Incomplete tape capture at DVinfo.net

J Michael · March 20th, 2005, 04:09 PM

Using Vegas 5 on a laptop with attached FW drive, I have about 35 minutes of video recorded to a new DV tape. When I tell the Vegas tape capture program to capture the entire tape it displays the video up to some random point and then stops, while the timer continues running as does the DV camera. What could be causing the capture to stop?

Steve Roffler · March 20th, 2005, 06:51 PM

It may have dropped a frame. There is a setting in preferences to stop capturing when a dropped frame is detected.

Also, do you have any gaps in your timecode?

J Michael · March 20th, 2005, 07:39 PM

I have the option selected to stop capture if a frame is dropped, but I'm unclear as to the behavior I should see in Vegas if this occurs, and nothing in the documentation to explain it. Is there no error dialog? I did finally get the entire sequence captured, but curious what made it stop.

Robert Crawford · March 20th, 2005, 08:06 PM

If you have ANY dropped frames, throw out the capture and start again.

What I usually do is set the video captre process to "high priority" through the Windows task manager. I think it's called "vidcap50". This way you can even do other things and the capture process will still get enough CPU time.

J Michael · March 21st, 2005, 07:21 AM

Thanks for that tip to set the priority of the capture process. Is the only indicator of a dropped frame the stopping of the monitor display during capture?

Robert Crawford · March 21st, 2005, 07:23 AM

Whenever I've used the video capture, it has a count of dropped frames. I think there are two modes to capturing; basic (tape-at-once) and piece-by-piece -- which are you using?

I've always captured the entire tape at once.

J Michael · March 21st, 2005, 09:55 AM

I was capturing the entire tape. The dropped frames count was 0 on each of the failed transfers. There should not be any timecode gaps. I started with a fresh tape and shot several clips without rewinding the tape. Each time the process failed, it failed in a different place. If there was a timecode issue I would expect the failure to occur at the same place each time it failed. Is that not correct?

Edward Troxel · March 21st, 2005, 10:21 AM

What was your hard drive doing at the time it failed? Was it on solid? (when capturing, it really only requires "blinks")

I had a problem capturing one evening and discovered my hard drive was suddenly being hit hard for some reason (and I'm not sure I ever determined what the reason was). I have subsequently captured fine to that same drive. (BTW, a reboot didn't help that evening.)

I DID make some changes at that point, though. First, I made sure I did a full defrag on that drive. Then I looked at some other settings and turned off "Indexing" on all drives.

J Michael · March 21st, 2005, 11:28 AM

The hard drive is a new Matrox One Touch II external drive. I don't recall the drive light being on solid. At any rate, since no one seems to have seen a similar behavior from Vegas I'll assume the system wasn't keeping up with the transfer and will try the suggestion to give the capture process a higher priority on my next capture.

Edward Troxel · March 21st, 2005, 11:41 AM

How is the drive connected in relation to the camera?

1)
computer --> drive --> pass thru to camera

2)
Computer --> drive
Computer --> camera
using two firewire connections on the same firewire card

3)
Computer --> drive
Computer --> camera
Using connections two separate firewire cards.

My external firewire drive is using #1 and seems to work fine.

If you also have USB on the external drive, you might try connecting it that way and testing as well.

J Michael · March 21st, 2005, 11:49 AM

I have #1 too. Everything is FW.

March 20th, 2005, 06:51 PM	#2
Steve Roffler Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Taipei, Taiwan Posts: 100	It may have dropped a frame. There is a setting in preferences to stop capturing when a dropped frame is detected. Also, do you have any gaps in your timecode? __________________ Steve pdx10, EOS10D

March 21st, 2005, 10:21 AM	#8
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	What was your hard drive doing at the time it failed? Was it on solid? (when capturing, it really only requires "blinks") I had a problem capturing one evening and discovered my hard drive was suddenly being hit hard for some reason (and I'm not sure I ever determined what the reason was). I have subsequently captured fine to that same drive. (BTW, a reboot didn't help that evening.) I DID make some changes at that point, though. First, I made sure I did a full defrag on that drive. Then I looked at some other settings and turned off "Indexing" on all drives. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 21st, 2005, 11:41 AM	#10
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	How is the drive connected in relation to the camera? 1) computer --> drive --> pass thru to camera 2) Computer --> drive Computer --> camera using two firewire connections on the same firewire card 3) Computer --> drive Computer --> camera Using connections two separate firewire cards. My external firewire drive is using #1 and seems to work fine. If you also have USB on the external drive, you might try connecting it that way and testing as well. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

March 20th, 2005, 04:09 PM	#1
J Michael New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta Georgia Posts: 16	Incomplete tape capture Using Vegas 5 on a laptop with attached FW drive, I have about 35 minutes of video recorded to a new DV tape. When I tell the Vegas tape capture program to capture the entire tape it displays the video up to some random point and then stops, while the timer continues running as does the DV camera. What could be causing the capture to stop?

March 20th, 2005, 07:39 PM	#3
J Michael New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta Georgia Posts: 16	I have the option selected to stop capture if a frame is dropped, but I'm unclear as to the behavior I should see in Vegas if this occurs, and nothing in the documentation to explain it. Is there no error dialog? I did finally get the entire sequence captured, but curious what made it stop.

March 20th, 2005, 08:06 PM	#4
Robert Crawford Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 33	If you have ANY dropped frames, throw out the capture and start again. What I usually do is set the video captre process to "high priority" through the Windows task manager. I think it's called "vidcap50". This way you can even do other things and the capture process will still get enough CPU time.

March 21st, 2005, 07:21 AM	#5
J Michael New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta Georgia Posts: 16	Thanks for that tip to set the priority of the capture process. Is the only indicator of a dropped frame the stopping of the monitor display during capture?

March 21st, 2005, 07:23 AM	#6
Robert Crawford Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 33	Whenever I've used the video capture, it has a count of dropped frames. I think there are two modes to capturing; basic (tape-at-once) and piece-by-piece -- which are you using? I've always captured the entire tape at once.

March 21st, 2005, 09:55 AM	#7
J Michael New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta Georgia Posts: 16	I was capturing the entire tape. The dropped frames count was 0 on each of the failed transfers. There should not be any timecode gaps. I started with a fresh tape and shot several clips without rewinding the tape. Each time the process failed, it failed in a different place. If there was a timecode issue I would expect the failure to occur at the same place each time it failed. Is that not correct?

March 21st, 2005, 11:28 AM	#9
J Michael New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta Georgia Posts: 16	The hard drive is a new Matrox One Touch II external drive. I don't recall the drive light being on solid. At any rate, since no one seems to have seen a similar behavior from Vegas I'll assume the system wasn't keeping up with the transfer and will try the suggestion to give the capture process a higher priority on my next capture.

March 21st, 2005, 11:49 AM	#11
J Michael New Boot Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Atlanta Georgia Posts: 16	I have #1 too. Everything is FW.