I'm dropping frames like there's no tomorrow...HELP!

[fible]

I'm a newbie to this so bare with me.

I seem to be dropping frames constantly. As soon as I start capturing, the frames start dropping (about 5 drops for every 10 frames)...What's doing? OK here's a list of the things I've checked.

1.Nothing running in background...used msconfig.exe to disable all startup softwares.
2.Tried Virtualdub, AVI_IO and VirtualVCR...all drop frames constantly.
3.Updated drivers for videocard, wdm capture drivers, promise ata100 raid, via4in1 v4.45.
4. Checked to make sure IDE are all DMA enabled.

PC CONFIGURATION

AMD Athlon 1.2GHz
Gigabyte GA-7ZXR with RAID
384MB SDRAM - PC133
60GB Seagate 7200rpm - FAT32
40GB Seagate 7200rpm - FAT32
ASUS 128MB DDR V9280VS AGP + Video-in (Philips 7108A chip)
Philips AE Sound card
WinXP Prof.

Cheers

[dilly]

I read your other thread about music videos. Is this happening from the VHS? Or does it happen all the time?

If it only happens on VHS, you may have some (lots of) trouble getting that music viddeo collection digitized.

[haroldw]

Fible:

What resolution are you trying to capture at? If you are trying to capture at a high resolution, such as 720 x 480, try lowering the resolution.

Also, have you installed DirectX 9.0? I have seeen an occasional problem (mentioned in various forums) on a capture/encoding system that Directx 9.0 had been installed on.

[fible]

Well I've only tried it on VHS tapes. Even at the lowest res. it still drops frames like crazy. Although since my post I tried AVI_IO without audio and it drops no frames - so I thought hey it must be the audio too noisy. Then I tried VituralVCR & Vdub minus audio but it still drops huge amounts of frames.

Are my PC specs at least up capturing requirements?

I'm using directx8.1.

[Wilbert]

Did you try capturing to Huffyuv (in some YUV format of course)?

[fible]

yep tried the huffyuv plugin...still dropping frames...

I think I might format hdd clean install the required software only ie. winxp pro-sp1, any required drivers, capture softwares...and then see what happens. I read somewhere in the forum that win98se is at this stage the best OS for capturing...any truth in that?

cheers

[fible]

i got a combo card...asus v9280 gf4-ti4200 card.
it only gives me one format to choose from (UYVY)

[dilly]

Originally posted by fible
I read somewhere in the forum that win98se is at this stage the best OS for capturing...any truth in that?


Maybe in 1998.

But seriously, win98 means no NTFS. Which means your files are limited to 2GB. How can that be better?

I've never tried capping in win98, but nt5.x is much better than win9x in almost than every conceivable field.. so you'd think capturing would follow suit.

[dilly]

You say it doesn't happen with the audio off in avi_io - maybe try capturing separately and synching up later (a feat I am yet [to try/have any need] to accomplish) as suggested in another thread.

I would try capturing from another source if possible before formatting as VHS tends to be hard to get working. Wouldn't be worth all the trouble of formatting and re-setting up your system to discover the same problem.