G400 MAX w/RR-G Help with Dropped Frames

[Stuart Morgan]

I would like to successfully capture video with sound at 704x480 NTSC 30fps (MJPEG), CD quality sound without dropping frames.

Relevant system info:

Celeron 466@525
256 Meg SDRAM
IBM 34GXP 20GB 7200rpm UDMA 2MB buffer (6.2 MB/sec per Matrox PC-VCR software)
IBM 9ES 4.5GB Ultra SCSI 2 7200rpm (5.6 MB/sec per Matrox PC-VCR software)
Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI card
G400 MAX w/5.30 drivers
RR G-Series w/1.51 vid tools

The problem is that no matter whether I use the Ulead Media Studio Pro VE 5.2 or the Matrox PC-VCR software to capture, there will
invariably be 1 dropped frame when reaching the 1500 frame mark. I have tried capturing both to the SCSI drive and the IDE drive
with the same results.

I figure either need a faster processor or an even faster hard drive. Or it may just be that I need different software. Has anyone
been successful in capturing at 704x480 NTSC 30fps (MJPEG) and CD quality sound without dropping any frames for at least 5 minutes
(S-Video and composite)? What is the key to success? What am I doing wrong? From reading posts, it seems most people have no problems with dropped frames like I do. My desktop is at 32 bit, and I have tried various resolutions from 1024x768 to 1280x1024, nothing seems to matter. I have dropped frames when there are no other other apps except the vid capture running.

Thanks.

[coolfish]

Well, really there's no such thing as a 'perfect capture'. You're going to drop frames, it's going to happen. 1/1500 is pretty good. Really, you shouldn't notice any difference when a frame or even a few drames are dropped.

Unfortunately the Matrox drivers for the RR-G have some serious issues with that, and you may experience a very big drop in the quality if you even drop a single frame.

Anything you can do about it? Switch to a software codec (sucks) until the drivers are fixed. Or, return your RR-G for a full refund and purchase another card.

coolfish.


[This message has been edited by coolfish (edited 27 January 2000).]

[Stuart Morgan]

I tried switching to the 5.41 G400 drivers and that didn't fix anything. I then went to the 1.50 vid tools that shipped with the RR-G (instead of the latest 1.51 vid tools) and I still drop frames, but now it's around 2200-3000 frames that I drop a few. However, instead of the captured video being all blotchy after that point, it's just a brief "flash" and everything still plays good until the next dropped frames. Surely, someone has been able to record without having dropped frames. What's the secret? Thanks.

[JayZ]

You might want to defragment your drives if you haven't done that in awhile. I know that helped mine a little when i was dropping a few frames on my Marvel G200.

[Bugblatter]

I had the same problem with the blockiness. I found that going down to 1024 didn't completely solve it, but going to 800x600 did. I think not having the capture window full screen also helps.

[Stuart Morgan]

Well what I thought was some initial success with the 1.50 vid tools was just a fluke. It behaved like the 1.51 version, so I went back to the 1.51 version.

However, in the Win98 control panel under multimedia, there is an entry under video codecs for the Matrox MJPEG codec. In the settings there are two slider bars. One is for compression quality and the other is for optimize. I set optimize to quality (from speed) and compression quality to max (from min). The readme in the vid tools also said for a G400 MAX with max quality settings on you should lower the desktop resolution, etc. So I set my desktop to 1024x768 32 bit and put the pc-vcr display window to .5x size and now seem to be able to capture without any blockiness. I ran two captures at full 704x480 NTSC CD quality sound from S-video satellite source for 10000 frames each. The first run dropped 6 frames and the second run dropped 0 frames. On playback the one with the 6 dropped frames just flashed at that point, but other than that it was perfect. The one without any dropped frames was perfect. It looks like my problem is solved. Thanks.