I'm dropping frames, and yes I've tried all of the "tips" out there. Need advice.

Hello,

I've been the happy owner of the Avermedia UltraTV USB 300 for a couple of months now. I've formatted my computer recently, and capturing has never been better. That being said, I'm still dropping frames.

I've read up on the diffrence between VFM and WMD drivers (I believe I'm using WMD, I have Win XP Pro installed), and have tried the following programs and codecs:

-Ulead VideoStudio 7.o (Which came with the card)
-->MPEG2 Capture, 8000kbps, 224kbps audio,640x480 (because 720x280 is buggy for some reason) --------- Best results

-NeroVision
-->MPEG 2 Capture, same as above, audio/video horribly out of sync

-VirtualVCR (640x480)
-->MJPEG Trial, Quality setting of "19", dropping frames at a rate of 1 per second... output is very watchable
-->Huffyuv, lowest quality settings, same results as with MJPEG encoder

Both of these produced insync audio/video, did not notice any significant "jitter"

VirtualDUB
S*** results. Dropping frames faster than I can count. Tried settings as described by Doom9.org.

Now I'm guessing you need some system specs:

Laptop P4 3.06GHZ with HT
60 GB 7200 RPM HD ( about 45 GB Free at the momment )
512 MB Ram
Avermedia card connected via usb 2.0
Recording sound via built in soundcard (mic in)

Defragmented reguarly.

When I capture, I unplug all of my peripherals including mouse, printer, dvd burner, and lower screen resolution as well as colors (16bit).

The source digital satellite fed to the card via S-Video.

Like I said, I just copied some stuff I captured to DVD and the only thing I can complain about is the sound from the crappy Mic In and the occasional feeling the the video could be smoother.

Regards,

steve7777

P.s. At the momment, I think that MPEG2 capture is best for me, as it requires less disk space. I was looking into a USB external HD, but I don't know if it could keep up with the video capture.



Any advice is most appreciated, I've read all the tips, and am seeking specific advice. VirtualDub might not have worked correctly because I need a "wrapper" but I don't know enough about that to make any informed comments.

 

Vdub was crap, because you are attempting to save an uncompressed avi, over USB, which simply isn't fast enough, and it may even be, your hard drive cannot write data fast enough.
In virtualdub, try a capture at 352x240, using either huffyuv or mjpeg codec.
If you're capping mpeg-2, you'll be lucky to get 352x480 (half D1) without dropped frames. I seriously doubt you can do full D1.
Try using the LINE in on the sound card (sometimes called AUX), not mic.

 

As this is a Laptop, I only have a MIC in (I do have an external USB Souncard, a Creative Audigy NX, but did not want to plug it in for as I feared that it would put a big load on my PC.)

What kind of results could one expect from half D1? As long as looks ok, I don't mind what resolutions . Finally, is 352x240 sufficent to transfer to DVD thereafter?

Regards,

steve7777

 

I would try the sound card, to get decent audio.
352x240 is fully compliant dvd aspect.
Half D1 should be reasonable.
All this depends on your capture bitrate.
A full D1 capture at 6000kbps looks good.
A half D1 capture at 4000kbps looks better.
A quarter D1 (352x240) capture at 3000kbps looks even better.
This is all on a PC monitor, or in your case, laptop.
Once you encode to mpeg-2 and author to dvd, only you can tell if the quality is good enough.
Generally, a half D1 capture will look as good on a TV, as a full D1.
Quarter D1 maybe not quite as good, but still acceptable.
A lot of your quality will depend on your software settings, during capture, or subsequent encoding and authoring.

 

Do you rekon that it's best to drop resolution or quality in kbps? I did an MPEG2 capture in 340x280 (or somthing like that) and am not happy with the results. Sure video is smooth but full screen viewing is crapp.

Regards,

steve7777

 

The idea that a full frame needs more bitrate to display.
A smaller frame needs less bitrate to keep the same quality.
You have to play around with your settings.
Try 4000kbps at 352x480 (half D1) and see what you think.
Of course, when this is resized on the TV, it may be crap, or it may be just what you're looking for.

 

So say I wanted to use the Huffyuv Codec to capture at half D1, 352x480.

Using VirutalDub, how would I tell it to record the file in half D1? I don't need a detailled explanation, I'll use the guide posted on Doom9.org, but would like to know which menu I have to go to.

Regards,

steve7777

 

Should be under Video, Filters, crop and resize.
I really don't remember how to cap in virtualdub, because I no longer own any "soft" cards.

 

You use cards with onboard encoding, like the Plextor ConvertX? I was torn between buying that card and the one I currently have, but the price diffrence pushed me towards the AVermedia. It has great reviews, so I thought I'd give it a try.

 

I only use Hauppauge PVR cards, 250/350/500. Everything else (almost) is a wannabe.

 

I'm sorry about the long delay between replies, but I've been testing all sorts of things to get my videocapture not to drop frames.

The best capture I've gotten to date is with the following:

VirtualVCR
Huffyuv (Predict Median (best))
640x480

I drop 1 frame per second approx.

---------------------------------

Then I tried VirutalVCR with HuffYuv and a smaller resolution 320x240. Result: Same 1 Frame per second loss. Now I'm pretty sure (if not convinced) that my HD is not the source of the problem. I say this because a 5 minute clip is approx 2GB and thus the transfer rate would be approximately 7MB/s. As the drive I own is a 7200RPM drive and as nero tested it to do about 15 MB/s, the drive just doens't sound like the problem.


So the HD transfer rate is ruled out. The CPU during captures runs at <50% (And 50 is a high estimate).

The only way I could use VDub is with the WMD to VFM Wrapper, and that just doesn't seem to work.

So, is it really just the USB Card that can't handle it? I find it hard to belive that they would market a product that doesn't work. I find it really hard to believe that with all USB cards out there everybody is repporting dropped frames.

Personally I don't understand why with the settings way down (low resolution and all), it still manages to drop frames.

Any insight?

 

Low resolution, and low bitrate, with a fast drive, should capture with no problems.
If your capture drive is the same as your OS, then I would begin to suspect an anti-virus program scanning the capture, or windows is simply busy doing something else during capture.
Try a few captures with the picvideo mjpeg codec (or any other mjpeg codec). File sizes are about half that of huffyuv, so the drive only works half as much writing the data.
Turn off the anti-virus completely. Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and end task on everything you possibly can.
Look at the Services tab, and see what's using CPU time OTHER than your capture program. Even a blip of 3% every second, could be stealing that cycle away from your capture program, thus the dropped frames.
Last thing to check, is to make sure you're using USB 2.0
Look in the BIOS, look in windows device mangler, update USB drivers.