Rule of Thumb for Min. System Requirements for Capturing Vid

[Etalon]

What is the minimum system requirments for video capturing?
I'm dropping frames all over the place. It's about 3-to-5 per second.
Very very choppy video and audio.

I'm running PII 350/288MB RAM/60GB HD/Koutech-KW582V2 FireWire card.
I believe my problem is my CPU. Anyone out there successfully capture and edit video on a PII 350?

As for software, I'm using what came with my Sony camcorder, MGI Videowave. I also tried using Ulead Video Studio, which was included in the Koutech FireWire card package. I can't seem to get Ulead to work. An error pops up about a driver that's in use, even after a fresh boot.

Is my problem software? I still need to try some of the freeware thats available. I think it's my ancient 350 that's holding me back.

TIA

[ebaldino]

Most likely it is the processor. There´s an easy way to find out. Just before you begin capture, start the windows system monitor application (programs->accessories->system tools... I think) and keep an eye on processor utilization. Every time it hits 100% during capture, you will lose frames...

However, a fast IO subsystem is also recommended.

My system is a PIII 500 (I would not recommend anything lower than this) and I have an ATA UDMA 100 controller with a 45Gb ATA100 disk. Everything works fine, but I capture at 80% CPU (480x480).

best regards
EBaldino

[jasond]

what OS are you using? if 98, go to run type msconfig take check out of enable startup items and reboot.. you now have 98% resources free to encode


to change back to your regular startup..just reverse the order and reenable the enable startup devices check.

I have a p2 300 and I can encode with barely nay dropped frames.


Good luck!

[Etalon]

My OS is 98SE.


PII 300, Wow that's encouraging! I did disabled all unnecessary items that run in the back ground and did achieve 96% I think.
Thank you for your comments!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Etalon on 2001-11-28 10:27:36 ]</font>

[rurke]

Your system isn't that far off from mine (PIII/500, 60Gb drive, Firewire card) and I've never had a dropped frame.
First make sure you are "capturing" to DV format. This format will take the input off your camcorder straight to disk with very little CPU utilization. If are still having problems your IO subsystem might not be fast enough. (It needs to be able to handle 3.6Mb/s without interuptions.) Is your drive 7200rpm? Make sure DMA is enabled at the highest setting your system supports (my setup uses an ATA66 controller). Finally, not all Firewire cards are the same! The $100 card that I got with my camcorder doesn't work but the $25 one from Fry's works just fine.

[homerpez]

If you have an AIW Radeon-type board, and capturing MPEG-2 on the fly, make that an Athlon 1.4 GHz + processor, and everything else fast as you can get.

If you're capturing uncompressed AVI (like Huffy), CPU does not have to be quite as fast.

[Thurbs]

I believe it is the software, I have had problems capturing with VW3 and 4, both excessive frame dropping.
Try using Virtual Dub for capturing, I get 0 frame drops at 352 X 240 capturing.
It is most excellent...

[Etalon]

[quote]
Is there a way to test and learn the speed of my IO subsystem?
Yes my HD is 7200rpm!

I'm not sure what DMA is?

[Shabubu]

Direct Memory Access, your hardisk goes to your ram without going by your CPU. Its synonomous with ATA and UDMA (last is ultra dma). It should be enabled by default in Win98, but check by going to your device manager, clicking onto the properties for your drive controllers and ticking DMA mode on (i think it;s under the advanced tab, but I'm not sure cause I'm on W2k at the mo)

[Thurbs]

Try Capturing at lower resolution.
High Res=many frame drops.

[Etalon]

Thanks for the tip. I did drop the resolution. It did not seem to make much of a differece. I'm still loosing about 3-5 frames per sec.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Etalon on 2001-11-28 15:13:23 ]</font>

[TheInformer]

Well, since no one else asked, I guess it's up to me:

When you say a "Sony camcorder", I take it that you are capturing from it.
What type of camcorder is it? MiniDV? Analog (VHS, VHS-C, etc)?

If you have a MiniDV camcorder, you need a hard drive that will allow you
to save at a continuous 3.6 Mbps. The resolution of the video that comes
from the camcorder is 704x480 in all likelihood. If you lower the resolution,
you lose part of your video data. I would check to see if your hard drive has DMA enabled first:

Right-click on My Computer.
Choose Properties/Device Manager/Disk Drives/(your IDE drive)/Properties/Settings.
Make sure DMA is checked. If it wasn't, check it. You'll then have to reboot for it to take effect.
Now try to capture and see what happens. If that doesn't help, make sure your hard drive is defragged.

Now if you're using an analog camcorder, then you must be running the video through
a capture card of some sort, probably a TV tuner card. That's another set of things to check out

[Etalon]

Thank you for your comments! Thanks to everyone above!

TheInformer, your assumtion is correct. I have the sony dcr-trv17, miniDV and a new Maxtor60GB. I just formated it, witha fresh install of 98se plus my audio,video drivers.

I'm still at work. The first thing I'm going to do is CHECK the DMA settings!

Thanks again

[JHebert]

What 1394 DV device driver and version are you using? A lot of OHCI compliant 1394 cards install Texas Instruments DV driver but actually work better with Microsoft DV driver. Check with your card vendor. Here is a link with some info about 1394 DV drivers http://www.jcandc.com/hardware.htm

Also you should install the latest DirectX including the Microsoft DV Update which is an additional install that includes improved device support and capture. Go to this link for info and download http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/vidfaq.asp

[buzzinhornets]

I have a P2 400mhz, 320ram, 32mb ati rage fury pro and have only dropped 1 frame ever

[Etalon]

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT POSTED!

*** Problem Solved ***

The solution: CHECK DMA UNDER DEVICE DRIVERS FOR THE HARD DRIVE! That fixed my frame drop problem! (FYI-the DMA default setting from a fresh install of 98se is UN-CHECKED)

So for the record, my poor P2 350/288Ram/60GB,7200rpm/TNT2Ultra/ running Win98se was able to capture more that 15 minutes without dropping a single frame!!!

Thanks again everyone!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Etalon on 2001-11-29 07:31:59 ]</font>

[TheInformer]

Dropping -zero- frames is nice, but dropping a frame every now and then isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Some TV tuners/capture cards cannot capture at the 29.97 frames per second that are needed; they either capture a fractional bit more or less. To compensate for this, a frame needs to be added or dropped on a periodic basis so that the audio/video streams remain in sync.

Your original frame dropping problems were not this (obviously, now). They were the result of your machine not being set up correctly.

I tend to drop a frame once every 600 frames or so. I don't notice any problems with this in the AVI files generated. In fact, I don't have a problem with audio/video sync at all, and I attribute that to the occasional dropped frame.

Just my two cents...