the leftmost button on the toolbar (or the menu item file -] set capture file) opens the capture file dialog box.

    depending on a number of factors, you may experience a significant percentage of frames dropped. the percentage of frames dropped is a function of frame size, use of a compressor, and the speed of your system. performance can be substantially improved by preallocating a capture file and defragmenting it.

    “preallocating” a file means that space has been reserved for it on your hard disk.the menu item file -] allocate disk space brings up a dialog in vidcap32 by which you can preallocate a file and reserve space large enough to hold the largest video clip that you are likely to want to capture. in amcap, it is the menu item file - ] allocate file space. you can preallocate multiple files to hold multiple video clips.

    for preallocation to be useful, the hard drive should be defragmented afterwards.“defragmenting” a drive reorganizes its physical sectors so that each file occupies contiguous sectors, rather than having different parts of it scattered about the disk.

    amcap and vidcap32 do not perform defragmentation; a third-party program is required. various defragmentation programs are available commercially, and if you have windows 95/98/2000 on the system you can use its built-in defragmenter. use amcap or vidcap32 to preallocate the files, then exit to run the defragmentation program.

    note: defragment after you allocate and size the capture files.

    after the disk is defragmented, return to amcap or vidcap32. the files you preallocated will now be located on contiguous areas of the hard drive. their physical layout will remain the same until the file is resized or deleted.an alternate technique that avoids the need for defragmenting is to set up a separate disk partition dedicated to video capture, containing a single capture file.

    defragmenting is a time-consuming procedure, but is worth the trouble if you will have an ongoing need to capture high-quality video, particularly uncompressed video. be sure to plan the number and size of files you will need. once you have the defragmented files, be sure not to accidentally delete them - think of them as your permanent working space for time-critical operations, not as containers of specific video clips. copy your clips to other files for storage and editing.