Pinnacle 9 & frame drops

[jamccor]

Im using Pinnacle 9 for video capturing.I capture from my tv and through my vcr. I have a P4 1.7 chip with 1 gb of memory and 2 80gb hard drives and 1 60 gb hard drive. I just noticed within the last day that no matter what I capture at DVD quality, Im getting lots of frame drops after only a minute of recording.I dont have any other programs open.Any suggestions?? I never had this problem before this week and I havent changed one thing to my pc in that time .Thanks

 

[felixc]

I don't think that your system meets the minimum requirements for mpeg2 recording.

What is your capture device? Something like an AllInWonder?

I have an Athlon 2600XP and I have the same problem. Instead of capturing through Studio, I used the capture program supplied with my AllInWonder. Like Studio it allows to capture in various formats, including Mpeg2. It never missed a frame, even when other applicatons are open. Then I use Studio to edit the videos.

 

[jamccor]

Maybe my chip needs upgrading? I read somewhere that frame drops occur alot with old vhs tapes moreso than tv captures..is this true?

 

[felixc]

Yes you will have more troubles digitizing videotapes than TV or a camera output. The sync signals are not stable on a VCR. Because of their analog nature, TV sets are very forgiving to such sync jitter, and our eyes also forgive a lot. Video capture cards are much less forgiving. Some may perform better than others in these conditions.
Head cleaning cassettes may improve the situation. Give it a try.
Playing your tapes with another machine can produce better results too. I cannot record my inlaw's 8mm cassettes if I use my own 8mm camera to play them. Too much sync jitter.

Were there any recording utilities with your capture card?

 

[CreamCake]

I'm using a Matrox RT.X100 to capture from analog sources, so I can't offer any direct help on Pinnacle.
Considering your machine worked fine until last week, I would clear up as much space as I could on your capture drive, and then defragment it.
If that didn't fix it, I suppose I'd run ad-aware to check for recently installed spyware that might be using any system resources.

 

[jamccor]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

 

[craigsman]

the best way to get around this problem is to get an analouge-to-digital converter ie. a video cam. and plug the vcr into that. the video cammera will prossess the data and will result in a musch more stable signal. otherwise do what 'felixc' said and use yyour capture device.

 

[felixc]

Some high VCRs have an integrated time-base corrector. My JVC S-VHS recorder has one. I did not try it with my capture card, but if it does what it is supposed to do, it can help too.