Digital movie capture

[boofhead]

I have a fast hard drive running on Win98SE and Pinnacle movie capture program Studio Version 8). I use the Firewire connection. The problem is that the captured picture is jerky, stops every few seconds and freezes for a moment, the playback is the same. The same camera does OK on the wife's pc, using WINXP. Does anyone have any experieince with this, and can recommend a better program or seting to allow smooth capture? It is most frustrating.
The same setup captures analog movies thru a Pinnacle Linx USB connector very well, biut if I try to put the digital camera thru the Linx it captrues only the first scene then nothing, even though the on-screen view shows a normal capture.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

boofhead,

It is very hard to guess without the specs on your comp. Please list all your comp's hardware.

Take Care,

Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.
Custom Computers of Naples, Inc.

[boofhead]

A pleasure to talk to you, even vicariously, Richard.

I built the machine myself, using a SOYO mb fast bus speed, 512 RAM, 1.7 P4, 60g HDD 7200 rpm and USB/Firewire connections. It uses Win 98 SE. It is not on the WWW and I intended to use it just for transferring home videos etc to DVD or CD. So far it has been a bust, since I have not been able to get it to recognise any capture cards except an old Pinnacle Linx which plugs into the USB port. But I have managed to get some old analog stuff onto discs, was expecting no trouble with a DV connection from the camera but the images are jerky as they are recorded and also on playback.
The program I use is Studio 8 and funnily enough when I tried to upgrade it from the Pinnacle website via a CD RW upgrade I down loaded, it told me the version I was using was unsupported and would not allow the upgrade. Maybe this was because it could not verify for itself through the web page. There is a trouble shooting section in this program which I followed, setting up the file system on the hard drive, but it did not work.
The sound part comes through normally, just the images are bad. The same camera works well on my wife's computer, a Sony running Win XP HE.
Any help would be appreciated,

[spannersatcx]

Try using a different mode for capturing, full dv quality-mpeg quality- preview quality, also this from the help manual Images are missing from the recording, or the video is jerky.

Possible cause: Your hard disk’s transfer speed is too low.

Solution: When working with some UDMA hard disks, the playback may “jump” when an AVI file is played back at higher data rates. This can be traced back to the fact that the hard disk carries out a recalibration while reading the file, thus interrupting playback.

This problem is not caused by Studio, but is the result of the manner in which the hard disk operates and interacts with other system components.

There are several solutions you can use to increase the speed of your hard disk:

1. End task on background applications. Before opening your Studio product, hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys on the keyboard, then hit Delete. This will open the Close Program window. Click on the individual applications listed in the Close Program window and select End Task. Do this for all applications listed in the Close Program window except Explorer and Systray.

2. Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > ScanDisk

3. Make sure Thorough is checked, and click Start (this may take a while).

4. After scandisk is done, Click on Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter (this may take a while).

5. Turn off Energy saving features (right-click on your desktop and select Properties > Screensaver >(under Energy… Settings). Make sure everything under Settings for… power schemes is set to Never.

6. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > System. Click on the Performance tab, then File System, then the Troubleshooting tab.

7. Click to the left of the Disable write-behind caching for all drives option to select it and click OK.

8. Under the hard-disk tab, set the Read-ahead optimization option to None.

In general, this will result in an increase in the data transfer rate. Caution: In some hard disks, it can result in a decrease in the write rate!

Note: Video-editing programs do not multitask very well. Do not use any other program while making movie (videotape or CD) or capturing. You can multitask while editing.

[ohitsmonday]

boof

I am new to the video game, so my opinion doesn't mean much.....but... - stuff I've read in magazines says use XP, works for me.
Good luck

[spannersatcx]

You can use 98 the only difference between it and xp is the file size limitation, 98 restricts the file to max 2gb I think, whereas xp doesn't, 2gb gives about 18mins of direct dv quality capture If I remember correctly.

Ive used studio 7 and now 8 and so far haven't experienced this problem. Make sure DMA is enabled though.