[gino555]

hi,

i have a sony dcr-pc106e camcorder (minidv) when i capture video to windows movie maker every second or so the picture freezes is this what is meant by dropped frames???? how do i get round this problem as all i want to do is transfer my tapes to my pc so i can reuse the tapes, i want to save the video in the best possoble qualiaty

Thanks

gino

[gino555]

also i have problems with the picture pixalating (bad spelling i think) on the cam corder

thanks

gino

[MarkE19]

The freezing picture does sound like dropped frames to me. I suggest you do a search for 'dropped frames' to get loads of advice on what can be done about it. To start with though you really should stop all background programs such as antivirus, firewall etc and disable powersave and screensavers. Also disconnect from the internet or the network.

As for you captureing the video so you can reuse the DV tapes - why? At around £3 or even less for brand new tapes is it worth the risk of loosing your video just so you can reuse the tapes? I never record over anything and even save the edited footage back to a new DV tape for archiving. DVD's are not a safe archiving media as they get damaged far too easily, so I know I can recover the footage 'when' the DVD starts refuseing to play. Even with HDD space being cheap I stil think it is better to backup to DV tape as full quality captured video will eat up even the biggest of HDD's very quickly, and even HDD's go belly up.

As for the pixelation on the camcorder, well this sounds to me like either head damage or if lucky just dirty heads. Try putting a cleaning tape in there and see if that helps. However don't run the cleaning tape for more than a few seconds, and certainly don't keep retrying it as the tapes are abrasive and will quickly wear out the heads if used too often.

Mark.

[gino555]

thanks for the reply, just one more thing!!!!!!!!!!! is fire wire a small plug????as i have a brand new pc and all it has got is usb and 1394 ports are these firewire ports? would they be better for transfering video than a usb 2 port?

Thanks

gino

[MarkE19]

Yes, firewire is also called DV port, ieee1394 or iLink. They are all exactly the same thing. They are small plugs similar to USB, but even smaller and not as flat.
USB1.1 or 2.0 is not good for full quality video transfer as it can not sustain a constant speed that is required. Although USB2.0 is slightly faster than firewire (USB2.0 = 480mbs, firewire = 400mbs) the firewire rate is constant but USB is peek. USB will only give you PQ a little better than that of a webcam, but via firewire you get a 100% copy of what is on the camcorder tape.

Mark.