Sony DCRHC26 MiniDV Camcorder Transfer Problem

[zeroman]

Hi everyone,

I just purchased a Sony DCRHC26 MiniDV Camcorder. When I transfer the video to my computer, via a firewire, the video skips?

Has anyone encountered this problem? Am I losing information during the transfer from a tape to a hard drive?

Thanks for your help,

Zeroman

[bits]

Please provide more details:

1. Software your using to do the data transfer from your camera?
2. Do you really only have a 20GB drive? 1 hour of DV avi is around 12.5GB, you need more HDD!
3. Is your HDD set to DMA or Ultra DMA? If not it should be.
4. Describe 'skips' in more detail.

[zeroman]

1) I’m using Ulead software to do the data capture.

2) I have a 160 GB hard drive, currently the Ulead was not capturing the video in AVI form. (using a recommended file type)

3) Not sure what my HD is set to? What you are saying is that it should be set to Ultra, right?

4) Skips; the picture being captured will appear to skip on the computer screen, so pause for a quarter second, then keep going.

Thanks for your help !!

[edDV]

Are you trying to realtime encode to MPeg2?
Your buffer is overflowing. Raise the data rate.

You should be using DV format in your capture settings with DV project settings. Encode to DVD at the end after editing.


PS: PIII 1GHz? ain't no way that is going to realtime encode MPeg2. You need > 2.4 GHz P4. 3GHz for smooth performance.

[aedipuss]

and a further note on your computer. the xp operating system alone will use an average 200mb of physical ram. with only 256 installed everything that runs will be swapping out onto virtual memory (i.e. the hard drive). too slow. will likely result in dropped frames.

like ed said capture from camera to h.d. in dv format. use something that doesn't use much memory like windv. shut everything else off before the capture and watch for dropped frames. it may be time to update to a new computer though.

[edDV]

Yes, didn't look at RAM.

Video Studio has a 80MB base RAM usage
WinDV uses 16MB

A DV transfer from WinDV will be identical to one by Video Studio. Use either. Video Studio has full transport control as an advantage.

[bits]

1) I’m using Ulead software to do the data capture.

2) I have a 160 GB hard drive, currently the Ulead was not capturing the video in AVI form. (using a recommended file type)

3) Not sure what my HD is set to? What you are saying is that it should be set to Ultra, right?

4) Skips; the picture being captured will appear to skip on the computer screen, so pause for a quarter second, then keep going.

Thanks for your help !!

Converting DV avi from your camcorder on the fly is a really bad idea, especially with the computer you have. Use WinDV, type 2 avi to transfer the DV avi to your 160GB HDD. Once it is on your HDD, edit and then convert to mpeg2 and author.

I strongly recommend WinDV (freeware) because it can not re-encode your DV avi, it can only transfer it to your HDD.

Yes your HDD should be set to Ultra DMA.

[zeroman]

Sorry everyone,

I had a meeting and didn't realize that a number of your responses were based on information found in my old computer. I have updated my computers details. I'd still really appreciate your help.

Thanks !!

[bits]

Sorry everyone,

I had a meeting and didn't realize that a number of your responses were based on information found in my old computer. I have updated my computers details. I'd still really appreciate your help.

Thanks !!

Your new computer is better but I still strongly recommend transferring the DV avi to your HDD using WinDV (DV avi type 2), edit, convert and author.

[zeroman]

Thanks,

I will give WinDV a shot tonight.

[edDV]

Realtime encoding is OK for PVR type TV recording (with top class computer) but camcorder recordings deserve the full DV treatment.