Why Is Capturing DV Footage On A PC So Troublesome?

[Timbo21]

I'm having a nightmare trying to capture DV footage on my PC.

I've tried using windows Movie Maker and Nero 9. Nero 9 is the least troublesome, but I still get moments of "stuck" video occasionally. Additionally, it seems to really confuse the computer if I don't turn the camera on after I've opened the software. Quite often it locks up after 5 mins of capturing.

It's hardly like I've got an archaic pc. It's only about 2 years old, has 2.8 Athlon processor, 720mb of RAM, Windows XP

Perhaps it is this DMA thing on the Hard Disk that Stewart mentions. Unfortunately, my Maxtor doesn't seem to have a "settings" option with a DMA checkbox.

All help appreciated.

[A n d r e w]

Originally Posted by Timbo21

I'm having a nightmare trying to capture DV footage on my PC.

I assume by "DV" you mean it's a tape-based mini-DV camcorder, but can you specify the make and model of camcorder?

Originally Posted by Timbo21

moments of "stuck" video . . .Quite often it locks up after 5 mins of capturing.

You mean it locks up / gets stuck during transfer, not playback?

Originally Posted by Timbo21

Unfortunately, my Maxtor doesn't seem to have a "settings" option with a DMA checkbox.

Are you importing to an external drive? If so, is your drive connected by FireWire or USB?

[senu]

It isnt trouble some if the source of the problem can be found

Firewire not USB
Defragmented HDDs
Tapes with continuous time code
and
Minimal background running programs
Often help to make it a painless process
Could even be something as simple as a dodgy firewire cable

[Mr Lazy]

Originally Posted by Timbo21

720mb of RAM

I'm not saying it's the cause, but that's not a huge amount of memory these days (even though XP can run most common tasks ok with only 512MB).

p.s. are you sure that number is right? That's an odd amount of memory to have.

[senu]

Could be he has a Graphics card which shares memory, but to be sure, ! Gb of Ram is pretty much the minimum these days although for DV capture it isnt that crucial as much as a well sorted HDD is

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

I assume by "DV" you mean it's a tape-based mini-DV camcorder,

Yes, it's a Canon MVX3i

Originally Posted by A n d r e w

You mean it locks up / gets stuck during transfer, not playback?Are you importing to an external drive? If so, is your drive connected by FireWire or USB?

It gets locked up during transfer and you get the odd pause playing back after xsfer.

I use firewire and have not had any problems using my DVD recorder

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by senu

It isnt trouble some if the source of the problem can be found

Firewire not USB
Defragmented HDDs
Tapes with continuous time code
and
Minimal background running programs
Often help to make it a painless process
Could even be something as simple as a dodgy firewire cable

I've done all of the above. I haven't had trouble using this cable with the DVD recorder.

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by Mr Lazy

I'm not saying it's the cause, but that's not a huge amount of memory these days (even though XP can run most common tasks ok with only 512MB).

p.s. are you sure that number is right? That's an odd amount of memory to have.

Ooh, got the RAM bit wrong. It's 480mb. This is the problem, perhaps?

It's 1 AMD Sempron 2800+
1.99GHZ, also

Cheers.

[RenaultSport]

I am unsure what spec a pc is needed to process dv but by all accounts a 2800+ sempron is not a very fast processor (and was probably low end 2 yrs ago) and 480mb ram is on the low side.

On the plus side, upgrading to somthing workable wouldn't be expensive:

1gb ram is around 30-35 quid for DDR1 stuff and if that didnt work on its own you could probably slot an Athlon 64x2 straight in for around 40-50 quid (although you'd have to check your motherboard manual)

[MarkE19]

How much spare HDD space do you have? Captureing DV .AVI files eats up around 13Gb per tape and the HDD will slow down as it fills up. If space is tight adding a second HDD just for video capture (ie no installed programs on it) should help. Avoid putting it on an IDE channel that has a CD/DVD drive connected as this can slow the HDD down. Also make sure you use a full 80 pin IDE cable, rather than the cheaper cables you can get for use with DVD/CD drives.
To enable DMA go into Device Manager and select the properties of the HDD. You should find DMA as an option in there.

