Terje A. bergesen
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The reality is that USB can’t maintain the speed necessary to capture full-frame full-motion
This is incorrect, and I have a significant amount of video to prove it, but let us take a look at realities.
USB2 and FireWire has approximately the same theoretical maximum transfer rate, USB2 a little faster. In reality a USB transfer requires more support from the PC during transfers, so you will typically not get max peak transfer rates with USB. With a properly equipped PC (most PCs sold over the past 5 years are OK) you will have no problem transfering DV Video over a USB2 port. You will probably see more situations where you drop frames though, particularly if you are running stuff on your PC or something decides to kick in and do something. A USB transfer is far more sensitive to CPU activity than is a FireWire transfer.
There are very few camcorders that support DV capture over USB2. A notable exception is the Panasonic line of camcorders. You can transfer full DV over USB2 to your PC with these.
Software on the other hand is a whole different kettle of prawns. As of today I am only aware of one application that allows full DV capture over USB, and that is Windows Movie Maker.
The Microsoft USB capture drivers store the captured video in DV AVI files of Type 1. Most video editing software uses Type 2 (or was that the other way around, might have mixed them up). Anyway, assuming I am correct, Type 1 work well with Direct Show, but most video editing software is build around VfW, which is what you get with Type 2 AVIs. So if you capture with Movie Maker, your NLE might have problems reading your video files.
This all comes down to a single reality. In reality FireWire supports higher sustained speeds than does USB2. USB2 is also far more prone to drop frames due to activity on the host PC since USB2 requires a lot more CPU power to transfer data. This has lead the video world, sensibly, to standardize on FireWire. That is the reality. There are valid technical reasons for it, and if you want to do video you have to accept that reality. Simple as that.
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Thanks for the answer.
Just for the record, the Cineform intermediate format doesn’t use a proxy, it is a less compressed 4:2:2 AVI transcode of the M2T. You add this AVI to the timeline. It is around 2x – 3x the size of the M2T, but size is not an issue.
A concern I have currently is when I edit with Vegas each frame is re-encoded when I put M2Ts (or any MPEG) on the timeline. I downloaded Cineform NEO, and when I transcode the M2T to the Cineform intermediate and I render, only changed frames are re-encoded. This speeds up editing of course, I don’t know what effect this has on the quality of the final output however.
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
I was able to capture DV fine with my P4 2GHz, since you have problems capturing DV as well, that is probably not it, on the other hand, it seems to be a hardware problem, so…
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
I use a E-MU Audio Card and you can have a loop when capturing from firewire. So never say never.
I hate to argue, but… The only way you can get feed back loop when doing anything is if something is recording the audio as you are capturing, and the recorded audio is fed back into the capture stream. If you capture from tape using firewire, nothing is capturing your audio. Not your camcorder, and (believe it or not) not your computer. The sound card is not engaged at all.
Capture over fire wire from tape is a pure bit transfer from the tape of your camcorder and onto your computer. Audio can not, theoretically or practically, be added to that capture process. It is simply impossible.
Have you explored every combination of soundcards and their routings.
Since the sound card is never involved in a firewire capture, this is irrelevant.
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
It happens because Vegas “lets go” of all it’s project media when you switch to another application. This is by design, perhaps you are going to change some of the media (say, you open Photoshop and change a picture used in the project). The re-opening of the media when you return to Vegas takes a little while.
As with most things in Vegas, you can alter this behavior, under Options->Preferences, in the General tab, you have an option that says: “Close media files when not the active application”, this is checked by default. Un-check it, and you will not have the time lag.
The downside is that now you can not alter any of the project media in another application (like fixing a problem with an image in Photoshop) while keeping your project open in Vegas. This is a Windows feature, not a Vegas issue.
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
The HDV problems are quite possibly caused by your CPU, but the fact that it doesn’t capture properly in DV mode is puzzling, particularly since Microsoft Movie Maker captures fine. Remember, MMM and Vegas uses exactly the same driver to capture DV. There shouldn’t be a difference. The only time I’ve seen a difference is when people use USB rather than Fire Wire to capture since only MMM supports this.
Did your status bar read the same as what I said? What Fire Wire card did you install? Do you have the latest Fire Wire drivers for that card?
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
Windows Movie Maker and Vegas uses the same drivers for capture, so there is something very strange going on. Are you sure that all programs are shut down before you run your capture? As RMP asks, do you have Diskeeper, Nero or Norton Anti Virus running?
Start capture of DV, and make sure your camcorder is connected. At the botttom of the new dialog popping up, there is a status bar, it should say something like:
Microsoft DV Camera and VCR : Source 720×480 : Display xxx:yyy : Available Time xx:yy:xxx;nn
What does your say?
The only time I have seen behavior like this is when I tried to capture using Vegas through USB. The Panasonic camcorders support full quality DV capture through USB, but Vegas and most other NLEs don’t support this kind of capture, only Windows Movie Maker does.
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
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RMP suggests dirty heads or a bad tape, I think you stated that the video looks fine viewed on the camcorder, if that is the case that seems unlikely. Since you are having problems with DV as well, I would expect that either of the following is a problem:
- Bad FireWire card or cable.
- Not enough resources on your PC to handle capture, this may be
caused by running other software on the PC while capturing or
similar. It may be caused by a full or very fragmented drive not
able to keep up with the capture etc.
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/ -
No, that’s definitely not it. If he is capturing through FireWire, there is no possible way he can get a loop effect. That is, of course, unless he is capturing what the camcorder is currently recording. If he is capturing from tape, there is no need to mute anything.
There is something else going on.
How are you capturing, DV or HDV? These are two different capture applications in Vegas. I assume you are capturing stuff from tape. Remember, if you are routing the live feed from the A1U to Vegas, you probably will have to mute the capture application otherwise the camera will pick up the sound and you get the loop effect.
Which FireWire card are you using? Has this worked before? You can use the A1U to record DV, are you able to capture DV properly?
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Terje A. Bergesen : https://terje.bergesen.info/