HV30 HDV capture issues. - Solved!

[Chris B]

OK - so I've got a brand new HV30 (UK variant) and I'm trying to capture HDV via Firewire. I've never had a problem capturing standard def footage and don't seem to have a problem doing the same with this camera. However - whenever I try and capture HDV I get corrupt (red) frames. MPEG repair identifies these. This happens even if I capture "live" without recording to tape so coming directly from the camera and seems random. Defrag seems to make no difference. Update drivers the same. Has anyone else experienced (and fixed) this? All suggestions greatly appreciated!

[Bobby]

Chris, most of us are using HDVSplit to capture HD from the HV-30 - did you try that?

[Chris B]

Yup - same result wether I use PE4 or HDVSplit. I can sometimes get a capture without corruption but it's only about 1 in 10 or so - in no way usable. I just don't understand how I can get SD without a hitch when HD is the same bandwidth.

[Chuck Engels]

Could be a problem with the camera Chris.

[jackfalbey]

I'm thinking possibly a codec issue, Chris... DV captures just fine for you over Firewire, but HDV doesn't. Maybe you need a better MPEG2 codec...

[RJ Johnston]

I'm thinking that you should delete ImporterFastMPEG.prm that is in the plug-in folder.

See this post: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=5035#p44534

[Chris B]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps.

I'm thinking that you should delete ImporterFastMPEG.prm that is in the plug-in folder.

Hmmm - Good suggestion. No red frames on import - however PE now thinks it needs to re-render the entire import file (red line above the clip). Any advances?

[Chuck Engels]

Capture with HDVSplit and then import the files into a HDV project in Premiere Elements, shouldn't be any red lines.

[Chris B]

OK - so the mystery deepens.

Chuck - when I rename the dll the red lines appear - but the red frames disappear - doesn't matter where it's been captured.

However - I plugged in the Windows 7 beta that I've got and ran that instead. HDVSplit then seems to work like a charm and mpeg2repair finds no problems with the resulting files (unlike under my XP installation). So either

a) Windows 7 corrects an issue that's present in XP or
b) There's something else in my installation that is interfering with the capture.

For a I'll re-install XP on another drive and see if that helps - meanwhile anybody got any candidates for things that might interfere?

[Chris B]

The saga continues. I still can't capture without issue in my main install. However I have reinstalled XP, Anti Virus software, PE, Drivers, quicktime, divx, and a few other bits on another drive and CAN capture. Still trying to work out what's corrupting my main machine.....

[Chris B]

etc. Cracked it!

It turns out that "Cool and quiet" which has NEVER caused me an issue before is to blame. More specifically when the processor speed changes it seems to introduce corruption into the HD video stream. Turn off Cool and quiet and I can quite happily capture 10 minutes of video without a single error (up from 2-3 errors/minute).

For reference I have an Athlon 62 X2 4600+ (Socket 939 Manchester core) running on an MSI MS-7025 motherboard (Nvidia NForce 3 250 based) I have 3GB (2x1GB + 2x 512MB) of PC3200 DDR Ram. Everything runs at stock. Problem seems independent of MB and Graphics Driver versions. Processor driver is 1.3.2.0.

Hope this helps someone else.

[Paul LS]

Well done Sherlock... interesting discovery.

[Bobby]

I would never trust any of that stuff to reduce heat or reduce noise on my video PC. I turned all that stuff off when I got it and run flat out. Good find...

[Chuck Engels]

I agree, great job of troubleshooting.

Just goes to show you how hard it is to test all configurations, I would have never guessed that to be the problem.