Getting artifacts and dropped frames capturing DV

[CleanRich]

I'm at the end of my ropes with this problem. My hardware should be more than adaquate to capture video from my Panasonic DV camcorder, (model# PV-DV52D). I have capture fine with it on my old system which was less than half the system I have now. I get a ton of colorful blocky artifacts in the preview window and a lot of dropped frames. Have tried a few different versions of Adobe Premiere, Windows Movie Maker, WinDV, and the Turtle Beach capture software that came with my capture card. I tried different cables, same deal. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[thecoalman]

Have tried a few different versions of Adobe Premiere, Windows Movie Maker, WinDV, and the Turtle Beach capture software that came with my capture card.

It's actually a transfer, are you transferring as DV-AVI over a firewire cable? No capture card required unless that has a firewire port on it.

[JohnnyMalaria]

A few questions:

Do the tapes play properly in the camcorder?
Are you capturing to the same one that your OS is installed on?
If you are using external drives, are they USB 2.0 or FireWire? If FireWire, is the camcorder on the same interface?
The camcorder doesn't have USB, does it?
Are you using the FireWire connection on the Turtle Beach card?

[CleanRich]

Thx for the replies.

@ thecoalman - I tried a straight firewire card and got nothing in the preview window when trying to capture/transfer the video to my computer. I'm still very much a novice at this stuff but from what I understand, my video card is not vivo capable so I could not install the wdm driver, which seems to be necessary to capture video from my DV camcorder to my computer. I then bought this Turtle Beach capture card, which does have a firewire port. When I plug the camera into that I now get video in the preview window and it does capture but with heavy artifacts and dropped frames. My knowledge may be screwed up on all this, as I have more questions than answers at this point. All I know is that on my old system I worked with a ATI AIW card, which was vivo capable, and I had absolutely no problems capturing video with the same camcorder. That computer was like and AMD 1600+, 512 ram, ATI AIW 8500 I believe, and slower HDD's than I have now.

@JohnnyM - Yes, the tapes play fine in the camcorder and play fine when I hook it up to the T.V. No, I've tried capturing to each of my other HDD's, I have 3 of them in my computer and none are fragmented. All HDD's are internal. No, the camcorder is firewire not USB. And yes I'm using the firewire connection on the Turtle Beach card.

I've done a lot of research on the Internet and searched through these forums for awhile trying to find an answer to this problem. It seems like some people are having problems capturing DV video since installing SP2. I know that is one difference between my old system and the new one. I don't really want to reformat and revert to Win XP SP1. If anyone has any other idea's or see's some flaw in my logic with this stuff please let me know. Thx.

[thecoalman]

The only thing you need is firewire card, possibly you had a faulty one. You connect the cam to it , fire up a DV capture program like winDV and transfer the file. Note the transfer format should be DV-AVI. This produces an exact duplicate of what is on the cam. It's like copying a file from one folder to another on your HDD.

As far as the turtle beach card goes I've had problems as well as other with a firewire port on Soundblaster card. Works for some and not others. In my case the cam would simply disconnect. You may be experiencing the same thing, in any event you really don't need it.

I'd go back and try the firewire card again. I'd also suggest finding another computer that has a firewire port on it to help determine if your issues possibly lies with the cam or firewire cable.

This is a relatively easy procedure and should be plug and play with perfect copies every time for most.

[JohnnyMalaria]

There's a Microsoft hotfix for DV issues in SP2 and it applies to certain makes/models of camcorder. I can't recall the details - I'll try to find it - unless another kind soul can get their hands on it sooner...

[Nelson37]

This capture involves the camera, cable, and card. The same camera and cable worked before, so we focus on the card.

Using the card involves drivers and software. Card, drivers, or software is defective.

The good news is that drivers and software are easy and free to change. The cards are also fairly cheap.

Ditto comments about Firewire ports on sound and video cards. Most reports negative, few work well. In fact you are one of only two or three I have seen reporting success with the ATI card's firewire port. Best to use a dedicated card.

Also might be a good idea to disable and/or eliminate drivers and software for the Turtle card. Uninstall everything related to firewire. Then re-install using the dedicated card. Get a good quality card, $10.00 more than the cheap crap. In fact, that's probably a good way to locate one, find the cheapest piece of crap in stock and then buy the one that is $10 to $20 more.

Also, basically ignore the preview. Numerous reports of no preview, but perfect capture. I think even some with good preview, but no capture. Test the final result, once that works then worry about the preview, usually an issue with overlay.

[jozef_hlavaty]

CleanRich,

check if your HDD uses UDMA6. I had a lot of similar problems with DV capture with UDMA6 and stepping down to UDMA5 solved my problems.

HTH.

Jozef.

