Skipping video?

lostinthewoods · Post by **lostinthewoods** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:00 am

Hello all. This is my first post here. I've been messing around with video studio 11 free trial download. The software seems to work great! After I got past the code 39 problems with the Vista operating system it works great.

I'm using the software to copy some family videos and copy our church sermons to dvd for the church.

Anyway, I've made all of the video with a Sony mini DV camcorder. THe problem I've been having only occurs intermittantly. I'm captureing the video file as a dv video from the menu that shows up in the capture screen. I don't know if the problem occurs if I were to save the file as an MPEG or not. (the quality of an MPEG is not the same as a dv file.)I can capture the video from the camera the capture copies fine. The tape int the camera plays beautifully in both the camera and the tv, but the video clip that the computer stores sometimes skips. Very similar to the way a cd skips if you shake it. Sometimes I can just recapture the video and it will correct itself but it usually takes 3-4 times to get it to work.

Any suggestions as to why this happens and what I can do to fix the problem?

Thanks for all of your help.

lost

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:17 am

That does not sound like a typical problem with DV which is shakiness or jerkiness during both capture and playback. However, it is probably worth trying changing the the DV capture from Type 2 Encoder, which I think is the default setting, to Type 1. You do this by going to the Options cogwheel icon on the Capture > Capture Video page (with DV set as the capture format). In the small drop down menu which appears, you can toggle between Type 1 and 2. Type 2 is somewhat more demanding and does not always work well if your computer is not overly well resourced. (It would have been helpful if you had filled in your system details in the button below.)

I in any case find that Vista is very demanding of resources in its own right, and you need at least 2 GB RAM to capture properly using VS11. If you don't have at least 2 GB, you could be dropping frames which gives a jerky appearance. To get around this, turn off as many background programs as possible during capture. I even turn off my internet connection and thus also feel safe in turning off my anti-virus etc.

One other thing to think about is that I and quite a few of my colleagues here use a dedicated capture program to capture our DV. It is a tiny freeware program called WinDV and can be downloaded from windv.mourek.cz/ It consumes very little by way of computer resources and is excellent for avoiding dropped frames. Keep VS closed while you capture with it. Then open VS once capturing is done and simply insert the captured files into VS for editing and authoring.

lostinthewoods · Post by **lostinthewoods** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:47 am

Ken,

Thanks for your quick reply!

I'll try turning off everything and changing the type from 2 to 1. If that doesn't cure the problem I'll download the program you spoke of. Can I ask why you don't use the capture option provided with the VS program?

I also updated the computer info in my profile. (Duh who would have thought that a software forum would need that?

)

The laptop that I'm running the program on in only about 1 month old. Although it's not top of the line but it will do.

Thanks again for the help.

lost

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:21 am

I first started using WinDV quite a few years ago now, when I was using a Pentium III computer with a 1 GHz chip and 512 MB of RAM running Windows ME. It mostly worked OK but with the occasional dropped frame. Someone on the predecessor to this Board recommended it and I used it and loved it. I guess it has become a habit, though. I also like it because I can also set my own file name if I want, whereas in VS, you are stuck pretty much with the very user unfriendly-looking names it assigns captured files.

Given that your laptop, as I can now see (thanks) only has 1 GB with Vista, I suspect you will find WinDV very useful. My own new laptop came originally with only 1 GB RAM too, but I found that I simply could not capture using VS11+ without a lot of dropped frames, and a few even when I switched off background programs. No problems with the WinDV, though. I have since upped my RAM to 2 GB.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:00 pm

Turn on the Drop Frame Counter (File>Preferences) to see if you are, in fact, dropping frames.

lostinthewoods · Post by **lostinthewoods** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:07 pm

Thanks all for the help.

I'm going to mess around with it somemore today. First I'll probably try turning on th edropped frame counter to see if that;'s the problem. If it is I'll probably just download the WIN dv you spoke of and try it out.

I can see from searching the forums and the net that I've yet to even scratch the surface of the capabilities of this program but I can't wait until I'm able to really put it through it's paces. someday??

Thanks again, I'll let oyu know what I come up with.

best,
lost

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 3:50 pm

Also, make sure you set your capture for DV, not Mpeg. I accidentally had it set for Mpeg once and I dropped frames like crazy. I very, very rarely drop any frames when capturing to DV.

lostinthewoods · Post by **lostinthewoods** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:31 am

Well I turned on the dropped frame counter and the problem has seemed to stop? Weird huh? Kind of like the computer knew I was onto it's little games and has stopped for the time being.

However, I'll keep the other options in the back of my mind incase it starts again.

thanks
lost

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:35 am

Sometimes you gotta let it know who's boss.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:31 am

You didn't tell us how you are conecting the camcorder to the computer.
Please don't say USB cable it is unsuitable - even though it is no doubt the cable that was supplied with the camcorder.
You get best results with an IEEE1394 (Firewire / iLink) cable.

Please view:
From Camcorder to DVD with Video Studio