Stuttering capture

[Sue Whitham]

I use VideoStudio 10, and suddenly, I'm experiencing stuttering when capturing from my DV camcorder. Antivirus and all other applications are switched off, I've checked the firewire connection and even tried an alternative firewire cable. My project settings and preferences have remained unchanged. I've uninstalled and re-installed VS10, rechecked properties and checked DMA, write-behind caching and paging file settings. I've also tried capturing without audio preview. I'm at a loss. Any ideas out there?
Sue W.

[lancecarr]

Tried a defrag?

[Black Lab]

Make sure your format is set to DV-AVI.

You could also have a firewire card that is going bad.

[Sue Whitham]

Thanks for replies. I have defragged recently, but could try again. Re the firewire card, I have two firewire ports on the card, and the stuttering occurs in both - how do I test the card? (Device manager says everything's working). I have Nvidia G-force MX 4000. This does seem more likely the cause, as the video plays perfectly on the camcorder and when connected to TV. Incidentally, the same graphics card supports two monitors, though these seem perfectly ok, and I have also tried capturing with one turned off, but still get the stutter. If I have to get another graphics card, which is best for Video Editing (I don't do any gaming!)
Sue W.

[skier-hughes]

Device manager only tells you it should work, not that it will work.
Graphics card is for showing it on the monitor, not used in capture etc, so any good up to date one would be ok, though I doubt you need one.

What is the stuttering like, dropped frames?

Another thing to look at is how full is the hard drive, the fuller it gets the slower it becomes.

[Sue Whitham]

The stuttering looks like frames freezing every now and then, with breaks in the audio. I have two 80gb hard disks - one is used purely for storage, there is no operating system or programme there. The working drive has 30gb of free space. Would uninstalling some rarely used programmes help? I have 2gb of RAM which is doubled to 4gb in the paging file size.
Sue W.

[skier-hughes]

It certainly sounds like a problem with either faulty hardware or the software/hardware cannot keep up.

Which is the working drive, the one you are saving to?

It won't help uninstalling programmes as these aren't on the drive you are saving to, unless of course the OS drive is very full.

As you say you've done all the other things I normally suggest doing, then a hdd that is going could be the problem or my only other suggestion is that the connection between firewire cable and either cam or pc is wearing and the cable is a loose fit, which gives you an intermittent break and a frozen frame.

[Sue Whitham]

The drive I'm saving to is the C drive, which is also the working drive (currently 30gb free space) - I only save completed work to the storage drive D. Is there a better way to handle this?
Re the firewire connection, as I said, I have two firewire ports, and I have tried both, as well as a brand new firewire cable. The firewire port in the camcorder must be OK since it plays smoothly on the TV.
Sue W.

[skier-hughes]

You should capture to the drive without the os on it. It's also quicker and easier to edit the files on there as well.

Your tv has a firewire input? What sort of tv is it? I'm looking at a new one just now, and this would be a big plus feature.

[Sue Whitham]

I'll try capturing to the D drive - I didn't know you could do that, since the OS and VS10 are on the C drive. Do I need any specific settings to do this? I've misled you about the TV! What I meant was I connect the camcorder to the TV by a cable with firewire one end (into the camcorder) and AV jacks or S Video into the TV. I do however have a dvd recorder with firewire port, though I've not tried playing the camcorder through that yet.
Sue W.

[Black Lab]

I'll try capturing to the D drive - I didn't know you could do that, since the OS and VS10 are on the C drive.

My OS and VideoStudio are on my onboard hard drive (C: ) and I capture all my footage to my external drive. You'll find many users have a similar workflow.

[skier-hughes]

I'll try capturing to the D drive - I didn't know you could do that, since the OS and VS10 are on the C drive. Do I need any specific settings to do this?



I've misled you about the TV! What I meant was I connect the camcorder to the TV by a cable with firewire one end (into the camcorder) and AV jacks or S Video into the TV. I do however have a dvd recorder with firewire port, though I've not tried playing the camcorder through that yet.
Sue W.

Just tell it where you want to save it when you get to that point.

The analogue leads won't have anything to do with firewire, but you could try capturing direct to a dvd via the dvd recorder and firewire.

[Sue Whitham]

Yes, but the video needs a lot of editing in VS10 before it's ready for a DVD - though I suppose if I had the content on a DVD, I could import to VS10, split by scene and then edit. However the problem with my PC still needs sorting. It's so annoying, that I've done loads of editing work in VS10 up till now, I've changed nothing, and this has suddenly happened. Don't you love technology!
Sue W.

[Black Lab]

Antivirus and all other applications are switched off

Yes, but are utilities and such that run in the background still on, such as automatic updates, not only for Windows but for other apps too.

[skier-hughes]

The write to the dvd recorder would be a test to ensure that the firewire port was working ok on the cam, not a means to an end on editing.