[CleanRich]

Update: I uninstalled the Turtle Beach capture card and took my SoundBlaster Audigy card out of another computer and put in the one I'm trying to capture with, (the SBcard has firewire as well). I plugged the camcorder into the SB card's firewire port and the camera was recognized by Windows but it did the same thing as with the other firewire cards I've tried, no preview and no capture. To clarify a little of what I've tried so far, I have bought a $20 firewire card first, didn't work, preview or capture. Next I bought like a $60 firewire card, same deal, nada. Have also tried different cables. The best results I've gotten so far are with the Turtle Beach capture card, I can see video in the preview window and can capture the video but it's full of pixilated artifacts and some dropped frames. I've had other people tell me I don't need a capture card too, only a firewire card, but it just does not work. I'm assuming it's because the wdm driver is needed to capture DV video and the only way to have that driver work on my system is to have a device that can utilize it. Can any gurus around here verify this? I'm going to now reinstall the Turtle Beach card and use it with the SBcard I installed and see if that works. I will also try your suggestion jozef, I think my hdd's are set to udma6. Thx for all the replies, I will report back how it went.

[aedipuss]

don't use the capture card. use a firewire port. did your motherboard come with one? some of those did and some didn't. if not get one of the cards you bought working, newest driver, known good cable, etc. no yellow ! in hardware devices. then use winDV. only. until you get those 2 things working it just isn't going to go well.

[lordsmurf]

If you buy one, don't get some cheap POS. Buy an Adaptec.

[thecoalman]

I'm assuming it's because the wdm driver is needed to capture DV video and the only way to have that driver work on my system is to have a device that can utilize it.

What you don't believe me? I'll try and make it as clear as possible, you only need two things to transfer video to your computer from a DV cam computer side. A firewire card , and software made for transferring DV-AVI.

If you keep plugging these cards into the same PCI slot try a different slot, going back to what I said previously I'd suggest trying it on another computer as well. Might just be a faulty cam.

[Nelson37]

Four different Firewire cards installed, with all four failing, but partial success on the Turtle?

The possibility that the other three cards are defective is remote. The possibility that your camera will work with the Turtle port and no other is almost as remote. The possibility that driver files and software from four different cards could be causing some sort of conflict is quite high.

The HD speed could cause the garbled transfer, but NOT the total failure with the other three cards. Therefore, HD is not the only problem. It could be part of the problem, but not the primary issue.

Remove ALL firewire ports, reboot. Remove ALL Firewire and DV capture software, reboot. Install ONE dedicated firewire card, NOT repeat NOT a card with any other hardware on it, I mean a card that is a Firewire port and ONLY a firewire port. Install drivers, reboot. Install simplest and most reliable DV capture utility available, I do not use DV but either DV-IO or WIN-DV or something similar is reported as such. Nothing fancy, a simple, no-frills capture utility. Verify capture file, ignore preview until proper capture has been established.

OK, it is a file transfer as oppossed to a capture, technically. However it is a "file transfer" that is more dependent on other factors for success than any other "file transfer" that I know of.

Yes I know you want a sound card in the box. Both you have mentioned have Firewire ports. Either could conflict with the dedicated card. Test with ONE and ONLY ONE firewire port in the PC. Then worry about installing the sound card.

You should also first verify the camera and cable on another PC, does not matter what config just something that works, make sure the camera is OK.

Also very carefully check the cable connection on the camera side, very often these become loose and introduce an additional variable into the problem.

[CleanRich]

Hey thx for all the help people. My laptop has a firewire port so I went and got a 4pin to 4pin cable and it worked perfectly. I was happy to see the camera was ok, as I suspected. I removed the Turtle Beach card and left the Soundblaster card in and installed the more expensive firewire card but this time used the firewire cable that came with the Turtle Beach card from the camera to the firewire card. Friggen worked, I can't believe it. So I ended up having 2 bad cable, both of which were brand new and not cheapies, moneywise anyway. I wonder if the computer store I bought the cables from can give me the 25 hours I've wasted on this problem back. Well I've learned a bit from the process anyway. Thanks again for the help.

[aedipuss]

cheers!

[Nelson37]

Underlines the importance of the concept of the KNOWN GOOD.

It is not Known to be Good until it is KNOWN GOOD.

Brand New is merely Suspected Good.

Also, it would have been extremely helpful to know that the cable being used during the failures was NOT the same cable which was used when it worked correctly.

[CleanRich]

My big mistake was assuming the 2 brand new cables I bought both worked and that the problem lay elsewhere. I did a lot of digging on the Internet to try and sort the problem and from that, got ideas in my head about other things being the problem. I'm usually pretty good at troubleshooting logically. Whenever there is a computer related problem, my first suspicion it that it's friggin Bill Gates fault. Ah well, I'm so happy I'm capturing/transferring video to my computer, which is crystal clear and 0 dropped frames. Cheers!