dv avi problem

[david walsh]

Hi, I just found the site. Due to the members it's very informative and highly helpfull. Thanks to those who have wrote what I have learned from already and to those that I will learn from in the future. I'm pretty new to Premiere but hopefully I can be as helpfull to others sometime in the future.

For the moment; I have a problem that I think is hardware related. In the past I was making clips for the net, I was using virtualdub and after saving the file as avi it was really slow and jerky. After converting to .wmv it wasn't a problem and loss in quality was fine considering the use.

Now I have other motives that need higher quality, I am having similar problems with the avi files in premiere pro 1.5, I can't afford the loss in quality in converting to .wmv now though. It also makes editing a nightmare as they have the same slow/jerky condition when working in sequences.

If I import an avi file and export it as microsoft avi I can then have it run smooth enough to edit, it also plays back smooth on a media player. It's exporting as dv avi where the problem is, it has the same slow/jerky result.

I am running 1.6mhz procesor with 768 mb ram at the moment, is this the problem? I'm stuck with that for a little while yet, but hoped perhaps that my assumsion that this is the reason maybe wrong. I also hoped that someone could help by offering an answer or a confirmation to this.

Thanks,

David.

[Marc Peters]

Welcome!

What is the source of your video files?

[david walsh]

Up until this morning I was using a usb2 webcam and capturing directly into studio 9 plus and exporting as avi from there. This quality is no use now though.

I got a Mustek dv camera to do me for just now, when using it as a pc cam the quality is good enough for my purpose. I'm not sure about keeping this long though, it's .asf format (this .asf thing is new to me) and I have to capture with WMM and export as avi from there.

David.

[Marc Peters]

Sounds very much to me like you're either:

1) getting dropped frames during capture; or
2) setting no compression during capture

What are your capture settings and have you ensured you defrag before capturing?

[david walsh]

When I use studio 9 I just set the capture format to one of the presets (AVI, best).

When I use WMM I put it to Video for local playback (2.1mbps). I noticed that it has an option for digital device format, but it is greyed out and wont let me use it.

It seems to me that I need to learn more about capturing. I'm not sure what you mean by "defrag before capturing", do you mean memory?. I had also thought that setting for no compression would be best, is there advice you could offer on this or anywhere I could learn more about it?

David.

[Marc Peters]

No compression is your problem my friend. You PC is trying to process HUGE amounts of raw data and finding it hard to churn it all out. I wopuld recommend capturing in DV AVI if poss, (or I've been able to capture and edit with XVID at high bitrates with some success if you find yourself dropping frames).

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/defragment.html

[david walsh]

Thanks Marc. I've just discovered I can capture with studio 9 with the new camera after all, so that helps. I tend to learn through experimention, so thanks for the point in the right direction, I'll be off to experiment some just now. I'll check out your link too, your time and knowlege is much apreciated.

David.

[david walsh]

Thanks again Marc, the problem is now solved. When I defragmented there was an instantly noticable difference.

Reducing dropped frames was a little trickier. Studio 9 wouldn't let me use most of the capture options. Vdub wouldn't reconise the camera, Stoik Capturer got me down to dropping around 20 frames from 500 (It turned out I was initially dropping over 200 from 500), but the audio was crackly and only in mono. Then Ulead Video Studio 6 allowed me more control, I can capture in dv and drop 1 frame from 500, the audio is fine too.

Much apreciated,

David.