Capturing Problems with Sony mini DV

james nelmes · Post by **james nelmes** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:14 pm

I am trying to capture from a Sony DCR-HC40E to a Compg nc8230 notebook using Video Studio 9. I have over 50 GB of available disk space, 2 GB of RAM. The processor speed is 2.13GHz. I'm running XP Professional Service Pack 2 and capturing via firewire.

Capturing has never been entirely successful and usually results in a number of jerky clips.

I have tried re-installing the software, disabling virus scan and firewall all to no avail. This is really frustrating since I think the interface, editing etc is really good. I don't know if the problem is with the software, notebook or camera.

Has anyone got any suggestions?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 4:25 pm

It could be a faulty cable or badly seated firewire card.
Try using the Windows Movie Maker that is installed with XP to see if the capturing problem still exists with that software.

Steve J

james nelmes · Post by **james nelmes** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:29 pm

Thanks for the suggestion.

I followed your advice and captured over 40 minutes to Movie Maker in DV avi format. The result was perfect which I guess rules out the cable, camera or notebook.

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 9:45 pm

Well, at least we now know that you are trying to capture in AVI(DV) format. Did you set the capture properties to Type 1 or type2? The procedure in the top sticky recommends type 1.

How are you displaying when your video clips are jerky? Field order should be set to Lower Field First for digital video. Defrag disk lately?

OTOH, if MM capture is good, why not use it?

james nelmes · Post by **james nelmes** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:12 pm

Thanks

In VS9 it's Type 1. lower field first and yes I've tried de-fragging the disk.

Seems a shame that I might have to capture in Movie Maker!

thad · Post by **thad** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 4:36 pm

James,

I've always had good luck transferring with WinDV. It's a free download.

Thad

DoodLS · Post by **DoodLS** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:31 pm

James,

I second trying WinDV, available here: http://windv.mourek.cz it's a very free and very small program, not fancy at all - but very very stable.

Most people having trouble with other-software-DV-capture use WinDV without trouble.

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One problem however could be that the hard-drive you are trying to capture to is not fast enough (e.g. if you installed a second hard drive, it could be stuck in PIO-mode, that was the case for me).

To check which DMA mode you are using;

1. Open Device Manager.
2. Double-click IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers to display the list of controllers and channels.
3. Right-click the icon for the channel to which the device is connected, select Properties, and then click the Advanced Settings tab.
4. If it says 'PIO Only' and you thought you had a fast drive (eg Ultra DMA), then something is probably wrong.

With a newly added hard-drive, the fix for me was simply to change BIOS settings so that my newly installed hard drive was recognized.

Read more here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/st ... e-dma.mspx

james nelmes · Post by **james nelmes** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:54 pm

Thanks Thad and DoodLS

I've checked the DMA along with just about every other setting I can find.

It's bizarre because it'll be capturing quite happily then suddenly drop frames resulting in stilted playback.

I'm going to try the software on another machine.

Appreciate your interest, advice and suggestions.

Regards

James