Pauses in capture - Need help

[JonH]

I am trying to capture 12 minutes off a mini dv tape thru a firewire using Windows Movie Maker. I'm getting some pauses even after turing off the preview screen. I have a p4 2.8 ghz HT processor and Asus MB (800 bus speed). I have 1024 mb of 400 DDR RAM.
I have XP pro and am new to it. I think maybe I need to free up some system resources. If this could be my problem, what do I do? I had update manager pop up during the last capture attempt.
Any help would be appreciated.
Jon

[Brian Ellis]

The Windows Task Manager is different with XP than with earlier versions. You have two tabs you need to look at to stop all extraneous apps causing interruptions. The Applications tab is clear. You End Task everything you don't need for your capture. You also have the much more tricky task of the Processes tab. This lists everything running in the background. Some of these (particularly those with your own user name, but this is not absolute) can probably obviously be ended. Others will cause yous 'puter to fall over.

While in WTM, switch to Performance to see whether your CPU usage exceeds your safe capacity when capturing, or whether you are invoking undue increases in Page File usage (virtual memory), implying that you may need to reconfigure how your RAM is used.



However, the important thing is to make sure your hard drive(s) is/are working as it/they ought. With DV capture, this is not horrendously critical. DMA not working is one thought.



I've never tried to capture with WMM, so cannot help you at this level.

[JonH]

Thanks, Brian.
It looks like the process tab is the key. I had everything off in apps tab but never looked at the process tab.
I have two serial hard drives and two IDEs. I assume DMA is only appropriate for the IDE drives. Not sure where to check to see if it is turned on in XP.
What program do you capture with? Should I use ULead's MSP capture program instead?
Thanks.
Jon

[Brian Ellis]

Yup! I use MSP7 exclusively for capture, but I only do DV.

Go into Control Panel|Admin tools|Computer Management|Device Manager|IDE/ATAPI Channels|Appropriate Channel|Advanced Settings|DMA if available. The Current Transfer Mode will tell you the type of DMA it is using.

[JonH]

Thanks, Brian. I'm going to do all dv in the future. I'll start using MSP 7. My IDE channels are in DMA where appropriate, it looks like. Ultra DMA mode 5 for a couple of them and mode 2 for another.
I have been using a serial drive for capture and DMA isn't an issue there.
I took your earlier advice and also defragmented the drive with video on it before capturing. Looks like it worked okay this time. Won't know for sure until I watch all of the video closely.
Appreciated your help.
Jon