Capturing DV from FireWire?

[sjaguar13]

I'm using Premiere to capture video from a digital video camera using firewire. I will take the first twenty seconds, then it will start dropping about all the frames except for like 3 every second. I took the camera to school, and it works fine there using Premiere. The computer is brand new. How do I get it to stop dropping frames?

[Force Flow]

What are your system specs?

I think that your system may not be up to the demand of capturing video.

[homer15]

i dunno about the demand being too high on the computer, i'm able to get flawless frames on an 800 mhz duron running win2kpro. but system specs will help greatly.

[Force Flow]

Check for progs runninging the background too. That may have an effect on dropped frames.

[sjaguar13]

System specs:

AMD Athlon XP 2.2Ghz
Asus A7V333 Mobo
512mb PC2100 DDR RAM
180gb 7200rpm 8mb cache HDD
ATI Radeon 8500 128mb
Imation LS-120
HP 200i DVD Writer
Windows XP

The computer is brand new. No other programs are running because I have no other programs installed.

[Force Flow]

At first glance, the only small bottleneck may be the PC2100 RAM.

That's what I run and mine captures fine...

[edit]: Okay, now I have a few questions for you.
1) Did you build it?
2) Did you set it up by using the jumpers & switches or the BIOS?
3) Is everything running up to speed (ie - the CPU really clocks at 2.2GHz, no something like 1.2GHz) To check this, try downloading SiSoftware Sandra.
4) How are your temps? (I doubt it has anything to do with your problem, but just something to check on)

Just one more thing, the board seems to be a good one. I checked out about 6 reviews and all of them were marked very high. It even has a VIA chipset, which I origonally thought may hurt.

[TwoRails]

Well, I believe it's not the CPU, and it's not the A7V333, and it's not the VIA chipset, nor is it the memory. I say this first assuming nothing is defective, and I say this as I never had capturing problems with my 1800+ in an A7V333 mobo with a VIA chipset using PC2100 memory.

Your HD is faster than the one I used to capture on, so I don't think that's the problem, either. The vid card is different, but don't think that's the problem.

It could be the FireWire port. I never used the on-board port when I was running the A7V333 as I used the one in my Audigy sound card instead. Or possibly even a bad capture driver or the like in Premier.

Did you check Asus's site for updated drivers? Also, what is your BIOS rev? I think mine was 1011 or 1014 going from memory...

TwoRails

[Xayd]

I've captured on my Duron/IDE/SDRAM dvd computer with no problems at all. It's not a hardware bottleneck.

[sjaguar13]

Yes, I build it, and it is my first build. I sent enough jumpers and settings to get it to turn on. I'm pretty sure most of them are right. According to DXDiag, it's running at 1.8Ghz. My hard drive is 97% empty. I'm using a firewire card. I bought the Dazzle DV thing that came with the card and cable and some software that sucked. I couldn't see the video ever while trying to capture. I ended up taking it back. 2 days later I bought just a firewire card. I could only see the video while recording. I play the video and see it on my computer. I can at school. I don't know the BIOS rev, and I haven't checked for updated drivers. I'll do that now. The only other thing I can think of is I was checking an older hard drive. When I was done, I plugged my back in, but didn't screw it in. I just set it at the bottom of the case. Would that matter?

[TwoRails]

As long as the electronics don't touch anything, you should be OK. I do recommend securing it in some fashion, though. I remember at one time, I had a pair of HDs screwed into the bottom of my desk shelf!

TwoRails

[Floppyman]

Hi,

Here's a response I received from Craig (audiyoda) that addresses your problem:


Sjaguar13 mentioned he'd used a DazzleDV capture device -- the NLE editor (MovieStar 5) that comes with the DV bridge loads drivers on top of the WinXP/Win2000 IEEE1394 driver. Uninstalling MovieStar 5 doesn't help, the driver overlay stay. This is a known issue around the 'net so he's not alone. (This is not an issue with the Dazzle DV bridge, but with the editing/capture software. It allowed MovieStar 5 to "look like" a OHCI-compliant device and thus allow software device control.) One fix (for WinXP) is SP-1, don't know how, but I guess it fixes the issue. Another would be to totally uninstall the IEEE1394 card (manually uninstalling all drivers -- especailly the DazzleDV overlays)and re-installing everything.

Another problem that may be occuring is using capture settings that do not "agree" with standard OHCI-compliant IEEE1394 cards. If the card is OHCI-compliant, then he should allow the capture utility to control the DVcam via device control. If the card isn't OHCI-compliant, he can't use device control -- and that could be why he can only capture a few seconds at a time.


Hope this helps

[TwoRails]

Nice to "see" you again, Floppyman... and to hear from, in a round about way, audiyoda!

[sjaguar13]

Let me get this straight, yank out the firewire card and uninstall all the drivers for it. Uninstall MovieStar (I returned that card, so I can't reinstall this) and Premiere. Reinstall Premiere. If the card is OHCI, it should fix it, if the card isn't OHCI, then I should return the card because it will never work? I don't know what SP-1 is.

[glc]

SP1 = service pack 1 for WinXP. Get it from Windows Update.

[Strider]

SP-1 is Service Pack 1 for Windows XP, it's a windows update that can be downloaded from Microsoft. If you don't have a broadband connection, I'm sure it can be purchased on a cd for a nominal price.

[sjaguar13]

So I can either download the service pack (is it free if I download it?), or uninstall the card and all the software and reinstall it?

[Strider]

Yeap it's free to download SP1.

[Floppyman]

Originally posted by sjaguar13 Let me get this straight, yank out the firewire card and uninstall all the drivers for it. Uninstall MovieStar (I returned that card, so I can't reinstall this) and Premiere. Reinstall Premiere. If the card is OHCI, it should fix it, if the card isn't OHCI, then I should return the card because it will never work? I don't know what SP-1 is.

Hi sjaguar13,

Here's some more help from Audiyoda regarding your problem:

He's basically right.

1) Uninstall MovieStar 5 and Adobe Premiere.
2) Uninstall the IEEE1394 (firewire) card and uninstall the drivers.
3) Reboot without the IEEE1394 card and make sure Windows\System32\Drivers\nic1394.sys is gone.
4) Intall WinXP SP-1 (hate to throw this monkey wrench into the mix -- but SP-1 will not intall on a pirated copy of WinXP. Needed to throw that in just in case). After SP-1 is installed, shut down.
5) Re-install IEEE1394 card. Allow WinXP to install the hardware and all drivers.
6) Re-install Adobe Premiere.

Once the miniDV camera is plugged in, WinXP should complete in the A/V protion of the IEEE1394 driver install if it was not completed previously.

Now if the IEEE1394 card is not OHCI-compliant, there is no need to return the card. You just cannot use software control during capture. Premiere can easily be setup to allow for manual control.

If this doen't work, there could also be something wrong with how the PCI bus is handling traffic. Being that this is a VIA ssytem, that could be the problem although WinXP should have properly working VIA 4 in 1 drivers. Another possibility could be the codec being chosen for capture. DV capture requires a DV codec -- when Premiere starts, it should start with Load Project Settings screen. Here you've got a choice of DV-NTCS (or DV-PAL) or conventional NTSC (or PAL). If sjaguar13 is selecting conventional NTSC and then trying to capture using IEEE1394, then there would be plenty of dropped frames if not complete codec failure.

-Craig


HTH