Stuttering capture

[Ken Berry]

Sue -- in the Capture page of VS and with DV selected as the capture format, click on the Options icon. If it is set to Type 2 DV Encoder (as I suspect it may be by default), then change it to Type 1. The type of capture you describe sounds to me like a computer which does not have sufficient resources to capture Type 2 DV.

If this turns out not to be the problem, you should also download the freeware and very small program called WinDV from windv.mourek.cz/ It is a specialised program which only captures DV from a mini DV camera, but it does it well and usually without any dropped frames or other problems. Several of us here use it all the time for capturing and then open the captured files in VS for editing. Check to ensure you are using the Type 1 Encoder here too.

If that doesn't work, then I would be inclined to suspect a hardware problem. Last year, when I had to insert a Firewire card into a computer, I found that during the capture, I was seeing jerky video on the preview screen. However, once the capture was finished, I could play back the captured video and it was fine. I believe the apparent jerkiness was the product of a combination of the graphics card (which I have subsequently upgraded) and the slot in which I placed the Firewire card. I used the one which was left, which just happened to be the furthest away from the CPU. I moved it up to be nearest the CPU. And the flickering, jerky capture problems went away.

[Sue Whitham]

Yes, I see Graham. this would be a test of the firewire connector.
Jeff - I disabled everything that might be chugging away in the background, and captured the footage to my storage drive D.
Hey presto! A completely smooth capture!
Thanks to all you guys for your suggestions and help.
Much appreciated,
Sue W.
P.S. Ken, that freeware sounds interesting - worth having in case of future problems

[skier-hughes]

Glad it's sorted, now get editing

[Black Lab]