How do i eliminate drop frames while video editing

[BlakkIce]

im using Avid DV Express 3.5 and no matter what i do i cant stop it from dropping a frame every now and then and its annonying cause im tring to edit this wedding, right now my setup consist of a P4 1.7 256k 512mb rdram i save to a 5400rpm WD80gig, i have defraged but doesnt seem to work please help i need to be done with this soon

 

[Maggotry]

I don't know about that software, but I use Studio DV 7. If I don't disable the anti-virus software while capturing or outputting back to the camera, I'll get dropped frames and sometimes the audio will be out of sync with the video. Go to their web site and look around. I bet you'll find more help there.

Some links:
Don't run AV software
General Support
Avid Forums

Maybe your answer lies buried in one of those links...

 

[Duvie]

I imagine you are just capturing raw dv file downloaded from camcorder via firewire port??? Defragging is important...Make sure no other programs running in background...flush ram....

One thing to try is maybe your 5400rpm drive cannot keep up..I have always had 7200 rpm drives since I started capturing and I think I have heard some mention about this. Also use hdtach to test harddrive performance....Are you using Intels latest advanced applicator drivers???


I haven't seen a dropped frame since my 750 tbird days and that was rare...Since your cpu speed is so high this pretty much has to be limited to transfering through firewire port, harddrive or ram IMO....

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: Duvie
One thing to try is maybe your 5400rpm drive cannot keep up.

I do all my video capture on a 5400rpm Seagate drive. The only thing that has ever caused me problems was the Norton AV. I searched around thru Pinnacle's support pages and they insist on closing any AV software. Once I did that, no more problems.

 

[Duvie]

He still may want to look at drive performance as many on these forums complain of ide performance to find out they are not using latest drivers.....

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: Duvie
He still may want to look at drive performance as many on these forums complain of ide performance to find out they are not using latest drivers.....

Agreed. My point was simply that 5400rpm's isn't necessarily a problem.

I love reading posts like this:

"Are you using the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard?"

"Uh, motherboards need drivers?"

 

[socketman]

only reason I ever heard of for dropped frames was slow hard drive. I havnt met too many people using a 5400 rpm for frame capture.

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: socketman
only reason I ever heard of for dropped frames was slow hard drive. I havnt met too many people using a 5400 rpm for frame capture.

That's what is so great about these forums. Gaining knowledge.
See, now you've met someone else using a 5400rpm drive for capture and experiencing zero dropped frames. You've also heard of additional reasons for dropped frames: background apps, low memory, fragmented HD, wrong or missing chipset drivers, DMA disabled, and probably a dozen other things I can't think of.

 

[BlakkIce]

hey guys thanks for the tips i think avid is a memory hog too i havve 512mb with 404 unused but when i run avid it drops to 100 or less so i gotta fix that oh and i ran the HD test on my drive and these are the results Read Speed Max 28380.0 kps Min 4818.0 kps AVg 22488.2 kps maybe ill have to switch back to my 40gig 7200 instead of my 60gig 5400

 

[alexruiz]

As the other guys suggested, check if you have installed the chipset IDE drivers.... also, don't forget to enable DMA for the hard drive.

The 5400 disk has nothing to do, I have even used a laptop drive (4200 rpm) in a firewire enclosure for DV captures on-the-go and zero frames dropped!!

I suspect DMA is disabled, or you have a shadow process hogging all the resources. By the way, if you provide more info about the camcorder (or video source) and the video compression used for the capture (codec) maybe we can find a solution..... if you are capturing RAW video that is over 20 MB/sec......

Alex

 

[MWink]

Originally posted by: Maggotry

Originally posted by: Duvie
One thing to try is maybe your 5400rpm drive cannot keep up.

I do all my video capture on a 5400rpm Seagate drive. The only thing that has ever caused me problems was the Norton AV. I searched around thru Pinnacle's support pages and they insist on closing any AV software. Once I did that, no more problems.

You are my hero! I've spent the last month trying to get my ATI TV Wonder USB to capture video and sound properly. The sound was always losing sync or skipping. I disabled Norton and it recorded an hour of video and audio perfectly. Thank you! I never would have suspected Norton. It does make sense now that I think about it because I didn't start using Norton until I got my laptop which is when I got the TV Wonder USB. I always thought it was because it was a USB TV tuner. I guess I was wrong (and I'm quite happy about it).

 

[rbV5]

DV only requires 3.6 MB/sec bandwidth...any 5400 drive should handle that easily.

 

[alexruiz]

Originally posted by: rbV5
DV only requires 3.6 MB/sec bandwidth...any 5400 drive should handle that easily.

I agree totally...