Video captured is jerky, as if missing frames

forgondor · Post by **forgondor** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:09 am

Greetings, I will do my best as a newbie to be complete here. I hope you can help me and I thank you in advance. Here's the dirt:

I have looked through the board already and tried some actions that I thought might help but to no avail. I am trying to capture my VHS tapes (still in good condition) so I may then put them onto DVD. I have too many and they take up too much space. I am using the ADS VideoXpress capture card and the Ulead software VideoStudio 9SE DVD. I can view the tapes just fine using the either the VideoGrabber or the Preview screen with no problem, BUT.... when I start to capture the result is video that is jerky or appearing to jump frames.

Judging by suggestions given to other board members, this is what I ended up with (still unsuccessful):
This is the information from the Project Properties box:
NTSC non-drop frame (30 fps)
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 30 fps
Frame-based
(MPEG-1), 4:3
Video data rate: 1800 kbps
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 44.1 KHz, Stereo

I am unable to turn off framed based as it is grayed out.
I do have it set as Upper Field First.

Well, I have tried to provide as much information as I can as was asked. I apologize if this is too long. Thanks again.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:24 am

It's a pity you did not buy the ADS device's bigger brother -- the ADS DVD Xpress DX2, which gets very good reviews and has an on-board chip which encodes directly to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 format.

As it is, the ADS website says about your device: "Video can be directly captured as .AVI, compressed .AVI, MPEG-1 or Windows Media Video". Unfortunately, it does not expand upon what it means by 'compressed AVI' -- but I don't think it means DV/AVI or the kind of digital AVI captured from a mini DV video camera. I wonder what the manual says about it. It could on the other hand use an old codec called Motion JPEG -- though you would need that codec on your computer to be able to use it if it is not installed by the ADS installation disc. Maybe someone else with the device might be able to comment.

But as for the other formats: full AVI (or uncompressed AVI) is usually excellent quality but the files are prohibitively huge (65GB per hour) for a project such as yours. Forget MPEG-1 (which you have captured in). This is low quality and only good for VCDs, not DVDs. And Windows Media format WMV, while it can produce good quality video, if you want to edit it and convert it to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 (as I assume you do), too many people have had too many problems attempting to do this with Video Studio. You could try, but I don't rate your chances highly.

My bottom line is that you need to be capturing in a far better format than the current mpeg-1. But I just don't think your device is the one to do it.

TDK1044 · Post by **TDK1044** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:36 am

I agree with Ken. I have the ADS DVD XPRESS DX2 and it captures full resolution MPEG2 really well. However, in your case, if you have a load of VHS tapes to transfer to DVD, and that's your reason for using Video Studio, why not buy a stand alone VHS to DVD recorder which are now pretty reasonably priced, transfer your tapes and then sell your recorder on e-bay or where ever?

forgondor · Post by **forgondor** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 5:51 pm

Thanks, I was afraid you would say that it is probably the hardware. At one time when I got my computer (just in March this year) I remember playing with the Media Center and it suggested something called the ADS Bridge. Does that ring a bell with you? It didn't with the people at CompUSA.

I thought I might add that I have already captured my Hi8 tapes from my Sony camcorder with success. I used the capture card I have now and did all my editing in Sonic, no problem. Is this card just OK for that type of project but not really beyond?
TDK, your idea is already on the back burner, to say. But we JUST purchased a new DVD player and really don't want to buy another.

If I was to go out and get the ADS DVD XPRESS DX2 could you give me an idea of what would be project preferances for capturing and then the issues for burning to DVD? Or is it best to let the computer (or the capture device decide) as I did for my camcorder tapes?

Sorry for all questions, but you are very helpful. Thanks!

TDK1044 · Post by **TDK1044** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:08 pm

If I was to go out and get the ADS DVD XPRESS DX2 could you give me an idea of what would be project preferances for capturing and then the issues for burning to DVD? Or is it best to let the computer (or the capture device decide) as I did for my camcorder tapes?

The DX2 has a preset DVD MPEG2 setting, which for NTSC is 720 X 480 with MPEG audio as default. By clicking on 'custom settings' you can change the audio to LPCM. Disk space is not an issue for me, so I use the uncompressed LPCM audio setting giving me the highest quality audio. I Have set up my properties within video studio to be identical to the above, so I render and burn using those exact values. I would point out though, that you could render and burn using Dolby Digital Audio, which produces a smaller file size and is still excellent quality.