Pryo DV capture adds tons of blank frames in between dropped ones.

[Knightmessenger]

Okay, I understand that rough portions of the vhs videos I capture will drop frames. But I'm wondering if my Pyro ADS box is just not that good since it drops frames a pci card or dvd recorder doesn't. The other thing is that when it drops frames, the video has all this extra black space put in between. It might be 3 seconds that dropped but a minute of black frames appears in the video clip. So capturing a clip that was 2:40 takes up 6 minutes on the Vegas timeline, half just total black empty frames. And it's a real pain to cut out the black space, move the rest together, splice in the dropped frames that captured fine on a dvd recorder. So is this common with DV capture boxes?
And does anybody know what the dip switches on the back do. They're really tiny that have a green coating over them with an up or down position.

[edDV]

I don't see relock that bad on my DV camcorders or Canopus ADVC. It could be your capture software. Try WinDV.

The dip switch modes should be in the manual.

Usually they set modes like
NTSC vs PAL
Audio Sample Rate
Start defaults
Black level (7.5IRE vs. zero)

[Knightmessenger]

What is relock and start defaults? To be honest, I'm not sure what my capturing software is. I just use the built in capture that I have with Vegas 4. And I'm a little wary of freeware downloads since one of them (DScaler) likely caused my hard drive to crash last year.

[edDV]

If your tape has gaps, sync is lost. That will usually cause capture to stop. If it keeps going, the next bit of video needs to be resynchronized by the Pyro and capture software.

WinDV is safe from this web site.
http://windv.mourek.cz/

Here is a tutorial
http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net/PapaJohn/61/WinDV.aspx

[Knightmessenger]

The tape doesn't have gaps, just video that was edited through a vcr. (So it has the rainbow line) I know that is prone to drop but that doesn't excuse the black space in between. Nor does it explain why my dvd recorder (and PCI card) has no problem with those parts.
So what I'm really trying to understand is what causes all that black space where frames drop. Has this been observed before by anyone else? Is there a way to set it to not do that. Is it only found in the Pyro or can that happen with any DV capture that drops frames.
I got the Pyro in 2003, would a new Canopus likely do better?

[edDV]

I've never seen that.

[Knightmessenger]

I just downloaded winDV and I can't get a picture. Nothing. The source listed is Microsoft DV Camera and VCR which is what my usual capture source is called. I have no idea where the captured video went either.

[zoobie]

sounds like somethings wrong with the ADS...your computer looks pretty old, too...perhaps a combo of both...did it do this in 2003? how much to have ADS look at it? pick up a cheap ADVC 55?

[edDV]

Read the PapaJohn tutorial for setups. You put the path and capture file name in the "Capt. file:" block.

DV capture (stream to file) has very low CPU load. I used to do it no problem on a PII 300MHz.

[Knightmessenger]

Could you give more details on how to do that? How do I look up the file path name.

As for my computer, it was custom built but I updated it a few years ago. It's really fast, boots up in seconds. I think the capture box is somewhat like a bottleneck, it just can't handle data even though the rest of the computer can. I'm thinking the capture box could be due for a replacement but I want to get some confirmation if possible.

[edDV]

Test it on your cable box if you think the VCR is the problem.

Otherwise follow the tutorial.

[Knightmessenger]

How can I test it on a cable box. I'm really confused. Plus they're on two separate floors.
I'm trying to follow the tutorial but I don't know how to find the path and capture file name. The imput is through a firewire cable but it's not listed as a drive (like F) under my compter. I don't think my vhs vcr is the problem anyways.