[Yubious]

Hey there, I've been getting into transferring mini dv tapes to pc using win dv.
Transferred one last week, no dropped frames after closing loads of processes I didn't need. But the tape I'm now transferring gave me over 650 dropped frames. I tried for ages to get it to transfer properly but no luck. I've checked everything; hard drive space, memory, processor, all perfect. It's a pretty new laptop so should be fine really for windv.
Could it be camera or tape related? I'm only recording in sd, would these dropped frames be noticable? I couldn't really notice it but I hate knowing it's not perfect!
Any suggestions please! I've looked everywhere to try And build my knowledge but still only know basics.
Thanks.

[A n d r e w]

Are the dropped frames in the same places each time? Do they affect video and audio, or just video? It's possible this could be dirty heads - but if the heads were dirty when recording, no amount of cleaning will remedy this now . . .

[Yubious]

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

Are the dropped frames in the same places each time? Do they affect video and audio, or just video? It's possible this could be dirty heads - but if the heads were dirty when recording, no amount of cleaning will remedy this now . . .

The dropped frames are in different places each time... Well judging by when windv records a dropped frame its in a different part of the film, sometimes there were 30odd in the first minute, other times there were less than 10.
I don't no if it affects audio and video as I really can't notice it during playback, but would like to rememdy this for the future. If it is the camera why would it have been alright last week when I transferred a different tape?
Thanks

[senu]

It almost always refers to something during the capture process to PC
However
The tape head can get dirty after recording
A test of sorts is to play back off the camcorder:Is it smooth?

A fresh short recording on a new tape may also be illuminating
Are you mixing tape brands BTW?

[Yubious]

Originally Posted by senu

It almost always refers to something during the capture process to PC
However
The tape head can get dirty after recording
A test of sorts is to play back off the camcorder:Is it smooth?

A fresh short recording on a new tape may also be illuminating
Are you mixing tape brands BTW?

The playback looks fine on the camera but then it does on the pc aswell, would one frame every 5 seconds or so be noticeble though?
I am using the same brand of tape. I'm still hopeful it's the pc, but I'm running so on a 2gb memory, core 2 duo processor over 20gb free hard drive space.. Not a lot but was enough for the last tape I captured.

[A n d r e w]

Have you closed your internet connection, anti-virus, firewall, etc.?

[senu]

A long shot but is the HDD defragmented?

Also is it possible the the dropped frames are being misreported by Win DV as the PC playback is smooth?

[Yubious]

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

Have you closed your internet connection, anti-virus, firewall, etc.?

Closed internet and almost everything else, but don't remember closing the anti virus, will try that next.

Originally Posted by senu

A long shot but is the HDD defragmented?

Also is it possible the the dropped frames are being misreported by Win DV as the PC playback is smooth?

I tried framenting the hard drive but windows said it doesn't need to be :-s
Does windv misreport dropped frames then? Cos I can't see the dropped frames, should I be able to?

[A n d r e w]

Originally Posted by Yubious

I can't see the dropped frames, should I be able to?

At 1500 frames per minute, if your reported 30 dropped frames is correct (from post #3 above) then that's 2% of total frames, or 1 frame every two seconds: not something you're going to notice unless there's movement, especially a panning shot whose smoothness is interrupted.