VirtualDub preview freezes after a minute?
 

Newbie just getting familiar with tools trying to get my first captures ...

During Preview, Test video capture and Capture video the video stops after 1 to 4 minutes and even after stopping capture including exiting VirtualDub will not recover in the video panel. Need PC reboot.

Windows XP Pro SP3 Integral Edition
ASUS Motherboard w Intel i3-2100 CPU (4GB RAM)
(started with on-board Intel HD Graphics / HDMI monitor but switched to AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6450 & HDMI)
OS on one HDD and capture files on a different one

Pinnacle 510-USB (composite & S-video and audio inputs) => i.e. "integrated audio/video capture"

Video test source Panasonic DMR-ES16 playing a commercial DVD connected with S-video (but composite output does the same thing) and 2 RCA audio cables.
Feeding my camcorder (CCD-TR940) straight into the Pinnacle or through the ES-16 results in the same thing, i.e. it does not seem to be some embedded copy protection on DVD. I just find it easier to leave the DVD playing while doing the tests rather than fiddling with the tape.

What I learned so far:
- Intel HD graphics (built into motherboard) doesn't agree with Virtualdub
(I was having playback issues for starters so switched to the PCI video card)
My Windows Device Manager has all devices clear (no yellow ?) in both cases. VirtualDub playback works perfectly now (well as much as I have used it).

- video must be set to preview (overlay doesn't work with this usb device)

- audio playback must be disabled (I didn't have good luck when turning on the volume meter either - well it bounced around so I know audio was input but not sure it was accurate/useful). Enabling audio capture worked fine and the audio is being captured along with the video as evidenced in the subsequent playback. Mostly the audio preview was horrible sounding - even though the capture was fine.

- there must be a video signal present on the selected input when selecting File - Capture AVI. If not I found that the preview screen never displays video (and [F6] capture also fails) even when video is introduced after the preview screen is active/displayed.

- the pinnacle device supports both composite video and S-video inputs - it always defaults to composite video from powerup. To select s-video you need to use the "crossbar thing". Simply run it - select Pinnacle 510-USB Crossbar - click on Open selected crossbar and set input to Video SVideo In. Click on the "gigantic" button to exit the program and run VirtualDub. (I found no difference or use for the "Enumerate the loathed crossbars" button.
I notice that in crossbar thing (select the entry without the word crossbar and open the selected crossbar) or VirtualDub - Video - Capture Filter the same Pinnacle driver interface is called up. If you select the Video Decoder tab - I see that when in the "hung" state that Signal Detected displays 0 and not 1. Before the freeze-up (i.e. on the initial setting of the crossbar to SVideo before running VirtualDub) this value will be 1 as long as there is a video signal present on the crossbar selected interface. As noted above if the signal is not present or the interface is hung this value will be 0 and nothing will be shown in the preview window of VirtualDub.

I used the excellent description on this site
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...-settings.html
to setup my VirtualDub except:

Device - Pinnacle 510-USB (Direct Show)
Video - Preview
Video - Compression - Huffyuv (tried both single and multi-threaded - when using multi-threaded you actually have to enable multi-threading in the configure options).
Audio - device is selected at bottom as 0 Capture device (i.e. the 510-USB)
Audio - Enable audio capture and disable audio playback and Volume meter
Capture - Timing, I have tried sanlyn's settings, lordsmurf's changes noted and other settings like automatically disable resync when integrated audio/video capture is detected - which I think it is with the Pinnacle USB
Capture - stop conditions => nothing enabled here

In all cases I see the preview screen go fuzzy and lock up after a few minutes.

I have a attached a few screen caps of what VirtualDub looks like when the freeze occurs

I hope you have some suggestions :)

Thanks
Chuck

USB conflict? - Appears to be fixed
 

I moved my USB keyboard from the rear main usb ports (where the Pinnacle 510-USB is plugged in - selecting USB2 ports in both cases) to the front panel ports which I believe go though an internal USB hub of some sort.

Anyways I have now been able to capture multiple times for 20 to 30 minutes each so that seems to have cleared that up.

Lucky guess I suppose but very happy it worked.

Now on to selecting the capture settings - same as mentioned above I think

Camcorder playback (nothing to set there)
DMR-ES16
setup - video - black level control - input level - darker (default)
setup - video - black level control - output level - lighter (default)
display - video - picture - normal
display - video - DNR - off
display - video - line-in NR - off

virtualdub - default video levels

Weird issue and weird fix. Hopefully that was the real cause and not a coincidence.

To reduce banding, reverse your Black Level Control so that Input is Lighter and Output is Darker: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/...15-DMR-ES25%29

I'd be curious to see a short sample with the camcorder's internal line TBC disabled, running into the DMR-ES16 (attach to the forum). It's been theorized that it should be equivalent to DMR-ES15, but no owner has posted yet. An ideal sample would include vertical-running lines, and a sample where the cameraperson was walking around would be good too. The more physical impact to the recording mechanism, the more the recording jitters.

I capture with video preview off or else I see some jumping in the captured video. Maybe try that.