Cracks and ticking during capture, but not in final product!

[jochenz]

My setup is:

PIV 3,0 GHz
memory: 1,0 GB
HD: 7.200 rpm

I capture using Mainconcept 1.42 (because 1.51 wont work for some strange reason.)
Realtime-Capture settings:
Buffering: ON
type: DVD-PAL
resolution: 720 x 576
Video bitrate: Variable 6500 kbps
Encoder quality: 40

During the capturing the CPU goes up to 80% and at random intervals I hear cracking and ticking sounds. Sometimes the video even stops very shortly.

The finished product is just fine. So the sounds and the stopping of the video is not captured. But it is annoying as @#$%!!!!

I have tried turning off all other services and just running MC, but nothing helps!

please advise!

[Capmaster]

Probably the PC's fault for the stoppages. Especially with that high a CPU load. That seems unusually high for a 3 GHz P4 My 2.8 would sit at about 10% during video capture.

Do you know what your HD's throughput is during capture? Perhaps there's a bottleneck at the HD. Check in Device Manager to make sure you're running the HD in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

I would try and find out why the newer version of the capture app won't work, and fix it. That also could be where the problem lies. Have you contacted their tech support yet?

The other stuff - the popping and clicking sounds like a sound card issue.

[jochenz]

Probably the PC's fault for the stoppages. Especially with that high a CPU load. That seems unusually high for a 3 GHz P4 My 2.8 would sit at about 10% during video capture.

Do you know what your HD's throughput is during capture? Perhaps there's a bottleneck at the HD. Check in Device Manager to make sure you're running the HD in DMA mode and not PIO mode.

I would try and find out why the newer version of the capture app won't work, and fix it. That also could be where the problem lies. Have you contacted their tech support yet?

The other stuff - the popping and clicking sounds like a sound card issue.

thanks for the reply, but:
1. I am capturing realtime into MPEG-2. I can not imagine that you are capturing into MPEG-2 only using 10% of the CPU! You probably capture into DV-AVI lossless.

2. I will indeed see what is going wrong with the newer version of the capture software.

3. What could be the sound card issue? It only happens caupturing, not during any other playback!

[jochenz]

just tested 1.5.1.

The problem is that the captured file sounds "double". Like you hear everything double!

any ideas?

[JohnnyMalaria]

The finished product is just fine. So the sounds and the stopping of the video is not captured. But it is annoying as @#$%!!!!

That's not uncommon with many capture apps. To ensure that the file is captured without problems, the previewing will drop frames/audio. Programs built on DirectShow almost always do so when the CPU is being pushed.

[jochenz]

The finished product is just fine. So the sounds and the stopping of the video is not captured. But it is annoying as @#$%!!!!

That's not uncommon with many capture apps. To ensure that the file is captured without problems, the previewing will drop frames/audio. Programs built on DirectShow almost always do so when the CPU is being pushed.

turned off the preview....

With or without the preview, the CPU goes to 100%.


strange, since under version 1,4 the CPU would only use 80% MAX!!!

[JohnnyMalaria]

The finished product is just fine. So the sounds and the stopping of the video is not captured. But it is annoying as @#$%!!!!

That's not uncommon with many capture apps. To ensure that the file is captured without problems, the previewing will drop frames/audio. Programs built on DirectShow almost always do so when the CPU is being pushed.

turned off the preview....

With or without the preview, the CPU goes to 100%.


strange, since under version 1,4 the CPU would only use 80% MAX!!!

Perhaps the newer version is better at multithreading on dual cores? After all, you want it to be processing as fast as possible....

Now, if the newer version takes longer, then that suggests a bug that is creating a "race" condition, where one thread is waiting for another to finish something - but it's waiting for the first one....as so on forever!

[jochenz]

My CPU support Multithreading. So perfomance should be better? or not?

[JohnnyMalaria]

My CPU support Multithreading. So perfomance should be better? or not?

All CPUs support multithreading - by that, I mean software that is multithreaded will run on any CPU.

A dual core CPU can run two threads at the same time.

A P4 with HT can do so, too (kind of).

However, a heavily-multithreaded application can suffer on a single CPU. If the software spends a lot of time trying "to be clever" and create lots of threads, it does so without benefiting a single CPU system. Time gets wasted managing the threads.

[jochenz]

owkeeej, but what does this mean for me?

How will this solve my ticking and cracking?

[JohnnyMalaria]

I don't think it will.

If you only see the chopping and hear the cracking during capture, it is because the software is ensuring that the more important part - writing the file to disk without loss - happens.

What kind of audio hardware do you have?

[jochenz]

Sigmatel C-Major Audio

Integrated into the laptop!

[edDV]

The finished product is just fine. So the sounds and the stopping of the video is not captured. But it is annoying as @#$%!!!!

That's not uncommon with many capture apps. To ensure that the file is captured without problems, the previewing will drop frames/audio. Programs built on DirectShow almost always do so when the CPU is being pushed.

Further, The 80% you are seeing for VBR 6500Kb/s seems about right for v1.42 and 3GHz P4. I can't speak to v1.5. Haven't used it yet.

I'd turn preview off to reduce CPU decode load. I haven't seen the problem myself since I usually monitor upstream of the encode.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Sigmatel C-Major Audio

Integrated into the laptop!

I thought it might be(!)

The Sigmatel audio requires a lot of CPU time - especially if you have any equalization or surround processing. Turn off all the additional processing.

Is your graphics integrated, too?

[Capmaster]

1. I am capturing realtime into MPEG-2. I can not imagine that you are capturing into MPEG-2 only using 10% of the CPU! You probably capture into DV-AVI lossless.

Realtime into MPEG2

My capture box is listed in my "Computer" details.

[edDV]

1. I am capturing realtime into MPEG-2. I can not imagine that you are capturing into MPEG-2 only using 10% of the CPU! You probably capture into DV-AVI lossless.

Realtime into MPEG2

My capture box is listed in my "Computer" details.

Hardware encoding is cheating. 10 meters penalty.

[jochenz]

Sigmatel C-Major Audio

Integrated into the laptop!

I thought it might be(!)

The Sigmatel audio requires a lot of CPU time - especially if you have any equalization or surround processing. Turn off all the additional processing.

Is your graphics integrated, too?

oke!

But for some reason I had no problems using the older version! SO.....how come it would be causing problems now?

I have absolutely no extra processing going on! So that can not be it!

Yeas I also have graphics integrated. NVIDIA card! why?

[Capmaster]

1. I am capturing realtime into MPEG-2. I can not imagine that you are capturing into MPEG-2 only using 10% of the CPU! You probably capture into DV-AVI lossless.

Realtime into MPEG2

My capture box is listed in my "Computer" details.

Hardware encoding is cheating. 10 meters penalty.

Doesn't everyone?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Yeas I also have graphics integrated. NVIDIA card! why?

It is common for integrated graphics to share memory with the rest of the computer. This can lower the performance of things like showing video in a window.

Comparing the two versions of your encoder, does the newer version take longer to encode the same file?

[jochenz]

Yeas I also have graphics integrated. NVIDIA card! why?

It is common for integrated graphics to share memory with the rest of the computer. This can lower the performance of things like showing video in a window.

Comparing the two versions of your encoder, does the newer version take longer to encode the same file?

performance of the newer version does not seem slower or faster. As far as I can Judge!

[jochenz]

I have been testing and testing. But am unable to capture good quality in version 1.5.1.

I have killed any processes running in the background. But it doesn't seem possible to capture using this version and my setup...!!!