Dropped frames... what causes them?

[jchenier]

I'm running Premiere 6.5, and I ALWAYS end up with dropped frames. I'm using MQ tapes, run no other programs when capturing, and can't figure-out why I'm dropping like mad. My system is a bit slow (PIII 650mhz, 1GB ram, 120GB hd @ 7,200 rpm) but meets all of adobe's required specs.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Justin

[Flintstone]

Is the drive you are capturing on a separate drive dedicated to video? If not, then try to get one, and set it in the secondary IDE controller, not as slave to the system drive. It's always better that way.

Also, is your drive defragmented? Do you have any other applications running in the background? Have you disabled your anti-virus if you have one? Have you tried deleting your Premiere Preference file? Make sure you have recent USB drivers (or chipset drivers), as poorly designed USB drivers tend to suck up the I/O. And last question, when was the last time you reinstalled your system?

I hope you dedicate your system primarily to video, because if you load it up with all sorts of software, games, shareware, trashware, etc... then your bound to have problems.

[jchenier]

Thanks for your quick reply! The system is dedicated for video (with net, Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker), and the drive is a seperate slave (I don't know about secondary IDE controllers though... help???) The system is just fresh of a reformat, with everything reinstalled and regularly defragmented.

Thanks for your help,
Justin

[Guest]

You might try a program called scenalyzer. You can download a free trial at http://www.scenalyzer.com. I have been using it for about a year now, and even after buying Ppro, I still use it just because it is so rock solid. It has great scene detection and timelapse options. The best thing is that it only cost $30 if you do decide to buy it. Try it and see if it solves your problems.

[Beat Takeshi]

Hi, are you using an IDE drive? If so, it must spin at 7200 or better and, AND, AND!!! <---(important info coming up)... IT MUST BE SET FOR ""DMA enabled" in your computer bios. Hope that works.

[Flintstone]

Yes, I completely forgot about that one. Oppressor_LOB is right, activating DMA is a must. Not only in the BIOS though, but in your OS too. Go in your Device Manager, and depending on what OS you have, go in the properties and make sure that DMA is selected (if you see PIO, change it to DMA)

Example on WinXP:
Control Panel Menu / System Icon / Hardware Tab / Device Manager Button / IDE ATA-ATAPI Controlers / Primary IDE Channel AND Secondary IDE Channel, there will be an area where you can change PIO to DMA (sorry, IAA [Intel Application Accelerator] overwrote the tab, so I can't be sure which tab it will be on). Do it on both Primary and Secondary controlers.

On your motherboard there are 2 IDE ports that can handle 2 drives each. Make sure both your hard drives are not on the same IDE port. If it is slave to the system drive, this may cause some problems. The ideal configuration is to set your system drive as Primary Master, your video drive as Secondary Master, and your DVD-R (or whatever optical drive you have) to Secondary Slave. If unsure, go see a computer shop.

[Beat Takeshi]

Thanks flintstone, I couldnt remember the whole deal since I have done it so long ago and I have a sucky memory. :o

[cperesco]

:undecided Hi! I don´t have 2 Hard disks in order to dedicate one just for videos... it helps to divide my only one HD using a software like partition magic???

Thx!

[TeleDan]

All good suggestions but my experience has been a little different. I cleanly capture to the 5400 rpm internal harddrive on my laptop system all the time using Scenalyzer. However, I have to use a $25 firewire card plugged in the PCcard slot. If I use the integrated firewire port, I consistently get one or two dropped frames. So consider the firewire port you are using as well.

You might have an IRQ conflict with some other active I/O on the system. I think that's the problem with my laptop's integrated firewire port. It shares an IRQ with the graphics controller. On WinXp you can check for IRQ sharing with the 'system information' utility. On my start menu, it's found under Accessories->System Tools->System Information.

-Dan

[fixitinpost]

With Ppro1.5, I've actually been able to capture to a 4200rpm hard drive on my laptop.

:undecided Hi! I don´t have 2 Hard disks in order to dedicate one just for videos... it helps to divide my only one HD using a software like partition magic???

Thx!

Just having a separate partition won't do too much for you. You need a separate physical drive on a different channel for bandwith reasons.

[cperesco]

Thank you fixinitpost!! So I had no choice than buying another hard disk.

Thanks again

[TeleDan]

Two drives are certainly better than one but, again, my experience is different. My laptop only had one 5400 rpm 80 gig internal drive. I have it partitioned into two logical drives. I capture cleanly with Scenalyzer. I don't like the PPro capture facility so I can't speak from experience with it. I also record directly to disk on this drive using DVrack and have no problems.

The ONLY reason I partition the drive is for disk management reasons. I like having the capture files all in one partition. I can then copy them over to my desktop system, reformat the partition, and I have a nice contiguous chuck of free disk space ready for next time. Capturing to a highly fragmented disk is not good.

I guess my point is that there is no one single factor involved with whether you get dropped frames or not. You have to look at all the factors in the data flow. I think the various replies have covered the major ones to consider on a PC.

Good luck,
Dan

[phd]

If you have two partitions the harddrive will be slower than you had only one