Problems with live capture this weekend at DVinfo.net

Kevin Kimmell · March 22nd, 2004, 09:27 AM

Hi,

I've read one of the threads particular to live capturing using Vegas and after some several hundred dropped frames in my live capture attempt this weekend I'm left wondering what I did wrong.

I purchased a new laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 2000. I had 40 Gigs of free space. I'm running XP Pro with Vegas 4 and feeding 4pin to 4pin from my GL2.

I think I saw somewhere in the 700's of dropped frames when I finally realized there was a problem. I'm leaving for Amsterdam Thursday to record 3 or 4 live shows and was planning on using the laptop but am now worried.

I am planning on running another test of just static stuff at my house to see if the defragmentation I did will help. Can those of you with direct to disc experince offer me any advice?

By the by, the laptop is a 1.6 GHz Centrino with 512M Ram and the video has it's own 64M ram (not shared). I didn't up the capture processes priority but will try this during the test.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Kimmell · March 22nd, 2004, 10:43 AM

I'm also wondering... should I consider a firewire external drive? I have a friend with a MAC who connects her Firewire drive to her firewire port, and then the camera to the extra Firewire port on the drive and records straight to the drive.

What sort of throughput would be necessary for this option? Is 40mb/s enough?

Thanks,
Kevin

Mike Moncrief · March 22nd, 2004, 11:12 AM

Hello,

when i capture to my laptop using the system drive in the laptop, i experience dropped frames.. but I purchased an external firewire/usb2 drive, (make sure it is 7200 rpm) and now I do not have any dropped frames..
Keep in mind this is not a live shoot, but a capture.. but i d believe it will work for you.. so yes i would get and external drive !!!
Mike

Edward Troxel · March 22nd, 2004, 11:15 AM

Live capture does work fine (no more stress to the system than any normal capture) so the problem is likely computer related. How fast is the hard drive? Has it been defragged lately? How many other programs are running in the background? Is DMA on for the drive?

As for an external drive, that should work fine. In fact, I get FASTER throughput on my external drive than I do the one built-into the laptop. (but it IS a faster drive)

Kevin Kimmell · March 22nd, 2004, 12:42 PM

And you are plugging your camera in to the drive and the drive into the laptop?

That just seems weird. The data travels from the camera over the bus through the drive to the computer to be captured and sent back to the drive. Hmmm.... I just ordered a drive so if I can't figure out what the problem is with direct to the laptop is, hopefully the drive will do it.

Jeff Toogood · March 22nd, 2004, 01:22 PM

I recently shot almost 12 hours of footage direct to an external firewire hard drive with no problems.

I used DVIO to capture, as it is a VERY small program that uses almost no system resources. I connected the hard drive to the laptop and then connected the camera to the hard drive.

My laptop specs are not impressive at all:

Celeron 500MHZ
196 MB Ram
5GB hard drive
Windows XP Pro

But like I said, I had absolutely no problems.

Kevin Kimmell · March 22nd, 2004, 01:26 PM

And will the DVIO format (DV type 2) import directly into Vegas or will I need to convert this after the fact thus practically negating the usefulness of direct to disc?

Thanks,
Kevin

Jeff Toogood · March 22nd, 2004, 01:59 PM

I didn't have any problems bringing the clips into Vegas at all.

No conversion needed.

Edward Troxel · March 22nd, 2004, 02:00 PM

Vegas captures DV Type 2.

Yes, I connect firewire from laptop to hard drive and then firewire from hard drive to deck. Seems to work fine. Captured about 4 hours yesterday this way with no dropped frames.

Rob Lohman · March 24th, 2004, 01:53 AM

In any case I would keep a tape running as well, just to be safe!
How long will you be staying in Amsterdam? May I ask what you
will be shooting there? Have fun!

Kevin Kimmell · March 24th, 2004, 07:24 AM

I'm waiting on the firewire drive right now to run some tests... it should be here in about an hour and a half.

I'll be in Amsterdam for 8 days and I'll be shooting a String Cheese Incident show at the Melkweg and then 3 ekoositk hookah shows at various places.

I'm doing a documentary of ekoostik hookah and their crew and the fans who follow them but we're also shooting the full Amsterdam shows for potential release.

Edward Troxel · March 24th, 2004, 08:25 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : In any case I would keep a tape running as well, just to be safe! -->>>

Definitely!!!! On our live shoot, we have tapes in each camera, tape the live mix in the deck, AND record directly to hard drive.

Kevin Kimmell · March 24th, 2004, 08:33 AM

Oh... I'll have tapes in too. Definitely. I'm just trying to get the hard drive stuff figured out so that we have a better guarantee of sound without a break. We've got one camera and a soundbaord feed going into the laptop (with backup tape) and another camera with a stage mic (for matrix sound mix) going to tape only. I didn't have enough time to get a quickstream drive to cover the 2nd camera.

Thanks for the tips and hopefully the firewire drive handles everything.

