DV capture, which video card to buy?

I have a DV video camera hooked up to a computer (XP), can not transfer
large periods of video to my hard drive w/o program halting. Looks like I
would need a video card to resolve this problem. The question is, do I need
a card that has firewire input in video card itself, or should I just buy a
fast video card with sufficient memory, such that my integrated video card
in mother board would not interfere with DV file transfer.

Here is more datails of the setup

JVC GRD-72U, camera, firewire cable hooked up to computer.
Gateway PC P4, 3.0GHz HT technology, 250G HD 7200rpm, 1G RAM, PC3200 400MHz.
XP mediacenter sp2
Ulead 8.0 Sw.

It looks like software is not the issue, because the program that came with
the camera does not work any better.

Let's say I buy a video card with 256M memory, would that help, because then
CPU would not share video memory? or is there something magic in high end
video editing / capture cards which would have firewire input integrated
into video card.

If you are doing similar task with your PC and your system is working well,
could you tell what video card you are using?

I'm looking card that cost 39 ... 250$.

Thanks,
pasi

pasitaimelaATbellsouth.net

Kotkanpoika

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 18:49:43 -0400, Kotkanpoika <> wrote:


>I have a DV video camera hooked up to a computer (XP), can not transfer
>large periods of video to my hard drive w/o program halting. Looks like I
>would need a video card to resolve this problem. The question is, do I need
>a card that has firewire input in video card itself, or should I just buy a
>fast video card with sufficient memory, such that my integrated video card
>in mother board would not interfere with DV file transfer.

All you need is a firewire card. If you machine is faster than a P2-450, you'll
have no problem with playback. Right now your system is overkill for
the task by about a factor of 5.

If you system is halting, you have other problems going on. Make sure you're
not infested with spyware. If you let kids install software from god know
who than you're infested. Make sure you're not overheating. If it only crashes
when importing video, try reinstall the drivers or replacing the card.

A video card with 256M of memory wouldn't make the slightest difference.
Even 64M is overkill and won't make the slightest difference. You only
need more than 16M if you're doing 3D graphics which you aren't.

For video editing you don't need a high end video card either. It's the
processor, ram, and hard drive that matter for that application.

AZ Nomad

> I have a DV video camera hooked up to a computer (XP), can
> not transfer large periods of video to my hard drive w/o
> program halting.

Would it happen to be about 4 gig of file size, when it halts?

BJ

Billy Joe