Hi

I'm new to working with video. I've been trying to transfer footage from a Sony digital camcorder (it uses digital cassttes)via my hard disc on to DVD.
I have managed to do this using Nero to both capture the footage and to burn it to DVD.
The result, although it will play on my PC and in my Panasonic DVD player, is disappointing. It plays jerky, not smooth, and the picture quality is not crisp (the audio has come out OK).
Any suggestions how to improve this.
My system is quite old but I am not asking it to do anything outrageous!
OS is XP Home (SP2)
Nero Vision Express 3
Camera connected via USB (I don't have firewire)

Thanks for any help

Without seeing your system specs it's hard to say. Sounds like you are getting dropped frames, possibly other things also. Off the top, it is generally well known that Nero is one of the worst programs to use for capture and conversion. I tried to use Nero7 Ultra myself with much the same results as you. That is why experienced folks do not use Nero. After I reconfigured my system I am producing perfect DVDs now. Dropped frames can mean your processor can't keep up with the bitrate, possibly you don't have enough memory, there may be other things loading into memory that are interfering, etc. Give more details on your setup.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime;
Then industry pollutes the water and kills all the fish.

As ranchhand mentioned, if you have memory hogging programs such as antivirus, firewall, etc, running in the background, you could experience dropped frames. Turn all background apps off.

You should also get as much ram as your motherboard can handle. At least 1 gig, perhaps 2 would be best. A fast transfer rate on your hard drive is also necessary for smooth frame rates and if you can afford it, get a second drive strictly for your video files.

If not, make sure your hard drive is defragged before transferring from your camcorder.

Those are the first things I'd look at.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

Also, I just noticed you're using USB for transfer. If your camcorder is able, always use firewire. If you don't have firewire built onto your motherboard, a firewire card can be had fairly cheaply.

USB is just too slow for video and could easily be your biggest reason for dropped frames.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

My system is quite old but I am not asking it to do anything outrageous!

Just to speak to what you said here, video transfer/editing is "outrageous" and if your system is too old or slow, you will have problems.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

Did you use paper label for your DVDs? If you did read...

Sticky labels can screwup the playback of your DVDR's

i_XpUser

Did you capture to hard first? was this jerky?

Try capturing with windows movie player, then convert to dvd with Nero vision express.

It usually take my system (3.4Ghz/1GB) over 2 hours to convert 700mb avi file to dvd.

Thanks for replies so far. In response to Clive Pearce, I did copy to the hard drive first, and this was jerky.
I've now used Windows Movie Maker to capture the video and burned this to DVD using Nero.
It's no longer jerky, but the picture is nowhere near as clear as it should be.

All further suggestions appreciated.

In windows movie maker, try changing the settings. ie frame rate, output size.

Record a very short video as a test & try different settings.

I think it would help if you shut down as many running programs as possible.

When you save the movie, using Movie Maker, did you use the setting which says "best quality for playback on my computer (recommended)"?

If so, choose the "other settings" button and from the dropdown menu try "High quality video NTSC" or "Video for local playback 2.1Mbps (NTSC)"

These may give you better quality of your final product.

Please state your system specs, it will help to determine where the problem may lie.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

"Just to speak to what you said here, video transfer/editing is "outrageous" and if your system is too old or slow, you will have problems."

This statement is a crock. Digital video has been around a lot longer than todays fast processors. It's not the hardware that's the problem, but the newer, resource hungry software. Use older versions with older hardware and you'll have no problems.

I use a machine with a Duron 1.3GHz processor and 512MB RAM. I capture from my JVC DV-Cam, with Adobe Premiere Pro 7.0 (also known as PPro 1.0), via an added PCI firewire card. It's not often I have dropped frames, but when I do, it's never more than 2 frames per hour of footage. You have the same amount of RAM as me, and a faster processor, so you shouldn't have too many problems. The only hardware upgrade I'd suggest is the addition of a firewire card, because USB just isn't fast enough. Firewire was designed especially for video transfer.

To help minimise possible problems, disconnect any network/modem cables, and quit all background programs (antivirus, firewall...etc.), before capture.

Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.

Thanks again to all who have replied. Here is more info on my set up (please remember, I'm no expert so please excuse me if I've given too much info!!)

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1.41GHz
Motherboard Gigabyte 7VM400M-RZ
Memory 512 MB RAM
Sound Creative Sound Blaster PCI
Video NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX/MX 400
Windows XP Home (5.01 2600 Service Pack 2)
Direct X 9.0c
TSST corp CD/DVDW SH-S182M
IDE DVD-ROM 16X
Maxtor STM 3802110A 80GB Hard Drive
Nero Express 6
Nero Vision Express 3
Nero Recode 2
Nero Show Time 2

The system is 5 years old, although the CD/DVD re-writer and the hard drive are brand new having recently been replaced.
I have a broadband modem connected and Norton Internet Security installed.
USB is the older version (1.1 ?)
My camera is a Sony DCR-HC35E Handycam (mini DV) and the software which came with it is Picture Package 1.5.1
I do not have the facility to connect via i-link or firewire.

Thanks

Your hardware sounds fine and should suffice, just please remember to turn off any background apps and you should be fine.

If you're using usb 1.1 that would cause a slowdown because its too slow for video. Get a USB 2 card and install it into your system. They can be had for $10.

For Sci-Guy, when the OP said his computer was "quite old" I was picturing something older then what he eventually stated. As long as a user has at least 512 ram using xp and turning all background apps off, they should be fine.

That being said, digital video is one of the biggest tests for a computer aside from gaming and the more ram, HD space, cpu speed the better.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

According to some research I did, your camcorder should have a firewire port (since most MiniDV cameras do) otherwise known as IEEE 1394. When you say you don't have the facility to connect via firewire, do you mean in the sense that you don't have a firewire card on your computer?

You can also get an add in firewire card that fits in a PCI slot on your motherboard, just like a USB 2.0 card would and you would get much faster transfer speeds with firewire and reduce almost to zero the possibility of dropped frames.

A decent firewire card can usually be had for under $20.

Hope this helps.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

I looked up the specs for your cam and saw that it does have firewire in/out. I can only surmise that you're unwilling to make the small investment required for an add-on firewire card.
If that's the case, there's nothing we can do to help you.

Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.

I don't think he's unwilling. He admits to not being an expert so he may have simply overlooked his camcorders capabilities or he didn't know you could get an add on firewire card.

Either way, thats why we're here: to help.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".

Thanks for all replies. It seems that the consensus is that it is the way in which I connect the camera (via USB) that is the problem.
From your replies I now know that I can purchase a firewire card and connect my camera in this way.
I'm not unwilling to do this, I just wasn't sure if it was possible on an older system.
This system will be replaced in the next year or so - I might wait until then and specify firewire.
So, even though one of you thought I couldn't be helped, I have been.

LiSpecial, always glad to help. Yes, using USB, especially the older 1.1 standard is just too slow for video and even going to USB 2.0 might cause some dropped frames.

The computer you specified that you currently run will accept a firewire card without any problems and if you get a new system down the road you can either transfer the card to that system or just make sure your new motherboard has firewire built in.

So if you don't want to wait until you get a new system to have fun with your videos now (and it is a fun hobby isn't it), an add on card is your best bet and your system is more than adequate for firewire.

Good luck!

PS - If you're new to using Windows Movie Maker, try windowsmoviemakers.net
There is a lot of great advice and tricks for using movie maker.

Asus K8V-X
Athlon 64 2800+
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
512 PC3200
WD 80 GIG
LG DVD-RW
XP Home

Full time employee of Dharma. One of the "others".