Fast system + WinXP + Virtualdub + nVidia Personal Cinema =

[meetlofe]

I just can't understand why I'm getting dropped frames when my cpu usage is 15% or less. I am using an Athlon XP1700+, 768 DDR MB of DDR ram, 7200 rpm drive, and a nVidia Personal Cinema for capturing but I get 1-2 dropped frames per second even when capturing at tiny resolutions! I thought my new system would be a capturing monster but it seems as though I was doing better with my K62-500 and an ATI Rage Fury Pro. What am I doing wrong? TIA for any advice.

[homerpez]

How many dropped frames? 1? 2?

For V-Dub, this is perfectly normal... for an entire capture. It's compensating for an off-timed sound card (if the chip clock deviates too much, it causes desynch with video... V-Dub compensates for this to keep both in synch). Believe it or not, this is a GOOD thing.

When the two streams go off-synch with each other due to sound card timing, it's virtually unfixable. When it drops a single frame here and there to compensate for a dropped audio frame, you won't notice visually, and you won't have the synch problem.

Like I said, this is normal, probably up to maybe 1% ratio dropped. Beyond that... hmm... are you running any programs in the background? File copying? Something using the hard drive at the same time? Networked?...

GASP! Do you only have one hard drive? Are you capturing to the same drive as your OS?... !

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-12-13 21:58:29 ]</font>

[meetlofe]

No programs running in the background but the OS is on the same drive (different partition). I sometimes could capture several minutes on my K6-2 machine without any dropped frames (even with 90% cpu usage) but now I only have 15% cpu usage and about 5-8% dropped frames!

[homerpez]

Now this is getting interesting... what codec are you using? Huffy? I do Huffy 480x480, ADPCM compression ONLY on the audio (any higher compression screws things up, this is a good balance). I get 1-2 dropped frames only, due to the synch issue I talked about. Athlon 1GHz machine.

(EDIT: Try #3 first, I REALLY think this is what's going on)-hmrpz


First, I would see what settings are important to set your BIOS to for captures. Maybe when you got your new machine, something wasn't set right (I don't know where to find info on this, but I know it's important).


Second, GET ANOTHER HARD DRIVE and DON'T CAPTURE TO THE SAME DRIVE AS YOUR OS. A different partition on the same drive is still working the same peice of hardware. In fact, it's probably having the same effect as copying two sets of files back and forth on the same drive simultaneously. One process halves the speed of the other process!

Try it: take a large set of files on your c: drive, and copy them somewhere else onto your c:. Now, while that's running, do the same thing, copying files from the d: to the d:. Now, watch the "Time Remaining" go sky high!


Third, and I have a nagging feeling this is the problem... what are you trying to capture? And, at what frame rate? I noticed that when I attempted to capture an NTSC signal (29.97 frames/sec) with V-dub, but at 23.976 frames/sec (FILM), it accomplished this by dropping frames like mad. The % ended up whatever the difference between 23 and 29 is.

I just tried it, and I dropped a consistant 2 frames/sec or more. I'm almost willing to bet this is your problem.

Check to make sure you're capping at full NTSC (29 frames/sec), that is if you are capping an NTSC signal.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-12-14 05:29:42 ]</font>

[rbruder]

I strongly suggest you to look for a driver that's use WDM (Win 2K and XP) and not VFW (Video for Windows, W9x and ME).

Take a look at nVidea site, technical forum or some like that.

[]'s
Roberto Bruder
video-br: a lista brasileira de vídeo caseiro
http://yahoogroups.com/group/video-br

_________________
Roberto Bruder
rbruder@centroin.com.br

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: rbruder on 2001-12-14 07:02:50 ]</font>

[rbruder]

meetlofe,

Additional information:

they have a driver WDM for nVidia Personal Cinema in the following address:

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=windows2000

[]'s
Roberto Bruder
video-br: a lista brasileira de vídeo caseiro
http://yahoogroups.com/group/video-br

[vhucko]

I had similar problem - VDub at W98 captured OK, but at
w2000 - captured with dropped frames. After settings
in VDUB - Capture/Disk I/O - I enabled disk buffer (checkbox Disable windows write buffering is unchecked) and capturing is OK (0 dropped frames at 50min record 480x288 with huffyu codec)... Probably NT systems had different acces to disks - in W98 uses buffering is equal, but NT systems not.
Vlado Hucko sen.

[meetlofe]

Thanks all! I have a lot of stuff to try here and I'm grateful for all your help. It's good to know that that there are people here who really want to help out and not just slam products and people.

[meetlofe]

Guess What!- still doesn't work without dropping frames. I even went out and bought a Pinnacle Studio PCTV Pro (pci version) to see if maybe I had an agp problem and that's why i had problems with the Pers. Cin. But no- I drop frames with the Pinnacle also. Even capping at 352x240 at 29.97 I end up dropping almost 10%. I have the 1.08 WDM driver for the nVidia Pers. Cin. and that didn't seem to help the Pers. Cin. captures and now I'm trying to get the Pinnacle to work and I'm pulling my hair out! I'm about ready to chuck the whole thing and go back to my K6-2 500 and the ATI RF Pro! Could this all be a BIOS issue? I built the pc myself and maybe it's not optimal...

[meetlofe]

Thanks again everyone. I figured it out. It was my source material. I put in another video and I was able to capture at 720x480 and encode to divx (at the same time!!!!) with a bitrate of 2000 with 1% frame loss! Before I couldn't even capture at 160x120 in avi format without dropping a bunch of frames.

[Miguel]

I've the same problem as meetlofe. Everything works fine on W98SE but with XP the number of drop frames is huge and
sometimes it says my avi is 90 fps and i'm telling VirtualDub to capture at 25 fps. I have a Asus V6800 Deluxe and i'm using Nvidia Drivers and WDM 1.08 from Nvidia too. I tried another source but its the same,

Any help would be nice.

Thanks.

[Miguel]

Last night i installed my old Quantum 3.2GB with W98SE that i used before. The only thing i've changed was windows version (W98SE) and of course the boot disk. Guest what ? After W98SE have configured my new machine i could capture (to a 40Gb, 7200 rpm IBM) at 640x480 with no drop frames. Change back to Windows XP and 30% and more of drop frames.

[mate]

I haven't tried this yes, but it sure looks interesting

https://www.videohelp.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=71786&forum=2