Improving Capture Quality and Preventing Dropped Frames

[toscano]

I'm a relative newbie to video capturing. I've read the sticky topic on dropped frames, but I still have a few questions. I just bought a new PC (AMD Athlon 64 3800+ processor) and I am capturing with an ATI AIW X600 Pro video card on an SUS A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard. I did my first capture a few nights ago with ATI MMC. I was dropping something like 10% of the frames at the beginning and then 1-2% as the capture continued. I unplugged the ethernet connection and followed all the other digitalfaq tips. I suspect the dropped frames are due either a) to not having a separate sound card (I used the X600 Pro's audio in because this motherboard's sound capabilities are better than a ~$50 Soundblaster card); or b) to setting up two 120GB Western Digital HDDs with RAID. I know problems could result from capturing to the same drives where Windows is located, but the drives are otherwise completely empty and I haven't read any posts that have convinced me that the drawbacks of RAID outweigh the benefits. Here are my questions:

1) Could getting a separate Sound Blaster card really help prevent dropped frames? Why would this even matter?

2) RAID or no RAID? I don't want reformat my hard drives unless this will actually make a real difference in capture quality (i.e. I DON'T want to do this if the dropped frames are being caused by onboard sound).

3) After my first capture, I compared the original VHS to the DVD capture. I used the settings suggested by digitalfaq, but I was not really impressed with the quality. I don't need squeeze two hours onto a DVD. I'd rather have higher quality video. If I up the resolution from 352x480 to 720x480 and 8MB/s, will I see a substantial increase in quality?

Any input would be much appreciated!

[harley2ride]

Your system specs didn't show how much memory you have? As long as you have around 768mb or more, you should be able to capture without losing that many frames, unless there is a problem somewhere. One problem is that if you are in the US, you should be capturing at 720 x 480. Since you are capturing with ATI card, you should really read some of lordsmurfs guides and tutorials for capturing and converting, and try following them to the letter. Then after you get comfortable and familiar with settings, terminology, etc, do some experimenting. Your problems could be caused by cheap cables, not enough memory, fragmented HD, the software you are using to capture, and other variables.

[edDV]

Your system is overkill on all specs. The RAID setup is probably at fault. Motherboard based RAID has been a problem with several others.

You don't need RAID for anything the ATI AIW can capture, even uncompressed video. If you need RAID for other puposes than video, get a video certified hardware RAID adapter.

Standard practice in video PC setup is to have the OS and general applications on a separate drive and data and video tmp files on the second drive or RAID.

Extreme gamers like to put the OS and everything else on a single RAID so they can get fast reboots and game texture loads.

[toscano]

Thank you both for the quick responses. I have 1GB of memory. I have invested in good cables, so I doubt that is the problem. I guess I will have to de-RAID my system. I've looked through the Guide section of this site, but couldn't find the Lordsmurf guides on capturing. Where are these?

[harley2ride]

I'm not exactly sure where it is myself, but I know it is referenced within the forums. Just do a forum search for lordsmurf + ATI or try lordsmurf +guide. I don't use ATI, so I didn't keep track.

[lordsmurf]

(1) Yes, separate audio cards may be required. Onboard audio shares too many resources, clogs the system, drops frames.

(2) RAID is entirely unnecessary. Any 7200rpm drive where the OS is NOT stored will be perfectly fine. Either on an expansion card (ATA) or off the motherboard connections.

(3) Quality should not be lower than the source. VHS is lossy. Be sure to view the capture on a tv set, not the computer. 352x480 is greater than the VHS source res. Feel free to up the res, but remember to double or more the bitrate too (8mb/s would work). You may be expecting too much. If there is a specific quality issue, specify what it is. Maybe a VideoSoap filter can help.

Good luck.

[edDV]

Thank you both for the quick responses. I have 1GB of memory. I have invested in good cables, so I doubt that is the problem. I guess I will have to de-RAID my system. I've looked through the Guide section of this site, but couldn't find the Lordsmurf guides on capturing. Where are these?

If you have another EIDE hard drive ATA-66 or better, just connect it and format it and odds are 90% it will capture fine.

Lordsmurf is our resident ATI AIW expert.

[winifreid]

What resolution are you using? What is your source? Are you capturing straight to mpeg2? Using any filters? Are you multitasking? Try capturing using huffyuv to eliminate some possible problems. If you drop frames wiith huffyuv and you are not multitasking, then it might be raid. I don't know if your card is compatible with windvr, but I have had alot of success with it and mpeg2 captures.