Stop all background programs during capture, inc antivirus/firewall etc. I use a free program called EndItAll2 to do this quickly & easily - have a search for it as it is a great program.

I started video editing with a P4 1.8Ghz and only 512Mb RAM. This is plenty good enough, but it was slow compare to a more modern PC.

Mark.

[Timbo21]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

How much spare HDD space do you have? Captureing DV .AVI files eats up around 13Gb per tape and the HDD will slow down as it fills up. If space is tight adding a second HDD just for video capture (ie no installed programs on it) should help. Avoid putting it on an IDE channel that has a CD/DVD drive connected as this can slow the HDD down. Also make sure you use a full 80 pin IDE cable, rather than the cheaper cables you can get for use with DVD/CD drives.
To enable DMA go into Device Manager and select the properties of the HDD. You should find DMA as an option in there.

Stop all background programs during capture, inc antivirus/firewall etc. I use a free program called EndItAll2 to do this quickly & easily - have a search for it as it is a great program.

I started video editing with a P4 1.8Ghz and only 512Mb RAM. This is plenty good enough, but it was slow compare to a more modern PC.

Mark.

Thanks Mark (& Everyone),

I don't have a DMA option at all in the Device Manager. I've done a search on this and for some it doesn't appear to be in the menus.

I've put another 1GB RAM in, which has done the trick. I also need to add another Hard Drive. Any suggestions on this and instructions on how to and with what type?

Also is there any program that will reduce a DV captured file by a few Gig to burn to DVD? Windows Movie Maker either let's you choose DV or 2.1 mps is the next quality, which is quite a difference.

Many thanks,

T

[Mr Lazy]

Originally Posted by Timbo21

I also need to add another Hard Drive. Any suggestions on this and instructions on how to and with what type?

This would be better in the Hard Drives & Memory section, but as we're here already...I assume you mean an internal drive? In which case you first need to find out if your motherboard supports the IDE interface (aka ATA aka PATA) or SATA. And that's pretty much it. Pick a size of disk you think you might need, double-it (no, really) and buy the "best" one you can afford. Get a 7200rpm one, and minimum 16MB cache (I have a Seagate 7200.11 ST3500320AS with 32MB cache and it's very fast and very quiet). Seagates have 5-year warranty but to be honest there's no such thing as a bad manufacturer of disk drives.

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by Timbo21

I don't have a DMA option at all in the Device Manager. I've done a search on this and for some it doesn't appear to be in the menus.

The lack of a DMA option could be due to the HDD and CD/DVD drive being on the same IDE channel and therefore the slower optical drive is holding back what the HDD could do. The way to find out if this is the case is to see if the optical drive and HDD are connected to the same cable. Most preSATA motherboards had 2 IDE connections so you should be able to move the optical drive to the second IDE connector.
If they are on separate cables then it could be that the HDD is not using a full spec UDMA 80 core IDE cable.

The above suggestions are obviously only valid if using IDE devices as SATA devices require 1 cable per device.

Originally Posted by Timbo21

I've put another 1GB RAM in, which has done the trick. I also need to add another Hard Drive. Any suggestions on this and instructions on how to and with what type?

As already mentioned you need to find out if you need a SATA or PATA HDD.

Originally Posted by Timbo21

Also is there any program that will reduce a DV captured file by a few Gig to burn to DVD? Windows Movie Maker either let's you choose DV or 2.1 mps is the next quality, which is quite a difference.

To make a DVD that is playable on a standard DVD player you need an authoring program to convert the video to MPEG-2 and put the files in the correct folder structure etc. This is easily done with the likes of Ulead DVD MovieFactory which costs around £30 and can be downloaded for a free 30 day trial from their web site.

Mark.