I don't know much about ram boosters but I'd be wary. To utilise my ram to the fullest when capturing and rendering which prevents errors/dropped frames etc. there are some do's I always follow to get the best results which you may find useful: regular defrag/scandisc, turn off evrything in b'ground. Also a wise contributor here said os 98se doesn't utilise ram over 128; it recognises it but can't use it. So I'm upgrading to xphome, which will use my other 128ram, plus it has better video editing features.

Hey, thnx guys.

Stiffler: Thnx for the link - I'll look into it. My fave site for gr8 downloads is ZDNet. I've gotten several X-cellent freebies that I use often.

Laz: The thing about Win98 and RAM utilization is a new one to me! I have 128 now and was actually mulling over getting another 128. I'll have to check the facts on that one...

Before I do any capturing, I reboot, then I use the EndItAll utility to close everything that isn't critical.
From everything that I've been reading, there are no absolutes, however. Some people are appartently getting great captures with less RAM and slower CPU's etc. than those who have faster this and better that. This one has no problem with XP, that one does. Someone upgrades to a faster HD and more RAM or whatever and still has the same issues with capturing. And on and on...
Crazy, isn't it? (Is it a plot?!) ;^)

Several RAM booster software companies were taken to court and charged with fraud about four years ago. They basically were selling perpetual motion machines. Some of them may improve performance slightly compared to Windows native code, but I would be very wary.

I have 192 Mb of RAM and a 450 MHz Pentium that is 3 1/2 years old, running Win98 SE. It captures and plays back flawlessly. However, it took awhile to get it to the point where it would do this. I have read dozens -- perhaps as many as a hundred -- suggestions of how to improve reliability of capture. Perhaps some of these really do help in certain configurations, but I suspect that most of the suggestions are only a step beyond voodoo.

However, a few of the suggestions are vitally important. FWIW, here are the three things that made a MAJOR difference for me:

1. Install a separate disk dedicated to video capture. Keep VF on your C: drive, but capture all video on the new D: drive (or whatever letter it turns out to be). Having said this, of my three suggestions, this is the least mandatory, and many people on this forum have no problem using just a single hard disk for both the programs and capture.

2. Make sure that DMA is enabled on the capture drive. If you don't enbale DMA, you most definitely won't get flawless captures. This is the most important tip for good capture.

3. Press Ctrl-Alt-Del and "End Task" for each and every program or task that you don't need. The only two you should NOT kill are Systray and Explorer.

On this last suggestions, background programs can really kill capture performance, and often do so intermittently. For me, the real killer is the software that Hewlett-Packard insists on loading for my P1000 Photosmart printer. This printer includes a memory card reader, and if the software for that is loaded, I get all sorts of video and audio glitches -- several per minute. If you have any programs in the task list that appears when you press Ctrl-Alt-Del that begin with the letters HP, most definitely get rid of them before you capture or print to tape.

Hi Pifarr
There is a magazine named computer video, and it has its own website with a few video related forums http://www.computervideo.net/

In the forum FAQ there are some great tips, I took the opertunity of copying one of these FAQ topics which is about dropped frames. I have compressed it into a small 3.5kb text file. If you wish send me your e-mail address and I will send it on.

Andrew

opush@blueyonder.co.uk

Hey John -
I appreciate the detailed response. Thanx for taking the time.
"Flawless capture AND playback"? I'm envious. As I said, there are no absolutes: My machine is more than twice the speed of yours, but you have more RAM. I have DMA enabled, close all programs running, and tried using my "D" drive. (When the dropouts kept up, I went back to using my "C" drive 'cause it's bigger & faster (altho it's not a 7200 but a 5400).
What did you do to "get it to the point where it would do this."? (If you have the time to detail it for me/us).
:^)

Hi Andrew -
Thnx for the link - found some gr8 info there.
I appreciate it.

First, I am capturing DV (via 1394/Firewire), not analog. If you are capturing analog, then your problems will be different. Capturing DV is much simpler than capturing analog because DV only requires 3.5 Mbs, a rate that most drives can sustain.

For all sorts of hints about how to optimize your computer for capturing and playback of DV, see the following document on Adobe's site:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/144f6.htm

John

Johnmeyer
Disable DMA? What is DMA? And how does one diable it?
Thanks in anticipation.
Zbig

In Win95/98/ME, right click on the "My Computer" icon. Select "Properties." Click on the "Device Manager" tab. Click on the little "+" sign to the left of the "Disk Drives" icon. Double-click on the disk drive entry (you can ignore the floppy disk entries). (If there is more than one disk drive entry, check each one). After double-clicking on the disk drive entry, click on the "Settings" tab. You will see the DMA (direct memory access) setting. Make sure there is a check mark in the box. If there isn't, click on the box to put the check mark in it, and then select "OK" for each dialog box you have opened. When you return to the "Device Manager" tab, you can repeat for any other hard disks you have. When finished, select "OK" as many times as needed to get back to your desktop, and reboot your computer.

DMA allows your disk drive to send/receive information from other parts of your computer system without requiring any time or effort from your CPU. Since your CPU is very busy with other tasks, it often cannot keep up with the continuous 3.5 Mbps DV stream coming into the computer.

John