What's this latency problem I keep hearing?

[Will Hay]

I keep hearing about a 'lacency' problem, could someone let me know what it is?
I remember getting some interference from my Soundblaster 1024 Live! a while back and was sent a small file called 'PCI latency' which I added to my startup folder. The problem went away immediately.
What are the effects of this latency with video capture, and is my current setup a problem?
(I know about the via chipset!)
Thanks,
Will
--
AMD Athlon 800
Via chipset
G400 32mb
Rainbow Runner G Capture
Soundblaster 1024 Live!
512mb SDRam PC100
IBM Deskstar 40gb 7200rpm

[Dr Mordrid]

Basically it means that as they come Creative sound cards hog the PCI bus to the point where other devices choke. The patch reduces this a bit, which is sometimes enough...sometimes not.

The VIA chipset in your system doesn't help matters any either. Ick.

Dr. Mordrid

[Will Hay]

Thanks for that, a simple answer but much clearer now - thanks.
Is there anything I can do with the via chipset to assist in capture?
Despite my relatively decent system I still can't capture at anything over 352 x 288, medium quality without losing too many frames.
Is this the sound card or the chipset, or a combination of both?
Is there a patch for the via problem?
I was thinking of saving and replacing the motherboard and processor, or would another sound card be as good?
A little confused as to my next step!
Thanks again,
Will

[Brian Ellis]

IMHO, the problem is in the m/b. Years ago, when I first used an early Marvel G-200, I struggled for many months to capture video successfully. I then changed the m/b from an Asus to a Baby Bravo, using the same PIII processor, memory and everything (including an SB Live!) and it worked like magic. I was able to capture straight away at full res, no drops. I'm now using a P4 1.6 rig, but still with the Live! card and I have never had any problem with it, either with the Marvel or DV. Quite frankly, as many of us here have used Live! successfully, I don't think anyone really knows the full story of why it works for some and not for others, sometimes with apparently identical set-ups. My experience was quite clear: changing the m/b is what made the difference (and I had also unsuccessfully tried the SB16 with the old m/b, so that Live! was exonerated in any case: in fact I bought it in the hopes that the SB16 was the reason for my problems!).

I say again: no one knows, despite what they may think.

[Will Hay]

Would it be a fair test to disable the soundcard in device manager and capture without sound, to ascertain if the SB *was* the problem?
Will

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup, it would.

Other things can get involved in bus contention besides the audio card, though Creatives SB cards have their own problems.

Chief among the other troublesome devices are VIA chipped mainboards. The VIA chipsets have a huge problem with PCI bandwidth. This makes it very dicey when using >1 high bandwidth PCI card (editing cards, SBL's, Audigys, RAID's etc.)

Dr. Mordrid