Video capturing with problems
 

I have a Sony DCR-VX2000 and recently I've been encountering a couple of problems. When I'm trying to transfer video footage from camera to computer I'm getting many dropped frames. I'm using a dell laptop with a very fast processor. I'm also using an external hard drive to save all of the captured footage. Now I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, so if someone is an expert in this field PLEASE provide me with some guidance. I'm hoping I'll be able to get this solved sometime, so I can start editing current footage. Thank you and have a blessed day!

David Ellis

What capture format are you using?

I edited DV for several years with a Toshiba 900MHz P3 laptop. Internal drive was "iffy", but external firewire worked fine. In fact, I also had firewire DVD burner - all looped from ONE 4-pin firewire on the PC. Just make sure you are capturing to DV format AVI file. The key is that you have NO conversion of data - just dump it on the disk.

The external hard drive is USB connected. Is this why i'm getting dropped frames? I tried using the internal hard drive, but i had the same problem as I did with external. I know that if you're doing multiple things while capturing video then you can have dropped frames. Thanks for the great comments!

David Ellis

I'm using a Western Digital 250 GB, with USB 2.0. I don't know if this is why I'm getting so many dropped frames. I use my laptop, which is a Dell Inspiron 9200 for video transfer and editing. The software I'm using is Sony vegas Platinum. If anyone knows anything about my problem I've listed, please let me know what I should do. Thank you so much and have a blessed day!

David Ellis

I take it your using a PCMCIA Firewire card or something to transfer the data to the PC from the camera or does the laptop have built in firewire. I don't know the model of laptop and it's specs. I use the same HD and it doesn't sound like a HD problem. It's got to be data transfer form and to... Need to know a little more on your laptop model. John

I'm using the 1394 firewire that's already on the laptop. The specs of my laptop are as follows:

Specifications
Processor
Processor type Intel® Pentium® M
L1 cache 32 KB
L2 cache 2 MB
External bus frequency 400 MHz
System Information
System chip set Intel 855PM
Data bus width 64 bits
DRAM bus width single channel bus
Processor address bus width 36 bits
Flash EPROM 1 MB
PCI bus 32 bits
PC Card
CardBus controller Ricoh R5C841
PC Card connector one (supports one Type I or Type II card)
Cards supported 3.3 V and 5 V
PC Card connector size 68 pins
Data width (maximum) PCMCIA 16 bits
CardBus 32 bits
Memory
Memory module connector two user-accessible SODIMM connectors
Memory module capacities 256 MB, 512 MB, and 1 GB
Memory type 2.5-V SODIMM DDR-I
92 Appendix

Minimum memory 256 MB
Maximum memory 2 GB
Ports and Connectors
Audio microphone-in connector, stereo
headphones/speakers connector
IEEE 1394a 4-pin mini, nonpowered connector
Mini PCI Type IIIA Mini PCI card slot
Modem RJ-11 port
Network adapter RJ-45 port
S-video TV-out 7-pin mini-DIN connector (optional S-video
to composite video adapter cable)
USB four 4-pin USB 2.0-compliant connectors
Video 15-hole connector
SDI/O one slot
DVI-D (Digital Video Interface) 24-hole connector

Final Question ;)
 

That will work... Now, what program are you using to capture, edit, etc. Vegas, Pinnacle, Premier, Ulead.... Sorry for asking so many questions.
If we can't get an answer here there is a great forum I use all the time here-----> http://forum.pcmech.com/

Defraging: I don't know but I heard that defraging is not good on any hdd that you save files to. I guess if you have the hdd partitioned you can defrag the one the opsys is on. I don't know. BUT yes defraging does cure a lot of problems other than virus and bad connections ;)

Using WinDV (freeware) as your cap app could help overcome whatever is the root cause of the problem (could be anything from the HDD going bad to a flaky firewire connection to a virus, to name just a few possible root causes). WinDV buffers the input in memory, which many payware cap apps don't. Have you defragged the drive lately?

Here's a link: http://windv.mourek.cz/