• Poor Framerate for Video Capture
    12 replies, posted
So, I recently picked up a cheap-ass USB capture card. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but it was cheap enough ($9 shipped) that I was willing to take a bit of a gamble. The thing is, it's actually almost usable: the video comes through properly and even though the audio is pretty terrible, I was able to get an adapter on the cheap and use my line-in port. There's only one little problem: The framerate. Whenever I try to use it, even to just play video on-screen, I can only get about ~17-25 FPS on anything more active than a black screen with maybe some text on it, which leads to a lot of dropped frames and essentially unusable video. Presumably, if I could get it to consistently stay over 29.97 FPS, I'd be in business. I've looked all over, but I haven't found anything that might help me settle the matter. I'm willing to just call it a lost cause, but it'd be really great if I could get it to work (hopefully without spending any money). If I can't, I have to go buy a [I]real[/I] capture card, which is a problem because I am poor :(. At the very least, I'd like to figure out what, exactly, the problem is. So far, I've got a couple of possible culprits: [B]1. The device itself.[/B] Simple enough: the card (an EasyCAP, for the record) simply can't send data fast enough to get a consistent framerate. This is pretty likely; what do you expect for :10bux:? Still, I've done a bunch of Googling, and I can't seem to find anybody with the same problem, which does make it slightly more doubtful; if it was a problem with the EasyCAP itself, surely somebody else would have encountered it, right? [B]2. The capture software.[/B] This is... not very likely, I don't think. I've tried four different programs (VirtualDub, DScaler, AMCap, and the crap that came with the card), and they all have more-or-less the same framerate. [B]3. My computer.[/B] Aside from the card itself, this is the most likely cause. The main thing that makes me suspect it is the fact that VirtualDub captures at ~21 FPS with preview off and ~19 FPS when it's on. However, I highly doubt that it's a matter of my computer being unable to handle video capture. I've got a Core 2 Duo running at 3.06 GHz, a GTS 250, and 4 GB RAM. It's possible that there's some kind of hardware conflict causing it to perform worse than it should, but I really don't think it's a hardware problem at all; when capturing, my CPU usage stays fairly low (somewhere in the range of 2-20%, in general) and increasing VirtualDub's priority has no effect on framerate. It it's a problem with my computer, I think it's most likely some kind of software issue. It could be related to Vista bloatware (32-bit, for anyone wondering), lousy drivers, a conflict with something I have installed, or really just about anything. One thing I noticed is that I had a taskbar icon for AC3Filter that appeared while a capture window was opened and disappeared once I closed it. After uninstalling AC3Filter, I seem to have gotten a slight framerate increase and idling with no footage went from reporting 2 FPS to reporting 29-31 FPS. Anyway, that's that. Sorry about the long post, but I wanted to make sure I covered everything. I'll be happy to provide further specs/details/clarification if anybody wants them.
I read up to where you mentioned the price and then I knew what the problem is. Cheap things often come with their faults.
[QUOTE=Bengley;20029307]I read up to where you mentioned the price and then I knew what the problem is. Cheap things often come with their faults.[/QUOTE] That seems like the most likely cause to me, too. Still, I want to make absolutely sure it's not a problem on my end before I go out buying something more expensive.
I would blame the CPU but I can't since it's a dual core. However i will point my finger at your Hard drive.
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~;20032994]I would blame the CPU but I can't since it's a dual core. However i will point my finger at your Hard drive.[/QUOTE] This is another distinct possibility, especially since availability and a dreadful lack of space on my main drive forces me to use an external HD for recording- far from a good idea, I know. Would the hard drive affect the framerate even when I'm not recording, though? I have framerate issues even if I'm just previewing and don't actually capture anything.
[QUOTE=NotPigeon;20033063]This is another distinct possibility, especially since availability and a dreadful lack of space on my main drive forces me to use an external HD for recording- far from a good idea, I know. [b]Would the hard drive affect the framerate even when I'm not recording, though? I have framerate issues even if I'm just previewing and don't actually capture anything.[/QUOTE][/b] Yes infact it would if your using a USB external drive. Because it has to read and write at the same time, and that can put alot of strain forcing it to write and read slower. Balance is required.
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~;20033199][/b] Yes infact it would if your using a USB external drive. Because it has to read and write at the same time, and that can put alot of strain forcing it to write and read slower. Balance is required.[/QUOTE] But if it's not actually recording, it's not writing anything... I think. I could be completely wrong, of course, but if it's not saving the footage I would think it doesn't have any reason to write or read anything from the drive. Either way, I'll try saving it to my main drive and see what happens. EDIT: Just did a quick test. Both drives gave an average framerate of ~24-25 FPS while idling on the Wii Menu.
[QUOTE=NotPigeon;20033541]But if it's not actually recording, it's not writing anything... I think. I could be completely wrong, of course, but if it's not saving the footage I would think it doesn't have any reason to write or read anything from the drive. Either way, I'll try saving it to my main drive and see what happens. EDIT: Just did a quick test. Both drives gave an average framerate of ~24-25 FPS while idling on the Wii Menu.[/QUOTE] I'll blame the GPU. solution upgrade. or Overclock.
[QUOTE=~Kiwi~;20033671]I'll blame the GPU. solution upgrade. or Overclock.[/QUOTE] Also a possibility- I don't have the best GPU, but I figured it was recent enough to handle this sort of thing. I'll try OCing (upgrading's not really an option at the moment) and see if it has any affect.
[QUOTE=NotPigeon;20033792]Also a possibility- I don't have the best GPU, but I figured it was recent enough to handle this sort of thing. I'll try OCing (upgrading's not really an option at the moment) and see if it has any affect.[/QUOTE] Oc it very slowly and very gently
It worked. Now, idling on the Wii Menu generally stays in the 29-31 FPS range. ...Unfortunately, it's not quite enough. I still get occasional drops in actual gameplay, and it goes to hell once I try recording. Still, it's good to know where the problem is. Now I've either got to get a new video card or figure out how to make this less taxing on my GPU (RivaTuner won't let me OC it any more than I have (don't worry, I turned it back down) and honestly even if it did going further would be a really bad idea). My CPU's been slacking off during this whole affair- is there any way to put some of the load on that?
Just a quick tip: Television and movies are recorded at 25fps.
[QUOTE=Bengley;20038350]Just a quick tip: Television and movies are recorded at 25fps.[/QUOTE] 25 FPS is the PAL standard. I'm in the US, so I need the NTSC standard 29.97 FPS.
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