Autodesk 64006-051108-9001 User Guide - Page 20

12 Chapter 2: Capture 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.