Built in Fire-wire port vs. Capture Card at DVinfo.net

Joe Mobic · April 20th, 2005, 11:29 PM

I have 2 built-in Firewire Ports on my Desktop and use it to capture footage from my GL-2 to my harddrive.

When I play the video off of my GL-2 on the TV or the Capture Window on Adobe Premiere Pro, the video is smooth and looks fine and no frames are dropped.

However, after the capture has taken place, when I play the video, I notice that there are some occassional jumps (maybe 1 frame here and there like every 30 seconds).

What is this a function of? My firewire port? Would a Capture Card eliminate this problem?

What use is a Capture Card if one has a couple of Firewire Ports already in their computer?

David Hurdon · April 21st, 2005, 05:51 AM

You don't say whether you're capturing to a separate drive or your system drive. If the latter, that is likely the problem. The O/S makes too many calls on the hard drive for it to reliably capture a constant stream at 3.5 MBps.

Today's SD capture cards (DV25) mainly offer more and faster effects processing in real time. Some add hardware encoding. But modern PCs have so much more muscle than those of only a few years ago that software editing without a separate card is becoming increasingly prevalent.

David Hurdon

Tyge Floyd · April 24th, 2005, 08:57 PM

I had the same problem with playback in Premiere Pro until I added another drive. Now my "system drive" is just that and my video goes on two other drives. Also, you might find help by reading some of the stuff at http://www.videoguys.com/. Since I went through some suggested XP fixes and tweaks you'll find there and separated my video files from the system drive I've had no other issues with choppy playback.

Joe Mobic · April 24th, 2005, 10:27 PM

what is occuring now is any video file that I record can be played back on C: (system) as well as all USB storage devices, however if that same video is placed on a (non C:) internal harddrive, it won't play regardless of which drive (including an internal harddrive) captured the video file.

this same video file will play choppy off of adobe premiere, however it will play just fine using WINDVD or another DVD player.

i checked out the videoguys.com website. which specific recommendation (there are so many) do u think fixed the choppy problem?

Tyge Floyd · April 24th, 2005, 11:06 PM

The links along the left side of the page, namely
http://www.videoguys.com/system.htm
http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html and
http://www.videoguys.com/Top10tech.htm.

I've learned a lot here on this forum and other places like Videoguys. I know there's tons more to learn but this will give you a good clean start with your system, something I didn't benefit from which caused some headaches.

April 20th, 2005, 11:29 PM	#1
Joe Mobic Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: baltimore Posts: 31	Built in Fire-wire port vs. Capture Card I have 2 built-in Firewire Ports on my Desktop and use it to capture footage from my GL-2 to my harddrive. When I play the video off of my GL-2 on the TV or the Capture Window on Adobe Premiere Pro, the video is smooth and looks fine and no frames are dropped. However, after the capture has taken place, when I play the video, I notice that there are some occassional jumps (maybe 1 frame here and there like every 30 seconds). What is this a function of? My firewire port? Would a Capture Card eliminate this problem? What use is a Capture Card if one has a couple of Firewire Ports already in their computer?

April 21st, 2005, 05:51 AM	#2
David Hurdon Major Player Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 484	You don't say whether you're capturing to a separate drive or your system drive. If the latter, that is likely the problem. The O/S makes too many calls on the hard drive for it to reliably capture a constant stream at 3.5 MBps. Today's SD capture cards (DV25) mainly offer more and faster effects processing in real time. Some add hardware encoding. But modern PCs have so much more muscle than those of only a few years ago that software editing without a separate card is becoming increasingly prevalent. David Hurdon __________________ Site:http://www.faceliftmarketing.ca Blog:http://www.websitevideo.blogspot.com

April 24th, 2005, 08:57 PM	#3
Tyge Floyd Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Ft. Worth, Texas Posts: 287	I had the same problem with playback in Premiere Pro until I added another drive. Now my "system drive" is just that and my video goes on two other drives. Also, you might find help by reading some of the stuff at http://www.videoguys.com/. Since I went through some suggested XP fixes and tweaks you'll find there and separated my video files from the system drive I've had no other issues with choppy playback. __________________ At full draw, Tyge Floyd

April 24th, 2005, 10:27 PM	#4
Joe Mobic Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: baltimore Posts: 31	the latest situation what is occuring now is any video file that I record can be played back on C: (system) as well as all USB storage devices, however if that same video is placed on a (non C:) internal harddrive, it won't play regardless of which drive (including an internal harddrive) captured the video file. this same video file will play choppy off of adobe premiere, however it will play just fine using WINDVD or another DVD player. i checked out the videoguys.com website. which specific recommendation (there are so many) do u think fixed the choppy problem?

April 24th, 2005, 11:06 PM	#5
Tyge Floyd Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Ft. Worth, Texas Posts: 287	The links along the left side of the page, namely http://www.videoguys.com/system.htm http://www.videoguys.com/WinXP.html and http://www.videoguys.com/Top10tech.htm. I've learned a lot here on this forum and other places like Videoguys. I know there's tons more to learn but this will give you a good clean start with your system, something I didn't benefit from which caused some headaches. __________________ At full draw, Tyge Floyd