I hope someone can offer advice for this problem.

I have recently bought the Dazzle product to enable me to transfer video from a VHS video player to my PC. It works fine, but once I have transferred the video to PC the picture freezes every seven/eight seconds.

It only freezes for a fraction of a second, but because it happens so regularly it really spoils the finished product.

The only way I can stop this happening is by either reducing the quality of the video clip or reducing the size of the picture of the finished clip.

I have tried several different software packages for the transfer itself, and the same things happens with each.

Someone suggested my graphics card might need an upgrade, and someone else suggested the processor might need to change.

My system details are below - if you can offer any advice/opinions I would be grateful.

Processor: (1) AMD Athlon(tm) Processor; 1110 MHz
Main memory (RAM): 447 MB bytes, 157 MB free (36%)
DirectX Version: 4.09.00.0904
Sound card: (1) Creative Sound Blaster PCI
Graphic card: 3dfx Voodoo3 on Plug and Play Monitor with 1024x768

Cheers, Paul

[melliott1963]

It does sound like your PC is struggling to keep up with the video capture. However, I used to capture using an 800Mhz Pentium with 512Mb RAM with no problem, so, in theory, your PC spec, whilst not the greatest, should be OK.

It's possible that the problem could lie with your hard disk. You don't mention anything about this:-
What size is it?
How much free space do you have?
Do you have only one or more hard disks?
How fast is it? Is it only a 5400 rpm drive?
When did you last defragment the drive? If it is highly fragmented, this will cause problems.

Also, have you made sure that you've stopped running any unnecessary programs? MarkE19 recommends a program called 'EndItAll' that that will do this for you. If you do a search I'm sure you'll be able to find where to download this.

Best practice is normally to have 2 hard drives. One containing all your programs, and the other just for video capture.

Hope this helps.

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by melliott1963

Also, have you made sure that you've stopped running any unnecessary programs? MarkE19 recommends a program called 'EndItAll' that that will do this for you. If you do a search I'm sure you'll be able to find where to download this.

I thought my ears were burning
This program is excellent but getting a bit old. This can cause it to be difficault to find, therefore if you don't have any luck with your search PM me your e-mail address and I'll forward you a copy. It is a free program, so no problems with this!

All the other advice you have been given is very good. You should have plenty of free space as a full HDD is going to be slower. What format are you captureing the video as? AVI is the best, but will take up around 14Gb per hour of captured video. If you do capture AVI you will still need more space for file conversion etc so I would suggest you have around 30Gb free for every hour you capture.

Good luck,
Mark.

thank you for the advice. I have three drives - one is 111GB, one is 76GB and the last is 189GB. They all have lots of free space, so I don't think it's that.

I think you could be right about the other prgrammes running. I have virus protection running constantly (McAfee) so perhaps it is that. I know it's a big programme. I will look for the programme you have suggested and will certainly email you if I cannot find it.

Thanks very much again - great help.

Paul

[MarkE19]

Another couple of thoughts:

Is the device you are captureing to got any programs installed on it? If so try moving them to another drive.
Is the capture drive on the same IDE channel as a CD/DVD drive? If so then the chances are the CD/DVD drive is slowing the HDD down. Try a drive that is not on the same IDE channel as an optical drive.

Mark.