVcam to pc
i don´t use Premiere but in Pinnacle Video Studio and Ulead VS i only have drop frames when i use a "codec capture" (like using xvid/huff/divx or other codec) in stead pure "DV capture"
in PinnacleVS only DV capture don´t have drop frames
sorry the english

[Gazorgan]

Your probalem may not be fixable. Well, not without re-installing the OS by hand ( Dell recovery disk won't help ).

I'm will to bet that if you go in and look, you are sharing IRQ's. I'm willing to give 100:1 odds on this. By default XP shares IRQ's (so does W2K pro). Sometimes it matters and sometimes it doesn't.

You can try this. In Bios, remove both your COM ports (you probably aren't using anything that uses them anyway). If your not using your printer port, disable that also. In Windows, remove your comports ( and LPT is not useing) and you Firewire card. Re-boot. What you are trying to do is get the card to jump to another IRQ that some other device isn't using. When sharing IRQ's....all the devices (on my work box) say IRQ 9 (even though after steering its using something else.).

Since the dell is a basic build, and the card was added afterward, I think that's the problem. It won't show up with a firewire harddrive (other than being slower than expected). You can try pulling the card when doing this, and after re-booting, putting it in a different PCI slot.

[mkelley]

Hmmm, I'll take those odds. Bet you a dollar you're wrong.

Not that interrupts can't be a problem, but his system is almost identical to mine and I added my firewire card afterwards with no problems. That's not to say that I don't have a conflict and he does, just that I'm skeptical it's a problem (and with those odds it's hard not to place a bet down -- I DO live in Nevada, after all :>)

I still think it's a software conflict problem -- probably with different codecs stepping on each other -- and we've seen this a dozen times on the Adobe forums. Also WDM might be an issue: lots of possibilities (he ought to at least visit the forum and see what the experts think).

[vance43211]

yeah, mkelley

knows everything

and he get mad

if anybody else got an an diferent opinion or different answer

and he has the nerve to call people

"immature"