Choppy sound in Pinnacle

[ahal]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying all week to record a vid. for youtube. I'm using pinnacle 9.4 and 10.8, headset hooked up to soundblaster Audigy, and USB 2.0 webcam. I thought my problems might have something to do with the fact that the webcam captures sound as well as video, but I believe that nearly all of them do anyway. The audio IS capturing from my headset, not the cam.

All settings seem to be right ... I've tried lowering the quality to nothing in Pinnacle, but no joy. I've tried MJPEG and MPEG2 ( the only options available in Pinnacle ) but as soon as I capture the frames start dropping like crazy. On playback, I sound like an Alien! Just to summarize the system:

Compaq Evo D3D
Pentium 4 / 1.6ghz / 1 gb RAM / 500 gigabyte hard drive / 650 gig (USB) external

Now I have a pinnacle capture card with two firewire ports, but I don't see any audio in or anything. On paper this should work, but it's been messing up on me all week. Any help much appreciated, as always.

Cheers,

Tony.

 

[ahal]

Still getting nowhere

Hi,

I'm now trying to capture on a P4 2.6ghz machine with an admittedly lowly 512mb. RAM, 100 gig drive, and I have the very same problems. Been all over google, tried everything, nothing works. For years I've been capturing video from VCR / Camcorder, never a dropped frame.

Trying to capture from webcam - both with and without sound - the dropped frames amount to 100 in 4 seconds! It's the very same in the software for the webcam. Anyone got any good ideas?

thanks,

Tony

 

[ahal]

Anyone??????

 

[Tmagic650]

What operating system are you running? Did you build the computer or was it purchased complete from a store?

 

[ahal]

Hi,

Thanks for the response. I'm running 3 different machines, all pre-purchased: Compaq EVO d3d, Dell Inspiron 1150, and NEC Powermate. I've tried all but the NEC.

I've got Windows XP Pro ( NTFS ) with all the service packs on all but the NEC, which I'm going to try now with Windows 2000 Pro. just for the hell of it

 

[Tmagic650]

Well, good luck with these old computers

 

[ahal]

Hmm ...

Well never any problem normally, I've transferred hours of VHS via firewire and Analog, camcorder footage the same ... never a single frame loss. I've got a feeling this has something to do with settings somewhere along the line?

 

[ahal]

Well, good luck with these old computers

Okay ... I didn't know it was a requirement to have a certain level of computer in order to ask a few questions. Thanks anyway.

 

[Tmagic650]

Well, if you have used Pinnacle without trouble before, what have you changed or updated recently that might have affected or started the problem. Is this Pinnacle sound problem is the same on more than one computer? If so, it has to be a configuration problem with Pinnacle

 

[ahal]

Yes, Pinnacle is good but I think my webcam isn't. I bought it in Aldi ( German supermarket chain, don't know if you have them in U.S. ). It's branded 'Tevion' and so I went on their website. Dialled the Irish freephone support to get "sorry, this number is not in service". Okay, I thought, let's download the manual. All that tells me is that everything can 'result in serious injury'. That's about it. Not one to give up lightly, I sent the online form to support. I got a prompt reply asking me to fill out an online support form. ffs!

Re: my old tech, I spent €1,500 on my laptop ( Dell ) 5 years ago. So far it's had 3 new hard drives, two DVD/RW drives, and the lid slams shut when it feels like it. Oh, and it overheats on a regular basis. Reassuringly, Dell did say they would replace it if the screen melted. It hasn't quite turned me off new machines, but almost.

To get back to the specific issue, it seems this webcam is supposed to capture at 12 fps. Pinnacle does 25 ( PAL ) and 30 - ish ( NTSC ). It seems that's all it does, but then I can't imagine why it should be any other way? I finally gave up. Plugged my nice Sandberg headset into my ancient ( 1996! ) Samsung K-80 camcorder and it's so good it even picks up my breathing. The video transfers 100% into pinnacle.

The only problem is it's too good ... now I sound like a "heavy breather" lol! My gripe with the webcam? Well, no support. I can understand stuff not working, but when there's zero backup that renders the product - regardless of how 'good' it is - complete trash. Sorry if I was a bit miffed in my last post, but I was fit to tear my hair out!

Regards,

Tony