-Kevin

March 22nd, 2004, 09:27 AM	#1
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	Problems with live capture this weekend Hi, I've read one of the threads particular to live capturing using Vegas and after some several hundred dropped frames in my live capture attempt this weekend I'm left wondering what I did wrong. I purchased a new laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 2000. I had 40 Gigs of free space. I'm running XP Pro with Vegas 4 and feeding 4pin to 4pin from my GL2. I think I saw somewhere in the 700's of dropped frames when I finally realized there was a problem. I'm leaving for Amsterdam Thursday to record 3 or 4 live shows and was planning on using the laptop but am now worried. I am planning on running another test of just static stuff at my house to see if the defragmentation I did will help. Can those of you with direct to disc experince offer me any advice? By the by, the laptop is a 1.6 GHz Centrino with 512M Ram and the video has it's own 64M ram (not shared). I didn't up the capture processes priority but will try this during the test. Thanks, Kevin

March 22nd, 2004, 11:12 AM	#3
Mike Moncrief Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: orlando florida Posts: 426	Hello, when i capture to my laptop using the system drive in the laptop, i experience dropped frames.. but I purchased an external firewire/usb2 drive, (make sure it is 7200 rpm) and now I do not have any dropped frames.. Keep in mind this is not a live shoot, but a capture.. but i d believe it will work for you.. so yes i would get and external drive !!! Mike __________________ Mike Moncrief mikemoncrief@gmail.com www.themikemoncrief.com

March 24th, 2004, 01:53 AM	#10
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	In any case I would keep a tape running as well, just to be safe! How long will you be staying in Amsterdam? May I ask what you will be shooting there? Have fun! __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

March 24th, 2004, 08:33 AM	#13
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	:) Oh... I'll have tapes in too. Definitely. I'm just trying to get the hard drive stuff figured out so that we have a better guarantee of sound without a break. We've got one camera and a soundbaord feed going into the laptop (with backup tape) and another camera with a stage mic (for matrix sound mix) going to tape only. I didn't have enough time to get a quickstream drive to cover the 2nd camera. Thanks for the tips and hopefully the firewire drive handles everything. -Kevin

March 22nd, 2004, 10:43 AM	#2
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	I'm also wondering... should I consider a firewire external drive? I have a friend with a MAC who connects her Firewire drive to her firewire port, and then the camera to the extra Firewire port on the drive and records straight to the drive. What sort of throughput would be necessary for this option? Is 40mb/s enough? Thanks, Kevin

March 22nd, 2004, 11:15 AM	#4
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Live capture does work fine (no more stress to the system than any normal capture) so the problem is likely computer related. How fast is the hard drive? Has it been defragged lately? How many other programs are running in the background? Is DMA on for the drive? As for an external drive, that should work fine. In fact, I get FASTER throughput on my external drive than I do the one built-into the laptop. (but it IS a faster drive)

March 22nd, 2004, 12:42 PM	#5
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	And you are plugging your camera in to the drive and the drive into the laptop? That just seems weird. The data travels from the camera over the bus through the drive to the computer to be captured and sent back to the drive. Hmmm.... I just ordered a drive so if I can't figure out what the problem is with direct to the laptop is, hopefully the drive will do it.

March 22nd, 2004, 01:22 PM	#6
Jeff Toogood Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: St.Thomas, Ontario, CANADA Posts: 428	I recently shot almost 12 hours of footage direct to an external firewire hard drive with no problems. I used DVIO to capture, as it is a VERY small program that uses almost no system resources. I connected the hard drive to the laptop and then connected the camera to the hard drive. My laptop specs are not impressive at all: Celeron 500MHZ 196 MB Ram 5GB hard drive Windows XP Pro But like I said, I had absolutely no problems.

March 22nd, 2004, 01:26 PM	#7
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	And will the DVIO format (DV type 2) import directly into Vegas or will I need to convert this after the fact thus practically negating the usefulness of direct to disc? Thanks, Kevin

March 22nd, 2004, 01:59 PM	#8
Jeff Toogood Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: St.Thomas, Ontario, CANADA Posts: 428	I didn't have any problems bringing the clips into Vegas at all. No conversion needed.

March 22nd, 2004, 02:00 PM	#9
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Vegas captures DV Type 2. Yes, I connect firewire from laptop to hard drive and then firewire from hard drive to deck. Seems to work fine. Captured about 4 hours yesterday this way with no dropped frames.

March 24th, 2004, 07:24 AM	#11
Kevin Kimmell Major Player Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 209	I'm waiting on the firewire drive right now to run some tests... it should be here in about an hour and a half. I'll be in Amsterdam for 8 days and I'll be shooting a String Cheese Incident show at the Melkweg and then 3 ekoositk hookah shows at various places. I'm doing a documentary of ekoostik hookah and their crew and the fans who follow them but we're also shooting the full Amsterdam shows for potential release.

March 24th, 2004, 08:25 AM	#12
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : In any case I would keep a tape running as well, just to be safe! -->>> Definitely!!!! On our live shoot, we have tapes in each camera, tape the live mix in the deck, AND record directly to hard drive.