Chapter 2: Capture
12
Dropped Frames
The biggest problem while capturing video is missing or “dropped” frames. The most common
cause of dropped frames is trying to capture the video at a higher data rate than the hard drive
can support. As it falls behind, the capture starts to lose frames. Dropped frames often appear
sporadically in the captured video, causing the video to randomly stutter or jerk.
Be sure to configure the capture system to warn you of dropped frames and to stop capturing
if you get errors. To avoid dropped frames, you may need to defragment the hard drive, buy a
faster hard drive or lower the quality (and hence data rate) of the capture.
Choosing a Camera
A common misconception is that because the final movie ends up small on the computer
screen, a cheap camera does not make a difference — this is absolutely wrong. Video noise
substantially degrades encoding, so a clean video signal produced by a high-quality camera
encodes much better than a noisy signal produced by a low-quality camera. Also, the resolution
and sharpness of the camera has a significant effect on the final stream quality. For more
information, see the following overview of two common camera classes used to create
streaming video.
Video-Conferencing Cameras
These types of cameras are designed to be connected directly to the computer. They usually do
not have any mechanism for storing the video within the camera, so they are not portable. They
are often sold with video-conferencing systems and are usually connected via a serial or USB
cable. Generally, these cameras produce lower-quality video than the other types of cameras
outlined here, so, use a better camera for higher-quality streams.
Professional Formats
These professional formats (Betacam, D1, studio/broadcast equipment) generally produce the
highest-quality results and often work with bluescreen better than the other types of cameras.
However, professional formats are expensive — unless you are a professional videographer,
you’ll probably have to rent this equipment.
Summary of Contents for 64006-051108-9001 - Discreet Cleaner - Mac
Page 1: ...from discreet November 2000 ...
Page 8: ...Contents viii ...
Page 16: ...Chapter 1 Introduction 8 ...
Page 24: ...Chapter 2 Capture 16 ...
Page 54: ...Chapter 4 Projects 46 ...
Page 68: ...Chapter 5 Settings 60 ...
Page 148: ...Chapter 7 Formats 140 ...
Page 160: ...Chapter 8 Encoding 152 ...
Page 220: ...Chapter 8 Encoding 212 ...
Page 248: ...Chapter 11 Workflow 240 ...
Page 254: ...Chapter 12 Troubleshooting 246 ...
Page 284: ...Glossary 276 ...